The 24th Annual Tony Awards was broadcast by NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 television on April 19, 1970 from the Mark Hellinger Theatre

Mark Hellinger Theatre

The Mark Hellinger Theatre is a generally used name of a former legitimate Broadway theater, located at 237 West 51st Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Since 1991, it has been known as the Times Square Church...

 in New York City. Hosts were Julie Andrews

Julie Andrews

Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...

, Shirley MacLaine

Shirley MacLaine

Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...

 and Walter Matthau

Walter Matthau

Walter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...

.

Presenters: Clive Barnes, Claire Bloom, Michael Caine, Jack Cassidy, David Frost, Cary Grant, Patricia Neal, George C. Scott, James Stewart, Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens.

Musicals represented:
Applause

Applause (musical)

Applause is a musical with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Lauren Bacall won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical....

("Applause"/"Welcome to the Theatre" - Bonnie Franklin, Lauren Bacall and Company); Coco

Coco

Coco, CoCo, Co-Co or similar can mean:*Co-Co locomotives, a code for a locomotive wheel arrangement with two six-wheeled bogies with all axles powered, with a separate motor per axle*Co-Co , a British pop group...

("Always Mademoiselle" - Katharine Hepburn and Company); Purlie

Purlie

Purlie is a musical with a book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Gary Geld. It is based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious, which was later made into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original Broadway cast, including Ruby...

("I Got Love" - Melba Moore/"Walk Him up the Stairs" - Cleavon Little and Company).

Production

Best Play

Tony Award for Best Play

The Tony Award for Best Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway in New York. It currently takes place in mid-June each year.There was no award in the Tony's first year...

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• Borstal Boy
  Borstal Boy
  Borstal Boy is an autobiographical 1958 book by Brendan Behan. The story depicts a young, fervently idealistic Behan who loses his naïveté over the three years of his sentence to a juvenile borstal, softening his radical Republican stance and warming to his fellow British prisoners...
  
  by Frank McMahon. Produced by Michael McAloney and Burton C. Kaiser
• Child's Play
  Child's Play (play)
  Child's Play is a stage play written by Robert Marasco. It opened on Broadway on February 12, 1970 at the Royale Theatre, and ran for 342 performances, closing on December 12, 1970. The production was produced by David Merrick and directed by Joseph Hardy....
  
  by Robert Marasco. Produced by David Merrick
• Indians
  Indians (play)
  Indians is a play by Arthur Kopit.At its core is Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show. The play examines the contradictions of Cody's life and his work with Native Americans....
  
  by Arthur Kopit. Produced by Lyn Austin, Oliver Smith, Joel Schenker, and Roger L. Stevens
• Last of the Red Hot Lovers by Neil Simon. Produced by Saint-Subber

Best Musical

Tony Award for Best Musical

This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949. This award is presented to the producers of the musical.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack...

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• Applause
  Applause (musical)
  Applause is a musical with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Lauren Bacall won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical....
  
  . Book by Betty Comden and Adolph Greene, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams. Produced by Joseph Kipness and Lawrence Kasha
• Coco
  Coco
  Coco, CoCo, Co-Co or similar can mean:*Co-Co locomotives, a code for a locomotive wheel arrangement with two six-wheeled bogies with all axles powered, with a separate motor per axle*Co-Co , a British pop group...
  
  . Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Andre Previn. Produced by Frederick Brisson
• Purlie
  Purlie
  Purlie is a musical with a book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Gary Geld. It is based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious, which was later made into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original Broadway cast, including Ruby...
  
  . Book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, music by Gary Geld, lyrics by Peter Udell. Produced by Philip Rose

Performance

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play presented since 1947, is awarded to actors in productions of new or revival plays.-1940s:*1947 - José Ferrer – Cyrano de Bergerac / Fredric March – Years Ago...

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• Fritz Weaver
  Fritz Weaver
  Fritz William Weaver is an American actor and voice actor.-Life and career:Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. and John Carson Weaver. His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh. Weaver attended Peabody High School...
  
  (Child's Play)
• James Coco
  James Coco
  James Coco was an American character actor.- Early life and career :Born James Emil Coco in New York City, son of Feliche Coco, a shoemaker and Ida Detestes Coco, James began acting straight out of high school. As an overweight and prematurely balding adult, he found himself relegated to character...
  
   (Last of the Red Hot Lovers)
• Frank Grimes (Borstal Boy)
• Stacy Keach
  Stacy Keach
  Stacy Keach is an American actor and narrator. He is most famous for his dramatic roles; however, he has done narration work in educational programming on PBS and the Discovery Channel, as well as some comedy and musical...
  
   (Indians)

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The award has been presented since 1947, and is for performance in new productions or revivals.-1940s:...

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• Tammy Grimes
  Tammy Grimes
  -Early life:Grimes was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eola Willard , a naturalist and spiritualist, and Nicholas Luther Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended high school at the then-all girls school, Beaver Country Day School, in Chestnut Hill,...
  
  (Private Lives)
• Geraldine Brooks (Brightower)
• Helen Hayes
  Helen Hayes
  Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
  
   (Harvey)

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical

The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical is awarded to the actor who was voted as the best actor in a musical play, whether a new production or a revival...

