NEW YORK -- The coming-of-age show Fun Home was named best musical at the Tony Awards on Sunday, one of five big trophies it won on the way to making history for its composing team.
The show, based on Alison Bechdel's graphic novel memoir about growing up with a closeted dad in a funeral home, was the first musical to have a lesbian as its main character. It was nominated for 12 awards and also won for best book, best lead actor and best direction from Sam Gold.
Its songwriters, Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron, became the first female writing team to nab a Tony for musical score. But that milestone happened during a commercial break.
Two veteran Broadway stars -- Michael Cerveris and Kelli O'Hara of The King and I -- took home lead acting Tonys, while a young man who just last year graduated from drama school won a Tony for best actor in a play.
Cerveris won his second Tony for playing the closeted and suicidal father at the heart of Fun Home. O'Hara got her first Tony after six nominations, winning for her role as the English schoolteacher in a revival of the classic 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I.
The London-born actor Alex Sharp won for the best lead actor in a play award for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, beating out Bradley Cooper and Bill Nighy.
"This time last year I was [picking] up my diploma graduating from Julliard, so to be holding this is insane. Thank you so, so much for this," he said.
His win was part of a big haul for the adaptation of Mark Haddon's best-selling novel. It also won best play, lighting, scenic design and earned its director Marianne Elliott a Tony, too.
The British had a big night, with Skylight winning for best revival, and Helen Mirren nabbing her first Tony for playing Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's The Audience. She already won an Oscar for playing the monarch in the movie The Queen.
Co-hosts Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming opened the show with a medley of jokes and songs that displayed their playful, daffy chemistry. Their costume quick-changes included Cumming in a hoop skirt and Chenoweth as E.T.
Actor Joel Grey introduced Fun Home with his daughter, Jennifer Grey. She joked that the show was about a "brilliant and complicated father." Joel Grey, who recently revealed he is gay, acknowledged that was something his daughter "knew something about."
The telecast on CBS at Radio City Music Hall featured appearances by Jennifer Lopez, Sting, Jim Parsons, Amanda Seyfried, Kiefer Sutherland, Bryan Cranston, Sutton Foster, Jennifer Nettles, Taye Diggs and Ashley Tisdale, among many others. Some non-theater celebrities, including Kendall Jenner, Monica Lewinsky and Anna Wintour, were also in the audience.
Two Broadway favorites -- Annaleigh Ashford and Christian Borle -- won for best featured roles. He plays a sexy William Shakespeare in Something Rotten!, and she played an incompetent ballet dancer in You Can't Take It With You. It was her first and his second.
"I can't believe I am standing here right now for the worst dancing that ever happened on Broadway," Ashford said.
The King and I also was crowned the best musical revival, and it won for best musical costumes. One of its stars, Ruthie Ann Miles, won in her Broadway debut as best featured actress in a musical.
Before the telecast, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won for best lighting design of a play, while An American in Paris won the best lighting award for a musical. Tommy Tune also accepted a special Tony with a high-kick step.
Josh Groban led a moving "In Memoriam" section when he sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel, backed by the casts of all the shows appearing on the telecast, some 175 people.
The nominated musicals On the Twentieth Century, Something Rotten!, The Visit, The King and I, On the Town, Fun Home and An American in Paris had songs performed.
A total of 37 shows opened during the season, and box offices reported a record total gross of $1.36 billion -- up from $1.27 billion from the previous season.
Information for this article was contributed by Luqman Adeniyi of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/08/2015
