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Charles Sykes\/Invision<\/p>\n
Joshua Henry accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical for Ragtime during the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd even in the face of pain and tragedy, he found a way to be heard. Every artist in this room, every artist at home, fight-fight-fight to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ragtime is an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow\u2019s novel of historical fiction, which put fictionalized characters in conversation with historical figures such as Harry Houdini, Henry Ford and Emma Goldman.<\/p>\n
Originally staged in 1996 in Toronto, before making the leap to Broadway in 1998 with a cast featuring Tony winners Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell and an 11-year-old Lea Michele, Ragtime \u2014 with a book by Terrence McNally and songwriting by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty \u2014 is a sweeping epic of intersecting pursuits of the American Dream at the turn of the 20th century. <\/p>\n
Directed by Lear deBessonet, Ragtime was awarded Sunday as the best revival of a musical, beating out The Rocky Horror Show and Cats: The Jellicle Ball.<\/p>\n
Henry, who previously played Aaron Burr in the national touring production of Hamilton, won out over a field of nominees that included his co-star Brandon Uranowitz. Their co-star, the Hamilton, Ont.-born Caissie Levy, who appeared as Mother, won the Tony for best leading actress in a musical.<\/p>\n
These national connections give the American Dream tale a distinctly Canadian and migratory undertone, says Winnipeg musical theatre actor and educator Donna Fletcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great thing about (Joshua\u2019s win) is that it shows you can come from anywhere, and if you pursue your craft, work hard, are a good person and be dedicated, you can win a Tony \u2014 you can get to Broadway,\u201d says Fletcher, who\u2019s currently appearing as Mother Superior in Drayton Entertainment\u2019s run of Sister Act in Ontario.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the early 1900s, it\u2019s been a place of aspiration to pursue your dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fletcher didn\u2019t watch the awards show live, but lists off a number of Manitoban artists who have taken the stage during the telecast over the years, including Samantha Hill, Jaz Sealey and Catherine Wreford, who, at age 20, performed with the cast of 42nd Street during the Tony\u2019s opening number in 2002.<\/p>\n
Other Winnipeg connections to the Tony Awards \u2014 named in 1947 for American Theatre Wing leader Antoinette Perry \u2014 exist as stellar precedent.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\tDish<\/p>\n
Every Second Friday<\/p>\n
The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney.<\/p>\n
\t\t\tSign up for Dish<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t In 1962, a 19-year-old Barbra Streisand made her Broadway debut in the garment-industry send-up I Can Get It For You Wholesale, playing Elliot Gould\u2019s character\u2019s secretary, Yetta Tessye Marmelstein. For that featured role as part of a cast that included Winnipeg-born, Academy Award-nominated actor Jack Kruschen, Streisand earned her first of two Tony nominations.<\/p>\n Born in St. Boniface, Len Cariou \u2014 a founding member of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre who was a member of the chorus of Rainbow Stage\u2019s production of Damn Yankees in 1959 \u2014 has been nominated three times for best actor in a musical, winning in 1979 as the original demon barber of Fleet Street in Stephen Sondheim\u2019s Sweeney Todd.<\/p>\n Last year, Winnipeg-born, New York-based Raffie Rosenberg \u2014 whose first producing credits came at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival \u2014 was on the producing team for Oh, Mary!, a queer spoof of the life of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln created by performer Cole Escola. <\/p>\n Shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, receiving two Tonys last year for lead performer Escola and director Sam Pinkleton, Oh, Mary \u2014 which has featured Escola, Simu Liu, Kumail Nanjiani, Titus Burgess and John Cameron Mitchell \u2014 is currently running at New York\u2019s Lyceum Theatre with SNL alum Maya Rudolph in the lead role. <\/p>\n winnipegfreepress.com\/benwaldman<\/p>\n \n \t\t\t\t\t\tIf you value coverage of Manitoba\u2019s arts scene, help us do more. \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t Ben Waldman Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University\u2019s (now Toronto Metropolitan University\u2019s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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