2010 Tony Awards: A banner year for Atlanta

Sahr Ngaujah was just a teenager when he walked into Freddie Hendricks’ theater class at Tri-Cities High School in East Point in the early ’90s. But the kid was so articulate and passionate about his quest to perform that the teacher, and founder of the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, knew that he had discovered an original talent.

“A lot of kids give so little,” Hendricks recalls. “But Sah would always be a 10 at everything he did.”

Soon the director cast his young star in a string of shows that would propel him to South Africa, the Netherlands and New York.

On Sunday, Ngaujah, the child of an immigrant from Sierra Leone and an American mom, will bring his electric presence to the 2010 Tony Awards. The former Atlantan is nominated for Broadway’s top honor for playing the lead in the new musical, “Fela!” — based on the life of the magnetic Nigerian pop star Fela Kuti (1938-1997).

As the front man of a show that leads the contest for best new musical (with 11 nominations), the 33-year-old entertainer joins high-profile director Kenny Leon in a Tony Awards season that has shaped up to be a banner year for Atlanta theater. Leon, artistic director of Atlanta’s True Colors Theatre, is a Tony contender for his staging of August Wilson’s “Fences,” which leads the straight-play category with 10 nominations, including nods for actors Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.

Declared the front-runner by Broadway insiders and Entertainment Weekly, Leon is riding a wave of support, in Atlanta and beyond. Earlier this month, the 54-year-old Leon picked up the Drama League's Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing. With or without a Tony, he is the city's most visible theatrical ambassador.

“Kenny is the face, heart and soul of this theater community in so many ways," says Susan V. Booth, who replaced Leon as artistic director of the Alliance Theatre in 2001. "And I know we're all going to be rooting for him. He’s contributed so much to Atlanta’s national reputation, and it's high time he gets this singular and wonderful time in the spotlight.”

Leon made his Broadway debut in 2004 with the revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” which won Tonys for Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald; he followed up with Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” (2004) and “Radio Golf” (2007). As the first African-American to lead the Alliance, the charismatic director pushed the theater to prominence with its 1998 world premiere of Disney’s “Aida,” which won four 2000 Tonys (including one for part-time Atlantan Elton John, who wrote the score). "Aida" helped put the Alliance on track to win the 2007 Tony for sustained excellence by a regional theater.

Year in and year out, artists and shows with Atlanta connections get Tony nominations. Marietta homeboy Shuler Hensley won for Trevor Nunn’s “Oklahoma!” in 2002, the same year that Statesboro-born Sutton Foster won for “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” “The Color Purple,” which received its world premiere at the Alliance in 2004, was nominated for 11 Tonys but received only one, for lead actress LaChanze. Last year, then-Atlanta resident Jane Fonda was nominated for “33 Variations,” while former Atlantan Hunter Bell earned a nod for writing the book of the quirky “[title of show].”)

And yet, 2010 is remarkable in the breadth and depth of homegrown product.

After having its world premiere at the Alliance in fall 2009, Twyla Tharp’s “Come Fly Away,” set to the music of Frank Sinatra, moved to Broadway in March and picked up Tony nominations for choreographer Tharp and featured actress Karine Plantadit.

Having a show like “Come Fly Away” start in Atlanta raises the visibility of the city and its theater community.

“The Alliance benefits from the association, certainly,” Booth says. “We’re now on a short list of theaters that major artists and commercial producers look to as supportive partners in new endeavors,” she says.

“I think these Tony nominations are just the latest proof that the Atlanta theater community is vital and exciting,” says Mark Blankenship, a New York-based culture critic who studied at Emory University and is well versed in the local theater scene.

Whether he wins or loses, Ngaujah — who starred in Hendricks’ “Soweto! Soweto! Soweto! … A Township Is Calling,” “School House Rock” and “Times” — has  found quite a fan base.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a musical that was so dependent on the charisma of one person,” Blankenship says.

“Stone-cold masterful,” Booth says.