Tommy Tune Enjoys His Tony Successes In Seattle

Tommy Tune was in bicoastal clover last night.

In Seattle, he entertained a packed house at the Paramount Theatre in "Bye Bye Birdie" and his performance of the "Rosie" number with co-star Ann Reinking was broadcast live on national TV without a hitch. An hour or so later, he was honored in New York with two more Tony Awards (bringing his collection to nine) for direction and choreography of the new Broadway musical, "The Will Rogers Follies."

You know all this if you tuned into last night's tape-delayed airing of the Tony Awards, the American Theatre Wing citations that mark the annual achievements of Broadway. As Tune himself has remarked, Broadway is now a very long street - one that extends (at least in touring terms) to Seattle.

Tune had additional reasons to celebrate last night: "Will Rogers" cleaned up at the Tonys, winning more awards for best musical score (by veteran lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and composer Cy Coleman), costumes (by Willa Kim), and the biggie, best musical.

So why did "Miss Saigon" scarf up three of the musical performer categories? Because "Will Rogers" is essentially a splashy production show while "Miss Saigon" gets a lot of juice from its cast. While collecting their awards, "Miss Saigon" stars Jonathan Pryce and Lea Salonga both alluded obliquely to Actors Equity Association's aborted move to bar them from repeating their London roles in New York, on the grounds that Asian-American

performers should be recruited for them.

Pryce (whose Tony came for best leading actor in a musical) was practically in tears when he pointedly thanked the "multi-racial cast" of "Saigon," while Salonga (hers was for leading musical actress) effusively thanked Equity for all of its help. (She didn't appear to be kidding.) Best featured musical actor Hinton Battle also praised "Miss Saigon" producers for being "color blind."

Was it any surprise that Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" copped the best play prize? No. But it's an award that will trouble a lot of critics who felt very strongly that John Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation" deserved it much more. While "Yonkers" also earned three dramatic acting awards, "Six" was recognized only with a director's honor to Jerry Zaks.

Simon also got a chance last night to show off his vaunted way with a one-liner. Jinxed presenter Anthony Quinn opened the wrong envelope, and announced the prize for Simon prematurely. When the award was finally bestowed, Simon quipped, "I was in the restroom when Anthony Quinn was on. Anything interesting happen?"

There weren't too many other surprises in the tightly paced show. Whoopi Goldberg couldn't restrain her bad-girl self from saying, "White people - you can't eat 'em and you can't kill 'em." (Whatever that meant.) Eleven-year old Daisy Eagan was speechstruck by her award for featured actress in a musical ("The Secret Garden"), but recovered quickly enough to thank her agent first, then her parents. (At least the kid has her priorities straight.)

The British co-hosts of the ceremony were the ceaselessly perky Julie Andrews and Jeremy Irons, both of whom tried to make jokes, but couldn't help coming off like an imperious head waiter.

The yearly Tony Awards telecast usually makes the Oscar ceremonies look like amateur night in Poughkeepsie, and last night's affair was no exception. But even the slick production numbers and gracious acceptance speeches couldn't hide the sad fact that every year there are fewer Broadway shows to nominate and fewer reasons why people should plunk down $40 for a seat to any of them.

By the way, if you weren't sure what those red ribbons on the lapel of Jeremy Irons and others meant, they were expressions of solidarity for people with AIDS. Perhaps next year the Tony folks might take a few moments to acknowledge that fully, considering the losses Broadway theater has sustained because of the epidemic.

The winners

Here is the list of Tony Award winners announced yesterday for Broadway's 1990-91 season.

Play: "Lost in Yonkers," by Neil Simon.

Musical: "The Will Rogers Follies."

Revival: "Fiddler on the Roof."

Actor, Play: Nigel Hawthorne, "Shadowlands."

Actress, Play: Mercedes Ruehl, "Lost in Yonkers."

Actor, Musical: Jonathan Pryce, "Miss Saigon."

Actress, Musical: Lea Salonga, "Miss Saigon."

Book, Musical: "The Secret Garden" by Marsha Norman.

Score, Musical: "The Will Rogers Follies," composer Cy Coleman, lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

Director, Play: Jerry Zaks, "Six Degrees of Separation."

Director, Musical: Tommy Tune, "The Will Rogers Follies."

Featured Actor, Play: Kevin Spacey, "Lost in Yonkers."

Featured Actress, Play: Irene Worth, "Lost in Yonkers."

Featured Actor, Musical: Hinton Battle, "Miss Saigon."

Featured Actress, Musical: Daisy Eagan, "The Secret Garden."

Scenic Design: Heidi Landesman, "The Secret Garden."

Costume Design: Willa Kim, "The Will Rogers Follies."

Lighting Design: Jules Fisher, "The Will Rogers Follies."

Choreography: Tommy Tune, "The Will Rogers Follies."

A special Tony Award for continued excellence by a regional theater: Yale Repertory Theater.