‘Red,’ ‘Memphis’ win big at Tonys

June 14, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Partial list of winners of 2010 Tony Awards:

BEST MUSICAL: “Memphis.”

BEST PLAY: “Red.”

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Douglas Hodge, “La Cage aux Folles.”

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Catherine Zeta-Jones, “A Little Night Music.”

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Scarlett Johansson, “A View From the Bridge.”

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY: Eddie Redmayne, “Red.”

BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY: Michael Grandage, “Red.”

BEST DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL: Terry Johnson, “La Cage aux Folles.”

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Katie Finneran, “Promises, Promises.”

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Levi Kreis, “Million Dollar Quartet.”

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Viola Davis, “Fences.”

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTOR IN A PLAY: Denzel Washington, “Fences.”

“Memphis,” an interracial romance set against the backdrop of the 1950s rhythm ’n’ blues explosion, has won the 2010 Tony Award for best musical.

The show of soulful sounds and a parade of engaging characters beat out “Fela!” — the innovative Afro-beat biography of Nigerian superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti; Green Day’s rock musical “American Idiot”; and “Million Dollar Quartet,” a fictional re-creation of a jam session of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis in a Memphis recording studio.

“Memphis,” also was cited for best orchestration, original score and best book of a musical. “Fela!” won for Bill T. Jones’ choreography, best costume design of a musical and best sound design of a musical.

“Red,” the anguished two-man drama about painter Mark Rothko and the timeless tug of war between art and commerce, also was a big winner Sunday at the 2010 Tony Awards, receiving the best play prize and five other honors.

“This to me is the moment of my lifetime,” said “Red” playwright John Logan.

The play picked up prizes for Michael Grandage, who won for best director of a play, and Eddie Redmayne, who won featured performance by an actor in a play as the increasingly disillusioned assistant to Rothko, the abstract expressionist who agonizes over whether to accept a lucrative commission for the Four Seasons restaurant.

“Red,” starring Alfred Molina as Rothko, also was awarded a Tony for best lighting design of a play, best sound design and best scenic design.

Three Hollywood stars, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Denzel Washington and Scarlett Johansson, were first-time nominees and winners.

“Fences,” a revival of August Wilson’s deeply personal drama about family, won for best revival of a play and its two stars, Washington and Viola Davis, won for best actors in a play.

Zeta-Jones won for best actress in a musical as the amorous actress in the revival of “A Little Night Music” and thanked her husband, Michael Douglas, who she “gets to sleep with every night.”

“La Cage Aux Folles” won three awards: for best revival of a musical, for David Hodge as best lead actor in a musical and director Terry Johnson for best direction of a musical.