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Background about the Tony Awards
May 5, 1997
Web posted at: 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT)
In this section:
The Tony Awards are to the stage what the Oscars are to the motion picture industry. Officially called the Antoinette Perry Awards, the Tonys recognize outstanding plays, musicals, performers and technical accomplishments.
The awards are jointly administered by the American Theater Wing and the League of American Theaters and Producers. A special nominating committee made up of 27 to 30 members nominates four candidates for each category.
The 1997 Tony Awards will go to plays and musicals that opened between September 1996 and April 30, 1997.
Vital statistics for the 51st Annual Tony Awards
When: June 1, 1997, 8-11 p.m. EDT
Where: Radio City Music Hall, New York City, New York.
Master of Ceremonies: Talk show host Rosie O'Donnell
For your viewing pleasure: Awards for direction of a play and musical, book of a musical, score, choreography, lighting, scenery, costume and orchestration will be broadcast live on PBS from 8-9 p.m. EDT; the best actor, actress, play and musical awards will be broadcast live on CBS from 9-11 p.m. EDT. This is the 20th consecutive year that CBS has televised the awards, but the first year that the ceremony has not been broadcast from a Broadway theater.
What the winners get: The Tony Award is a medallion showing a profile of Antoinette Perry on one side and the masks of comedy and drama on the other. The awards began in 1947. For the first two years, winners got a scroll and a compact or cigarette lighter. The medallion was first presented in 1949.
Who was Antoinette Perry?
Antoinette Perry, for whom the awards are named, was an actress, director, producer and leader in the American Theater Wing. Born on June 27, 1888, she rose to theater stardom by the age of 20, then retired for 13 years after marrying oil magnate Frank Wheatcroft Frueauff. When he died in 1922, she found too little to do with her time, so in 1924, she decided to return to theater.
She quickly realized that for her, it was more challenging to assist the show's producer in directing than to act. She showed such a directorial flair, particularly with comedy, that producer Brock Pemberton handed all directorial duties to her in 1930. She remained his partner until her death, directing the plays which he chose and cast. Among her successful plays, the pinnacle was the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Harvey," which opened in 1944.
Although her accomplishments as a director in an era when women rarely ran the show are historically significant, the theater community also remembered her for her generosity and her influence in charity work. During World War II, she helped establish the American Theater Wing War Service, which held benefits to raise money for the British war effort, then organized educational programs and fund drives once the United States entered the war. She was also a key player in opening and running the Stage Door Canteen for American soldiers.
When Perry died of a heart attack in June 1946 at the age of 58, her friends and associates agreed to establish the Tony Award in her memory. "She was an imaginative, able and selfless person," the late drama critic Brooks Atkinson said at the 1962 Tonys. "I don't think there was anything she would not or could not do.
"Fame was not what she was after. She just loved theater."
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