Tony Awards 2021 – theaterlife

Moulin Rouge and The Inheritance nab Top Honors at the 2021 Tony Awards .

By: Patrick Christiano

September 27, 2021: Last night was an evening to celebrate Broadway! Broadway theaters are reopening and the long- delayed Tony Awards, originally scheduled for June 2020, finally happened at the ‘Winter Garden Theater. The ceremony follows the longest Broadway closing in history. “Broadway is Back” was the message that the Broadway community wanted to send to the public.

The evening’s most coveted award for best musical, went to Moulin Rouge! The Musical, an elaborate stage adaptation of the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film about a love triangle set in the Paris nightclub. The musical with a score of highly recognizable pop songs, swept the musical categories, taking home 10 awards.

Only 18 shows were eligible to compete for the awards, which is roughly half the normal number, with only 15 shows winning nominations from the 41 nominators, who saw every show. The nominations, made by 41 theater experts who saw every eligible show, were announced last October. The voting was by approximately 800 industry insiders.

Among the shows returning to Broadway after the pandemic, all three nominees for best musical. “Moulin Rouge!” are set to go. Moulin Rouge began performances on Friday, Tina — The Tina Turner Musical returns on October 8, and Jagged Little Pill, a family drama inspired by the Alanis Morissette album, returns Oct. 21.

All three musicals scored some wins.

The star of “Tina,” Adrienne Warren, won for her phenomenal performance as Tina Turner, is leaving the role at the end of October. Jagged Little Pill won for best book, by Diablo Cody, and for best featured actress, Lauren Patten her showstopping rendition of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.”

Alex Timbers won his first Tony as the director Moulin Rouge and the show’s costume designer, Catherine Zuber, won a record-breaking eighth award.

**Alex Timbers Director “Moulin Rouge”**

A Soldier’s Play directed by Kenny Leon and produced by the nonprofit Roundabout Theater Company, won the Tony for best play revival. The play, a 1981 drama by Charles Fuller, about the murder of a Black sergeant in the U.S. Army. won the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published before becoming a Hollywood film.

Slave Play with 12 nominations, was the most nominated play in history but it won no awards. Instead, The Inheritance, hailed in London but met with less than stellar notices in New York, took the award for Best Play and three additional awards, including for Stephen Daldry as director, Andrew Burnap as an actor, and for 90-year-old Lois Smith as a featured actress. Smith is now the oldest person ever to win a Tony Award for acting

Best leading actress in a play award went to Mary-Louise Parker for her performance as a writing professor with cancer in Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside.

Attendees were subjected to the same restrictions as patrons at Broadway shows. They were required to demonstrate proof of vaccination, and they were asked to wear masks that cover their mouths and noses.

Here are some photos from the 2021 Tony Awards and a complete list of winners: