Tony Awards 2013 Kinky Bootsstruts off with best musical

By Steven Zeitchik, Los Angeles Times

June 9, 2013, 10:37 p.m. NEW YORK — On Broadway's biggest night, a feel-good cross-dressing musical kicked up its heels. "Kinky Boots," the Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper show about a struggling shoe factory that turns to fetish-wear to survive, took home six awards, including the top prize of best musical during the 67th Tony Awards Sunday night at Radio City Music Hall. While accepting the award for best score, Lauper brought a bit of working-class charm to the ceremony with her trademark outer borough accent. COMPLETE LIST: Tonys 2013 winners and top nominees "It's funny, you go around the world looking for acceptance — you forget that all you've got to do is look in your own backyard," the veteran pop star told reporters backstage. Entering the evening, the race for the top musical prize was considered too close to call between "Kinky Boots" and the dark British import "Matilda," two springtime openings that had emerged as hits after receiving little fanfare in the months leading up to their opening nights. Still, "Matilda, the Musical" performed decently, walking off with four Tonys from its 12 nominations, including best book for Dennis Kelly. Perhaps most unexpectedly, the night was marked by a series of big wins for the revival of Edward Albee's marital drama "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" A half-century after being introduced to the American stage, the show took home Tonys for revival of a play, director of a play and, in the upset of the night, lead actor in a play, given to Tracy Letts over Tom Hanks, star of the late Nora Ephron's period journalism tale "Lucky Guy." PHOTOS: Tonys 2013 show highlights Letts, who in 2008 won a Tony for best play for his drama "August: Osage County," is now part of an elite group that has won Tonys for both writing and acting. Another member? "Kinky Boots" scribe Fierstein, who has won both actor and play Tonys for "Torch Song Trilogy," an acting prize for the musical "Hairspray" and a best book award for the musical "La Cage Aux Folles." One of the most compelling narratives Sunday night had less to do with a particular winner and a lot more to do with the tenor of the overall honorees. As Hollywood continues to be the subject of criticism for a lack of inclusiveness, 2013 was an extraordinarily good year for both women and minorities on Broadway. African-American actors won four of the eight acting Tonys: lead actor in a musical for Billy Porter ("Kinky Boots"), lead actress in a play for Cicely Tyson ("The Trip to Bountiful"), lead actress in a musical for Patina Miller ("Pippin") and featured actress in a play for Courtney B. Vance ("Lucky Guy"). Tyson, who made her return to Broadway after 30 years away, gave a deliberate, emotional speech that evoked the specter of dead family members. Porter was more quippy. "I share this award with you," he said to "Kinky Boots" costar and fellow nominee Stark Sands. "I'm going to keep it at my house, but I share it with you." FULL COVERAGE: Tonys 2013 Lauper was the first woman to win a best score Tony on her own, without sharing the award with a man. And winners for both director of a musical and director of a play were women, "Virginia Woolf's" Pam McKinnon and "Pippin's" Diane Paulus. "We're out there, we're out there and we're coming up," McKinnon said of female directors backstage after her win. "We're hitting our stride, absolutely." Paulus' "Pippin" also took home the prize for best revival of a musical. Though "Virginia Woolf" opened in the fall and closed months ago, it has managed to emerge as a force during Tonys season even as many anticipated dramas that opened later--including "Orphans," "Breakfast at Tiffany's and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" — faltered. On stage, Letts played down the competition between himself and Hanks and the other nominees. "You are not my competition, you are my peers and I am proud to be in your company," he said. Hanks was a crowd favorite in Radio City Music Hall, and his defeat was seen as a surprise after a Tonys season that had seen much mutual affection between the star and the Broadway community. Though there had been much hype about "Lucky Guy," the creation principally of two theater outsiders in Hanks and the late Ephron, neither was handed prizes Sunday night. And many Hollywood actors, such as Sigourney Weaver and Scarlett Johanssen, were not even nominated this year. Instead Tonys voters reserved honors for many of its longtime insiders, including Letts, Paulus and Christopher Durang.
 News source: www.latimes.com

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