NEW YORK: Hamilton, the hip-hop stage biography of Alexander Hamilton, won the 2016 Tony Award for best new musical Sunday, capping an emotional night in which many in the Broadway community rallied to embrace the LGBT community after a shooting at a gay Florida nightclub.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop-flavored biography about the first U.S. treasury secretary won 11 Tonys, just short of the 12-Tony record held by The Producers.
Jeffrey Seller, producer of Hamilton, quoted the show’s lyrics when accepting the award. “Look around, look around. How lucky we are to be alive right now,” he said.
Hamilton went into the night with 16 nominations and, in addition to taking the musical award, won best score, best book, direction, orchestration, choreography and best featured actor and actress statuettes for Renee Elise Goldsberry and Daveed Diggs.
Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr, won best actor and thanks Miranda for “a new vision of what’s possible.” He thanked his wife, actress Nicolette Robinson and his parents.
It earlier won awards for costume — for the work of Akron native and 1982 Buchtel graduate Paul Tazewell — and lighting but lost scenic design to She Loves Me, meaning Hamilton will not be able to break the 12-statuette record haul by The Producers.
The awards show unspooled with a heavy heart a night after a gunman killed 50 people at a gay Florida nightclub, prompting a Broadway tribute to the victims at the top of the show and references to tolerance throughout it.
Host James Corden, his back to the audience, spoke to viewers when he dedicated the night to celebrating the diversity of Broadway. “Hate will never win. Together we have to make sure of that. Tonight’s show stands as a symbol and a celebration of that principle,” he said.
But for much of the telecast, the mood was light and typical of an awards show.
Thomas Kail won the Tony for directing Hamilton. He thanked Miranda, a frequent collaborator, and celebrated the diversity of Broadway this season. “Let’s continue to tell stories,” he said.
The Humans won the award for best play. Jayne Houdyshell, a mainstay of the New York stage, won her first Tony Award at 62 for playing a gossipy, gently needling mom in The Humans. Her stage husband, Reed Birney, won best featured actor in a play. An actor for almost 42 years, he admitted that 35 of them were “pretty bad.” He thanked the theater community for keeping him going.
In response to the Orlando shooting, Hamilton dropped its use of muskets in its performance. The Tony show also created a silver ribbon for stars to wear in solidarity and they were seen on the suits of actor Sean Hayes and director George C. Wolfe.
The shooting was close to home for Christopher Fitzgerald, a nominee for the musical Waitress who went to school in Orlando. “I’m heartbroken. I think everybody is feeling it, so we are at least all coming together to celebrate and not live in fear,” he said on the carpet.
Eclipsed won for best costume for a play and The Humans won for best set design of a play. Best set design for a musical went to She Loves Me and best lighting for a play went to Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
Jessica Lange won her first Tony for playing a drug-addled mother in the Broadway revival of the monumental Long Day’s Journey Into Night. The two-time Academy Award winner said: “This is a dream come true and it fills me with such happiness, even on such a sad day as this”
Frank Langella won his fourth Tony for playing a man who has begun his slide down the slippery slope of dementia in The Father. He almost teared up when he mentioned his brother’s struggle with dementia. He also had a message for the people of Orlando: “We will be with you every step of the way.”
Dutch visionary Ivo Van Hove won his first Tony Award for directing an imaginative revival of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge.