At the annual celebration of Broadway, major acting winners included Jeremy Strong, Daniel Radcliffe and Sarah Paulson
The 77th annual Tony awards were dominated by major wins for shows Stereophonic, Merrily We Roll Along and The Outsiders as well as actors Jeremy Strong and Daniel Radcliffe.
Stereophonic, the most nominated play in Tonys history with 13 nods, picked up five awards including best play. It tells the story of a British-American rock band in the 1970s trying to make an album.
Playwright David Adjmi spoke about how it took him 11 years to get it to the stage. “It’s really hard to make a career in the arts, we need to fund the arts in America,” he said on stage. The Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo called it “a triumphant example of what happens when art has the time to develop” in a five-star review.
A revival of Stephen Sondheim’s one-time flop musical Merrily We Roll Along picked up four awards. The show, which initially closed abruptly after release in 1981, won best revival of a musical, while stars Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff won for their performances.
Radcliffe thanked his parents for playing Sondheim in the car, and called the play “one of the best experiences of my life” while paying tribute to his cast and crew. “I will never have it this good again,” he said.
Groff, who has been nominated twice before, gave an emotional speech in which he said that “musical theatre is still saving my soul” and paid tribute to his parents for allowing him to be himself.
