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Broadway’s biggest night took place at Radio City Music Hall in NYC, NY last night as the 63rd Annual Tony Awards were handed out in a lavish and fun ceremony. Hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, this year’s Tony Awards injected mirth and merriment into the awards show that honors achievement in plays and musical theater on New York City’s Great White Way. Billy Elliot the Musical, which David and I were fortunate enough to see earlier this year, set a record by winning 10 Tony Awards last night, including Best Actor in a Musical (an award that was given to the 3 young actors who play Billy in the show … which is a first in Tony Awards history) and Best Musical. Here are a few pics from the red carpet arrivals:

Yes, folks … that is Bret Michaels of Poison in the last photo. The band was on hand to preform with the company of Rock of Ages in the opening number … which turned out to be a quite a performance, especially for Bret — but I’ll get to that in a sec. Here are a few photos of some of the Tony Award winners last night and some deets about the show itself:

Broadway productions with roots in the London theater dominated the 63rd annual Tony Awards on Sunday, with “Billy Elliot” winning best musical and nine other awards and “God of Carnage” picking up honors for best play, best director and best actress. While several categories were unusually competitive this year because of the large number of strong Broadway productions, there were also no major upsets. The three teenage boys who rotate in the title role of “Billy Elliot” — David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish — jointly won the award for best actor in a musical, as expected, and they also injected considerable charm into the CBS telecast. Standing onstage together, they covered their eyes with their hands at different points and looked away from the camera bashfully while muttering sentiments like “Oh my God” and “wow” and “unbelievable.” Then they took a long pause, as if trying to decide who should speak first — joint Tony Awards are very rare — and then went on to thank their parents and siblings and school and dance teachers. “And we want to say to all the kids out there who might want to dance, never give up,” Mr. Kulish added. “Billy Elliot” proved to be the commercial and critical musical hit of the 2008-9 Broadway season, routinely grossing more than $1 million a week in spite of the recession. Elton John, who composed the show’s score, made a point of thanking audience members for that success as he accepted the award for best musical. “We came here at a hard time economically, you opened your wallets and you opened your hearts, and we love you for it,” he said. This year’s awards were spread around evenly for the most part, with 14 shows receiving at least one Tony. With “Billy Elliot” far ahead, the musical “Next to Normal” and “God of Carnage” were next up with three Tonys each, including best actress honors for Alice Ripley for “Normal” and Marcia Gay Harden for “Carnage.” The French playwright Yasmina Reza accepted the best play award for “Carnage,” which also took honors for the British director Matthew Warchus. “I’m very happy to be here again — maybe you missed my accent; you wanted to hear it again?” said Ms. Reza, who previously won for her play “Art.” The award for best revival of a play went to another British import, “The Norman Conquests.” If accents were indeed in large supply through the night, so were celebrity presenters and recipients, with Broadway having one of its busiest years for actors from film and television. The Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush (an Australian) was honored as best actor in a play as the monarch in “Exit the King” by Eugène Ionesco, whose works came to define the Theater of the Absurd yet are rarely revived on Broadway. “I want to thank Manhattan theater audiences for proving that French existential absurdist tragi-comedy rocks,” Mr. Rush said. Politics strayed onto the Tony landscape at only a couple of points, most notably when Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater, accepted the award for best musical revival for “Hair.” “Peace now, freedom now, equality now,” Mr. Eustis said, gesturing to his ring finger as he uttered those last two words, a reference to gay marriage rights. “And justice forever.” Angela Lansbury won her fifth Tony Award, for best featured actress in a play, for her turn as the medium in “Blithe Spirit,” 43 years after winning her first award, for best actress in the musical “Mame.” “Who knew, who knew, that at this time in my life that I should be presented with this lovely, lovely award,” said Ms. Lansbury, who is 83. Liza Minnelli received the Tony for special theatrical event for her one-woman show “Liza’s at the Palace.” For best featured performances in a musical, Gregory Jbara (“Billy Elliot”) and Karen Olivo (“West Side Story”) were honored. The best featured actor award went to another theater veteran, Roger Robinson, for his role in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” Other awards went to Stephen Daldry for his direction of “Billy Elliot,” “Mary Stuart” for costume design and “Equus” for sound design. All three shows had runs in London before the current Broadway productions were mounted.

