2013 Tonys - Michael Dale's Live Backstage Blog!

12:12am - Well, it's time to pack up. Thank you all so much for making my blog a part of your evening. You'll find me at the nearest Gray's Papaya.

12:10am - Cyndi Lauper in the media room: "It's funny, you go around the world looking for acceptance and then you find it here in your own back yard."

11:58pm - Billy Porter in the media room: "One of the things that George Wolfe taught me is that you can't wait for someone's permission to practice your art."

11:50pm - Cicely Tyson in the media room: "There isn't anything more rewarding than the creation of characters that speak to others."

11:45pm - Kinky Boots producer Daryl Roth in media room: "I think it played in our favor that not a lot of people knew the movie when we began and it gave Harvey more leeway to shape the story as we needed it for the stage."

11:31pm - Patina Miller in the media room: "When I was 12 or 13 I was cast as Miss Hannigan in Annie and my mom saw it and I thought 'I have to do this.'"

11:25pm - Barry Weissler in the media room: "You guys look like my draft board from 1959."

11:19pm - Diane Paulus in the media room about reinventing older musicals: "You always start from a place of love. What do I love about this show. And then you think of the audience and how to communicate that to them. Pippin was dangerous and edgy when Bob Fosse directed it and I wanted to create something that would be just as dangerous and edgy today."

11:06pm - The broadcast is over but I'll be sticking around to see if any other winners stop by.

11:02pm - I'm especially happy that Kinky Boots won because it's the only nominee that wasn't titled "the musical."

10:51pm - Christopher Durang in media room: "I used to write plays every two years when I was younger. Now I'm looking for another inspiration."

10:47pm - Tracy Letts in media room: "When I'm acting in a play 8 times a week I wish I was back in my room alone writing, then when I'm writing a play I wish I was one of those actors who just have to act in what some other guy wrote."

10:43pm - Andrea Martin in media room: "In the 40 years since the original Pippin ran, 66-year-old women are different and I wanted to be my kind of 66-year-old woman."

10:31pm - Fisher & Eisenhauer in media room: "I started out as his assistant when I was... seven."

10:21pm: And the city of Chicago explodes in cheers.

10:18pm: Media room explodes in cheers for Billy Porter's win.

10:06pm - Lighting Design of a Play goes to Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer for Lucky Guy.

10:04pm - How about giving the Best Revial Tonys to the producers and the directors. Then take the revival directors out of the Best Director categories.

10:02pm - Quick! Someone start ringing a cell phone!

9:51pm - Lighting Design of a Musical: Hugh Vanstone, who is not present, wins for Matilda, beating Kenneth Posner's three nominations. Audience response was a bit disapproving.

9:48pm - John Lee Beatty in media room: "Burlesque scenery was borrowed scenery so that's why everything didn't quite match."

9:45pm - Best Play should be the last or next to last award.

9:40pm - Rob Howell in media room: "An alphabet tile in the hands of a child means the same as in the hands of an adult. That was the inspiration."

9:37pm - Larry Kramer on stage! Yup, during a commercial break. Long loud ovation. He says The Normal Heart movie started shooting today in New York. "Serious writers are rarely considered serious writers when they are also serious activist. Especially serious gay activists."

9:31pm - Jerry Mitchell in the media room: "If you can lead by example they will follow you. Also, learn their names."

9:25pm - I hear Michael John LaChiusa wrote this number,

9:20pm - Set Design of a Musical goes to Rob Howell for Matilda. For a play goes to John Lee Beatty for The Nance.

9:17pm - Judith Light in the media room: "The feeling I have is the overwheming gratitude I have to be welcomed by this community."

9:15pm - Pam MacKinnon in media room on women directors: "We're out there and we're working."

9:11pm - Cyndi Lauper says "Cast Album," not "Soundtrack"!

9:10pm - The first woman to win Best Score by herself.

9:05pm - Dennis Kelly in the media room: "I wish we could have a DVD extra because there was so much cut material that we loved."

