The 65th annual Tony Awards aired last night on CBS, and “The Book of Mormon” swept the ceremony with nine awards. The hit musical, written and produced by “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, took home all the major awards including Best Musical and Best Original Score. Andrew Rannells, the show’s star, took to the stage to perform a show-stopping ballad entitled, “I Believe,” which solidified that the musical deserved every award it took home.
“War Horse,” a World War I drama about an English boy and his beloved horse won the award for Best Play. The play is set to be adapted into a feature film and will be directed by Steven Spielberg.
Other big winners last night included John Larroquette of “Night Court” fame, who took home the award for Best Actor in a Musical for his critically-acclaimed performance in the revival of “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.” Frances McDormand snagged the award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in “Good People,” and Ellen Barkin, star of “The Normal Heart,” won Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play.
U2’s Bono and The Edge, who wrote the seemingly cursed musical, “Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark,” took to the stage to introduce a performance from the $70 million show that has yet to officially open on the Great White Way. “We could have opened in February, but we wanted to keep the excitement level up at the New York Post,” joked The Edge. Reeve Carney and Jennifer Damiano, who play Spider Man and Mary Jane respectively, impressed a skeptical audience with a surprisingly solid performance.
Catherine Zeta-Jones made her first public appearance last night since announcing her battle with Bipolar II disorder in April. Zeta-Jones, who took home a Tony last year for her role in “A Little Night Music,” presented an award to Mark Rylance for the play “Jerusalem” and Norbert Leo Butz for the musical “Catch Me If You Can.” The star is currently fusing her love of Broadway and film in the big screen adaptation of “Rock of Ages,” which hits theaters next year.
Broadway’s biggest night was hosted by the always charming Neil Patrick Harris. The sitcom star’s opening number started the ceremony off with a bang. In the performance, Harris described Broadway as “a barely affordable, unlip-synced version of ‘Glee,'” and said “Broadway is not just for gays anymore. People from red states and people from blue, a big Broadway rainbow is waiting for you.”
(‘Book of Mormon” leads Tony nominations)
At the end of the show, Harris performed a hilarious 2-minute rap number summarizing all of the night’s events. Check it out below!