NEW YORK -- "Spring Awakening" awoke passions on stage and among Tony Award voters, who declared the provocative punk-powered show the season's Best Musical, while Tom Stoppard's sprawling trilogy, "The Coast of Utopia," won for Best Play at the 61st Tonys last night.

	Jeff Christensen/Associated Press Billy Crudup accepts his Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his role in "The Coast of Utopia." The production won seven awards last night. Click photo for larger image. Related article Complete list of Tony Award winners

In one of the few upsets of the night, Julie White won Best Actress in a Play for "The Little Dog Laughed" and erupted onstage: "You Tony voters! What a bunch of wacky, crazy kids! ... I never thought I'd ever be on list [of nominees] like this except maybe for reservations at Angus, and now to get the tchotchke!"

Those crazy kids made David Hyde Pierce cry when he heard his name as Best Actor in a Musical for playing the show-biz obsessed detective in "Curtains."

Things went as expected for the other winner in a musical, Christine Ebersole, who has been wowing audiences in her dual role in "Grey Gardens." Frank Langella won for his towering portrayal of Richard Nixon in "Frost/Nixon."

In the battle between the 19th-century Germans of "Spring Awakening" and Russians of "Coast of Utopia," the night's final totals came in at eight Tonys for "Spring Awakening" and seven for "Utopia," which set the all-time record for most Tonys for a play, beating the original "Death of a Salesman" and "The History Boys."

Much earlier in the press room, seven of the "minor" awards were announced about 7:45 -- costumes, lighting and sets for "Coast of Utopia" and orchestration and lighting for "Spring Awakening" -- plus sets for "Mary Poppins" and costumes for "Grey Gardens." The race was on between the leading contenders, 3-2, and the show was still 15 minutes away.

Stuart Ramson/Associated Press David Hyde Pierce, center, arrives with co-stars Debra Monk, left, and Karen Ziemba at last night's Tony Awards ceremony. In an upset, Pierce won the award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role in "Curtains." Click photo for larger image.

The event, however, was 2 hours old. That's how long ago the red-carpet arrivals had begun, with me wedged in between the Seattle Gay Times and some overbearing Aussie radio guy. While others beckoned eagerly to Angela Lansbury or Ethan Hawke, I was concentrating on the Pittsburgh connections.

First were Constanza Romero and Azula Romero Wilson, widow and daughter of August Wilson, there to root for his "Radio Golf." Later, Anthony Chisholm, who plays Old Joe in "Radio Golf," talked about having a "supernatural" experience" since Wilson is still "around us in every molecule." Now he feels he's "soaring with the angels." Homestead's Tamara Tunie, one of the producers on both "Radio Golf" and "Spring Awakening," was there, looking grand.

Other nominees who stopped to talk included Christian Borle from Fox Chapel (with wife Sutton Foster) and Rob Ashford from Point Park. Keith Buterbaugh, who appears in best musical revival winner "Company," identified himself as a Pittsburgher -- well, Meyersdale in Somerset County.

There were Pittsburgh connections in the group from Atlanta's Alliance Theater, which won the regional theater Tony -- managing director Tom Pechar, who cut his managerial teeth at Lovelace Marionettes and the Pittsburgh Public Theater, associate artistic director Kent Gash from CMU and Rosemary Newcott, who has directed the CLO's "Christmas Carol."

	Jeff Christensen/Associated Press Bill T. Jones accepts his award for Best Choreography for his work on "Spring Awakening," which won eight Tony awards. Click photo for larger image.

When the 61st annual Tony Awards actually began, it cannily started by exploiting the great metaphor of competition and collaboration, "A Chorus Line," working in the expectant casts of the other nominated musicals (new or revival) .

And within a half-hour "Coast of Utopia" had already scored four Tonys, two-thirds of the way toward the record for a play, while "Spring Awakening" had five, with the bigger upside since there are more awards for musicals.

On TV, Steven Sater had the grace to share his Tony for original book of a musical with the true original, Frank Wedekind, who wrote the 1891 play. Then he and Duncan Sheik also won for best score. Up in the press room, Sater stressed that it had been a very discouraging process: "We couldn't get anyone to look our way for four years," he said. Asked whether they hoped to create a new equivalent to "Hair" and "Tommy," Sheik said, "We really set out to create a new kind of musical. I love 'Hair' and 'Tommy,' but we went back to 'Porgy and Bess' and 'West Side Story.' "

Sater said they began work "in the wake of the shootings at Columbine," with the goal of speaking to young people about their frustrations. Sheik said casting was "really difficult," since they wanted people who looked young, could speak classical text and sing pop rock. "I wanted kids who were in their rock band in high school."

