{"id":218148,"date":"2019-06-10T04:09:30","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T08:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=218148"},"modified":"2019-06-10T04:09:30","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T08:09:30","slug":"elaine-may-hadestown-early-winners-at-the-tony-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/10\/elaine-may-hadestown-early-winners-at-the-tony-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Elaine May, ‘Hadestown’ early winners at the Tony Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The early \u201cHadestown\u201d wins were for scenic design, sound design, lighting design and orchestrations. (File Photo<\/a>: @hadestown\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 The arty and original \u201c Hadestown,\u201d which takes place in the underworld of Greek mythology, was leading the Tony Awards with five wins, while the legendary Elaine May took home her first ever Tony.<\/p>\n

The 87-year-old May, who made audiences roar with laughter in her 1960 Broadway debut, \u201cAn Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May,\u201d won Sunday for best leading actress, playing the Alzheimer’s-afflicted grandmother in Kenneth Lonergan’s comic drama \u201cThe Waverly Gallery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andre DeShields captured featured actor in a musical for \u201cHadestown,\u201d and gave shoutout to his hometown as he picked up his trophy for playing Hermes in singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell’s folk-opera that intertwines the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Hades and Persephone.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaltimore Maryland, are you in the house? I hope you’re watching at home because I am making good on my promise that I would come to New York and become someone you would be proud to call your native son,\u201d said the 73-year-old as he won his first Tony.<\/p>\n

Host James Corden kicked off the telecast with a massive, nine-minute opening musical number that served as a full-throated endorsement of the live experience.<\/p>\n

He started seated alone on a couch in front of a TV, overwhelmed by his binge options, before taking flight with dozens of glitzy dancers from this season’s shows, all filling the Radio City stage with a remarkable volume. Corden sang: \u201cLive! We do it live. And every single moment’s unrepeatable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first acting award went to Celia Keenan-Bolger, who won for best featured actress in a play for her role as Scout in \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird.\u201d She noted that her parents read her the book when she was a child in Detroit and had burning crosses put on their lawn because they helped African Americans.<\/p>\n

Bertie Carvel won best featured actor in a play for \u201cInk.\u201d He said he wished he could be with his mother, hospitalized in London. \u201cI love you, mum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ferryman’s\u201d Rob Howell took home two Tonys \u2014 for best play set designs and costumes. Robert Horn won for best book of a musical for \u201cTootsie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The early \u201cHadestown\u201d wins were for scenic design, sound design, lighting design and orchestrations.<\/p>\n

Legendary designer Bob Mackie won the Tony for best costume designs for a musical for \u201cThe Cher Show,\u201d getting laughs for saying \u201cThis is very encouraging for an 80-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHadestown,\u201d had a leading 14 Tony nominations, followed by the jukebox musical \u201cAin’t Too Proud,\u201d built around songs by The Temptations; it received a dozen nominations. The other best musical nominees are the stage adaptations of the hit movies \u201cTootsie\u201d and \u201cBeetlejuice,\u201d and the giddy, heartwarming \u201cThe Prom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tony Awards dress rehearsal earlier Sunday morning \u2014 normally with few actual stars in attendance \u2014 got a shock of A-listers this year, including Samuel L. Jackson and his wife, LaTanya Richardson, Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, Samira Wiley, Danai Gurira, Christopher Jackson, Lucy Liu and Marisa Tomei.<\/p>\n

Shirley Jones, 85, was on hand to practice introducing the musical \u201cOklahoma!\u201d \u2014 the same show she starred in on film back in 1955. Catherine O’Hara was doing the same for \u201cBeetlejuice,\u201d the 1988 film she starred in.<\/p>\n

Some of the Broadway stars who practiced included Billy Porter, Ben Platt, Andrew Rannells, Darren Criss, Kristin Chenoweth, Laura Benanti and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. David Byrne of the Talking Heads and Vanessa Carlton also got up early to attend.<\/p>\n

The best-play nominees are the Northern Irish drama \u201cThe Ferryman,\u201d from Jez Butterworth; James Graham’s \u201cInk,\u201d about Rupert Murdoch; Taylor Mac’s Broadway debut, \u201cGary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus\u201d; Tarell Alvin McCraney’s \u201cChoir Boy\u201d; and Heidi Schreck’s \u201cWhat the Constitution Means to Me,\u201d a personal tour of the landmark document at the heart of so many American divisions.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens Sunday, Broadway is in good shape. The shows this season reported a record $1.8 billion in sales, up 7.8 per cent from last season. Attendance was 14.8 million \u2014 up 7.1 per cent \u2014 and has risen steadily for decades.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 The arty and original \u201c Hadestown,\u201d which takes place in the underworld of Greek mythology, was leading …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":218197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-mark-kennedy","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218198,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218148\/revisions\/218198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}