
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 4, 1990                   TAG: 9006040224
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: associated press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

DETECTIVE SATIRE, STEINBECK CLASSIC WIN TONY AWARDS

"City of Angels," a satire of gumshoe fiction and Hollywood, was named best musical of the Broadway season, and the Tony Award for best play went to an adaptation of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."

"City of Angels" won six Tonys overall, more than any other production, in a ceremony Sunday at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. "Grand Hotel" won five. The event was televised by CBS.

The big loser was August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson," which won no Tonys even though it had five nominations, including best play, and had won both the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle award.

Tyne Daly, formerly of television's "Cagney and Lacey," was named best actress in a musical as the brassy stage mother Mama Rose in "Gypsy," a role originated by Ethel Merman 30 years ago. The show also won as best revival.

Robert Morse won as best actor in a play for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in "Tru." Morse's competition included Charles Dutton in "The Piano Lesson" and Dustin Hoffman as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice."

Maggie Smith won as best actress for "Lettice & Lovage." Margaret Tyzack, in the same play, won for best featured, or supporting, actress. Charles Durning, Big Daddy in the revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," won the best featured-actor Tony.

"The Grapes of Wrath," an adaptation by Frank Galati of the novel about Dust Bowl Okies, also won a directing Tony for Galati. In accepting his award, Galati paid tribute to Steinbeck's widow, Elaine, and his "enduring genius."

"City of Angels" a jazzy production set in 1940s Hollywood, picked up the best actor prize for James Naughton, the show's hardboiled detective. "How sweet it is," he cracked.

The musical also won awards for featured actress, Randy Graff as a love-starved secretary; best book, Larry Gelbart; score, composer Cy Coleman and lyricist David Zippel; and set design, Robin Wagner.

Among the five awards for "Grand Hotel," set in Berlin in the years before Hitler, were two for Tommy Tune for direction and choreography. "Grand Hotel" also won Michael Jeter a Tony as best featured actor in a musical for his role as a dying bookkeeper dancing wildly on a last fling.

by CNB