LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Described as a humble, intimate stage musical "Once" also won awards for best book, orchestrations, scenic design, sound design, best actor in a musical and best direction for John Tiffany in his first Tony award.
 
"'Once' is a story about when people believe in each other, they can move on in life, and so many people have believed in this project," Tiffany said in his acceptance speech.

Best actor Steve Kazee batted back tears as he thanked his cast members. Kazee said after his mother died early on in performances, his fellow performers "carried me around and made me feel alive and I will never be able to fully repay them."

"Clybourne Park," a satire on race relations, won best play. Playwright Bruce Norris admitted to the audience that since the play premiered more than two years ago off-Broadway, "I have made so many friends in regional theaters and in other theaters around the world who have worked on this play."

Other tony Award winners included James Corden, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for "One Man, Two Guvnors," Audra McDonald, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for "Porgy and Bess," Nina Arianda, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for "Venus in Fur" and Steve Kazee, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for "Once."

"Clybourne Park" won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for best play.

Celebrated film and stage director Mike Nichols was an early winner for his direction of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman." Nichols has won a record-setting six Tony Awards for best direction of a play. He also has been honored twice as a producer.

"You see before you a happy man," the 80-year-old Nichols declared, thanking Miller's daughter, Rebecca Miller, for permission to stage the play that also won best revival of a play.

Nichols also thanked lead actor Philip Seymour Hoffman and Andrew Garfield as "a cast straight from heaven" and said the play, which premiered in 1949, "gets truer as time goes by."

"The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," a reinvention of the 1935 opera and comedy, won best revival of a musical and Audra McDonald won best actress in a musical for her stirring performance as Bess.

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