Asked how he felt about winning for best supporting actor, John Gallagher Jr., 22, who plays "Spring's" spiky-haired Moritz, said, "Feeling doesn't enter into it, because I can't feel anything yet, even my arms." He said he learned that his character was really Sater: "that ball of energy, so emotional and unpredictable."

Gallagher ascribed the success of the music of "Spring Awakening" to its being "completely emotionally available, with a cathartic effect. It's going to the theater and seeing a group of young people who are so fearless. The cast goes from age 16 to 24, not afraid to get up there and give its all every night."

Someone reminded him he still had to perform on stage later in the evening: "Wow, thanks for reminding me. I'd forgotten!"

A popular winner for choreography, Bill T. Jones spoke of the "invisible wall" between Broadway and "the downtown dance scene. ... When I make my next piece, built around a puppet play, I would like to find a way to make it both a piece about feeling but also an entertainment. Downtown we've been afraid of that word. Can we do that without people being offended?" Meanwhile, Broadway has taught him "life still has surprises. Suddenly you're standing with Vanessa Redgrave and Christopher Plummer and someone's handing you a Tony. ... I never expected to be standing here at 55."

"Spring Awakening's" director Michael Mayer credited "an astonishing design team, able to maintain the intimacy of the Atlantic Theater at the Eugene O'Neill. ... The great thing about young actors is they don't know how to give a B performance."

There was also, of course, "Coast of Utopia."

Billy Crudup, winner as supporting actor, said, "I have a complete aversion to these [awards] from a creative point of view, but I have two brothers, so I've been competing all my life."

Director Jack O'Brien praised his huge cast for giving "a year of their life and really their livelihood. From September until February, we were never out of rehearsal. No award given or withheld can possibly dent the extraordinary feeling we have had in doing this. ... This [award] is frosting on the cake, but I have to tell you the cake was glorious."

Playwright Tom Stoppard told us a production in Russian has been in rehearsal in Moscow for 18 months and is due to open next October, and there is interest in a French production. Otherwise, if theaters don't dare take on all three parts of his trilogy, he suggests doing any one part and seeing how it goes.

Told his play had eclipsed "Death of a Salesman" and "History Boys" he seemed nonplussed.

Meanwhile, I was seeing little of the actual show on the TV monitors, but I did look up in time to see the standing "O" for the legendary John Kander, of the "Curtains" team.

And it wasn't all "Spring Awakening" or "Coast of Utopia" in the press room -- there was also ventriloquist Jay Johnson, winner for special theatrical event, who entertained the press room by making his little Tony medallion speak: when he spun it, it giggled wildly.

"Everybody's been so articulate," Mary Louise Wilson said on stage when she won supporting actress for "Grey Gardens," and then the veteran let out with a howl of joy. Upstairs with us, she admitted she felt "relieved. I didn't want to lose. I'm thrilled for my family and friends."

Tom Viertel, one of the many producers of best musical revival, "Company," was asked why revive Sondheim and answered simply: "He's perfect." Another of the many producers said, "He's a genius. If you get a call and it's Bach on the line, you take the call!"

But casting was hard for the show that requires the performers to play instruments as well as sing and act. It took two or three weeks, since director John Doyle insisted on hearing them play each instrument, and "it was astonishing to see actor after actor come into the room carrying as many as four unrelated instruments."

On stage, Langella, Best Actor in Play for "Frost/Nixon," gave the classiest speech of the night.

Coming down the red carpet, last year's big winners from "Jersey Boys" were followed by this year's golden boys: Jonathan Groff and Gallagher, both 22, nominated for lead and supporting actor, respectively, in "Spring Awakening."

Groff, from Lancaster, Pa., said his mother has been bringing busloads of family and friends to see the musical, which has some nudity and graphic sexuality. Groff said they call them "the Mennonite buses" because of the Amish population in his hometown. But not to worry.

"The conservative people from Lancaster have embraced this racy show," he said.