By MARK KENNEDY
AP Drama Writer
NEW YORK
Cyndi Lauper, making her Broadway debut, won a Tony Award on Sunday for writing the 15-song score to “Kinky Boots,” giving the feel-good show an early lead over its British rival “Matilda the Musical.”
It wasn’t the first time the “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” singer had been asked to compose music for the stage. But it took her old friend Harvey Fierstein, the book writer for “La Cage aux Folles” and “Newsies,” to lure her out. “Kinky Boots” also won for choreography and two technical awards with more awards on the way.
Girls were having fun elsewhere as well, as Diane Paulus and Pam MacKinnon won directing Tonys. Paulus won her first Tony for directing the crackling, high-energy revival of the musical “Pippin.” MacKinnon won for directing the play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” a year after earning her first nomination for helming “Clybourne Park.”
Andrea Martin, 66, won as a featured actress in a musical, plays Pippin’s grandmother and sings the music hall favorite “No Time at All,” stuns audiences nightly by doing jaw-dropping stunts that would make someone a fraction of her age blanch.
The Tonys are being broadcast live by CBS from Radio City Music Hall. Neil Patrick Harris is back for his fourth turn as emcee and leads a show featuring talented children and pulse-pounding musical numbers.
The big, opening number started with Harris simply holding a guitar in a pub like “Once” but quickly morphed into a flashy razzle-dazzle number that showcased performers from almost a dozen musicals _ and even ex-boxer Mike Tyson dancing. Harris sang “It’s bigger! Tonight it’s bigger,” jumped through a hoop, vanished from a box and promised a “truly legendary show” before glitter guns went off.
Courtney B. Vance won for best featured actor in a play for portraying a newspaper editor opposite Tom Hanks in “Lucky Guy.” He dedicated his award to his mother.
Judith Light won her second featured actress in a play Tony in two years, cementing the former TV star of “One Life to Live” and “Who’s the Boss?” as a Broadway star.
She followed up her win last year as a wise-cracking alcoholic aunt in “Other Desert Cities” with the role of a wry mother in “The Assembled Parties,” in which she goes from about 53 to 73 over the play’s two acts.
Gabriel Ebert of “Matilda the Musical” won as best featured actor in a musical. He thanked his four Matildas and his parents, stooping down to speak into the microphone.
Lauper and Harvey Fierstein have given “Kinky Boots” _ originally a 2005 film about a failing shoe factory that turns to making drag queen boots _ a fun score and a touching book that celebrates diversity. It has generated two leading man nods in Billy Porter and Stark Sands.
The import “Matilda the Musical” is a witty, dark musical adaptation of the novel by Roald Dahl that is still running in London. Its leading woman is actually a man _ Bertie Carver, who plays the evil headmistress Miss Trunchbull.
Others musicals hoping for awards include the acrobatic “Bring It On: The Musical,” the hit-heavy “Motown the Musical” and “A Christmas Story, the Musical,” adapted from the beloved holiday movie. Top musical revivals include an updated “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” and a cracking revival of “Pippin” with a circus feel.
All the above shows will get lucrative screen time with a performance during the telecast, including “Annie” with “Glee” star Jane Lynch, last year’s winner “Once,” and a song from “The Phantom of the Opera,” which is celebrating its 25th anniversary on Broadway this year.
Lauper will perform her song “True Colors” during the segment when dead members of the theater community are honored. Also, the original members of the `60s band The Rascals will play “Good Lovin,'” which they did this season on Broadway.
The best play award is largely a two-way race between Christopher Durang’s comical “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” and Richard Greenberg’s moving “The Assembled Parties.” On the telecast, filmed dramatic moments from the top play nominees will to shown to offer viewers a look at the shows.
The biggest star with a nomination is Broadway newcomer Tom Hanks, who could snap up a Tony for “Lucky Guy,” Nora Ephron’s last work and a best play finalist. He faces tough competition from Nathan Lane, who plays a closeted gay burlesque performer in “The Nance.”
The nominators ignored some big-name talent who graced Broadway stages this season, including Bette Midler, Jessica Chastain, Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Paul Rudd, Alec Baldwin, Alicia Silverstone, Sigourney Weaver, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Scarlett Johansson.
Presenters include some of the A-listers overlooked for nominations as well as Jesse Eisenberg, Jon Cryer, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anna Kendrick, Zachary Quinto, Sally Field, Audra McDonald, Alan Cumming and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
The Tony winners were picked by 868 Tony voters, including members of The Broadway League, American Theatre Wing, Actors’ Equity, the Dramatists Guild, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society as well as critics from the New York Drama Critics Circle.
The awards telecast faces competition for attention on Sunday night from an episode of “Mad Men” on AMC and Game 2 of the NBA finals between San Antonio and Miami on ABC. Last year’s telecast was seen by 6 million viewers, down significantly from 2011’s 6.9 million.
The awards cap a somewhat grim financial season on Broadway in which the total box office take was flat and the number of ticket buyers slipped 6 percent. Both numbers were blamed in part on Superstorm Sandy, but high ticket prices and the lack of long term audience growth has many worried.
A total of 46 new shows opened during the season, which began last May and ended May 26: 15 musicals, 26 plays and five special events or concerts.
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AP Entertainment Writer Frazier Moore and AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.
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