Nominations for the 68th Annual Tony Awards were announced this morning in Manhattan by out actor Jonathan Groff and Lucy Liu, joined by the show host Hugh Jackman. The Tonys will air live on CBS on June 8 from Radio City Music Hall.
The Neil Patrick Harris-fronted musical revival Hedwig and the Angry Inch picked up eight nominations in total, including a nod for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a musical for Harris and a Best Director of a Musical nomination for out director Michael Mayer.
Mothers & Sons, written by Tony-award winning out writer Terrence McNally, scored two nominations, including one for Best Play. The show is about a mother who lost her son to AIDS, and her relationship with her son's widowed partner Cal and his new family. Harvey Fierstein's Casa Valentina, about a community of heterosexual cross dressers who spent their summers in the Catskills in the 1960s, is also nominated for Best Play.
Out actors Cherry Jones and Samuel Barnett are nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play (The Glass Menagerie) and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play (Twelfth Night), respectively. Out director John Tiffany took home a nomination for Best Director of a Play for The Glass Menagerie and out British actor Stephen Fry picked up a nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for his work in Twelfth Night.
Rosie O'Donnell will be honored with the Isabelle Stevenson Award, "a non-competitive Tony Award given to an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution on behalf of humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations." Previous recipients of this honor include Larry Kramer, Bernadette Peters, Eve Ensler, David Hyde Pierce and Phyllis Newman.
The 68th Annual Tony Awards air live on CBS June 8, hosted by Hugh Jackman.