‘Awakening,’ ‘Utopia’ steal the show

? Two passionate works – “Spring Awakening,” a pounding, post-rock musical of teenage sexual anxiety, and “The Coast of Utopia,” Tom Stoppard’s sweeping examination of 19th century Russian intellectuals – dominated the 2007 Tony Awards on Sunday.

Cast members perform a scene from the Broadway show 'Spring Awakening' at the 2007 Tony Awards in New York on Sunday. Spring

Billy Crudup won Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his work in The

“Spring Awakening,” with a score by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, was named best musical, taking home eight awards, and “The Coast of Utopia” took best play honors, winning seven prizes. It was a Tony record for plays, topping six won in previous years by both Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and Alan Bennett’s “The History Boys.”

A small, serious musical which began life last summer at off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company, “Spring Awakening” also took awards for score, book-musical, direction-musical, featured-actor, choreography, orchestrations and lighting-musical.

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“Steven and I definitely set out to make a new kind of musical,” said Sheik, describing the edgy show, set among troubled teens in late 19th century Germany. “We were trying to forge our own path. I think we got lucky timing-wise – what’s happening politically. People were ready to deal with something that had teeth.”

“The Coast of Utopia,” lavishly produced by Lincoln Center Theater for a limited engagement that ended last month, also won prizes for direction, featured actor-play and featured actress-play as well as sweeping the play technical awards for sets, costumes and lighting.

There were a few surprises, most notably in David Hyde Pierce’s win as a musical-theater-loving detective in “Curtains.”

Also in something of an upset, an ebullient Julie White received the actress-play award for her portrayal of a conniving agent in Douglas Carter Beane’s satiric “The Little Dog Laughed.” More expected was Frank Langella’s triumph, winning his third Tony. He took the actor-play prize, for his sympathetic portrait of Richard M. Nixon in Peter Morgan’s docudrama “Frost/Nixon.” “I am very proud to work among you splendid people,” a gracious Langella said.

Within hours of its final curtain Sunday, “Journey’s End,” R.C. Sherriff’s anti-war drama won the revival play award as producer Bill Haber came on stage with the entire cast to accept the award. Despite enthusiastic reviews, the production struggled at the box office and closed after a disappointing four-month run.

The musical revival prize went to “Company.”