The intimate, funny-sad musical Kimberly Akimbo has nudged aside splashier rivals to win the musical crown at the Tony Awards in New York.
The win came on a night when Broadway flexed its creative muscle amid the Hollywood writers’ strike and made history with laurels for non-binary actors J Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell.
Kimberly Akimbo, with songs by Jeanine Tesori and a book by David Lindsay-Abaire, follows a teen with a rare genetic disorder that gives her a life expectancy of 16 navigating a dysfunctional family and a stuttering high school romance.
Victoria Clark, as the lead in the show, added a second Tony to her trophy case, having previously won one in 2005 for The Light in the Piazza.
Producer David Stone credited the musical's writers for penning a magic trick, calling Kimberly Akimbo a “musical comedy about the fragility of life, so healing and so profound and joyous that is almost impossible.”
Earlier, Tony Awards history was made when Newell and Ghee became the first non-binary people to win Tonys for acting.
Last year, composer and writer Toby Marlow of Six became the first non-binary Tony winner.
“Thank you for the humanity. Thank you for my incredible company who raised me up every single day,” said leading actor in a musical winner Ghee, who stars in Some Like It Hot, the adaptation of the classic cross-dressing comedy film.
The soulful Ghee stunned audiences with their voice and dance skills, playing a musician - on the run from gangsters - who tries on a dress and is transformed.
Newell, who plays Lulu - an independent, don’t-need-no-man whiskey distiller in Shucked - has been blowing audiences away with their signature number, Independently Owned. They won for best featured actor in a musical.
“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, non-binary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts," Newell said to an ovation.
"And to anyone that thinks that they can't do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, which explores Jewish identity with an intergenerational story, won best play, also earning wins for director Patrick Marber, featured actor Brandon Uranowitz and Brigitte Reiffenstuel’s costumes.
The British-Czech playwright, who now has five best play Tony Awards, joked he won his first in 1968 and noted that playwrights were “getting progressively devalued in the food chain” despite being “the sharp ends of the inverted pyramid”.
Tony Awards host Ariana DeBose opened a blank script backstage before dancing and leaping her way to open the main show with a hectic opening number that gave a jolt of electricity to what is usually an upbeat, safe and chummy night.
The writers strike has left the storied awards show honouring the best of musical theatre and plays to rely on spontaneity in a new venue far from the theatre district.
Before the pre-show began, DeBose revealed to the audience the only words that will be seen on the teleprompter: “Please wrap up.”
Later in the evening, virtually out of breath after her wordless performance, she thanked the labour organisers for allowing a compromise.
“I'm live and unscripted. You're welcome,” she said.
“So to anyone who may have thought that last year was a bit unhinged, to them, I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up.’”
Winners demonstrated their support for the striking writers either at the podium or on the red carpet with pins.
