‘A Strange Loop’ wins best musical as Tonys celebrate Broadway comeback – Reuters News in France and abroad

This year’s winners included Broadway veterans including Patti LuPone, who won her third Tony Award for her fierce turn as the alcoholic married friend of the chronically single “Company” protagonist; and Phylicia Rashad, winning her second Tony for playing a factory worker in “Skeleton Crew.” Other Tony Award-winning performers include Joaquina Kalukango, for her starring role as a 19th-century New York tavern owner in “Paradise Square”; Matt Doyle, who played a groom with a goofy case of wedding-day jitters on “Company,” and Deirdre O’Connell, who won for her standout lip-synced performance as a kidnapping victim in the play. “Dana H.”

“I would like this small prize to be a token for everyone who wonders, “Should I try to do something that could work on Broadway or that could win me a Tony Award, or should I do the weird art that haunts me, that scares me, that I don’t know how to do, that I don’t know if anyone in the whole world will understand?’ said O’Connell. “Please let me, standing here, be a little sign for you from the universe to do some weird art. »

“A Strange Loop” tells the story of a Broadway usher, named Usher, who tries to write a musical about a Broadway usher trying to write a musical; his thoughts, many of which are self-critical, are portrayed by six performers, who each appear in multiple guises. The musical began life Off Broadway, with a 2019 production at Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions. After winning the Pulitzer, it had another pre-Broadway production at the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in Washington, D.C., as Jackson continued to polish the show in preparation for that year’s commercial production on Broadway.

“Six” and “MJ,” though stranded in the six-man race for Best New Musical, scored big wins.

“Six” won the Tony Award for best score in the opening minutes of the ceremony. Its music and lyrics were written by two young British artists, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, who had the idea while students at Cambridge University, and were discovered by a commercial producer at the following a first broadcast at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. . The musical’s costume designer, Gabriella Slade, also won a Tony for her Tudor-style and contemporary clubwear outfits.

“MJ” also snagged key awards, including lead performance by 22-year-old Myles Frost in his first professional stage role, and audience-pleasing choreography from Christopher Wheeldon, who also directed the comedy. musical.