Kevin Kline has earned his third Tony! The Oscar winner garnered the award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance in Noël Coward’s Present Laughter. The win was announced at the Tonys ceremony on June 11 at Radio City Music Hall. The other nominees in the category were Denis Arndt for Heisenberg, Chris Cooper for A Doll's House, Part 2, Corey Hawkins for Six Degrees of Separation and Jefferson Mays for Oslo.
"We don't do this alone. It's a group effort, and it's a wonderful group that I'm privileged to be working with," said Kline. Watch his full acceptance speech below!
Kline won Tonys in 1981 and 1978 for The Pirates of Penzance and On the Twentieth Century, respectively. He last appeared on Broadway in the 2007 revival of Cyrano de Bergerac. He also appeared onstage in a Tony-nominated turn in Henry IV, Ivanov and Arms and the Man. Kline’s myriad screen credits include an Oscar-winning performance in A Fish Called Wanda, as well as Sophie’s Choice, De-Lovely and Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast.
Coward’s classic comedy, which first premiered on Broadway in 1946, follows Garry Essendine (Kline), a self-indulgent actor who receives a visit from a young admirer, initiating a parade of intruders and interruptions, including his ex-wife, his manager and an aspiring playwright. The play was last revived on Broadway in 2010 with Victor Garber in the role of Essendine. This production also stars Cobie Smulders, Kate Burton and Kristine Nielsen.
Congrats to Kline on his third Tony win! See Broadway.com go On the Scene with Kline and Present Laughter's uproarious cast, and be sure to catch the revival at the St. James Theatre through July 2.