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The 'Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre', or more commonly, the 'Tony Awards', is a recognition of achievement in live American theatre presented by the American Theatre Wing and the League of American Theatres and Producers at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are for Broadway productions and performances^[1].

Contents

History of the Tony Award

Rules for a "new" play or musical

Award Categories

Winners list

Notes

See also

External links

History of the Tony Award

Awarded by a panel of approximately 700 judges from various areas of the entertainment industry and press, it is generally regarded as the theatre's equivalent to the Oscars, for excellence in film; the Grammys for the music industry, and the Emmys for excellence in television. The award was founded by the American Theatre Wing in 1947 at the suggestion of a committee of theatrical producers headed by Brock Pemberton, but not until the third awards ceremony in 1949 was the first Tony medallion actually given to award winners. The award is named for Antoinette Perry, an actress, director, producer, and the wartime leader of the American Theatre Wing who had recently passed away. The first awards ceremony was held on April 6, 1947, at the Waldorf Astoria hotel.
Since 1967 the award ceremony has been broadcast on national television, and includes songs from the nominated musicals, as well as video clips of or presentations about nominated plays. The American Theatre Wing and the League of American Theatres and Producers jointly present and administer the awards. Audiences for the telecast are generally well-below those of other awards shows, but the program reaches an affluent audience, which is prized by advertisers^[1].

Rules for a "new" play or musical

For the purposes of the award, a "new" play or musical is one that has not previously been produced on Broadway and is not part of the "historical or popular repertoire." This phrase has been the subject of some controversy, as some shows have been ruled ineligible for the "new" categories, meaning that their authors did not have a chance to win the marquee awards of Best Play or Best Musical (or Best Score or Best Book for musicals). On the other hand, some people feel that allowing plays and musicals which are commonly produced to be eligible as new gives them an unfair advantage, because they will have benefited from additional development time as well as additional familiarity with the Tony voters. Shows recently transferred from Off-Broadway or the West End are eligible as new; so are productions based closely on movies.

Award Categories

There are presently 27 categories of awards, plus several special awards. Starting with 11 awards in 1947, the names and number of categories have changed over the years; a complete history of each award category as published in 2005 ^[3].


★ Best Play

★ Best Musical

★ Best Book of a Musical

★ Best Original Score

★ Best Revival of a Play

★ Best Revival of a Musical

★ Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

★ Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

★ Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical

★ Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical

★ Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

★ Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play

★ Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical

★ Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical

★ Best Direction of a Play

★ Best Direction of a Musical

★ Best Choreography

★ Best Orchestrations

★ Best Scenic Design of a Play

★ Best Scenic Design of a Musical

★ Best Costume Design of a Play

★ Best Costume Design of a Musical

★ Best Lighting Design of a Play

★ Best Lighting Design of a Musical

★ Best Sound Design of a Play

★ Best Sound Design of a Musical

★ Best Special Theatrical Event
Special categories

★ Regional Theatre Tony Award

★ Special Tony Award

★
★ ''includes Lifetime Achievement Award''

★ Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre
Obsolete Awards

★ Best Conductor and Musical Director

Winners list

A list of the winners of the Tony Awards: [1]
==Trivia^[4]==

★ The musicals that fared most poorly on Tony night were ''Chicago'' (1976) and ''Steel Pier'' (1997), both of which received 11 nominations but won no awards. Coincidentally, both shows have scores by John Kander and Fred Ebb. ''Chicago'' had the misfortune of competing against ''A Chorus Line'', which dominated the musical categories with nine awards. Ironically, ''Steel Pier'' saw several of its nominations lose to the revival of ''Chicago'' which, on its second outing, took home six awards.

★ While several performers have won Tonys for roles that have involved cross dressing, only two have won for performing in roles in which the character is actually a member of the opposite sex: Mary Martin in the title role of ''Peter Pan'' (1955) and Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad in ''Hairspray'' (2003).

★ Only a handful of shows have won the triple crown of design awards; Tony Awards for Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Lighting Design: ''Follies'' (1972), ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (1988), ''The Lion King'' (1998), ''The Producers'' (2001), ''The Light in the Piazza'' (2005) and ''The Coast of Utopia'' (2007)

★ The most Tony Awards ever received by a musical was "The Producers" with 12 awards including best musical.

★ The most Tony Awards ever received by a non-musical was "The Coast of Utopia" with 7 awards including best play, in 2007. "The History Boys" and the original production of "Death of a Salesman" previouly held the record with 6 each

★ Julie Harris has won the most Tony Awards, and been nominated more than any other performer. She has won five awards for her roles in "I Am a Camera" 1952, "The Lark" 1956, "Forty Carats" 1969, "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln" 1973, and "The Belle of Amherst" 1977. She has been nominated a total of ten times.

★ Only three actresses have been nominated in two acting categories in the same year: Amanda Plummer, Dana Ivey, and Kate Burton.

Notes

1. Tony Homepage
2. Tony Homepage
3. History of Tony categories
4. Did You Know, Official Tony Website

See also

★ Drama Desk Awards

★ Laurence Olivier Awards

★ Obie Awards

★ Off-Broadway

★ Off-off-Broadway

★ The Society of London Theatre

External links

★ Tony Awards Official website

★ League of American Theatres and Producers