Tony Awards 2014 Winners

Let's not bury the lede here, Neil Patrick Harris is not just a Tony star, but a Tony supernova. He has already proven himself the ultimate host the past few years, but this year he was officially welcomed into the Broadway fold by winning his first Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The show picked up four awards total, highest tally of the night, including one for Best Musical Revival and Featured Actress Lena Hall. Hall and Harris put on an epic rock performance (see below) complete with Harris walking out into the audience and getting close and personal with Orlando Bloom, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kevin Bacon. The complete list of winners are below:

Best Play: All the Way
Best Musical: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Best Revival of a Play: A Raisin in the Sun
Best Revival of a Musical: Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Best Actor, Play: Bryan Cranston, All the Way
Best Actress, Play: Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill
Best Actor, Musical: Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Best Actress, Musical: Jessie Mueller, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Best Feat. Actor, Play: Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night
Best Feat. Actress, Play: Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun
Best Feat. Actor, Musical: James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin
Best Feat. Actress, Musical: Lena Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Best Direction of a Musical: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Best Direction of a Play: Raising in the Sun
Best Book of a Musical: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Best Costume Design for a Play: Twelfth Night
Best Costume Design for a Musical: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Best Scenic Design for a Play: Act One
Best Scenic Design for a Musical: Rocky
Best Lighting Design for a Play: The Glass Menagerie
Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Best Choreography: After Midnight
Best Original Score: Bridges of Madison County
Best Orchestrations for a Musical: Bridges of Madison County
Best Sound Design for a Musical: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Best Sound Design in a Play: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill

Nomination leader A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder picked up the top prize of the night, Best Musical, along with three other prizes including Best Director tying it with Hedwig for most wins. It was a night where the prizes were spread out a bit with Best Play Revival winner A Raisin in the Sun taking home 3 wins. Best Play went to All the Way and its lead actor Bryan Cranston won Best Actor. Best Actress in a Play went to the singular Audra McDonald for her Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. With her win, she became the winningest actor in Tony history and also the first actor to win in all four acting categories. Jessie Mueller won Best Actress in a Musical for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical beating out stiff competition.

Host Hugh Jackman began the show hopping non-stop for 3.5 minutes and his energy and charm never faltered as the night went on. His oddest bit may have been his "Music Man" rap collaboration with T.I. and LL Cool J while one of his best had to have been his interaction with/presentation of the Best Actress in a Musical nominees. The rest of the show was fine even though most of the show performances weren't up to par (i.e. making me want to see their shows). Plus I was vehemently against featuring performances from shows that haven't been shown on Broadway (Sting's The Last Ship, Finding Neverland). Maybe if they got rid of those, they would've had time to present some of the technical categories especially Choreography, Book, Score, and Orchestrations. The latter two awards by the way went to The Bridges of Madison County. At least the gayest award show ever gave us this beautiful duo to present:

Matt Bomer + Zachary Quinto = GAYPLOSION

Finally, as big a fan as I am of Wicked and the song "For Good," I wanted something slightly more epic for the 10th year celebration of that show. Would it have been THAT difficult to ask Idina Menzel (who was already there) and Kristin Chenoweth to have made a cameo? Below the cut are three videos from the show: Jackman's opening and my favorite two performances (Hedwig and Gentleman's Guide).