NEW YORK – THE BOOK of Mormon, an irreverent songfest by South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker and Avenue Q's Robert Lopez, has won this year's Tony Award for best musical as well as eight others.
Mormon's nine trophies made it the top Tony-earner at the ceremony for the 65th annual awards, telecast from the Beacon Theatre on New York's Upper West Side on Sunday night. Alongside Mormon, the Tony voters named the British import War Horse– a story told with life-size equine puppets – the best new play of the 2010-11 season.
“I want to thank my dad for his edge and my mother for her sweetness,” said Parker, accepting the best direction award.
The recognition for the profane and funny send-up of religious dogma continues a recent Tony tradition of anointing scathing musical comedies. The Producers, Avenue Qand Monty Python's Spamalotare other winners of the top Tonys.
Although Mormonfell short of the record 12 Tonys collected by The Producers,it proved to be the evening's juggernaut, winning awards for original score, book, orchestrations, set design, sound design, lighting, direction and featured actress (Nikki M James).
The three-hour ceremony is widely considered as much a commercial for Broadway as it is an evening for honouring the industry's best. Which helps explain why some shows that were not even eligible for awards received musical slots in prime time. Among them was the notorious Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which doesn't have its official Broadway opening until tonight.
"We could have opened in February, but we wanted to keep the excitement level up at the New York Post," joked the Edge, Spider-Man's co-composer with Bono, as they introduced a song from the $70 million musical. – (Washington Post service)
