'Dear Evan Hansen,' 'Oslo' big winners at Tony Awards

Kevin Spacey arrives at the 71st annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 11, 2017, in New York.
Kevin Spacey arrives at the 71st annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 11, 2017, in New York.

NEW YORK -- Dear Evan Hansen, the musical about young outsiders, became very popular at the Tony Awards on Monday, winning statuettes for best musical, best book, score, best actor for Ben Platt, orchestrations and best featured actress.

Platt thanked his cast mates, crew and family, calling his parents his heroes. He had this inspiring message to young people out there: "The things that make you strange are the things that make you powerful."

While Dear Evan Hansen had the most Tonys, other shows were shining, too, including Oslo, a three-hour meditation on diplomacy, which was named best play and had the best actor in a featured role for Michael Aronov.

A revival of Hello, Dolly starring Bette Midler, took four statuettes, including best revival, and Midler took the best actress trophy. She refused to be played off, silencing the orchestra as the crowd roared. "This has the ability to lift your spirits in these terrible, terrible times," she said of her show.

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who recently won Oscars for the song "City of Stars" from the movie La La Land, added to a remarkable year by earning Tonys for best score for writing the songs for Dear Evan Hansen.

The show's story writer, Steven Levenson, won the Tony for best book, and Alex Lacamoire earned one for best orchestrations. Rachel Bay Jones won her first Tony for her work in the musical.

Dear Evan Hansen came into the night as the second-leading Tony nominee. The show centers on a profoundly lonely 17-year-old who fabricates a prior friendship with a classmate who has just committed suicide. It has a passionate following and triggered cheers whenever it was mentioned in Radio City Music Hall.

[EMAIL UPDATES: Get free breaking news alerts, daily newsletters with top headlines delivered to your inbox]

The show came in behind Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 with 12 nominations, but that musical which dramatizes a 70-page slice of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace seemed to stall after winning two technical awards earlier, for best set and lighting.

Cynthia Nixon won her second Tony, this time for her work in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes.

Kevin Kline won his third Tony Award playing an egomaniacal matinee idol in the midst of personal turmoil in the play Present Laughter. Andy Blankenbuehler won his second choreography Tony in as many years -- last year for Hamilton and this time for Bandstand.

Laurie Metcalf won her first Tony, winning best actress honors in A Doll's House, Part 2. Rebecca Taichman won best directing play honors for Indecent.

Kevin Spacey kicked off his first-ever Tony Award hosting gig with grace and self-deprecating wit, dancing, singing and joking his way through an opening number that linked all four best new musical nominees.

Spacey, who was named Tony host after several other celebrities turned down the job, laughed at himself in the 10-minute opening song, in which he gradually grows comfortable with hosting duties despite what he fears will be nasty tweets crashing down.

The telecast opened on a mournful host dressed like the title character in Dear Evan Hansen -- complete with arm cast -- before he soon showed up in a bed to mock Groundhog Day The Musical with an assist from Stephen Colbert, and then donning a fake beard as if he was in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. He went on to do impersonations of former President Bill Clinton and Johnny Carson.

In an attempt to shake up the show, producers asked the Rockettes back on a Tony stage after 13 years and asked all four playwrights nominated for best play Tonys to appear to present their works.

Other winners included August Wilson's Jitney, which drove away with the Tony for best play revival. Gavin Creel won his first Tony for featured actor in a musical in Hello, Dolly!

A Section on 06/12/2017

Upcoming Events