Broadway put an official stamp on its evolving return from Covid shutdowns with its 75th annual Tony Awards ceremony Sunday evening, and once again it turned into a big night for Portland and New York producer Corey Brunish, who walked away with his fourth Tony.
Brunish, who’s been nominated twelve times, won for his role as a producer of the most recent revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1970 Company, which won as expected in the category of best musical revival. Brunish has also received Tonys as a producer of Porgy and Bess, Pippin, and Once on This Island.
On Monday, Brunish spoke also about a favorite among his other shows, the long-running Come From Away, which is now set to close in October at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. It opened on March 12, 2017, in the Schoenfeld, and on Sunday – the day of this year’s Tonys – became the longest-running show in the history of the theater, which opened as the Plymouth in 1917.
“I first set foot in the theater when I saw The Real Thing in 1984,” Brunish said. “Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, Christine Baranski — who many years later would hand me the envelope naming the show I was a producer on for my third Tony Award, after announcing it on air.”
Company won five Tonys in total at the Radio City Music Hall ceremony, including one for Patti LuPone as featured actress in a musical. Shoshana Bean, the singer and actor who’s a graduate of Oregon’s Beaverton High School, was a finalist in that category for her performance in the Billy Crystal hit Mr. Saturday Night.
Company tied for most wins with the best-play winner The Lehman Trilogy, which also took five awards. A Strange Loop, which had the most nominations with eleven and won in two categories, took the Tony for best new musical, and Take Me Out won for best revival of a play. See this complete list of winners and nominees from NPR.
