ABOVE: Audra McDonald accepts the Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical. (Screenshot from YouTube)
Audra McDonald has won the Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical.
Considered the favorite for her powerful portrayal of Bess in “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” McDonald captured her fifth Tony, but first as a leading actress.
Raised in Fresno, Calif., and trained at The Juilliard School, she won three Tony Awards before the age of 30 — for “Carousel,” “Master Class” and “Ragtime” — and a fourth in 2004 for “A Raisin in the Sun.”
She has two Grammy Awards, four albums and thinking of a fifth and two Emmy Award nominations. McDonald, a fierce advocate for gay marriage rights, has a daughter and recently was engaged.
She beat out Jan Maxwell, Cristin Milioti, Kelli O’Hara and Laura Osnes.
Memorable quotes from the 66th annual Tony Awards ceremony Sunday night at the Beacon Theatre:
“Welcome to the 66th annual Tony Awards, or as we like to call it, 50 Shades of Gay.” – Neil Patrick Harris, host.
“There’s not a person in this theater that doesn’t know what it is to be a salesman – to be out there in the blue riding on a smile and a shoeshine. As we know, a salesman has got to dream. It goes with the territory.” – Mike Nichols, accepting the award for best director of a play for “Death of a Salesman.”
“I have to thank Lorraine Hansberry, who actually built the neighborhood of Clybourne Park. We just moved in and depressed the property values.” – Bruce Norris, accepting the award for best play for “Clybourne Park,” which riffs on Hansberry’s 1959 drama “A Raisin in the Sun.”
“My mother … always told me before shows to stand up there and show them whose little boy you are. And I’m showing you today that I am the son of Kathy Withrow Kazee who lost the fight with cancer on Easter Sunday this year.” – Steve Kazee, accepting the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical for “Once.”
“You were my first crush! When that whistle was blown in ‘Sound of Music,’ you made my day.” – Nina Arianda, accepting the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a play for “Venus in Fur” from presenter Christopher Plummer.
“All I ever wanted to do was produce plays.” – Scott Rudin, a top movie producer, accepting the award for best revival of a play for “Death of a Salesman.”
“My girlfriend Julia gave birth to our son like five days before we started rehearsals. She’s my baby momma and I can’t wait to marry her. I would not be holding this if it wasn’t for her. She made me say ‘us’ instead of ‘I’ and ‘we’ instead of ‘me’ and I love her.” – James Corden, accepting the award for best performance by a lead actor in a play for “One Man, Two Guvnors.”
“I was a little a girl with a potbelly and afro puffs, hyperactive and overdramatic. And I found the theater and I found my home.” – Audra McDonald, accepting the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical for “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.”
“Tonight, we who are the Broadway establishment, are pleased and honored to welcome this year’s nominees for best musical – you young whippersnappers, who so desperately seek to join our ranks.” – Trey Parker, co-writer of last year’s Tony-winner “The Book of Mormon,” presenting the award for best musical.
“I guess chandeliers have been very, very good to me.” – Judy Kaye, winner for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical for “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” and a previous winner for her performance in “The Phantom of the Opera.”
