Tony Awards in New York: "Leopoldstadt" as Best Drama

Kurier, June 12, 2023

German original: https://kurier.at/kultur/tony-awards-in-new-york-verliehen-leopoldstadt-als-bestes-drama/402482225

Story of a Jewish family in Vienna awarded best play.

"Well, well, well... welcome to the 76th Annual Tony Awards": with these words, US actress Ariana DeBose greeted her audience at New York's United Palace on Sunday night (local time) and then quickly got to the point. "We don't have a script, folks - I'm live and unscripted!" The TV broadcast of the most important musical and theater awards in the U.S. had previously been on the line because the writers' union "Writers Guild of America" is currently on strike.

In the end, there was a compromise: the organizers committed not to use scripted texts on stage. Two teleprompters in the hall only showed a countdown to stay on schedule during the acceptance speeches. There was singing and dancing anyway; supportive words from some of the award winners for the union's demands were also heard.

The drama "Leopoldstadt," which tells the story of a Jewish family in Vienna through several generations, won the award for best play. Born in 1937, author Tom Stoppard (see article image) fled Nazi Germany as a young child with his family from what was then Czechoslovakia and came to Britain, where he largely shed his Jewish identity, unaware of how many family members were killed in the Holocaust.

In Vienna, the play was shown at the Theater in der Josefstadt. Here is the KURIER review: