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Tonys Spread From 'Osage County' To 'South Pacific'

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 16, 2008

"August: Osage County," Tracy Letts' scabrous tale of a dysfunctional Oklahoma family, was named best play Sunday at the 2008 Tony Awards ceremony, picking up two acting prizes as well as an award for direction.

Thanking the show's producers, Letts said: "They did an amazing thing. They decided to produce an American play on Broadway with theater actors."

The win was not unexpected since "August" already has won most major theater awards including the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.

Deanna Dunagan, who portrays the play's acidulous matriarch, took the actress prize while Rondi Reed, who plays her flighty sister, won in the featured category.

"This is so overwhelming," Dunagan said. "This whole year has been entirely unexpected and astonishing. ... After 34 years in regional theater, I never thought about it the Tonys. I watched it on television like everybody else."

The lavish revival of "South Pacific" picked up five prizes, including director of a musical, and "Boeing-Boeing," a 1960s sex farce filled with slamming doors and eager stewardesses, was named best revival play. It also won the top acting prize for its star, Mark Rylance.

Rylance, who plays a nerdy visitor to Paris in the comedy, didn't give an acceptance speech rife with thank-yous. Instead, he riffed about wearing clothing appropriate to your vocation or avocation.

"Otherwise, it might appear that you don't know what you're doing, that you're just wandering the earth, no particular reason for being here, no particular place to go," he said.

"Gypsy," the main competition for "South Pacific," celebrated with two featured performer awards. Boyd Gaines won his fourth Tony, this time for portraying Herbie, the good-natured candy salesman in the show. The CBS telecast from Radio City Music Hall in New York opened with an elaborate number from Disney's "The Lion King," now in its second decade on Broadway, and finished with host Whoopi Goldberg, walking out dressed as the crab from another Disney musical "The Little Mermaid."

The Associated Press

Keyword: Tony, for the complete listing of the winners from the Tony Awards ceremony.

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