“Dear Evan Hansen,” the touching, heartfelt musical about young outsiders, was the big winner Sunday night at the Tony Awards, winning statuettes for best book, score, best actor, orchestrations, best featured actress and best musical.
Platt thanked his cast mates, crew and family, calling his parents his heroes. He had this inspiring message to young people out there: “The things that make you strange are the things that make you powerful.”
Portland’s Christopher Akerlind was one of the early winners at the awards ceremony.
Akerlind won for Best Lighting Design of a Play for “Indecent,” which was also nominated for best play. It was Akerlind’s second Tony award. He also won in 2005 for lighting the play “The Light in the Piazza,” and he has been nominated seven times.
University of Maine graduate Donald Holder was also nominated in the lighting category for “Oslo,” which won the award for best play. Holder has been nominated 12 times and won previously for lighting both “The Lion King” and “South Pacific.
A revival of “Hello, Dolly” starring Bette Midler took four statuettes, including best revival and Midler took the best actress trophy. Among the many people she thanked was Natasha Katz, her lighting designer, for making her look younger than she is. She refused to be played off, silencing the orchestra as the crowd roared. “This has the ability to lift your spirits in these terrible, terrible times,” she said of her show.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who recently won Oscars for the song “City of Stars” from the movie “La La Land,” added to a remarkable year by earning Tonys for best score for writing the songs for “Dear Evan Hansen.”
Moments later, the show’s story writer, Steven Levenson, won the Tony for best book, and Alex Lacamoire earned one for best orchestations.
Cynthia Nixon won her second Tony, this time for her work in Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes.” Nixon, the Sex and the City” star, struck a defiant political tone, saluting those who refuse to stand around and watch bad things happen in the world.
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