‘Once’ crowned best musical at Tony Awards

NEW YORK (AP) ― The bittersweet musical “Once’’ captured eight Tony Awards on Sunday, including best direction of a musical, best lead actor in a musical and the top musical prize itself.

The inventive play “Peter and the Starcatcher’’ was next with five awards, but most every show came away with something to crow about.

Bruce Norris’ “Clybourne Park,’’ the remarkably perceptive Pulitzer Prize-winning play about race and real estate, won the best play Tony.

Audra McDonald was named best lead actress in a musical and her “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess’’ was named best musical revival. This is her fifth Tony Award, tying the competitive record held by Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris.

“I was a little girl with a potbelly and afro puffs, hyperactive and overdramatic. And I found the theater, and I found my home,’’ McDonald said. Looking at her daughter, she said her big night wasn’t as wonderful as the night her daughter was born.

Her one-time co-star in “110 in the Shade,’’ Steve Kazee, a 36-year-old rising star and guitar player with matinee idol looks, emerged as best actor in a musical, and broke down thinking of his mother, who died Easter Sunday.

Another new star, Nina Arianda, won best leading actress in a play, beating stiff competition from Tracie Bennett, Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin and Cynthia Nixon.

Accepting the award from presenter Christopher Plummer, Arianda admitted something very personal to the 82-year-old Plummer: “You were my first crush!’’ she squealed.

In perhaps the biggest shock of the night, James Corden nabbed the lead acting Tony Award in a play for his clownish turn in the British import “One Man, Two Guvnors.’’ He beat out the favorite, Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Death of a Salesman.’’

Arthur Miller’s 63-year-old masterpiece “Death of a Salesman’’ won the Tony for best play revival and Mike Nichols won his ninth Tony for directing it. On winning, he said the play has a special meaning for those who work in the theater.

“There’s not a person in this theater that doesn’t know what it is to be a salesman ― to be out there in the blue riding on a smile and a shoeshine,’’ he said. “As we know, a salesman has got to dream. It goes with the territory.’’

The reworked version of the Gershwin opera “Porgy and Bess’’ managed to come home with more and more prestigious awards than a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies.’’

“Once,’’ a musical based on the low-budget 2006 film about an unlikely romance between a Czech flower seller and an Irish street musician in Dublin, went into the night with a leading 11 nominations.

“Newsies’’ was supposed to challenge it, but only came up with two awards.

Composer Alan Menken, who has more Oscars than any other living person, captured his first Tony for “Newsies.’’ The win for “Newsies’’ is particularly sweet since when he and lyricist Jack Feldman originally wrote the songs for the 1992 film of “Newsies,’’ he was given another sort of award: a “Razzie.’’

The Tony Awards show is serious business and the exposure in front of millions is priceless. Many shows that are suffering pre-summer slumps are counting on a bump from the telecast. “Godspell’’ producer Ken Davenport was warned that his production’s future may hinge on making a splash at the ceremony.

Overall, the health of Broadway is good, with shows yielding a record $1.14 billion in grosses this season, and total attendance reaching 12.3 million. The only concern is that audience numbers were flat, meaning higher ticket prices are pushing the overall box office take.