Simon Russell Beale, Sam Mendes and Marianne Elliott led the British charge at the 75th Tony Awards, as composer Toby Marlow made history as the first non-binary winner.
British talent scooped a series of top prizes with Broadway transfers of West End adaptations of The Lehman Trilogy and Company dominating proceedings.
The awards, which honour the best of stage productions in the US, took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York and were seen as a return to normality after the Covid pandemic.
Veteran star Beale won the accolade for best leading actor in a play for his role in The Lehman Trilogy, which made its UK debut at the National Theatre 2018. He said the award was an “enormous honour” but felt “sheepish” over his win, for which he fended off his fellow British co-stars Adrian Lester and Adam Godley.
“We all did the same amount of work,” he said. The award was Beale’s first Tony win, having previously been nominated in 2004. The production also won the Tony for best play, while its director Mendes won for best direction of a play.
Elliott became the first woman to win three Tonys for directing, as she was honoured for best direction of a musical for her gender-swapped production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Company — which first ran in the West End before moving to Broadway.
Sondheim was heavily involved in the production before his death last November. In her acceptance speech, Elliott said: “Thank you first and foremost to Stephen Sondheim for trusting me to tell his story in a different way and putting a woman front and centre.” The show was also named best revival of a musical.
British musical Six, in which Henry VIII’s wives give a pop concert, won best original score for Marlow and Lucy Moss, who created it while students at Cambridge University. Its costume designer Gabriella Slade won in her category.
The ceremony was hosted by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, who opened it with a medley from musicals including Chicago, Hamilton and West Side Story.
Es Devlin was honoured for best scenic design in a play for The Lehman Trilogy while Bunny Christie won best scenic design in a musical for Company.
Hollywood star Jennifer Hudson achieved EGOT status (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and a Tony) after winning as a producer for A Strange Loop, and Angela Lansbury was given the lifetime achievement award.
