Dear Evan Hansen, a musical about a lonely high school student who pretends to have been a friend of a classmate who committed suicide, won six awards during Sunday's annual Tony Awards ceremony.
The surprise hit of the 2016-17 season took home Tonys for best musical, best book (the combination of the show's music, lyrics and story) for playwright Steven Levenson, best score, orchestrations, best leading actor in a musical for Broadway newcomer Ben Platt, and best featured actress for Rachel Bay Jones.
The Tony Award for best play went to Oslo, an examination of the negotiations that led to the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace accords; cast member Michael Aronov won the for Tony for best featured actor.
Three well-known Hollywood actors took home Tony Awards Sunday. Kevin Kline took home his third Tony for playing the lead in Noel Coward's Present Laughter; Laurie Metcalf, a three-time Emmy Award winner for her work on the television comedy Roseanne, won her first Tony as leading actress in a play for A Doll's House, Part 2, a sequel of the Henrik Ibsen classic; and Cynthia Nixon, a star of the 1990s television comedy Sex and the City, won her third Tony, this one for featured actress in a play for her role in the Lillian Hellman classic The Little Foxes.
The highlight of the night was 71-year-old actress/singer Bette Midler winning her first competitive Tony as leading actress in a musical for Hello, Dolly!, which won for best revival for a musical. Midler's award came 50 years after her she made her Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof. She won a special Tony Award in 1974.
Veteran actor James Earl Jones received the lifetime achievement award.
The Tony Awards, named after Antoinette Perry, an actress and director and co-founder of the American Theater Wing, celebrates the best plays and musicals of New York City's Broadway theater district during the previous season.
