Whoopi Goldberg and Calista Flockhart were just two of the Tinseltown names who turned out to honour Broadway’s best at Sunday night’s Tony Awards in New York City. The lines between stage and screen were blurred as Calista, known for treading the boards before her TV hit, was joined at the ceremony by Six Days Seven Nights star Anne Heche, Batman & Robin’s Chris O’Donnell and Shaft siren Vanessa Williams.
The former Miss America was a Best Actress nominee for the fairy-tale musical Into The Woods, but was edged out by newcomer Sutton Foster, the star of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Sutton, a former understudy on the play who eventually won the lead role, was thrilled to accept the award. “To say that this is a dream come true is an understatement,” she said.
Millie, based on a 1967 Julie Andrews film and co-produced by Whoopi Goldberg, was the big winner of the night, taking home six gongs, including Best Musical.
There was plenty of British talent on this year’s Tony shortlists, including Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman, who were nominated for Best Performance By A Leading Actor In A Play, for The Crucible and Private Lives, respectively. It was Derbyshire-born Alan Bates, however, who was named the winner in the category for his portrayal as an impoverished nobleman in Fortune’s Fool.
“I’m astonished,” said Alan, who also won a Tony in 1973. “I haven’t been on Broadway for 28 years. It’s like a hallucination.”
Gosford Park’s Helen Mirren, a nominee for Dance Of Death went home empty-handed, losing to Rickman’s Private Lives co-star, Scottish actress Lindsay Duncan.
Other winners included Third Rock From The Sun star John Lithgow, who won the Leading Actor In A Musical prize, and veteran actress Elaine Stritch, whose one-woman show garnered the 76-year-old her first ever Tony.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
