The 66th Tony Awards will once again recognize Broadway's elite who live and perform for their craft and for the sought after Tony Award medallion.

The world is eagerly awaiting for this grand event where all theatre professionals behind the musicals and plays will converge in one stage for one night on Velvet, as it presents the exclusive live telecast of the Tony Awards on June 11, 8:00 a.m. (Manila time).

The night of nights for Broadway fans will finally honor these men and women for their distinguished achievements on Broadway. With no understudies, they will come as themselves in gowns and suits to gather and walk down the red carpet at the landmark Beacon Theatre in New York City. On its second year now, Beacon Theater will glitter with the roster of veteran and new talents vying for the medallion in the history of plays.

The nominees for best musical are: “Leap of Faith”, “Newsies”, “Nice Work If You Can Get It” and “Once”.

“Once”, the Broadway musical version of a 2006 Irish indie film is still on its early days but it has caught Broadway by storm. It topped the list of Tony Award nominations with 11; the show’s leads, Steven Kazee and Cristin Milioti received nominations, in addition to Elizabeth A. Davis for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical. The low-tech indie-pop film about struggling musicians in love has definitely beguiled theater.

Coming up next are two musicals tied in ten are “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” which staged the classic folk opera and “Nice Work If You Can Get It”, a nostalgic confection of Gershwin tunes. Other musicals that received the buzz of approval are “Follies and Disney’s Newsies” with eight nominations each.

Among plays, the nominees for best play are: “Clybourne Park” by Bruce Norris, “Other Desert Cities” by Jon Robin Baitz, “Peter and the Starcatcher” by Rick Elice and “Venus in Fur” by David Ives.

“Peter and the Starcatcher”, based on the children’s novel, received the most nominations with nine while Mike Nichols‘ revival of “Death of a Salesman” and the funny “One Man, Two Guvnors” based on the 18th-century “The Servant of Two Masters” each received seven.

James Corden, the fast-rising comedy man of “One Man” will vie against Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Earl Jones, Frank Langella and John Lithgow in the category of best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play.

The critically savaged “Spider Man” featuring U2‘s Bono and The Edge only received two nominations – best scenic and costume design while the acclaimed play “The Lyons” only received a best actress nomination for Linda Lavin.

The 66th Annual Tony Awards will be hosted by the returning Neil Patrick Harris and will be shown live from New York’s Beacon Theatre exclusively on the home of the biggest red carpet events, Velvet, June 11, 8:00 a.m. with encore telecasts on the same day at 8:00 p.m., June 16 (Saturday), 6:00 p.m., June 17 (Sunday), 3:00 p.m., June 22 (Friday), 8:00 p.m., June 23 (Saturday), 3:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., June 27 (Wednesday), 3:30 a.m. and June 27 (Wednesday), 2:00 p.m. Velvet (SkyCable Channel 53) is available on SkyCable Platinum, SkyCable Gold, SkyCable Silver and other quality cable operators nationwide. For updates, log-on to http://www.facebook.com/VelvetChannel.