'Kinky Boots' Wins And The Other Moments You Must Know from the Tonys

Theater had its big night, and Kinky Boots emerged with one of its top prizes and five other awards. The musical about a struggling British shoe factory and the drag queen that helps save it won the award for best musical. It shared in success with Pippin, which won for best musical revival, the Chekhovian comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which won for best play, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the honoree for play revival. Despite some awkward moments with casts of old shows—looking at you Velma Kelly—the night was for the most part a snappy, well-received affair. The show opened with an out-sized production number from host Neil Patrick Harris, and closed with Harris and Audra McDonald doing a Tonys-themed version of "Empire State of Mind." Here are some of the important moments that happened in-between. The full list of winners is here.

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A Landmark Night

With women taking home both directing prizes—Diane Paulus won for the musical Pippin and Pam  MacKinnon won for the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf—and Cyndi Lauper taking home the prize for Best Original Score for Kinky Boots, ladies had a great night at the Tonys this year. Meanwhile, four of the eight acting awards went to African American actors as Courtney B. Vance, Billy Porter, Cecily Tyson, and Patina Miller took home prizes. Three of those were for leading roles.

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Best Bit 

Neil Patrick Harris pulled out a lot of humor throughout the course of the night. He made up play-musical mashups (The Elephant Man of La Mancha, for example) and made out with the dog playing Sandy in Annie. But perhaps the best bit of inter-award humor was when he brought out actors Andrew Rannells, Megan Hilty and Laura Benanti, all Broadway stars, to tease them about their canceled TV shows. Harris, don't forget, is on a very successful show, How I Met Your Mother. But Rannells was on The New Normal, Hilty was on Smash, and Laura Benanti was on Go On and The Playboy Club. Each of them sang a classic musical theater song, re-imagined to be about their television hopes and dreams. For instance, Benanti, bitter about being on two failed series, came out, drinking, to a version of Company's "​Ladies Who Lunch," and it all concluded on a warped "What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line. 

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The Play Off Music Injustices 

Christopher Durang, the respected playwright behind Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike who won his first Tony tonight, was played off from the stage as he began to discuss his mother. (The YouTube video the Tonys posted doesn't even get that far.) Twitter cried out in protest: 

The folks behind Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? had the indignity of being cut off at the beginning and end of their acceptance speech after winning best revival of a play. 

Most Emotional Speech

Billy Porter  began by breathlessly quoting Shakespeare and ended on a overwhelmed shout after he won best leading actor in a musical for his role in Kinky Boots. Though he went a mile a minute and was able to get some zingers in there—he said he was sharing his award with co-star Stark Sands but said that he plans to keep it at his own house—even has he seemed on the verge of tears. 

Best Standing Ovation

Legend Cicely Tyson returned to Broadway for the first time in 30 years in The Trip to Bountiful and won for best leading actress in a play. Her speech was measured and beautiful—basically a lifetime achievement award speech—and she got a deserved standing ovation. As music began to play she said: "Please wrap it up, it says. Well, that's what you did with me. You wrapped me up in your arms after 30 years, and now I can go home with a Tony." 

Most Bitter

Alan Cumming and Scarlett Johansson  were both in plays this year but weren't nominated. That said, they had to hand out an award, but they couldn't let anyone forget that they had been snubbed. "Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's the portion of the evening, where two actors who were not nominated for their performances on Broadway this season very graciously give a Tony to someone who was," Cumming said. Real classy, guys. Look, we know it's a joke, but you could have at least cracked a smile, ScarJo. They also played patty cake backstage. (GIF via the New York Times' Dave Itzkoff). 

Best Closing Number Fake Out

Of course you were going to do a closing number, Neil.