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• Cleavon Little
  Cleavon Little
  Cleavon Jake Little was an American film and theatre actor.Little was widely known for his lead role as Sheriff Bart in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles. He also was the irreverent Dr...
  
  (Purlie)
• Len Cariou
  Len Cariou
  Leonard Joseph “Len” Cariou is a Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street...
  
   (Applause)
• Robert Weede
  Robert Weede
  -Biography:Born Robert Wiedefeld in Baltimore, Maryland, Weede studied voice at the Eastman School of Music and in Milan. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1937, as Tonio in Pagliacci...
  
   (Cry for Us All)

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical

Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical

The Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical is the Tony Awards award given to the actress who was voted as the best leading actress in a musical, whether a new production or a revival...

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• Lauren Bacall
  Lauren Bacall
  Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
  
  (Applause)
• Katharine Hepburn
  Katharine Hepburn
  Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
  
   (Coco)
• Dilys Watling (Georgy)

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play. The award has been presented since 1949.-1950s:* 1951: Eli Wallach – The Rose Tattoo* 1952: John Cromwell – Point of No Return...

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• Ken Howard
  Ken Howard
  Kenneth Joseph "Ken" Howard, Jr. is an American actor, best known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in 1776 and as basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves in the television show The White Shadow...
  
  (Child's Play)
• Joseph Bova
  Joseph Bova
  Joseph Bova worked in early television, having a children's show on WABC-TV in New York . He played Prince Dauntless in Once Upon A Mattress. Bova died of emphysema on March 12, 2006 at the Actor's Fund retirement home in Englewood, New Jersey. He was 81 years old.-External links:...
  
   (The Chinese and Dr. Fish)
• Dennis King
  Dennis King
  Dennis King was an English actor and singer.Born in Coventry as Dennis Pratt, King had a stage career in both drama and musicals. He emigrated to the USA in 1921 and went on to a successful career on the Broadway stage. He appeared in two musical films and played non-singing roles in two other...
  
   (A Patriot for Me)

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play

This is a list of winners and nomination of the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress. The award was first presented in 1947.-1940s:* 1947: Patricia Neal – Another Part of the Forest* 1949: Shirley Booth – Goodbye, My Fancy-1950s:...

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• Blythe Danner
  Blythe Danner
  Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
  
  (Butterflies Are Free)
• Alice Drummond (The Chinese and Dr. Fish)
• Eileen Heckart
  Eileen Heckart
  Eileen Heckart was an American actress of stage, screen, and television.-Early life:Heckart was born Anna Eileen Heckart in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Esther and Leo Herbert. She was legally adopted by her grandfather, J.W. Heckart. Her family was of Irish and German descent...
  
   (Butterflies Are Free)
• Linda Lavin
  Linda Lavin
  Linda Lavin is an American singer and actress. She is best known for playing the title character in the sitcom Alice and for her Broadway performances.After acting as a child, Lavin joined the Compass Players in the late 1950s...
  
   (Last of the Red Hot Lovers)

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical

This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. The award has been presented since 1947...

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• Rene Auberjonois
  Rene Auberjonois
  René Murat Auberjonois is an American actor, known for portraying Father Mulcahy in the movie version of M*A*S*H and for creating a number of characters in long-running television series, including Clayton Endicott III on Benson , Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Chef Louis in The Little...
  
  (Coco)
• Brandon Maggart (Applause)
• George Rose
  George Rose
  The Right Honourable George Rose was a British politician.Born at Woodside near Brechin, Scotland, Rose was the son of the Reverend David Rose of Lethnot, by Margaret, daughter of Donald Rose of Wester Clune...
  
   (Coco)

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical

This is a list of the winners and nominations of the Tony Award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. The award, introduced in 1950, was previously named as Best Performance by a Featured or Supporting Actress in a Musical until 1976....

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• Melba Moore
  Melba Moore
  Beatrice Melba Smith , known by her stage name, Melba Moore is an American disco, R&B singer and actress. She is the daughter of saxophonist Teddy Hill and R&B singer Bonnie Davis.-Early life:...
  
  (Purlie)
• Bonnie Franklin
  Bonnie Franklin
  Bonnie Gail Franklin is an American actress, best known for her starring role in the television series One Day at a Time.-Personal life:...
  
   (Applause)
• Penny Fuller
  Penny Fuller
  Penny Fuller is an American actress.Born in Durham, North Carolina, Fuller attended Northwestern University in Illinois. She then went to New York City to make a name for herself on Broadway...
  
   (Applause)
• Melissa Hart
  Melissa Hart (actress)
  Melissa Hart is an American actress, singer, and teacher. She made her Broadway debut in 1966 as an ensemble member in Jerry Bock's The Apple Tree. As Barbara Harris's understudy, she replaced the actress as the various heroines in that musical for several performances...
  
   (Georgy)

Craft

Best Direction of a Play

Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play

The Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play has been given since 1960. Before 1960 there was only one award for both play direction and musical direction, then in 1960 the award was split into two categories: Dramatic and Musical. In 1976 the Dramatic category was renamed to Play...