8:55pm - Enough revivals, Diane Paulus. Somebody give her a new musical.

8:51pm - Please don't play Guys and Dolls as Oliver Platt's entrance music. It makes me remember hearing him sing.

8:49pm - This year the Drama Desk awarded Best Score and Best Book just before the end of the ceremony. Nobody in theatre is as important as the people who fill the blank pages.

8:46pm - It's a shame that the award for Best Book of a Musical is given during a commercial break. It goes to Dennis Kelly for Matilda.

8:32pm - Sound Design of a Play goes to Leon Rothenberg for The Nance.

8:26pm - Okay, time for someone to come up with a starring role for Judith Light.

8:23pm - Tony Talk: Since making his Broadway debut in Present Laughter 31 years ago, Nathan Lane has played leading or major supporting roles in the original casts of 18 Broadway productions, averaging a new show every 1.72 years. This is only his 4th Tony Award nomination. His first for a play.

8:17pm - Sound Design for a Musical: John Shiver's Kinky Boots.

8:09pm - Remember friends, tonight Broadway's favorite outspoken militant civil rights activist, Larry Kramer, receives the Isabelle Stevenson Award. Let's see if they televise that moment or if they're afraid of what he'll say.

8:07pm - Live Theatre, Baby!

8:05pm - "We sing live 8 shows a week. Check it!"

8pm - And here we go!

7:58pm - Although she hasn't appeared in anything this season, Las Vegas odds-makers favor Audra McDonald to win the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical.

7:54pm - In closing the pre-televised ceremony, Jesse Tyler Ferguson reminds us that "a different gay guy with three names will be here to host the rest of the show."

7:51pm - Costume Design of a Play goes to Ann Roth for The Nance.

7:49pm - Costume Design of a Musical goes to William Ivey Long for Cinderella. Makes a point of calling this the show's debut on Broadway. "Magic is all around us and love is all around us."

7:47pm - Best Orchestrations goes to Kinky Boots. Stephen Oremus called Harvey Fierstein "Our Mommy Dearest." Thanks his husband Justin.

7:40pm - The amazing set designer Ming Cho Lee, who put a whole mountain on the stage for the play K2, accepts his lifetime achievement award. "I have had more flops than anyone can count. But even in failing, there may be something real in there."

7:37pm - At this year's Theater World Awards, Tony nominee Carrie Coon told how she received a voice mail from her agent telling her she was cast in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? while she was auditioning to be a bikini girl in a beer commercial. I understand the same thing happened to Uta Hagen.

7:32pm - Okay, it looks like I'll be viewing all the untelevised portions of the awards. Check here during commercial breaks.

7:30pm - In 2003 the New York City Council overrode Mayor Michael Bloomberg's veto and made it illegal to use a cell phone at a theatre during a performance, a law that carries a $50 fine. Ten years later, the mayor has still done nothing support the enforcement of that law, calling it "unenforceable." Last night the mayor received a special Tony Honor for his contributions to Broadway theatre. I hope a cell phone went off in the middle of it.

7:28pm - Jesse Tyler Ferguson announcing instructions to winners: "You don't have to yell into the microphone, Alice Ripley!"

7:25pm - The four young actresses who share the starring role in Matilda - Sophia Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon and Milly Shapiro - received a special Tony Honor last night for... Well, really I have no idea what they received a special Tony Honor for... But let me congratulate them and also wish my own special honor to Lilla Crawford of Annie, Johnny Rabe of A Christmas Story and all the other young performers this season who gave more than two performances a week.

7:20pm - I'm getting an audio feed. The untelevised portion of the ceremony is beginning.

7:15pm - Tony Trivia: In 1973, John Lithgow won his first Tony Award (The Changing Room) 23 days after giving his first Broadway performance.

