Theater had its big night, and Kinky Boots emerged with one of its top prizes and five other awards. The musical about a struggling British shoe factory and the drag queen that helps save it won the award for best musical. It shared in success with Pippin, which won for best musical revival, the Chekhovian comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which won for best play, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the honoree for play revival. Despite some awkward moments with casts of old shows—looking at you Velma Kelly—the night was for the most part a snappy, well-received affair. The show opened with an out-sized production number from host Neil Patrick Harris, and closed with Harris and Audra McDonald doing a Tonys-themed version of "Empire State of Mind." Here are some of the important moments that happened in-between. The full list of winners is here. 
 
 A Landmark Night 
 
 With women taking home both directing prizes—Diane Paulus won for the musical Pippin and Pam MacKinnon won for the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf—and Cyndi Lauper taking home the prize for Best Original Score for Kinky Boots, ladies had a great night at the Tonys this year. Meanwhile, four of the eight acting awards went to African American actors as Courtney B. Vance, Billy Porter, Cecily Tyson, and Patina Miller took home prizes. Three of those were for leading roles. 
 
 Best Bit 
 
 Neil Patrick Harris pulled out a lot of humor throughout the course of the night. He made up play-musical mashups (The Elephant Man of La Mancha, for example) and made out with the dog playing Sandy in Annie. But perhaps the best bit of inter-award humor was when he brought out actors Andrew Rannells, Megan Hilty and Laura Benanti, all Broadway stars, to tease them about their canceled TV shows. Harris, don't forget, is on a very successful show, How I Met Your Mother. But Rannells was on The New Normal, Hilty was on Smash, and Laura Benanti was on Go On and The Playboy Club. Each of them sang a classic musical theater song, re-imagined to be about their television hopes and dreams. For instance, Benanti, bitter about being on two failed series, came out, drinking, to a version of Company's "​Ladies Who Lunch," and it all concluded on a warped "What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line. 
 
 The Play Off Music Injustices 
 
 Christopher Durang, the respected playwright behind Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike who won his first Tony tonight, was played off from the stage as he began to discuss his mother. (The YouTube video the Tonys posted doesn't even get that far.) Twitter cried out in protest: 
 
 "My mother died when I was 30" - Christopher Durang, being played off at the #TonyAwards — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) June 10, 2013 
 
 So glad Christopher Durang was cut off so that we could get some financial stats on Phantom. — Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) June 10, 2013 
 
 The folks behind Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? had the indignity of being cut off at the beginning and end of their acceptance speech after winning best revival of a play. 
 
 Most Emotional Speech 
 
 Billy Porter began by breathlessly quoting Shakespeare and ended on a overwhelmed shout after he won best leading actor in a musical for his role in Kinky Boots. Though he went a mile a minute and was able to get some zingers in there—he said he was sharing his award with co-star Stark Sands but said that he plans to keep it at his own house—even has he seemed on the verge of tears. 
 
 Best Standing Ovation 
 
 Legend Cicely Tyson returned to Broadway for the first time in 30 years in The Trip to Bountiful and won for best leading actress in a play. Her speech was measured and beautiful—basically a lifetime achievement award speech—and she got a deserved standing ovation. As music began to play she said: "Please wrap it up, it says. Well, that's what you did with me. You wrapped me up in your arms after 30 years, and now I can go home with a Tony." 
 
 Most Bitter 
 
 Alan Cumming and Scarlett Johansson were both in plays this year but weren't nominated. That said, they had to hand out an award, but they couldn't let anyone forget that they had been snubbed. "Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's the portion of the evening, where two actors who were not nominated for their performances on Broadway this season very graciously give a Tony to someone who was," Cumming said. Real classy, guys. Look, we know it's a joke, but you could have at least cracked a smile, ScarJo. They also played patty cake backstage. (GIF via the New York Times' Dave Itzkoff). 
 
 Best Closing Number Fake Out 
 
 Of course you were going to do a closing number, Neil. 
 
 Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at ezuckerman at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. 
 
 Esther Zuckerman ||||| The bittersweet romantic musical "Once" has won the best musical prize at the Tony Awards. 
 
 (Click Prev or Next to continue viewing images.) 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT (Click Prev or Next to continue viewing images.) 
 
 In this theater image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Steve Kazee, left, and Cristin Milioti are shown in a scene from "Once," in New York. Milioti is nominated for a Tony Award for best actress in a... (Associated Press) 
 
 The musical is based on the documentary-style 2006 film about an unlikely love affair between a Czech flower seller and an Irish street musician in Dublin. 
 
 Both the film and musical use songs by Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard, including the sublime, 2007 Oscar-winning song, "Falling Slowly." It stars Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti. 
 
 It beat out "Newsies," `'Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "Leap of Faith." ||||| Kevin Spacey arrives at the 71st annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 11, 2017, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — "Dear Evan Hansen," the touching, heartfelt musical about young outsiders, has won the biggest theater popularity contest — winning the best new musical trophy at the Tony Awards along with five other statuettes, including best score, book and top actor honors for Ben Platt. 
 
 The show came into the night as the second-leading Tony nominee but ended up on top, with a revival of "Hello, Dolly!" starring Bette Midler next with four Tonys. "Oslo," a three-hour meditation on diplomacy, was named best play. 
 
 Midler took the best actress trophy and — to the amusement and cheers of the audience — refused to be played off, forcing the swelling orchestra into silence. "This has the ability to lift your spirits in these terrible, terrible times," she said of her show. 
 
