Billy Elliot swoops 10 Tony awards

LONDON - Billy Elliot won total of 10 gongs at this year’s Tony awards, held in New York on Sunday.

The musical collected the awards in 10 categories, including best musical, choreography and a shared award for the three young actors in the title role. he British production also won honours for its director, Stephen Daldry and writer, Lee Hall at the Tony awards-considered Broadway’s answer to the Oscars.

However, much to many people’s surprise, the musical’s composer, Sir Elton John, missed out on the best original score award, which instead went to ‘Next To Normal-a musical about a family coping with mental illness.

Angela Lansbury won best performance by a featured actress in a play for a revival of Noel Coward’s ‘Blythe Spirit’.

David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish, who share the role of ‘Billy Elliot’, together won best performance by a leading actor in a musical.

‘God of Carnage’, the French playwright Yasmina Reza’s tragi-comedy about warring couples, was named best play.

‘Billy Elliot The Musical’, which was based on Daldry and Hall’s acclaimed screen version, tells the story of an aspiring ballet dancer growing up in a tough northern England mining town.

“I have been blessed in my life to spend the majority of last 10 years of my life working on the story of Billy Elliot,” the Telegraph quoted Daldry as saying.

Calling it “a long, extraordinary journey,” Daldry said that the award belonged to everyone connected to the show and especially to “three great gifts of Broadway, our three little Billys.”

Hall said that he wanted to thank Sir Elton, who joined performers from the musical contenders on stage at the awards.

“It was his idea to make this a musical in the first place. He insisted we start with the music,” he said.

List of Tony Awards winners in various categories is as follows:

Best Play - ‘God of Carnage’

Best Musical- ‘Billy Elliot The Musical’

Best Book of a Musical- “Billy Elliot The Musical’ - Lee Hall

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the

Theater- ‘Next to Normal’ - Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play- Geoffrey Rush-

‘Exit The King’

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play- Marcia Gay

Harden - ‘God of Carnage’

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical- David Alvarez,

Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish - ‘Billy Elliot The Musical’

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical- Alice Ripley

- ‘Next to Normal’

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play- Roger Robinson -

‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play- Angela Lansbury

- ‘Blithe Spirit’

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical- Gregory Jbara

- ‘Billy Elliot The Musical’

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical- Karen Olivo

- ‘West Side Story’

Best Director of a Play- Matthew Warchus - ‘God of Carnage’

Best Director of a Musical- Stephen Daldry - ‘Billy Elliot The

Musical’

Best Scenic Design of a Musical- ‘Billy Elliot The Musical’ - Ian MacNeil

Best Lighting Design of a Musical- ‘Billy Elliot The Musical’ -

Rick Fisher

Best Sound Design of a Musical- ‘Billy Elliot The Musical’ - Paul Arditti

Best Orchestrations TIE- ‘Next to Normal’ - Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt, ‘Billy Elliot The Musical’ - Martin Koch

Best Choreography- Peter Darling - ‘Billy Elliot The Musical’Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement- Jerry Herman (ANI)