`Guys and Dolls' Takes Four Tony Awards
| NEW YORK
A REVIVAL of "Guys and Dolls" came up a winner with four Tony Awards, while the song-and-dance extravaganza "Crazy for You," a new show that uses old Gershwin songs, was named Broadway's best musical.
"Dancing at Lughnasa," Brian Friel's story of five unmarried Irish sisters who live together, was honored as the best play of the season Sunday night. It also won for best director, Patrick Mason, and best featured actress, Brid Brennan.
Gregory Hines won as best leading actor in a musical for his portrayal of jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton in "Jelly's Last Jam."
He thanked his director, George C. Wolfe, for giving Broadway "a musical dealing with African-American issues that doesn't have us happy and dancing all the time."
Faith Prince, as the long-suffering Miss Adelaide in the revival of the 1950 Frank Loesser show "Guys and Dolls," was named best leading actress in a musical.
"This is why I eloped - I'm not very good at ceremonies," said a tearful Ms. Prince.
The show about Damon Runyon's dice-playing denizens of Broadway also won for best revival, directing (Jerry Zaks), and scenic design.
"Crazy for You," with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin and a new book inspired by "Girl Crazy," gained three awards, including trophies for choreography and costume design.
In a year that saw many film and TV actors cross over to the stage, Tony winners included Glenn Close, Judd Hirsch, Larry Fishburne, and Tonya Pinkins, who plays lawyer Livia Frye on the ABC soap opera "All My Children."
Ms. Close won as best leading actress in a play for portraying a torture victim in "Death and the Maiden." She said she hoped her small daughter "will grow up to see a world community where cruelty and abuse doesn't exist any more."
Mr. Hirsch was named best actor in a play for his role as an ill-tempered father in "Conversations with My Father." He held up a card for his hospitalized 89-year-old mother to read on TV. It said, "Mom - You are precious. I love you!"
Mr. Fishburne, a star of the film "Boyz N the Hood," was honored as best featured actor in a play, "Two Trains Running."
"Falsettos," which tells of a family living in both heterosexual and homosexual circles, won for its score by composer-lyricist William Finn and for its book by Finn and director James Lapine.
Ms. Pinkins won as best featured actress in a musical for "Jelly." Scott Waara, who sings "Big D" in "The Most Happy Fella," another revival of a Frank Loesser musical, was named best featured actor in a musical.