For the 2000 Tony Awards, held Sunday night at the Radio City Music Hall, the year featured many pairs. He walked away with all the roses for the musical Kiss Me, Kate and the knotty, incisive Copenhagen , Michael Frayn's ultra-serious drama about nuclear physics, World War II, and the fate of the world. More Tony twosomes included Susan Stroman, who choreographed and directed both Contact and The Music Man , and Michael John LaChiusa, nominated for the book and score of both Marie Christine and The Wild Party . Audience members could not have fully grasped the import behind Stroman's acceptance speech.
Dance has lifts and dips and unexpected turns, just as real life does.
Although Stroman did not spell it out, director Okrent was her husband. He succumbed to cancer last December, between her work on Contact and The Music Man , the other Broadway musical she choreographed this season. Stroman won for Contact , the stunning story-dance show at Lincoln Center. Contact won four Tonys altogether, including that prize of prizes, Best Musical. The Best Featured Actress Tony went to Blair Brown in this year's Best Play, Copenhagen.