Spring Awakening, the Duncan Sheik-Steven
Sater rock musical about the sexual longing of 19th-century
German teenagers, received a leading 11 Tony
nominations on Tuesday.
The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard's epic
trilogy about 19th-century Russian intellectuals, and
Grey Gardens, a musical look at two of
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's more eccentric relatives, each
garnered 10 nominations.
Curtains, a backstage whodunit set during a
theatrical tryout in Boston, got eight.
Besides The
Coast of Utopia, the nominees for best play
were: Radio Golf, the final chapter in August
Wilson's decade-by-decade look at the black experience in
20th-century America; Frost/Nixon, Peter
Morgan's docudrama about the celebrated interviews between
British journalist David Frost and Richard M. Nixon;
and The Little Dog Laughed, Douglas Carter Beane's
social comedy about Hollywood hypocrisy.
Mary Poppins, a lavish adaptation of P.L.
Travers's novels and the classic Disney movie, picked up
seven nominations during the morning announcement at
Lincoln Center. Besides Poppins, best-musical
nominations went to Spring Awakening, Grey Gardens,
and Curtains.
Legally Blonde, a frothy, fast-paced stage
adaptation of the Reese Witherspoon movie, failed to pick up
a coveted best-musical nod-- important because
such nominees traditionally perform a number
on the nationally televised awards show--but the
show did get seven other nominations, including nods for
book and score of a musical, as well as for its
leading lady, Laura Bell Bundy.
Bundy's
competition includes Christine Ebersole, Grey
Gardens; Audra McDonald, 110 in the Shade; Debra
Monk, Curtains; and Donna Murphy, LoveMusik.
Angela Lansbury,
a four-time Tony winner, has a shot at a fifth
prize: She was nominated for her performance as a tennis
legend in Terrence McNally's Deuce.
''What a
surprise--I never thought it could happen again,''
Lansbury said after the nominations were announced.
''I am overwhelmed. I am proud for the play and proud
for the extraordinary lady I am out there playing
every night.''
In the
actress-play category, Lansbury faces Eve Best, A Moon
for the Misbegotten; Swoosie Kurtz, Heartbreak
House; Vanessa Redgrave, The Year of Magical
Thinking, and Julie White, The Little Dog
Laughed.
In the actor-play
category, the nominees are Boyd Gaines, Journey's
End; Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon; Brian F.
O'Byrne, The Coast of Utopia; Christopher Plummer,
Inherit the Wind; and Liev Schreiber, Talk
Radio.
Jonathan Groff,
the young rebel in Spring Awakening, heads the
actor-musical nominations. The other nominees include
Michael Cerveris, LoveMusik; Raul Esparza,
Company; Gavin Lee, Mary Poppins; and David
Hyde Pierce, Curtains.
The regional
theater Tony Award will go to the Alliance Theatre in
Atlanta.
The Tonys will be
broadcast June 10 (8-11 p.m. EDT) on CBS from Radio
City Music Hall. (Michael Kuchwara, AP)