'Coast' and 'Spring' dominate the Tonys

"The Coast of Utopia" and "Spring Awakening" cemented their dominance of the year's Broadway season at last night's Tony Awards, a three-hour parade of mostly unsurprising wins broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall.

Tom Stoppard's epic trilogy about 19th-century Russian intellectuals set a record for Tonys given to a straight play, with seven, topped by best play and best direction of a play (by Jack O'Brien). "Spring Awakening," meanwhile, swept the musical categories: best musical, direction, choreography, original score, and book, as well as best performance by a featured actor, John Gallagher Jr., and best lighting.

The only real surprises came in a couple of acting categories. David Hyde Pierce, who credited Ed Markey for the authenticity of his Boston accent, won for his leading performance as a detective in the backstage-at-the-Colonial musical "Curtains." Julie White took the prize for lead actress in a play, for her work as a hardened Hollywood agent in "The Little Dog Laughed."

Frank Langella, as expected, triumphed in "Frost/Nixon," against strong competition, for the best performance by a leading actor in a play. His win over Brian F. O'Byrne made that the only category in which "Coast" was nominated but did not win.

Christine Ebersole also received the award she'd been widely predicted to own, for the best performance by a leading actress in a musical. Her double roles in "Grey Gardens" as the two eccentric Edie Beales, mother and daugh ter, gave her a second Tony -- quite a shift from her first, for "42nd Street." "Grey Gardens" also earned Mary Louise Wilson a win as best featured actress in a musical.

In other acting categories, "Coast" did well: Jennifer Ehle won for best performance by a leading actress in a play, as did Billy Crudup as featured actor in a play. "Coast" won seven of its 11 nominations, but in two categories -- featured actor and featured actress -- two performers, Ethan Hawke and Martha Plimpton, lost out to their castmates.

"I know what Everest feels like," O'Brien said of steering the massive "Coast" to victory.

"Spring Awakening," a musical about sexual repression in 19th-century Germany in which young people express their desires through modern rock songs, brought director Michael Mayer his first Tony. And Bill T. Jones danced joyously up the aisle to accept his award, for the show's choreography. Wilson was just as jubilant in her acceptance speech.

"Everybody's been so articulate," she said -- then let loose a full-throated, wolfish howl of delight. Both she and Jones did, of course, then go on to thank the people they needed to thank.

Wilson was also wryly assured in accepting her award. "I used to wonder . . . would I feel like there was a mistake made," if she ever won a Tony, she said. She smiled. "And I don't."

Other speeches were similarly filled with gratitude -- but, in the case of "Coast" winners, also included several impassioned pleas for the establishment of a permanent repertory company in New York, something that, O'Brien and Ehle both argued, the success of this massive undertaking proved feasible.

As for one of the evening's big upsets, it apparently surprised even the winner. Best actress White looked startled, if typically energized, as she exclaimed, "Oh, my goodness! You Tony voters! What a bunch of wacky, crazy kids!"

White professed amazement at having been nominated alongside Eve Best, Swoosie Kurtz, Angela Lansbury, and Vanessa Redgrave. "I never imagined I would be on a list like this, unless it was for dinner reservations at Angus," she said. "And then to get the tchotchke!"

In the design categories, "Coast" made a clean sweep among straight plays, with awards going to Bob Crowley and Scott Pask for set design, Catherine Zuber for costumes, and the lighting team of Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner, and Natasha Katz.

"Spring Awakening" earned Kevin Adams the award for best lighting of a musical. In other design categories, it was beaten by "Mary Poppins" for Bob Crowley's scenic design and "Grey Gardens" for William Ivey Long's costumes.

This year's Tony show, unlike previous ones until last year's, had no host, though Angela Lansbury did make an early appearance to introduce the first set of presenters. Before each commercial break, the show not only promoted upcoming presentations but also, in some cases, broadcast snippets of the performances yet to come, which sometimes proved more confusing than enticing.

"Something is brewing and about to begin," crooned a chimney sweep, only to be interrupted: "But not just yet. A performance from 'Mary Poppins' is coming up."

The night's musical numbers kicked off with a quick snippet of "One" from the revival of "A Chorus Line." They also featured "Show People" from "Curtains," as well as "Raunchy" from "110 in the Shade" and a medley from "Mary Poppins" that combined familiar tunes from the Disney film version with new material from the stage adaptation.

In a nod to a current big seller from a previous season, members of the "Jersey Boys" cast sang "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)." And, ostensibly because this year's regional honoree, Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, had backed "The Color Purple," the show also featured a "Purple" song from "American Idol" idol Fantasia.

Surely the longing to capture a Nielsen household or two from the "Sopranos" finale had nothing to do with that -- nor with the odd inclusion of gushing paeans to live theater from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, chef Wolfgang Puck, and, even more incongruously, ubermodel Heidi Klum. In case you're wondering, she just loves "Cats."

Louise Kennedy can be reached at kennedy@globe.com. Material from wire services was used in this report.