7:05pm: And be sure to following the blogging exploits of my two amazing colleagues. My favorite Brit, Carrie Dunn, will be up late in London giving her snarky point of view, reminding us of how much better West End theatre is than Broadway and complaining about our American habit of giving entrance applause. And back here in Gotham, the mysterious BroadwayGirlNYC, one of New York theatre's most popular Twitter celebrities, is already giving her red carpet reports

6:50pm - MY PICKS AND PREDICTIONS

BEST PLAY

My Prediction: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang

My Pick: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang

BEST MUSICAL

My Prediction: Matilda

My Pick: Hands On A Hardbody

BEST BOOK OF A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Dennis Kelly for Matilda
My Pick: Douglas Carter Beane for Cinderella

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

My Prediction: Kinky Boots - Music & Lyrics by Cyndi Lauper

My Pick: Hands on a Hardbody - Music by Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green, Lyrics by Amanda Green

BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY

My Prediction: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

My Pick: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Pippin
My Pick: Cinderella (Though I still insist this is a new musical.)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A PLAY

My Prediction: Tom Hanks, Lucky Guy
My Pick: Nathan Lane, The Nance

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A PLAY

My Prediction: Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful

My Pick: Kristine Nielsen, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Bertie Carvel, Matilda
My Pick: Billy Porter, Kinky Boots

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Laura Osnes, Cinderella

My Pick: Carolee Carmello, Scandalous

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A PLAY

My Prediction: Richard Kind, The Big Knife
My Pick: Richard Kind, The Big Knife

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A PLAY

My Prediction: Judith Light, The Assembled Parties
My Pick: Judith Light, The Assembled Parties

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Terrence Mann, Pippin

My Pick: John Bolton, A Christmas Story (not nominated)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Andrea Martin, Pippin
My Pick: Andrea Martin, Pippin

BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY

My Prediction: Pam MacKinnon, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
My Pick: George C. Wolfe, Lucky Guy

BEST DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Diane Paulus, Pippin
My Pick: Diane Paulus, Pippin

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
My Prediction: Chet Walker, Pippin

My Pick: Chet Walker & Gypsy Snider (not nominated), Pippin

BEST ORCHESTRATIONS

My Prediction: Chris Nightingale, Matilda
My Pick: Danny Troob, Cinderella

BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A PLAY

My Prediction: John Lee Beatty, The Nance
My Pick: John Lee Beatty, The Nance

BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Rob Howell, Matilda
My Pick: Beowulf Boritt, Chaplin (not nominated)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A PLAY

My Prediction: Ann Roth, The Nance
My Pick: Ann Roth, The Nance

BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Rob Howell, Matilda
My Pick: William Ivey Long, Cinderella

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF A PLAY

My Prediction: Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer, Lucky Guy
My Pick: Jennifer Tipton, The Testament of Mary

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF A MUSICAL

My Prediction: Hugh Vanstone, Matilda

My Pick: Kenneth Posner, Cinderella

BEST SOUND DESIGN OF A PLAY

My Prediction: John Gromada, The Trip to Bountiful
My Pick: Fergus O'Hare, Macbeth (not nominated)

BEST SOUND DESIGN OF A MUSICAL
My Prediction: Peter Hylenski, Motown
My Pick: Peter Hylenski, Motown

6:30pm - Happy Tony Night, everyone! And thanks so much for making BroadwayWorld, and this blog in particular, a part of your enjoyment of the 2013 Tony Awards! I'm sure most of you will be tuned into the CBS telecast of the event. I'll be reporting from the media room at the spectacular 1930s art deco palace, Radio City Music Hall. Believe it or not, you'll probably be seeing more of the telecast than I will! This room will be loaded with about 100 press members watching the ceremonies on 2 large screens. (It's not clear at the moment if we'll be able to see the first group of untelevised awards and the awards which will be presented during commercial breaks. We'll see.) As the evening goes on, winners will be taken to the media room to briefly speak with the press, so while you're enjoying the program, I'll be reporting on what they have to say. Across the hall, my BroadwayWorld colleague, the legendary Richard Ridge, will be taping interviews that will be posted onto the site. So just refresh this page whenever you want the latest updates. Sound good? Let's do this!