19 times the Tonys awarded 'couples'

What can Tony Awards Night make even more exciting? A Tony year in which the leading actor and actress of a play (or musical) with Tony honors step down.

Consider the numbers: in the 71 years since the first Tonys was presented in 1947, and from the 290 awards, the winners in the leading categories were awarded only 19 times from the same production to artists.

Some of the happy (or not-so-happy) winning pairs are the expected: Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza in South Pacific OceanArthur Hill and Uta Hagen in Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?and Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou in Sweeney Todd. But among the remaining 16 there are some interesting surprises.

If you want to keep the score on Tony Night, there are three opportunities for a new Tony-winning couple to join the list below: Harry had Paton and Lauren Ambrose in My fair lady, Joshua Henry and Jessie Mueller in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s carouseland Tony shalhoub and Katrina Lenk in The orchestra’s visit. Although they were not nominated in the leading categories, Alexander Germignani and Lindsay Mendez are nominated for an important actor and actress categories for their performances as CarouselThe definite happier pair of lovers, Enoch Snow and Carrie Pipperidge.

Paul and Grace Hartman
Angel in the wings1948 (Musical)
The Hartmans were dancers and comedians – ‘dance satirists’, as they called themselves. Paul was the man with the rubber face, grace the enthusiastic and intelligent personification of comic grace. In Angels in the wingsthe Hartmans parodied a Samba, an indigenous fertility dance, a wizard of the Vaudeville. The critics and audiences loved them when the Hartmans, as Atkinson said, acted the whole world, “pretty greedy” looked.

Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin
South Pacific Ocean1950 (musical)
This particular leading couple hardly happened. Martin was initially concerned about the performance with the veteran star of the Metropolitan Opera, whose voice, although he may no longer be equal to Mozart’s heights, was still a huge one. But her doubts ended soon, after Richard Rodgers told her that she and Pinza didn’t have to sing together. The magnetism between Pinza and Martin blinded the audiences and helped to make South Pacific Ocean One of the hottest tickets in the history of Broadway.

Sidney Blackmer and Shirley Booth
Come back, little sheba1950 (play)
Blackmer and Booth were both veterans of the theater, he is a founder of the actor -equity with credits dating back to 1921 and she made her Broadway debut at the age of 18 in 1925. But when Blackmer and Booth came together as Doc and Lola in William Inge’s powerful and tragic Come back, little shebathey set the stage on fire like they had never done before. Daniel Mann, the director of the play, said from Booth that “she does not act, she lives on stage.” The same can be said for Blackmer, who the critics call a ‘Thunderbolt’.

White verdon and Ray Walston
Damn yankees1956 (Musical)
Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets, and Lola got a hell of an actor to play her on Broadway: Gwen Verdon. Her actions as Lola reinforced her place as a legendary leading lady – one that would be associated with the work of Bob Fosse forever, Damn yankeechoreographer. Lola’s devil was Ray Walston, and he was a perfect one. The critics said Walston was endearing, Suave and Sinister, with the ability to express a devilish contempt for human property and a diabolical pleasure over man’s discomfort.

Gwen Verdon and Richard Kiley
Redhead1959 (Musical)
Three years after Damn yankeesVerdon was half of a Tony-winning couple again. Her partner was Richard Kiley, the show was Redhead-A Murder-Mystery music and the director and choreographer was Bob Fosse, with whom she (then) married. Verdon Long Called Essie, her character in Redheadher favorite role. Although Kiley in appeared Kismet In 1953 he regarded this role as his true singing debut.

Arthur Hill and Uta Hagen
Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?1963 (play)
This Edward Albee Classic is emotion-filled, intoxicating, complicated theater. Arthur Hill came the role of Professor George in college after highly priced performances in Look home, angel and All the way home. Like his wife Martha, Uta Hagen already had a Tony for her actions in The land girl. Their performances were so legendary – and the show was so long, more than three hours – that it became a nocturnal ritual for actors from other plays to get to the Billy Rose Theater after their own shows were over and watched the disturbing final act from the back of the orchestra.

Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury
Sweeney Todd1979 (Musical)

He was the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and sent his victims via Razor to revenge the cruel treatment of his wife on the basis of an evil judge. She was Mrs. Lovett, and gave the best – and worst – pieces in London, and their ingredients were the victims of the barber. Cariou won his first Tony for his performance in the title role, but Lansbury won her fourth. Both stars saw the musical, written by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, as an enormous challenge. Obviously, Tony voters thought both succeeded.

John Rubinstein and Phyllis Frelich
Children of a minor god1980 (play)
Mark Medoff’s Children of a minor god is a story of a stormy relationship between a speech therapist and a deaf student who becomes his wife. Medoff wrote the play especially for Frelich, a founding member of the National Theater of the Deaf. Audiences, critics – and Tony voters – said that her actions were full of cordial emotion and towing strength. They feel the same about John Rubinstein, who spoke for himself and his co-star. He said and signed his lines and said she was aloud as she signed it to him.

Ben Harney and Jennifer Holliday
Dreamgirls1982 (Musical)
Dreamgirls is synonymous with his Tour-de-Force Act 1-Final “and I tell you”, a song that is synonymous with his original artist, Jennifer Holliday. Her co-star Ben Harney came Dreamgirls After playing the Tinman in The wizard and act in Was not carried incorrectly.

Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close
The right thing1984 (play)

Although both Irons and Close Tonys won for their performance in this Tom Stoppard drama, their feelings about their respective roles were very different. Irons described a three-year search for a play that could bring him to Broadway, and that The right thing seems to be the perfect fit. He told the New York Times: “If I had instructed someone to write a play for me, they would never have been able to write anything so perfect.” Near, on the other hand, her role described as ‘ungrateful’ and felt that the play was really about Henry. “It was terribly frustrating.”

Robert Lindsay and Maryann Plunkett
Me and my girl1987 (Musical)
Both Lindsay and Plunkett danced a storm in Me and my girla strong revised version of a West End Music in 1937, but also not experience on Broadway. Plunkett has previously replaced for Carrie Fisher in Agnes of God and Bernadette Peters in Sunday in the park with George. Lindsay was a classic actor, known for his performances in Shakespeare plays. Me and my girlCo -choreographer Karin Baker worked with the couple until they were ready for Broadway.

Jonathan Pryce and Lea Salonga
Miss Saigon1991 (Musical)
Pryce was already a Tony winner when he won Miss Saigon In 1991, play the slimy and opportunistic engineer. Salonga makes her Broadway debut, just 20 years old and will soon become one of Broadway’s favorite leading ladies. She is the singing voice of Jasmine in Disney AladdinEponin in The miserableand recently, Kei Kimura in Marry.

Brent Carver and Chita Rivera
Kisses from the Spider Woman1993 (Musical)

Rivera was a Tony award-winning Broadway legend when she appeared in Kander and EBBs Spider womanwith performances in the original companies of West Side Story, Bee bee Birdie, Chicagoand The lane all under her belt. Her role as Aurora, a film star in the 1940s, was especially suitable for Rivera’s brand dance style and persona. Carver was making his Broadway debut after a 20-year career in Canada, with Molina, a gay window-dresser dressing an obsession with Aurora.

James Naughton and Bebe Neuwirth
Chicago1997 (Musical, Revival)
The second Tony award-winning couple in a sale and EBB show, this particular mating is also the first to come from a revival. After they have arisen as a Encores! concert presentation, this revival of Chicago Transferred to Broadway and became the most successful revival in Broadway history-it still runs today. Neuwirth and Naughton were part of Chicagohis star -studded cast; Neuwirth was already a Tony winner for another fosse-choreographed performance in Lovely charity. Naughton was a Tony winner for his performance in the 1990s City of Angels.

Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson
Cabaret1998 (Musical, Revival)
Kante and EBB were back with another Broadway revival in 1998, and another couple who crowned Tony. Cumming revived its role as the Emcee from London, where this Sam Mendes helmed production originated. His role in the role was dramatically different from Joel Gray’s Tuxedo carrier monkey master in the original production, and was well received. Richardson was new in the production for Broadway, although it was well respected for her performances on stage and film, including a 1993 Broadway revival of Anna Christie That Richardson appeared in the opposite future man Liam Neeson.

Stephen and Jennifer
The right thing2000 (play, revival)
Apparently these roles are ripe for success on Tony Night, because when The right thing He returned to Broadway for his first revival, and he found his two leading players to walk away with Tony Awards again. Dillane is best known for his role on HBOs these days Game of Thrones (The right thing remains his only Broadway credit), but Ehle continued a career on Broadway and won a second Tony for her performance in 2006 The coast of utopia. Ehle was also nominated for a 2017 Tony award, and if she and she and she and she and she and Oslo Co-star Jefferson Mays wins, she will be part of another Tony-winning couple.

Brian Dennehy and Vanessa Redgrave
Long Day’s Journey in Night2003 (play, revival)
Dennehy and Redgrave interpreted in the third Broadway revival of this Pulitzer and Tony award-winning Eugene O’Neill game, with the roles of James and Mary Tyrone. Dennehy was already a Tony winner for his achievement in 1999 in Death of a salesman. While Redgrave was not a Tony winner yet, she had a long career on the screen and on stage, both on Broadway and the West End.

Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur
Hair spray2003 (Musical)
Although these few Tony Awards won the leading actor and actress in a musical, they played mother and daughter – Edna and Tracey Turnblad. Fierstein was already a three-time Tony winner, for writing and starring in 1983 Torch Song Trilogy And for his book until 1984s The cage aux folles. Winokur, while not making her Broadway debut, only appeared on Broadway as a replacement support player (Jan in the 1994 revival of Fat). Her loving and spunky action in Hair spray Put her on the map and make her a Tony winner.

Denzel Washington and Viola Davis
Fences2010 (play, revival)
In August, Wilson Revival gave great success for Washington and Davis; Both won the Tony for the Broadway production, and both brought their performances to the big screen in a 2017 adjustment. Washington interpreted in the film, manufactured and directed it and picked up the Academy Award for the Best Actor and the Best Picture. Davis won an Oscar award for her performance in the film version, although it was especially for the supporting actress despite her victory in the leading category of actress during the Tony Awards.

This article was edited and updated from a piece of Mervyn Rothstein that presented in the Tony Awards Playbill in 1992.

Logan Culwell-Block is a musical theater historian, Playbill’s manager of research, and curator of Playbill Vault. @loganculwell

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