The Latest: ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ wins best new play Tony Award.
The Latest on the Tony Awards (all times local):
10 p.m.
J. K. Rowling’s « Harry Potter » franchise has cast its spell on Broadway, winning the best new play Tony Award.
The win for « Harry Potter and the Cursed Child » adds to the franchise’s haul of seven bestselling books and eight blockbuster films.
The two-part play, which picks up 19 years from where Rowling’s last novel left off and portrays Potter and his friends as grown-ups, won nine Olivier Awards in London before coming to America and bewitching critics and audiences alike.
It beat out « The Children, » »Farinelli and The King, » »Junk » and « Latin History for Morons. »
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9:50 p.m.
John Tiffany has won his second directing Tony Award for his work on the two-part play « Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. »
Tiffany previously won a Tony for directing the musical « Once. » He also was nominated for the 2014 revival of « The Glass Menagerie. » Tiffany won the directing Olivier Award for « Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. »
Tiffany was Associate Director of the National Theatre of Scotland from 2005 to 2012. Some of his other credits include « Black Watch » and « The Ambassador. »
He beat out Marianne Elliott, Joe Mantello, Patrick Marber and George C. Wolfe.
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9:45 p.m.
David Cromer has won his first Tony Award for directing « The Band’s Visit. »
The musical is based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name, has songs by David Yazbek and a sardonic story by Itamar Moses. It centers on members of an Egyptian police orchestra booked to play a concert at an Israeli city who accidentally end up in the wrong town.
Cromer directed the short-lived Neil Simon revival of « Brighton Beach Memoirs » in 2009 and the 2011 revival of John Guare’s « The House of Blue Leaves. » He drew acclaim for two productions at the off-Broadway Barrow Street Theatre — « Tribes » and « Our Town, » for which played the Stage Manager in addition to directing.
He grew up outside Chicago in Skokie, Illinois, and won a MacArthur « genius » grant in 2010. He taught acting and directing at Columbia College Chicago for 15 years and has often returned to the works of Tennessee Williams.
He beat out Michael Arden, Casey Nicholaw, Tina Landau and Bartlett Sher.
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9:30 p.m.
Glenda Jackson has added to her impressive resume with a Tony Award for best actress in a play.
The 82-year-old British actress won her first Tony for playing a flinty woman facing the end of her life in the new revival of Edward Albee’s « Three Tall Women. »
Jackson has two Academy Awards, for 1970’s « Women in Love » and 1973’s « A Touch of Class, and credits in such films as « Sunday, Bloody Sunday, » »Mary, Queen of Scots » and « Hedda. » She won two Emmys for starring in the television miniseries « Elizabeth R. »
She stepped back from acting in the early 1990s to enter politics and is famous for a 2013 speech she gave after the death of Margaret Thatcher, bitterly decrying the late prime minister.
She beat Condola Rashad, Lauren Ridloff and Amy Schumer.
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9:15 p.m.
A heroic drama teacher who nurtured many of the young people demanding change following the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has been honored from the Tony Award stage.
Melody Herzfeld, the one-woman drama department at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was cheered by the crowd at Radio City Music Hall.
Herzfeld saved 65 lives by barricading students into a small classroom closet on Valentine’s Day when police say a former student went on a school rampage, killing 17 people.
She then later encouraged many of her pupils to lead the nationwide movement for gun reform, including organizing the March For Our Lives demonstration and the charity single « Shine. »
Members of Herzfeld’s drama department then took the stage to sing « Seasons of Love » from « Rent. »
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9 p.m.
Nathan Lane has won the Tony Award for best featured actor in a play for his role in « Angels in America. »
Laurie Metcalf won best featured actress in a play earlier Sunday for her role in Edward Albee’s « Three Tall Women. » It is Metcalf’s second Tony win — she won best actress last year for « A Doll’s House, Part 2. »
Lane’s win is the second of the evening for an « Angels in America » actor. Andrew Garfield won for best leading actor earlier in the evening.
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8:10 p.m.
Andrew Garfield has won the Tony Award for best leading actor in a play for his work in « Angels in America, » Tony Kushner’s monumental drama about life and love during the 1980s.
Garfield plays a young gay man living with AIDS in the sprawling, seven-hour revival opposite Nathan Lane.
He previously was nominated for a featured role in « Death of a Salesman » opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Garfield has been nominated for an Oscar for his work in « Hacksaw Ridge. » His other film work includes « The Social Network » in 2010 and the 2012 superhero film « The Amazing Spider-Man » and its 2014 sequel.
He beat out Tom Hollander, Jamie Parker, Mark Rylance and Denzel Washington.
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8:05 p.m.
Tony Award co-hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles have gotten the show started with a self-parodying duet on piano for all the losers out there — including them.
Neither Bareilles nor Groban have won a Grammy or a Tony despite selling millions of albums and appearing on Broadway in hit shows. They turned that into a playful song.
« Let’s not forget that 90 percent of us leave empty-handed tonight. So this is for the people who lose/Most of us have been in your shoes, » they sang in the upbeat opening number. « This one’s for the loser inside of you. »
The co-hosts then noted that such noted shows like « Hair » and « Into the Woods » didn’t win the best musical prize. Nor did « Waitress, » the show Bareilles wrote music for.
At the end of the song, the pair were joined by over a dozen members of the ensemble from each this year’s nominated musicals.
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7:55 p.m.
Condola Rashad has a special reason to celebrate on the Tony Award red carpet Sunday. She also just closed her show, « Saint Joan. »
The actress says she has « a lot of emotions today. » She likened it to the last day of school mixed with prom and graduation at the same time. She says: « It’s a celebration. »
The daughter of Phylicia Rashad and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad earned a best actress in a play nomination for playing Joan of Arc in the play by George Bernard Shaw, which ended its run with Sunday’s matinee. Her dad and sisters were her dates to the Tonys.
She says « it’s been a really great opportunity for us to come together. »
Rashad also earned a 2012 Tony nomination for « Stick Fly » and plays a district attorney on the Showtime series « Billions. »
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7:45 p.m.
Broadway’s SpongeBob, Ethan Slater, has walked the red carpet with a ribbon supporting the American Civil Liberties Union pinned to one lapel.
He says the organization is « incredibly important to our country » when it comes to guarding civil liberties. He called his show « aligned with the values of the ACLU. »
How exactly? Well, in terms of diversity, for one.
The « SpongeBob SquarePants » musical includes Sandy the squirrel, a scapegoat for Bikini Bottom’s problems who is targeted for banishment.
Slater calls the story line « really relevant to the Muslim ban » in the United States and the way he says that « Muslim-Americans have been treated. »
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7:25 p.m.
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has no problem with nerves as he heads into the Tony Awards. His accolade to come once inside is all sewn up as an honorary tribute.
The musical theater legend says the feeling is wonderful: « I don’t have to worry about it. » He says all he has to do is « just go and get it. »
Webber says this season on Broadway is exciting, in particular amid musicals with many fine new writers. He also praised the night’s co-host, Sara Bareilles, for her work in the recently televised rock opera he co-created back in 1970, « Jesus Christ Superstar.
