John Lithgow and Lesley Manville lead Tony Award winners

John Lithgow (left) and Lesley Manville, pictured separately on stage at the Tony Awards. In a composite image, Lithgow wears a dark suit, while Manville wears an orange dress. Both are holding their respective trophies — John Lithgow and Lesley Manville won awards for their roles in Giant and Oedipus respectively

John Lithgow, Lesley Manville and Laurie Metcalf were among the big winners at Sunday’s Tony Awards, which celebrate the best US theatre of the past year.

Aged 80, Lithgow became the oldest male actor ever to win a Tony, for his portrayal of author Roald Dahl in Giant.

The actor’s latest Tony trophy comes more than five decades after his first, when he won for his role in a 1972 Broadway production of Changing Rooms.

“Two Tony bookends with 53 years between them,” Lithgow noted in his acceptance speech.

“In those years, I have worked with hundreds of just fantastic theatre artists. I’ve had dozens and dozens of ecstatic moments on the stage, but I have to tell you right now, this moment has got to be one of the best.”

British actress Manville won the first Tony of her career for her performance as Jocasta in the Greek tragedy Oedipus.

Accepting the award, Manville said: “I’m a bit overwhelmed, it was my first time on Broadway so this is such a big deal.”

She also paid tribute to her fellow nominees – Rose Byrne, Carrie Coon, Susannah Flood and Kelli O’Hara – and joked: “Would someone like to write a play for five women? We are quite bankable.”

The wins for Lithgow and Manville were an echo of last year’s Olivier Awards, as both their productions played in the UK before transferring to Broadway.

A new production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman dominated the night overall, notching up six wins in total.

They included best revival of a play as well as the lead actress prize for Metcalf, a Bafta and Oscar-nominated actress known for Roseanne and Lady Bird.

Laurie Metcalf at The 79th Annual Tony Awards, accepeting her acting prize while wearing an orange, black and brown sequined dress — Laurie Metcalf paid tribute to the fellow actors she met in the theatre department in college

Metcalf said: “When I was in college, I met six fellow students in the theatre department. We worked really hard to amuse each other, and I still consider them family – and I still draw on lessons that I learned from them.

“And they were Gary Sinise, Moira Harris, Al Wilder, Jeff Perry, Terry Kinney, and John Malkovich.”

The show’s success at the ceremony was notable for also scoring the first Tony Award for controversial producer Scott Rudin since he stepped back from Broadway in 2021, following allegations of bullying and abusive behaviour towards employees.

At the time, Rudin acknowledged his “history of troubling interactions with colleagues” and said he was “profoundly sorry for the pain my behaviour caused to individuals, directly and indirectly”.

Rudin was not present at Sunday’s ceremony, and the production’s trophy for best play revival was accepted by actor Nathan Lane, who paid tribute to “the genius of Arthur Miller, who created this monumental masterpiece”.

Other big winners included Ragtime, about three families pursuing the American dream at the dawn of the 20th Century, and Schmigadoon!, a comedic celebration of theatre’s golden age, adapted from the Apple TV series.

Schmigadoon! producer Christine Schwarzman joked: “I think I should start by thanking Apple TV for cancelling the third season of Schmigadoon!, the TV show, because without them dropping it, we couldn’t have picked it up and ran with it.”

Both shows won two awards, as did musical The Lost Boys, the punk-rock adaptation of the 1987 cult vampire film.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball took home three trophies, while feminism epic Liberation won best play after recently winning the Pulitzer prize for drama.

The ceremony was hosted by singer Pink, who kicked off the night with a rendition of Lady Marmalade that saw her adapt the lyrics to namecheck several of the nominees.

The star called herself “Broadway’s biggest fan” who wanted to pay tribute to “the hardest-working people in showbiz”.