Broadway's first musical to focus on a lesbian protagonist won big at the 69th Annual Tony Awards Sunday night.
June 07 2015 11:39 PM EST
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November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST
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Out cartoonist and author Alison Bechdel (center) with cast and creative of Fun Home accept the award for Best Musical onstage at the 2015 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 7.
Fun Home, the smash-hit Broadway musical based off out author Alison Bechdel's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name, snatched up five awards at the 69th Annual Tony Awards tonight. The awards were held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
The show not only won the award for Best Musical, but also saw Tonys handed out to Michael Cerveris for Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role, Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical for director Sam Gold.
This was the second Tony for Cerveris, according to Broadway World. Cerveris originated the role of Bruce Bechdel, Allyson's closeted father, last year at the Public Theater. The New York Times notes that when accepting his award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Cerveris (pictured right) carried one of the late Bruce Bechdel's ties on stage.
OUT recently reported on Cerveris's role in Fun Home, explaining why playing a gay dad on Broadway matters. The role was a profound experience for the actor, who doesn't have children of his own, but found the role profoundly relatable:
Cerveris goes on to explain that audience members have told him repeatedly, "My family was nothing like this, but I mean, my family was exactly like this." It seems that's one reason so many people are enjoying the tragic tale. As he explains: "For all the singular aspects of Alison's story, the thing that has been uniting very disparate groups of people in our audience night after night is precisely its universality. Journalist and author Mark Harris explained on Twitter that our show is 'a beautiful musical but specialized. You shouldn't go unless you're a father or daughter or mother or son.'"
Perhaps the emotional high point of the ceremony hosted by LGBT heroes and activists Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth at Radio City Music Hall, was that Kelli O'Hara finally won for best actress in a musical. The New York Times reported this was her sixth Tony nomination, but until now she had not one win; the acclaimed Broadway veteran was recognized for her performance in the revival of The King And I, which also won for best revival of a musical.
The Tony for best new play went to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, about a young boy with Asperger's syndrome, and "Skylight" won for best revival of a play. Skylightis about a couple caught in the aftermath of an affair during economic upheaval.
See the full list of winners, via the The New York Times here.
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