Harvard Alumni Clean Up at Tony Awards

Megan M. Savage ’10 did not expect to stand before a television audience of millions when she signed on as a producer of a quirky comedic play about quarrelsome siblings. But on Sunday night, she and her colleagues who brought playwright Christopher F. Durang ’71’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” to Broadway took the stage at the 67th Annual Tony Awards to accept the award for Best Play.

“I think it was extreme beginner’s luck that put me there,” Savage said in an interview this week. “It was my first Broadway credit.”

New to Broadway but no stranger to producing, Savage was involved in the Gilbert and Sullivan Players and the Hyperion Shakespeare Company, and produced Harvard’s Summer Theater during her time as an undergraduate.

She was one of a handful of Harvard alumni—many of whom still have ties to the University—who took home hardware at the annual awards show honoring achievements in Broadway theater.

Diane M. Paulus ’87-’88, the artistic director of the American Repertory Theater, was named best director of a musical for “Pippin,” which played at the A.R.T. just down the road from campus. The restaging of the ‘70s classic won three additional Tony Awards, taking home two Best Actress awards and the honor of Best Revival of a Musical.

Paulus, who also directed last year’s Best Revival-winner “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” offered a shout out to University President Drew G. Faust in her acceptance speech Sunday night, quoting her as saying that “creativity is a form of knowledge.”

Courtney B. Vance ’82 also received the award for best featured actor in a play for his depiction of a New York tabloid editor in “Lucky Guy.”

Sunday night’s regional success extended beyond Harvard’s campus, as the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston won a Tony for Best Regional Theater. The award is given out each year to a nonprofit professional theater company that stages impressive plays while serving its community.

“It’s thrilling…for the Huntington to be on the national stage,” said Rebecca Curtiss, communications manager for the Company. “And of course to be sharing the night with our friends across the river, at the A.R.T. It was a really great night for Boston and Boston theater.”