A BRITISH NIGHT ON BROADWAY AT THE TONYS : Dramatic Categories Provide the Few Familiar Faces Among the Winners

The question most frequently overheard backstage at Broadway’s annual Tony Awards Sunday night was, “Who’s that?” With the British dominating this year’s awards--winning in 12 of 19 categories--there were few well-known Broadway faces among the winners.

Most of the excitement was generated by this year’s awards’ presenters, a who’s who from previous Broadway seasons.

“My goodness, it sounds serious in here,” said a bewildered Tommy Tune, as he entered the sedate press room near the start of the show. Tune stirred some excitement, as did those Broadway veterans who followed: Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn; Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse; Mary Martin; Barbara Cook; Bernadette Peters and Walter Matthau. These and other familiar faces were selected to participate in this year’s ceremony “to bring some theatricality back,” according to Tony organizers.

The English stage was well represented, with a triumphant parade from “Les Miserables,” this year’s big Tony Award winner. But even Michael Maguire and Frances Ruffelle, the two featured actors who won Tonys for their performances in the imported British musical, were difficult for most to identify at a glance. As a result, the press encircled Tony presenters and previous winners, including Richard Chamberlain, Lynn Redgrave, John Lithgow and Swoosie Kurtz.

One reporter, scurrying to catch a quote from presenter Mary Tyler Moore, accidentally toppled a glass of champagne over the back of Trevor Nunn, the Tony-winning co-director (with John Caird) of “Les Miserables,” who was inconspicuously seated in a corner booth of the Pyrenees. The restaurant, near the Mark Hellinger Theater where the award ceremonies took place, was filled with members of the press and friends of Tony participants watching the proceedings on TV monitors and awaiting the winners. Most of the attention went to the more familiar Tony winners in dramatic categories: “Fences’ ” actors James Earl Jones and Mary Alice, director Lloyd Richards and playwright August Wilson and “Broadway Bound’s” Linda Lavin and John Randolph, Broadway veterans who returned this season after long absences to appear in the Neil Simon play.

In a season when most of the public’s attention has been turned to the British musicals on Broadway--”Les Miserables” and two other big winners, “Me and My Girl” and “Starlight Express”--”Fences”was credited backstage with having provided a home-grown source of excitement. “With ‘Fences,’ I think we’ve turned around (the season) somewhat,” observed John Lithgow, referring to a recent slump on Broadway. “Of course, it’s not like the old days.”

The Broadway Establishment went to great lengths recently to give the impression of a turnaround in Broadway’s three-year slump--reports citing increases in productions, theater attendance and box office receipts; Mayor Edward I. Koch proclaiming “New York City Salutes the Theater Week”; Broadway’s rich tradition serving as the focus of the Tony ceremonies.

However, more than one observer noted the harsher reality that only two dramas and two musicals (three of them imported from Britain) shared most of this year’s Tony nominations. Of the 15 new plays to open on Broadway during the last season, only seven still are running; of the nine new musicals, only the three British Tony winners still are running. And although British actor Robert Lindsay, one of the more popular Broadway newcomers, won a Tony for his starring performance in “Me and My Girl,” he is scheduled to leave the production later this week.

“The show looks great,” said one reporter at Pyrenees as he watched Bea Arthur and Angela Lansbury perform from “Mame” during the Tony telecast. “It’s too bad it isn’t on Broadway.”