“The Lehman Trilogy”, a dramatic play about the rise and fall of Lehman Brothersmonopolized this Sunday the Tony Awards and was imposed on the most acclaimed musicals and groundbreakers of the last season in New York, the return of Broadway.
On its 75th anniversary, those considered “Oscars of the theater” valued the performances of the 2021-2022 stage, after the stoppage imposed by the pandemic but not without complications and which was highly commented throughout the four hours that the event lasted and el Radio City Music Hall.
The story about the company that unleashed the financial crisis of 2008 generated a clear consensus among the jury, which awarded it five of the eight awards to which it aspired, including those for best dramatic work, new play, director (Sam Mendes) and leading stage actor (Simon Russell Beale).
Mendes, who won an Oscar in 1999 for the film “American Beauty”highlighted the “creativity and diversity” of the theatrical sector and thanked his team for their ability to “keep the play alive during the toughest days”, mentioning the three main actors, who shared the nomination.
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Russell Beale, the award-winning actor, dedicated his first Tony to his two companions, Adrian Lester and Adam Godley, and commended the audience for having received the piece “with open arms” despite the difficulties in complying with “regulations” of covid-19 in the city.
In the musical category, which this year did not show much, the favorite left a bittersweet taste, “A Strange Loop” (A Strange Loop), a meta-play celebrating the black and queer community starring a Broadway usher who aspires to direct a play about himself.
“A Strange Loop” was the musical, and the piece with the most nominations of the night, eleven of which only won two, although they were the maximum recognition for its category and the distinction for its book, written by director Michael R. Jackson.
In addition, the actress and singer Jennifer Hudson, one of its producers, became the new standard-bearer of the growing racial diversity in the art world by accessing the select club of “EGOT”: she has an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and now a Tony.
The awards were widely distributed, but “MJ” stood out, about the legacy of the king of pop Michael Jackson, which took home four statuettes including best leading actor in a musical for Myles Frost, 22, who was making his professional acting debut and was competing with veterans.
Frost shone in one of the night’s performances, with a rendition of “Smooth Criminal” in which he embodied Michael Jackson in detail, sliding across the floor with his iconic “moonwalking.”
Joaquina Kalukango, who won the award for best actress in a musical for “Paradise Square,” about race relations in 19th-century New York, also stood out with a performance of her play in which she ended up crying as she unleashed her powerful voice, and which was received with a standing ovation.
Both actors agreed in their speeches by mixing their pride and life experiences as black people, with Frost thanking her mother for being an example and Kalukango vindicating “all the anonymous ancestors who have suffered.”
Another big winner was “Company,” a revival of the 1970s Broadway hit, which won four awards including revival of a musical, director (Marianne Elliott), and supporting actor/actress (Matt Doyle and Patti LuPone).
Elliott, who has given legendary playwright Stephen Sondheim’s musical a second life by putting “woman at the center,” thanked those fighting “for the survival of this art form.”
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Other major awards went to “Take Me Out,” for revival of a dramatic play and its supporting actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson; “Dana. H,” for its lead actress Deirdre O’Connell; or “Six: The Musical”, for its original soundtrack and lyrics, by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss.
The master of ceremonies was actress Ariana DeBose, a Broadway veteran before winning an Oscar for the movie “West Side Story”, who showed her tables with a potpourri of songs to welcome and entertained the gala with sympathy and self-confidence. .
EFE
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