Tonys
Neil Patrick Harris danced with the former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson during the 2013 Tony Awards. Reuters

Updated Monday, 2:20 p.m.: AP reported that, according to preliminary Nielsen data, ratings for the Tonys telecast jumped to 7.24 million, the largest audience in four years.

Original Post:

The 67th Annual Tony Awards ended with a major upset on Sunday.

Despite the fact that virtually every major theater critic predicted a Best Actor win for Tom Hanks in Nora Ephron’s “Lucky Guy,” the endlessly likable movie star made no inroads toward EGOT territory. The theater veteran Tracy Letts (an actor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright) took home the award for Steppenwolf Theatre’s reimagined revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woof?”

It was an unusual evening to say the least. A musical about kinky boots was a six-time winner. Sigourney Weaver dwarfed Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And what was up with Leon Rothenberg’s beard?

As was the case for the last few Tonys telecasts, the highlight of the night was Neil Patrick Harris, who is growing more and more comfortable with his role as the quintessential Tonys host. Harris opened the evening with a frenetic and downright exhausting opening number about how Broadway’s biggest night is “going bigger” this year. Unlike the polarizing Seth MacFarlane, Harris manages to please almost everyone, with a surplus of charm and a David Letterman-esque delivery that shows he’s fully aware of just how corny some of his joke-writers are. (This just in: The Daily Mail is reporting that Harris said the N-word during the telecast, which Harris is vehemently denying on Twitter. This reporter didn't notice it.)

Harris’ talented host performance, however, has so far been unable to save the Tonys telecast from a diminishing audience. The ratings for this year is not available yet (update will be posted here), but the viewership has been on the wane for some time. Numbers were down 13 percent last year, when the musical “Once” took the top prize. According to the Los Angeles Times it was the least-watched telecast since 1992. The Tonys do gangbusters on social media, with several Tonys-related tweets creeping into Twitter’s trending topics throughout the evening -- despite stiff competition from the "Game of Thrones" season finale and a hotly anticipated episode of "Mad Men."

Indeed, the pressure to attract ratings may ultimately explain why Hanks was nominated in the first place. He did show up, after all. Either way, ratings aren’t everything. Where else but the Tonys are you going to see cheerleaders, circus performers and Doogie Howser sharing a stage with Mike Tyson? Only on Broadway.

Below is a full list of winners for the 2013 Tony Awards:

Best Play: “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”

Best Musical: “Kinky Boots”

Best Book of a Musical: “Matilda The Musical”

Best Revival of a Play: “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Best Revival of a Musical: “Pippin”

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre: “Kinky Boots” -- Cyndi Lauper

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Tracy Letts -- “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Cicely Tyson -- “The Trip to Bountiful”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Billy Porter -- “Kinky Boots”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Patina Miller -- “Pippin”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play: Courtney B. Vance -- “Lucky Guy”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play: Judith Light -- “The Assembled Parties”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical: Gabriel Ebert- - “Matilda the Musical”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Andrea Martin -- “Pippin”

Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Rob Howell -- “Matilda the Musical”

Best Costume Design of a Play: Ann Roth -- “The Nance”

Best Costume Design of a Musical: William Ivey Long -- “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella”

Best Lighting Design of a Play: Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer -- “Lucky Guy”

Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Hugh Vanstone -- “Matilda the Musical”

Best Sound Design of a Play: Leon Rothenberg -- “The Nance”

Best Sound Design of a Musical: John Shivers -- “Kinky Boots”

Best Direction of a Play: Pam MacKinnon -- “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Best Direction of a Musical: Diane Paulus -- “Pippin”

Best Choreography: Jerry Mitchell -- “Kinky Boots”

Best Orchestrations: Stephen Oremus -- “Kinky Boots”

And if you haven’t seen it, check out Harris’ dynamite opening number.