'Doubt' wins Tony Award for best play

NEW YORK — "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's drama of suspicion and certainty set in a parochial school in the Bronx, was named best play as the 2005 Tonys celebrated the best of a busy Broadway theater season.

"Happy. Joy. Fleeting," Shanley began his acceptance speech, adding: "I want to thank the Sisters of Charity for teaching me how to read and write. I want to thank the Irish Christian Brothers for throwing me out of high school."

"Monty Python's Spamalot," took the prize for best musical.

The season's most honored play, it already has picked up the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and several other top play prizes.

"Doubt" also captured two acting Tonys — for star Cherry Jones and for featured performer Adriane Lenox.

Jones, winning her second best actress Tony, was honored for her fierce, yet often funny portrait of a determined, unrelenting nun. Lenox plays the mother of a boy who may have been molested by a priest.

The director of "Doubt," Doug Hughes, also was honored.

"It must seem like a wild act of Oedipal revenge for the son of two actors to become a director, but I assure you that's not the case," said an emotional Hughes, the son of theater veterans Barnard Hughes and Helen Stenborg.

In somewhat of a surprise, Bill Irwin captured the actor/play prize, wining for his portrayal of the henpecked George in a blistering revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

"The Light in the Piazza," a tale of young love in Old Europe, took five Tony Awards Sunday, including best score for composer Adam Guettel.

"This is the just the most incredible day of my entire life, period. It always will be a highlight no matter what happens," said Guettel, the grandson of legendary composer Richard Rodgers. "Piazza" also won for sets, costumes and lighting in the musical design categories as well as for orchestrations.

"The Pillowman" won two design/play awards: for sets and lighting. The costume/play award went to "The Rivals."

The choreography prize was taken by Jerry Mitchell for the athletic dances he created for the revival of "La Cage aux Folles," which also won the prize for musical revival. The play revival award went to a production of David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross."

Mike Nichols, who oversaw "Monty Python's Spamalot," picked up the prize for directing a musical.

A somewhat flustered Nichols told the audience he had forgotten what he intended to say, but went on to thank his company and Eric Idle, "from whom all blessings flow."

Sara Ramirez, the divalike Lady of the Lake in the show, received the prize for featured actress in a musical.