Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston continued his stellar streak by winning a best actor trophy for his Broadway debut.

Cranston, a multiple Emmy winner for his role as chemistry teacher-turned-meth kingpin Walter White, won the best lead actor in a play for his portrayal of former president Lyndon Johnson in All the Way. The work by Robert Schenkkan was also crowned best play.

Audra McDonald became Broadway's most decorated actress with her sixth gong for portraying Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, putting her ahead of five-time winners Angela Lansbury and the late Julie Harris for the most competitive wins by an actress. Among those she thanked were her parents for not medicating their hyperactive child.



British actor Mark Rylance won his third Tony for playing the countess Olivia in an all-male version of Twelfth Night. Rylance, who previously won for Jerusalem and Boeing-Boeing, was also nominated for best lead actor honors for his title character in Richard III.



Continuing a good night for British stars, Sophie Okonedo won for best featured actress in Kenny Leon's revival of A Raisin in the Sun, in which she plays opposite Denzel Washington.

"I am loving it on Broadway," she said. She thanked producer Scott Rudin for believing that a "Jewish, Nigerian Brit" could play the iconic role of Ruth Younger. The show also won best play revival.

Australian actor Hugh Jackman hosted the show, kicking off with a bounce, hopping up and down like a kangaroo during his opening number Sunday. Big, high-kicking musical numbers from After Midnight, 'Aladdin, Rocky and Hedwig and the Angry Inch kept the energy level up but no clear overall winning show had yet emerged.

The bearded Jackman, back as host after a nine-year absence, greeted many of the night's featured performers as he cheerfully bounded past them backstage. He then joined the cast of the musical After Midnight for a rousing rendition of It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got that Swing).



The best featured actress in a musical Tony went to Lena Hall in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, playing a woman who dresses as a man and plays Neil Patrick Harris' boyfriend. Hall wished her dad a happy birthday and gave a shout-out to her soon-to-be-born niece. "Friendship is magic," she said.

Neil Patrick Harris performed a song from Hedwig, looking unrecognisable in a miniskirt and blond feathered wig. He gave an audience member a lap dance and took Samuel L Jackson's glasses away and licked them.

Darko Tresnjak won for directing the musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder and thanked his mother, a skydiver during World War II now too frail to be there.

The musical also won for best book of a musical and costumes for a musical. Away from the cameras, the now-closed musical The Bridges of Madison County won for best score and best orchestration.

James Monroe Iglehart, who plays the manic Genie in Aladdin, won for best featured actor in a musical and could barely contain his glee as he thanked a long list of people that included God and his wife.

This year, Broadway producers have a reason to party. The season's box offices hit a record total gross of $1.27bn up from $1.13bn the previous season and attendance was up 5.6% to 12.2 million.





• This article was corrected on 8 June 2014 to restore a "president" in the second paragraph, which was lost in the editing process.

