"Contact", "Copenhagen" honored at Tony awards

"Contact", "Copenhagen" honored at Tony awards
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

NEW YORK, JUNE 5: The musical, Contact and the dramatic play, Copenhagen were honoured as the best on Broadway in a star-studded Tony awards ceremony late on Sunday.

Copenhagen, a drama dealing with the meeting of two atomic scientists during World War II, which tackles the relationship between science and ethics, received the Tony award for best play. The drama beat out competitors True West, Dirty Blonde and The Ride down Mt. Morgan, by American playwright Arthur Miller. Contact, consisting of three choreographed mini-plays, snagged the best musical award, beating out The Wild Party

, Swing and The Dead -- a piece based on the masterwork by Irish novelist James Joyce.

The musical, Kiss me, Kate, loosely based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew won the award for best musical revival. For the first time in Tony history, a single director walked away with the honours in both the dramatic and musical categories: Kiss me, Kate's English director, Michael Blakemore, also won the Tony for best director of Copenhagen.

Kate, a revival of the 1948 Cole Porter musical, was honoured with a total of five Tonys -- the most awards of any show nominated. In addition to the awards for direction and revival, one of its stars, Brian Stokes Mitchell, won for best actor in a musical. It was also honoured for its costumes and its orchestrations. Contact won four Tonys, including the choreography prize. The Disney musical, Aida, which opened to mixed reviews, also won four awards. The musical adaptation of the legend that inspired Verdi's opera was honoured for its score, adapted by Elton John and Tim Rice. It also won the awards for best actress in a musical, Heather Headley, as well as separate awards for its set and lighting design.

The Real Thing, a revival of Tom Stoppard's 1982 comedy about love and art won three awards, including for its leading performers, Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, who were voted best actor and actress in a play. The nationally-televised Tony awards ceremony, held at New York's Radio City Music Hall, honored achievement in the 1999-2000 Broadway theater season. Named after the late actress, producer and director Antoinette Perry, nominations for the Tonys are made by a committee of 24 theater professionals. Winners are chosen by ballots mailed by some 700 theater professionals and journalists.