Central Alumni Win at 2018 Tony Awards
Central alumni feature heavily in this year’s winners of the American Theatre Wing’s 72nd Annual Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards®.
The awards, announced in a ceremony on Sunday 10 June 2018 in New York, proved a big night for British stars and productions with the Broadway transfer of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child winning seven accolades, including Best Play.
Produced by Central alum Sonia Friedman (Tech 1985), Harry Potter and the Cursed Childsaw another graduate, Gareth Fry (BA (Hons) Theatre Practice 1996), awarded Best Sound Design for his work. This follows a 2017 Olivier Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Sound Design, and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design in a Play for his work on the show.
The production also won Best Lighting Design of a Play and Best Scenic Design in a Play.
Andrew Garfield (BA (Hons) Acting 2004) was awarded Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a play for his role as Prior Walter in Angels in America. The 1980s-set play by American playwright Tony Kushner was revived recently by the National Theatre in London and is now taking Broadway by storm, decades after it first smashed taboos on stage with its dramatisation of love and loss at the height of the Aids crisis.
Garfield won the prize ahead of Hollywood star Denzel Washington for his performance in The Iceman Cometh.
He dedicated his award to “the spirit of the LGBT community” and the “sanctity” of his character’s spirit in the play. “We are all made perfectly,” he said.
Watch Andrew Garfield interviewed by CBS at Central’s Embassy Theatre in 2017.
Other Nominations
Also nominated in the 2018 Tony Awards were Central alumni Finn Ross (BA (Hons) Theatre Practice 2003) and Adam Young (BA (Hons) Theatre Practice 2010), co-nominated alongside Scott Pask for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for their work providing video design for Sonia Friedman’s production of Mean Girls. The winner of this award was David Zinn for SpongeBob SquarePants.
Tom Gibbons (BA (Hons) Theatre Practice 2008), nominated for Best Sound Design for his work on Duncan Macmillan’s (MA Advanced Theatre Practice 2002) adaptation of 1984.
In addition to the above, Sonia Friedman’s production, Farinelli and The King was nominated for Best Play, Best Lighting Design of a Play and Best Scenic Design in a Play.
Frozen, directed by Central President and alumnus Michael Grandage (Stage 1984), andMean Girls produced by Sonia Friedman, were both nominated for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.
Find the complete list of Tony Award winners.
Find out more
Find out more about the next generation of Tony Award winners by coming to see a Central student production, viewing our student profiles or finding a course.
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