Catherine Zeta-Jones,
Denzel Washington and
Scarlett Johansson were all first-time nominees at New York’s Tony Awards earlier this morning with Zeta Jones walking away with a gong.
The Welsh actress picked up a Tony Award along with Douglas Hodge at the American Theatre Wing’s event for best actress and best actor in a musical.
And there was a special tribute to playwright Alan Ayckbourn, who received a lifetime achievement award.
Zeta Jones won for her role as the amorous actress in the revival of A Little Night Music and thanked many, including her husband, fellow actor Michael Douglas , who, she said, she ‘gets to sleep with every night’.
Hodge was named best lead actor for his role in La Cage Aux Folles, which won the best revival of a musical award and director and best direction of a musical gong for Terry Johnson.
Memphis, the rhythm ‘n’ blues musical set in the American South in the 1950s, won four Tonys, including best musical.
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 – each had 11 nominations, but won just three Tonys apiece.
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, best known for such films as Matchpoint and Lost In Translation.
The ceremony, from Radio City Music Hall.
Five-time Tony winner Angela Lansbury, a nominee Sunday for A Little Night Music, was named the first-ever honorary chairman of the American Theatre Wing.