 "Dear Evan Hansen" came into the night behind "Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812" with 12 nominations, but that musical which dramatizes a 70-page slice of Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" stalled after winning just two technical awards earlier, for best set and lighting. 
 
 Instead, the night belonged to "Dear Evan Hansen," a show that centers on a profoundly lonely 17-year-old who fabricates a prior friendship with a classmate who has just committed suicide. 
 
 Platt thanked his cast mates, crew and family, calling his parents his heroes. He had this inspiring message to young people out there: "The things that make you strange are the things that make you powerful." 
 
 Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who recently won Oscars for the song "City of Stars" from the movie "La La Land," added to a remarkable year by earning Tonys for best score for writing the songs for "Dear Evan Hansen." 
 
 Moments later, the show's story writer, Steven Levenson, won the Tony for best book, and Alex Lacamoire earned one for best orchestations. Rachel Bay Jones won her first Tony for her work in the musical, capping a long career onstage with plenty of zigs and zags. 
 
 Cynthia Nixon won her second Tony, this time for her work in Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes." Nixon, the "Sex and the City" star, struck a defiant political tone, saluting those who refuse to stand around and watch bad things happen in the world. 
 
 Kevin Kline won his third Tony Award playing an egomaniacal matinee idol in the midst of personal turmoil in the play "Present Laughter." He thanked, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Andy Blankenbuehler won his second choreography Tony in as many years — last year for "Hamilton" and this time for "Bandstand." 
 
 Laurie Metcalf won her first Tony, winning best actress honors in "A Doll's House, Part 2." She won three Emmy Awards for her role as Jackie Harris on "Roseanne" and thanked her children. Rebecca Taichman won best directing play honors for "Indecent." 
 
 "Am I dreaming? Is this some kind of crazy dream?" she asked. 
 
 Kevin Spacey kicked off his first-ever Tony Award hosting gig with grace and self-deprecating wit, dancing, singing and joking his way through an opening number that linked all four best new musical nominees and doing his best Glenn Close impersonation. 
 
 Spacey, who was named Tony host after several other celebrities turned down the job, laughed at himself in the 10-minute opening song, in which he gradually grew comfortable with hosting duties despite what he fears will be nasty tweets crashing down. 
 
 The telecast opened on a mournful host dressed like the title character in "Dear Evan Hansen" — complete with arm cast — before he soon showed up in a bed to mock "Groundhog Day The Musical" with an assist with Stephen Colbert, and then donning a fake beard as if he was in "Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812." He went on to do impersonations of former President Bill Clinton and Johnny Carson. 
 
 The show's comedy had zings for Democrats and Republicans alike, with Colbert mocking President Donald Trump as if he were a show from Washington with bad hair and makeup that will be "closing early" due to poor reviews. Spacey, as Clinton, joked about his wife's fake email accounts. 
 
 In an attempt to shake up the show, producers asked the Rockettes back on a Tony stage after 13 years and asked all four playwrights nominated for best play Tonys appear to present their works. 
 
 The Rockettes had their own number and got to dance with the cast of "Come From Away," a feel-good Canadian musical set against the horror of 9/11. It earned Christopher Ashley the Tony for best direction of a musical. He dedicated it to 9/11 first responders and all those who were generous on that terrible day. 
 
 Spacey even had fun with rumors about his sexual orientation while singing the Andrew Lloyd Webber song "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from "Sunset Boulevard." Spacey, dressed as Close, sang "I'm coming out..." and then paused, tantalizingly. "Of makeup..." 
 
 Then Spacey led a line of high-kicking, tap dancers in a top hat, a white tie, tuxedo and a cane. "I'm Broadway bound," he sang. "Your next host is found." After the hectic number, he requested that his cardiologist be nearby. 
 
 The year after "Hamilton" took many prizes, Spacey jokingly pointed out that the subjects on Broadway this season included infidelity, suicide, greed, 9/11 and economic upheaval. His Frank Underwood from "House of Cards" made a late appearance, striding onto the stage with his TV wife played by Robin Wright. Later, he and Patti LuPone closed the show with a lovely duet of "The Curtain Falls" by Bobby Darin, a role he played onscreen. 
 
 Other winners included August Wilson's "Jitney," which drove away with the Tony for best play revival. Gavin Creel won his first Tony for featured actor in a musical in "Hello, Dolly!" 
 
 There were no technical or human snafus — other than Midler's elongated speech — that marred previous awards shows this year, including the wrong winner announced at the Oscars and sound issues at the Grammys. Spacey talked about the show's accountants and said: "You guys do not have to worry about them tonight, at all," he said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Online: http://www.tonyawards.com 
 
 ___ 
 
 Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
– The come-from-behind Broadway hit Once won a Tony Award—but it didn't just do it once. The sweet reverie based on the 2006 movie about the unlikely love affair between a Czech flower seller and Dublin street musician took home eight Tonys, including wins for Best New Musical, Best Musical Performance for actor Steve Kazee, and one for Enda Walsh, for Best Book of a Musical. Both the film and musical featured the Oscar-winning song, "Falling Slowly." Audra McDonald grabbed top honors for an actress in a musical for Porgy and Bess, which won Best Musical Revival. Best Dramatic Play was Clybourne Park, and Best Dramatic Performances went to James Corden for One Man, Two Guvnors, and Nina Arianda for Venus in Fur. The awards presentation, in Manhattan's Beacon Theater, was hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, and featured more performances than ever, reports the Los Angeles Times. Check here for a complete list of nominees and winners.