amusementality

So the 62nd Tony Awards aired on Sunday, few noticed, as it was the lowest-rated Tony Award show ever, with only 6.19 million viewers. But Tracy Letts won Best Play for August: Osage Country, which received 4 other awards. This is not a huge surprise, as the play took a Pulitzer earlier this year. The darkly comedic play centers around a family reunion that takes place after the mysterious death and alleged suicide of the father of the Weston family. The reasons behind his death bring out the family’s many secrets, touching on themes of alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual harassment, incest, and infidelity. You may know Letts from the 2006 movie Bug with Ashley Judd, who adapted the screenplay from his play of the same name, about an abused woman who falls in love with an escaped mental patient and embraces his paranoid delusion (?) of tiny bugs infesting their apartment and subsequently their bodies. “Guess I’d rather talk to you about bugs than nothing with nobody”. Here’s the complete list of winners:

MUSICAL – In the Heights
PLAY – August: Osage County
REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL - South Pacific
REVIVAL OF A PLAY – Boeing-Boeing
DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL – Bartlett Sher, South Pacific
DIRECTION OF A PLAY – Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County
PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL – Paulo Szot, South Pacific
PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL – Patti LuPone, Gypsy
PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTOR IN A PLAY – Mark Rylance, Boeing-Boeing
PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTRESS IN A PLAY – Deanna Dunagan, August: Osage County
PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL – Boyd Gaines, Gypsy
PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL – Laura Benanti, Gypsy
PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY – Jim Norton, The Seafarer
PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY – Rondi Reed, August: Osage County
ORIGINAL SCORE - In the Heights, Music & Lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda
ORCHESTRATIONS – Alex Lacamoire & Bill Sherman, In the Heights
CHOREOGRAPHY – Andy Blankenbuehler, In the Heights
BOOK OF A MUSICAL – Stew, Passing Strange
COSTUME DESIGN OF A MUSICAL – Catherine Zuber, South Pacific
COSTUME DESIGN OF A PLAY – Katrina Lindsay, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
SCENIC DESIGN OF A MUSICAL – Michael Yeargan, South Pacific
SCENIC DESIGN OF A PLAY – Todd Rosenthal, August: Osage County
SOUND DESIGN OF A MUSICAL – Scott Lehrer, South Pacific
SOUND DESIGN OF A PLAY – Mic Pool, The 39 Steps
LIGHTING DESIGN OF A MUSICAL – Donald Holder, South Pacific
LIGHTING DESIGN OF A PLAY – Kevin Adams, The 39 Steps
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT – Stephen Sondheim
REGIONAL THEATER AWARD – Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
SPECIAL TONY AWARD – Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981), in recognition of his historic contribution to American musical theatre in the field of orchestrations, as represented on Broadway this season by South Pacific

TonyAwards.com