One of the night’s emotional highlights: Ali Stroker becoming the first wheelchair user to win a Tony. Ms. Stroker, 31, lost the use of her legs in a car accident at age two; now she is featured as Ado Annie, the lusty young woman who “cain’t say no” in a revival of “Oklahoma!”
“This award is for every kid who is watching tonight who has a disability, who has a limitation or a challenge, who has been waiting to see themselves represented in this arena,” Ms. Stroker said. “You are.”
Among the night’s other winners: The 87-year-old comedian, writer and director Elaine May earned her first Tony, as leading actress in a play, for movingly portraying a woman losing her memory in a revival of Kenneth Lonergan’s “The Waverly Gallery.” Ms. May, who burst onto the scene in the 1950s performing comedy with Mike Nichols, won for her first Broadway role in more than 50 years.