ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606040021
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Completing a real-life tale of tragedy and triumph that a producer might reject as an improbable story line, Jonathan Larson's ``Rent'' won the Tony Award as the best musical of the 1995-96 Broadway season - four months and eight days after playwright-composer Larson died at age 35 just before the show's debut.
Terrence McNally's ``Master Class'' was named best play. The award was a repeat for McNally, who won last year's best-play Tony for ``Love! Valour! Compassion!''
Zoe Caldwell, who stars as the late soprano Maria Callas in McNally's tour de force, was named best actress in a play; it was her fourth Tony. Audra McDonald, playing one of three aspiring singers who come before Callas, was voted best featured actress. Two years ago, McDonald won the Tony as best featured (supporting) actress in a musical for her role in ``Carousel.''
Larson had worked seven years on the pop-rock ``Rent,'' which covers a year in the gritty lives of some young artists in New York's East Village, before he died of an aortic aneurysm in the hours following the Jan. 24 dress rehearsal at Off-Broadway's New York Theatre Workshop. The musical went on to gain rave reviews, win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, and transfer to Broadway just in time to beat the Tony deadline.
``Rent'' won four awards in Sunday night's Tony ceremonies, telecast live from New York's Majestic Theatre. In addition to best musical, it was cited for its book and score, both by Larson, and its supporting performance by Wilson Jermaine Heredia as a sweet, HIV-positive drag queen.
Larson's book and score awards were accepted by his sister Julie. Noting that ``it took Jonny 15 years of really hard work to become an overnight sensation,'' she dedicated his best-score award to the theater's struggling dreamers.
Two other musicals also were big winners. ``Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk,'' an evening of tap dancing roughly tracing the black experience, won four awards - for its direction, by George C. Wolfe; its choreography, by Savion Glover; its lighting, by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer; and its featured performance by Ann Duquesnay.
``The King and I,'' a lavish revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 musical, also won four awards. Honored as the best musical revival, the show won for its leading performance by Donna Murphy, its set by Brian Thomson, and its costumes by Roger Kirk. Murphy won the best-musical-actress award two seasons ago in Stephen Sondheim's ``Passion.''
Winning three Tonys was ``A Delicate Balance,'' Edward Albee's 1966 play about a family whose ordered life is disrupted by friends who propose to move in with them. It was named the season's best revival of a play, and Gerald Gutierrez made it two in a row (he won last year for ``The Heiress'') by taking the award for best director of a play. In his acceptance remarks, he said simply, ``I would like to thank every single person I've ever met in my entire life.''
George Grizzard, the male star of ``Balance,'' was named best actor in a play. The prize for supporting actor in a play went to Ruben Santiago-Hudson of August Wilson's ``Seven Guitars.''
Nathan Lane, who was host of the awards ceremony, won as best actor in a musical for his role as a wily slave in ``A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.'' ``This means a lot to me,'' he said, ``because as you know, I'm an emotionally unstable and desperately needy little man.''
As host of the evening, Lane immediately alluded to the controversies surrounding this year's awards, notably Julie Andrews' declining her nomination as best actress in a musical because no one else from the show was nominated. Andrews, he said, was ``hosting a telethon for the egregiously overlooked.''
The ceremonies marked the awards' first half-century. The 50th-anniversary theme colored the evening, with each awards category preceded by retrospective photos of past winners, some of whom were heard in taped reminiscences. Excerpts from Tony-winning plays of the past also dotted the telecast, making for a very busy production.
To make room for all these backward glances, all but eight of the evening's 21 awards were presented before the telecast began. Acceptance speeches in these categories were edited for on-air presentation, producing some awkward visual transitions.
A special Tony, the annual award to an outstanding regional theater, was presented to the 49-year-old Alley Theatre of Houston.
Named for Antoinette Perry, an actress-director-producer who died in 1946, the Tonys are administered by the League of American Theatres and Producers and the American Theatre Wing, a theatrical service organization. This season, 32 productions that opened between May 4, 1995, and May 1, 1996, were eligible to receive Tony medallions.
Nominations were made by a 14-member committee of theater professionals and two retired theater critics. The winners were selected by secret ballot of 720 theater professionals and working critics.
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