Drag at The Tonys
Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina
The 68th Annual Tony Awards happened Sunday night and drag was prominently featured.
The new Harvey Fierstein play Casa Valentina was nominated for Best Play. The all male cast Shakespeare’s Globe version of Twelfth Night was nominated for Best Revival of a Play. Hedwig and the Angry Inch starring Neil Patrick Harris as Hedwig got a nomination for Best Revival of a Musical and took the Tony.
Samuel Barnett got the nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play in Twelfth Night for his portrayal of Viola, a young woman who dresses as a boy to woo a woman by proxy for the man she secretly loves.
Lena Hall as Yitzhak and Neil Patrick Harris as Hedwig.
Neil Patrick Harris was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his performance as Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch and was the winner in his category.
Also in that category Jefferson Mays was nominated for playing 8 characters, several of whom were female, in the musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder. Reed Birney was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for his role as a crossdresser in Casa Valentina. Paul Chahidi got his nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for his work as Maria in Twelfth Night.
Mark Rylance and cast of Twelfth Night
Mark Rylance was also nominated and won the Tony in that category for his performance as Olivia.
Hedwig not only got a nomination for Neil Patrick Harris. The actress who performed Yitzhak, the drag king sidekick of Hedwig, Lena Hall, was a Tony winner.
Rita Ryack was nominated for Best Costume Designer of a Play for Casa Valentina, as was Jenny Tiramani for Twelfth Night.
Arianne Phillips was nominated for Best Costume Design of a Musical for Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
While all the nominees did not win in their categories it is amazing to note the number of plays and musicals featuring crossdressing, drag, female impersonation in this year’s Tony Awards. RuPaul, as a man in a flamboyant pink jacket, was one of the presenters. Theater has always featured some men in dresses. This year was a banner year for men in dresses on Broadway. (And one woman as a drag king in a black leather jacket.)
Category: Transgender Community News, Transgender Fun & Entertainment
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
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