I am so happy that Billy Elliot won so many awards. It is truly a superb show, one that David and I thoroughly enjoyed when we saw in January. We saw Trent Kowalik play Billy at our show and really loved his performance … the award to the 3 Billys is much deserved, I think. Congrats!! I’m not sure how many of you watched the Tony Awards last night but it was a very entertaining show. The opening number included short performances from 10 different musicals and offered one of the most talked about/funniest moments of the show. After the jump, check out video from that opening number and see how Poison‘s Bret Michaels almost lost his head during the opening performance …

9 to 5: The Musical, which had its debut here in LA last Fall during a short run at the Ahmanson Theater, officially made its Broadway debut at the Marquis Theater in NYC this week. Original stars of the film version of 9 to 5 (Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda) met the new stars of the theater version (Allison Janney, Megan Hilty and Stephanie J. Block) on the red carpet at the star-studded opening night affair. Here are a few pics from the red carpet arrivals and of the spirited curtain call along with some deets about the show’s opening:

Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin clocked on again last night almost 30 years after the release of their hit 9 to 5. The original castmates reunited for the opening night of the Broadway musical version of their 1980 feminist revenge comedy. Fonda, 71, and Tomlin, 69, turned out to support country star Parton, 63, who supplied the entire score for the production. She of course wrote the film’s famous theme tune by the same name. The West Wing’s Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty now play the three women who kidnap their sexist boss. Hilty steps into Parton’s high heels to play perky blond Doralee, who at one point performs a song penned by the star called Backwoods Barbie. Block plays Fonda’s character – an office worker who get a new lease on life after her husband who dumped her for a 19-year-old – while Janney takes on Tomlin’s role. Critic Michael Kuchwara gave it a lukewarm review, saying: “You kinda want 9 to 5: The Musical to be better than it is.” While he complains that director Joe Mantello plays out the show “in the key of frantic” he admits it is “a certified crowd-pleaser.” He concludes: “Savor it for Parton’s songs and the three women who sing most of them. They make the case for the show being more than just another workday event.”

I was fortunate enough to see the show here in LA last October and I completely agree with the review critic … I, too, felt that I wanted to love the show more but it was lacking in something. It is a crowd-pleaser and altho it’s not the perfect Broadway production, it is very entertaining and very true to the original film 9 to 5. If you are a fan of the movie, you will most likely love the Broadway version as well. The strengths of the show reall do rest on Dolly Parton‘s songs and the strong performances of the principle cast. It remains to be seen if a show like this will be able to survive this tough economic market but I’m sure it’ll give Broadway a pretty good run.

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

9 to 5: The Musical had its official opening night at the Ahmanson Theatre in LA last weekend to begin its short run in SoCal before the show makes the move to Broadway early next year — and Broadway World was there to capture all the fun. Here are a few amazing photos from the show’s opening night, beginning with the cast bows at the end of the opening night performance:

9 to 5: The Musical opened on September 20th 2008 at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre. Performances will continue through October 19, 2008. 9 To 5: The Musical, based on the 20th Century Fox motion picture, will begin previews on Broadway Tuesday, March 24, 2009, and will open Thursday, April 23, 2009, at the Marriott Marquis Theatre (1535 Broadway). 9 To 5: The Musical marks the Broadway debut of seven-time Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and musician Dolly Parton as composer and lyricist. The musical’s book by Patricia Resnick is based on her original story and screenplay for the smash 1980 film comedy. Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello and choreographed by Tony Award winner Andy Blankenbuehler, 9 To 5: The Musical will star four-time Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block, Megan Hilty, and two-time Tony Award nominee Marc Kudisch. 9 To 5: The Musical will have its world premiere engagement in Los Angeles at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre beginning previews Wednesday, September 3, opening Saturday, September 20, and playing through Sunday, October 19, 2008.

The original actors from the movie version of 9 to 5 were in the hiz for the musical’s opening night and posed for pics with the theater players backstage:

I gotta say — Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton were lookin’ pretty fierce. Dabney Coleman, bless his heart, has seen better days. I do love that all the original actors came out to support the opening of the musical. Here are a few pics of the original actors with their player counterparts:

I am so excited to see this show … I can’t wait to get my butt back to SoCal so I can see this show for myself. Wee.

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