The British stormed Broadway last night, winning a brace of big awards at the 64th Tony Awards in New York.
Catherine Zeta-Jones won best actress in a musical for her role in A Little Night Music, while Douglas Hodge scooped best actor in a musical for his role in drag in La Cage Aux Folles.
It was also the night that the two acclaimed London theatres scored big: The Donmar Warehouse for its Broadway transfer of Red and the Menier Chocolate Factory for La Cage.
Zeta-Jones, scooping up her diaphonous dress and comparing herself to Cinderella, looked shocked and elated as her name was read out. “Oh my lord,” she said hoarsely, reassuring us her voice would return in time for her next performance on Tuesday.
She thanked director Trevor Nunn and her co-star, the “delicious and wonderful Angela Lansbury - I could never have imagined having a co-star of her calibre”.
Zeta-Jones thanked her parents “for making me the person I am - and I do forgive you” and then suddenly indicated her husband, the actor Michael Douglas: “That’s my man, he’s a movie star and I get to sleep with him every night”.
Hodge joked that his role as the gay partner of Kelsey Grammer in La Cage meant audiences could see “a Democrat (him) kissing a Republican (Grammer) every night”, adding Grammer made “an ideal husband”.
Meanwhile, Red won best play, while Eddie Redmayne and Michael Grandage won best performance by a featured actor in a play and best direction of a play for the Broadway transfer of the Donmar Warehouse production.
Accepting the award, his voice breaking with emotion, Redmayne, 28, said it was “the stuff dream were made of.” He said he felt John Logan’s play, focussing on the relationship between Mark Rothko and his assistant Ken as they work on a series of commercial murals, partly symbolised “how much the arts matter”, which was never more “obvious” than in New York.
Redmayne plays Ken, Alfred Molina stars as Rothko.
Redmayne thanked Michael Grandage “and his extraordinary theatre in London”, the Donmar Warehouse, which is fast becoming a big theatrical player in New York. Redmayne also paid tribute to his co-star.”Mr Alfredo Molina - you are a king amongst men”, he said.
Accepting the best direction for a play award, Grandage, clutching his chest, again voice breaking, said it had been “a joy” to bring Red to New York and thanked everyone at the Donmar in London for helping make the transition to Broadway happen, as well as thanking Redmayne and Molina, describing them as ”two extraordinary actors.”
He also thanked the play’s designer Christopher Oram: “my inspiration and my rock”.
John Logan, Red’s author, accepted the Best Play award and said “it was a moment of a lifetime - I wouldn’t be here were it not for Michael Grandage, Eddie Redmayne and the monumental ‘Fred Molina.”
Red also won a Tony for best lighting design of a play, best sound design and best scenic design.
La Cage aux Folles, which began life at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory three years ago, won two other big awards: best revival of a musical and best direction for a musical for Terry Johnson.
Johnson, accepting the award for best direction, said he recalled the present incarnation of La Cage starting in a “small room in South London” three years ago. He said he was accepting the award in gratitude to all his unseen colleagues “not in this large room but in my heart” who had helped make La Cage into the international success it had become.
Accepting the award for best revival of a musical, Sonia Friedman, La Cage’s producer, paid particular tribute to the Menier’s artistic director David Babani. Hodge recommended American theatre-lovers “go to the Chocolate Factory” when they go to London.
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