Irishman scoops Tony awards in New York

A CORK city man has won two prestigious Tony awards at this year’s ceremony in New York.

Designer Bob Crowley, from Douglas Road in Cork, and co-designer Scott Pask, won in the set design category for The Coast of Utopia, an eight-and-a-half hour trilogy about 33 years in the life of Russia’s most influential and talkative 19th-century intellectuals.

Mr Crowley also won the Tony for best scenic design of a musical, this time for Mary Poppins.

The Tonys are a joint venture of the producers’ trade association, the League of American Theatres and Producers, and American Theatre Wing, the non-profit service organisation that created the awards in 1947.

Mr Crowley has been nominated for the Tony award on 13 different occasions and has won five.

Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia scooped seven awards while the new American rock musical Spring Awakening, about the sexual longing of 19th century German teenagers, captured a record total of eight Tonys.

The previous record was six, held by Death of A Salesman and History Boys.

The Coast of Utopia was named best play at the awards ceremony. Stoppard’s trilogy about 19th century Russian intellectuals saw awards for its director Jack O’Brien and two of the players in its large cast, Jennifer Ehle and Billy Crudup.

Utopia also swept the play technical awards, winning prizes for costumes and lighting.

Mr Stoppard, 69, said: “I feel a bit nostalgic actually because this year it’s 40 years since I first came here with a play, and I’m sentimental enough to want to start by thanking the New York theatre for having me, for good times and good friends.”

Spring Awakening picked up best musical and also won the best score award for Duncan Sheik and lyricist Steven Sater, who also received the prize for best book of a musical.

Mr Sheik, who also won best orchestrations, said: “Musical theatre rocks. Steven and I definitely set out to make a new kind of musical. I think we got lucky timing-wise — what’s happening politically. People were ready to deal with something that had teeth.”