Spring Awakening, Grey Gardens, Mary Poppins lead
Tony noms

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)