John Lithgow makes history, Death of a Salesman wins big and Pink flies high at the Tonys

New York: Schmigadoon!, an adaptation of an Apple TV series that gently mocks big, brassy Broadway shows, won the best musical Tony Award on a night when actor John Lithgow and playwright Bess Wohl made history.

The musical parodies golden-age Broadway classics such as The Music Man and Oklahoma!, centred on a modern-day couple finding themselves in a Brigadoon-like fantasy land where the wholesome townspeople keep breaking into song. The win is a redemption for creator Cinco Paul, whose TV series was cancelled after two seasons. He won Tonys for the score and the book on Sunday.

“Sometimes singing, dancing, jokes and a happy ending are all you need,” said producer Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live, after the win.

The win for Schmigadoon! also completes what some unofficially call a “studio EGOT”, giving the producing company credits for winning awards at all four major ceremonies. Apple already has Emmys for comedies Ted Lasso and The Studio, the Oscar for best picture for CODA and a Grammy via Chris Stapleton’s contribution to the F1 soundtrack.

Australian performer Rose Byrne was nominated for best leading actress in a play for her role in Fallen Angels, with Carrie Coon (Bug), Susannah Flood (Liberation), Lesley Manville (Oedipus) and Byrne’s Fallen Angels co-star Kelli O’Hara also in the running. However, Manville picked up the prize in a role that marked her Broadway debut.

The prize for the best play went to Wohl’s Liberation, about a consciousness-raising women’s group in 1970s Ohio, which earlier this year also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Wohl’s memory play collects stories from second-wave feminists from all walks of life as they tackle misogyny, racism and traditional gender roles. Wohl is only the fourth woman to win a best play Tony, joining Wendy Wasserstein, Yasmina Reza and Frances Goodrich.

“This is the honour of a lifetime,” said Wohl, who thanked her mother, daughters and female producers. “I want to honour women everywhere who have the courage to use their voice. And, to all the girls out there, may you speak your truth, and may the world be wise enough to listen.” The win came after presenter Julia Louis-Dreyfus pretended to believe all the original plays this season were written by artificial intelligence.

Liberation joins a list of 18 plays that have won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award in the same year, which includes Death of a Salesman.

The Tony for best play revival went to Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller’s masterpiece that looks at the unravelling of the American Dream. It won the 1949 Tony for best new play and best revival crowns in 1984, 1999 and 2012.

It earned a leading six Tonys: Roseanne star Laurie Metcalf won her third Tony for playing Willy Loman’s wife opposite Nathan Lane in the revival, which also won for lighting, scenic design and sound design. Joe Mantello won best director for a play.

Wins for ‘Ragtime’ and John Lithgow

Ragtime – a big, soaring musical that depicts an America being remade by immigration, racial violence, industrial wealth and political unrest – won the best musical revival.

Caissie Levy, who was Broadway’s first Elsa in Frozen, won her first Tony for playing the matriarch of a wealthy suburban family in Ragtime. She thanks all the babysitters who let her become both a mother and a Broadway performer.

Moments later, Joshua Henry, a four-time nominee for The Scottsboro Boys Violet and Carousel, won his first Tony as Coalhouse Walker Jr in Ragtime. “Even in the face of tragedy and pain, he fought to be heard,” Henry said of his character.

Lithgow took home the night’s first award, winning best lead actor in a play, for Giant playing children’s writer Roald Dahl in Mark Rosenblatt’s production set in 1983, when the author is facing intense backlash for his antisemitic comments. The role earned Lithgow his first Olivier Award in London and now the Tony for lead actor in a play, his third. At 80, he is the oldest man to win a competitive acting Tony.

The win puts Lithgow in an exclusive group of actors who have won in three separate acting categories. He previously won featured actor in a play for The Changing Room and lead actor in a musical for Sweet Smell of Success.

“Two Tony bookends with 53 years between them,” he said. “In those years, I have worked with hundreds of just fantastic theatre artists. I’ve had dozens and dozens of ecstatic moments on the stage, but I have to tell you right now, this moment has got to be one of the best.”

Shoshana Bean, who won best featured actress in a musical for playing a single mum in The Lost Boys, echoed the themes of Liberation in her speech.

“This is for the mamas. This is for the single mamas. This is for my single mama. You are the wild heroes. This is for the incredible army of women that surround and uplift me,” she said.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball, which reimagines the 1980s classic feline musical as a celebration of queer ballroom culture, won for best direction of a musical by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch.

”We honour the black and brown trans women and gay men who were ballroom’s pioneers, as well as today’s icons, and our cast of astonishing triple-threats, including people from their 20s to their 80s, and every decade in between,” Levingston said.

What was Pink like as a host

Pink, the Tony’s host, started the show spinning and then dangling uncomfortably from a harness over the stage, dressed like Peter Pan. Former host Neil Patrick Harris stepped in to suggest the first-time host just be herself. “You’re Pink, Pink. You can do anything,” he told her.

After lifting Harris off the stage with her legs, Pink relented to his suggestion of being “less Pan-ish” by taking off her harness, adding a top hat and leading an extended Lady Marmalade that included contributions from dozens of performers including Lea Michele and Megan Thee Stallion — plus some strange, new lyrics like “Gitchie, gitchie, Laurie Metcalf” — and ended with some 170 performers on stage and crowding the aisles.

In her opening remarks, Pink, who has not yet got a Broadway credit, called herself theatre’s second-biggest fan after her teenage daughter, Willow. “I’m not here just to steal peoples’ wigs, although I will be doing that. I’m here to celebrate the hardest-working people in show business,” she said.

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