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• Joseph Hardy
  Joseph Hardy (director)
  Joseph Hardy is an American Tony Award-winning stage director, film director, television producer, and occasional performer....
  
  (Child's Play)
• Milton Katselas (Butterflies Are Free)
• Tomas MacAnna (Borstal Boy)
• Robert Moore (Last of the Red Hot Lovers)

Best Direction of a Musical

Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical

This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Prior to 1960, category for direction included plays and musicals.-1950s:Note: this category was for both dramatic and musical productions...

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• Ron Field
  Ron Field
  Ronald Field was an American choreographer, director, and dancer.-Biography:Field was born in New York City, New York where he made his Broadway debut as a child in Lady in the Dark with Gertrude Lawrence...
  
  (Applause)
• Michael Benthall (Coco)
• Philip Rose
  Philip Rose (theatrical producer)
  Philip Rose was a Broadway theatrical producer of such productions as A Raisin in the Sun, The Owl and the Pussycat, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, Purlie, and Shenandoah...
  
   (Purlie)

Best Choreography

Tony Award for Best Choreography

-1940s:* 1947: Agnes de Mille – Brigadoon / Michael Kidd – Finian's Rainbow* 1948: Jerome Robbins – High Button Shoes* 1949: Gower Champion – Lend An Ear-1950s:* 1950: Helen Tamiris – Touch and Go* 1951: Michael Kidd – Guys and Dolls...

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• Ron Field (Applause)
• Michael Bennett
  Michael Bennett
  Michael Bennett was an American musical theater director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven....
  
   (Coco)
• Grover Dale
  Grover Dale
  Grover Dale is an American actor, dancer, choreographer and theatre director.-Early years:Dale was born Grover Robert Aitken in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Ronal Rittenhouse Aitken, a restaurateur, and Emma Bertha Ammon...
  
   (Billy)
• Louis Johnson (Purlie)

Best Scenic Design
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• Jo Mielziner
  Jo Mielziner
  Joseph "Jo" Mielziner was an American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He is "the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway", and worked on both stage plays and musicals.-Career:He was the son of artist Leo Mielziner, Sr...
  
  (Child's Play)
• Howard Bay (Cry for Us All)
• Ming Cho Lee
  Ming Cho Lee
  Ming Cho Lee is a Chinese-born American theatrical set designer and a longtime professor at the Yale School of Drama....
  
   (Billy)
• Robert Randolph (Applause)

Tony Award for Best Costume Design

Tony Award for Best Costume Design

These are the winners and nominees for the Tony Award for Best Costume Design. The award was first presented in 1947 and included both plays and musicals...

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• Cecil Beaton
  Cecil Beaton
  Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
  
  (Coco)
• Ray Aghayan
  Ray Aghayan
  Gorgen Ray Aghayan was a costume designer in the United States film industry. He won an Emmy Award in 1967 with his partner Bob Mackie for his work in Alice Through the Looking Glass...
  
   (Applause)
• W. Robert Lavine (Jimmy)
• Freddy Wittop
  Freddy Wittop
  Freddy Wittop was a costume designer. He enjoyed secondary careers as a dancer and college professor.Born Frederick Wittop Koning in Bussum, the Netherlands, Wittop emigrated with his family to Brussels, where he apprenticed at the age of thirteen with the resident designer at the Brussels Opera...
  
   (A Patriot for Me)

Tony Award for Best Lighting Design

Tony Award for Best Lighting Design

This is a list of the winners of the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a play or musical, first presented in 1970. In 2005 the category was divided with each genre represented separately.-1970s:* 1970: Jo Mielziner – Child's Play...

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• Jo Mielziner
  Jo Mielziner
  Joseph "Jo" Mielziner was an American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He is "the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway", and worked on both stage plays and musicals.-Career:He was the son of artist Leo Mielziner, Sr...
  
  (Child's Play)
• Tharon Musser
  Tharon Musser
  Tharon Musser was an American lighting designer who worked on more than 150 Broadway productions. She was termed the "Dean of American Lighting Designers" and is considered one of the pioneers in her field....
  
   (Applause)
• Thomas Skelton (Indians)

Special awards

• Sir Noel Coward
  Noël Coward
  Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
  
   for his multiple and immortal contributions to the theatre
• Alfred Lunt
  Alfred Lunt
  Alfred Lunt was an American stage director and actor, often identified for a long-time professional partnership with his wife, actress Lynn Fontanne...
  
   and Lynn Fontanne
  Lynn Fontanne
  Lynn Fontanne was a British actress and major stage star in the United States for over 40 years. She teamed with her husband Alfred Lunt.She lived in the United States for more than 60 years but never relinquished her British citizenship. Lunt and Fontanne shared a special Tony Award in 1970...
  
  
• New York Shakespeare Festival
  New York Shakespeare Festival
  New York Shakespeare Festival is the previous name of the New York City theatrical producing organization now known as the Public Theater. The Festival produced shows at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, as part of its free Shakespeare in the Park series, at the Public Theatre near Astor Place...
  
  , for pioneering efforts on behalf of new plays
• Barbra Streisand
  Barbra Streisand
  Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
  
  

External links

• Tony Awards Official Site