On the heels of a year when the phenomenally popular musical The Producers ran away with a record 12 Tony Awards, this year's competition for the coveted musical honors was expected to be a horse race.
Would the voters in the 56th annual competition go for the grungy satire with the off-putting name Urinetown the Musical or the earnest, eager-to-please Thoroughly Modern Millie?
And the winner was, not surprisingly, Millie, a Jazz Age tale of an ambitious flapper that garnered six awards last night, including best musical, leading actress in a musical (Sutton Foster) and featured actress (Harriet Harris).
For Millie's Foster, it was a Cinderella-inspired victory.
The 27-year-old actress, originally an understudy, was elevated to the starring role just before the musical began its tryout at California's La Jolla Playhouse in 2000.
"To say that this is a dream come true is an understatement," said the overwhelmed Foster.
Although Urinetown, a show about a city where everyone must pay to use toilets, won three awards, two were for early categories, best book (Greg Kotis) and best score (Kotis and Mark Hollmann).
The Tony for best play went to Edward Albee's The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?, a seriously intended comedy about a man who falls in love with a goat.
The best revival of a musical was won by Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, which also won for best lighting design. The award for best revival of a play went to the Noel Coward comedy Private Lives, and Lindsay Duncan won the award for leading actress in a play for her work in it.
The least surprising winner of the evening was Elaine Stritch, whose one-person show Elaine Stritch at Liberty was one of the best-reviewed productions of the season and won for best special theatrical event.
"Don't take up my time," the emotional Stritch began as the audience cheered.
The 76-year-old actress got about halfway through her thank-you's when time ran out; she was still talking when the broadcast cut to a commercial.
Veteran actors Alan Bates and Frank Langella won respectively for leading actor and featured actor for roles in Fortune's Fool, a play by Ivan Turgenev that, because it had never appeared on Broadway, was in the running for best new play.
Chicago director Mary Zimmerman won best director of a play for her production of Metamorposes, which presents adaptations of ancient myths on - and in - a swimming pool. It was a first Tony for Zimmerman, who fought back tears as she thanked "everyone I have ever met," and especially the costume designer for Metamorphoses, who "talked me out of what I was going to wear tonight, thank God."
John Lithgow, who plays a powerful New York gossip columnist in Sweet Smell of Success, took the prize for best actor-musical.
"There are four fantastic actors in this category and they all sing better than I do," said a gracious Lithgow.
The theater season was barely under way when the events of Sept. 11 forced several shows to close and severely affected others, but these events were only briefly referred to during the ceremony at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
Lifetime achievement awards went to actress Julie Harris and producer Robert Whitehead.
Emcees Bernadette Peters and Gregory Hines, Broadway musical veterans, were lively and easygoing hosts but seemed slightly uncomfortable in their joint singing number glorifying the theater and New York.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
2002 Tony winners
Musical: Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Play: The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?
Actress-Play: Lindsay Duncan, Private Lives.
Actor-Play: Alan Bates, Fortune's Fool.
Actress-Musical: Sutton Foster, Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Actor-Musical: John Lithgow, Sweet Smell of Success.
Featured Actor-Play: Frank Langella, Fortune's Fool.
Featured Actress-Play: Katie Finneran, Noises Off.
Featured Actor-Musical: Shuler Hensley, Oklahoma!
Featured Actress-Musical: Harriet Harris, Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Revival-Play: Private Lives.
Revival-Musical: Into the Woods.
Direction of a Musical: John Rando, Urinetown The Musical.
Direction of a Play: Mary Zimmerman, Metamorphoses.
Special Theatrical Event: Elaine Stritch at Liberty.
Scenic Design: Tim Hatley, Private Lives.
Lighting Design: Brian MacDevitt, Into the Woods.
Costume Design: Martin Pakledinaz, Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Original Score: Urinetown, The Musical, Mark Hollmann (music), Mark Hollmann & Greg Kotis (lyrics).
Book of a Musical: Greg Kotis, Urinetown The Musical.
Orchestrations: Doug Besterman & Ralph Burns, Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Choreography: Rob Ashford, Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Special Awards: Julie Harris and Robert Whitehead.
Regional Theater: Williamstown (Mass.) Theatre Festival.
Associated Press