‘Fela,’ an exuberant celebration of human resilience, wins best musical Tony Award

‘Red’ wins best play Tony Award

NEW YORK — “Red,” a work about art, an artist and the act of creation, has won the 2010 Tony Award for best play.

John Logan’s engrossing, often enthralling two-character play is set in the 1950s and focuses on abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. It stars Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne.

“Red” beat out “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play),” ”Next Fall” and “Time Stands Still.”

The Tonys were telecast Sunday by CBS, live from Radio City Music Hall.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

NEW YORK (AP) — Two socially conscious, but radically different stories set in mid-20th century America, the exuberant rhythm ‘n’ blues musical “Memphis” and anguished two-man drama “Red,” were big winners Sunday at the 2010 Tony Awards.

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

“This is the stuff dreams are made of. Wow,” Redmayne said, clutching his prize.

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

Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, the two stars of the revival of August Wilson’s “Fences” won for best actors in a play and gave speeches that seemed to complement each other.

“My mother always says, ‘Man gives the award, God gives the reward.’ I guess I got both tonight,” Washington said after winning for his performance as the sanitation man who might have been a baseball star. It was his first Tony Award and nomination.

“I don’t believe in luck or happenstance. I absolutely believe in the presence of God in my life,” said Davis, honored for playing Washington’s all-sacrificing wife. “It feels like such a divine experience eight times a week.”

Best direction for a musical went to first-time nominee Terry Johnson of “La Cage Aux Folles.” Scarlett Johansson won for best featured performance as an actress in a play for her Broadway debut, the object of her uncle’s lust in Arthur Miller’s “A View From a Bridge.”

“Every since I was a little girl I wanted to be on Broadway and here I am,” said Johansson, the voluptuous Hollywood star best known for such films as “Matchpoint” and “Lost in Translation.”

“Memphis,” a tale of segregation and integration in the American South, was cited for best orchestration, original score and best book of a musical, twice beating out “Fela!,” which won for best costume design of a musical and best sound design of a musical.

“Fela!” and “La Cage aux Folles” were the dominant nominees at Sunday’s star-laden Tonys.

“Fela!” — the innovative Afro-beat biography of Nigerian superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti — and “La Cage aux Folles” — a revival of the classic Jerry Herman-Harvey Fierstein musical farce — had 11 nominations.

They were followed by the revival of August Wilson’s “Fences,” with 10 nominations and “Memphis,” with eight.

The ceremony, from Radio City Music Hall and telecast on CBS, was hosted by Sean Hayes. He was up for leading actor in a musical for his portrayal of Chuck Baxter, the insecure company man who lends out his bachelor apartment for extramarital, romantic dalliances by its executives, in a revival of “Promises, Promises,” inspired by Billy Wilder’s Academy Award-winning “The Apartment.”

“I have actually managed to combine a good chance of losing with a good chance of bombing,” he joked during his opening monologue, which was widely applauded.

One of Hayes’ co-stars, scene-stealing Katie Finneran, won for best featured actress in a musical. Best featured actor in a musical went to Levi Kreis as rock ‘n’ roll wild man Jerry Lee Lewis in “Million Dollar Quartet.”

Historically, Tony-nominated hosts have fared well. Hugh Jackman won a trophy in 2004 for his portrayal of Peter Allen in “The Boy From Oz.” Nathan Lane won twice while at the helm: in 1996, when he won lead actor in a musical for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”; and in 2001, when he shared duties with Matthew Broderick and won a Tony for “The Producers.”

Hayes began with a playful piano medley circling around “Give My Regards to Broadway,” then stepped up the beat and segued into a stomping “Blue Suede Shoes,” as performed by cast members from “Million Dollar Quartet.” Segments from “Promises, Promises,” ”Come Fly With Me” and others followed, capped and stolen by a shouting medley from Green Day.

Five-time Tony winner Angela Lansbury, a nominee Sunday, was named the first-ever honorary chairman of the American Theatre Wing. Special Tony Awards for lifetime achievement were given to playwright Alan Ayckbourn (”The Norman Conquests,” a trilogy that won the play-revival Tony last year), and actress Marian Seldes (”A Delicate Balance,” ”Equus,” ”Deathtrap,” ”Three Tall Women”).

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn., received the regional theater award.