Tony Awards 2016: ‘Hamilton’ Is King, Black Actors

Last night’s Tony Awards was a landmark moment for many reasons; predictably, ‘Hamilton’ led with the most awards (by a mile), but it became an almost anti-Oscars ceremony with the all four musical performance prizes awarded to people of colour for the first time in Tony history.

‘Hamilton’ was so close to breaking a Tonys record

‘Hamilton’ reigned yesterday (June 12th 2016) at the annual Tony Awards which aired on CBS. Having earned 16 nominations, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s American history rap musical won 11 awards out of a possible 13 (multiple actors were nominated in the same category for the same musical) including the coveted Best Musical. 

The creator himself won two accolades; Best Book Of A Musical and Original Score; while the others went to Leslie Odom, Jr. for Best Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role, Daveed Diggs for Actor In A Featured Role, Renée Elise Goldsberry for Actress In A Featured Role and Thomas Kail for Best Direction. And that’s not to mention the ‘backstage’ prizes for Best Orchestrations, Choreography, Lighting Design and Costume Design.

Incredibly, while the musical might have broken the record for the most nominations, it was one short of breaking that for the most wins ever recorded having been beaten to Best Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role by Cynthia Erivo from ‘The Color Purple’ (which completed the musical awards as Best Revival Of A Musical) and Best Scenic Design for ‘She Loves Me’. Mel Brooks’ 2001 musical ‘The Producers’ still holds the record with 12 wins.

More: James Corden brings Lin-Manuel Miranda to Carpool Karaoke

The prizes for plays was more of a mixed bag; ‘The Humans’ landed four including Best Play, Best Performance By An Actor In A Featured Role (Reed Birney), Actress In A Featured Role (Jayne Houdyshell) and Best Scenic Design. ‘Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge’ and ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ took home two awards apiece; Best Revival and Best Direction (Ivo Van Hove), and Best Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role (Jessica Lange) and Best Lighting Design respectively.

Rounding them off was Best Costume Design for ‘Eclipsed’ and Best Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role which went to Frank Langella for ‘The Father’. Langella’s win saw him tie with theatre veteran Boyd Gaines for most wins by a male performer at the Tonys ever.

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