Karen Olivo triumphs at Tonys

Karen Olivo won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Anita in the revival of “West Side Story”.

"I'm completely unprepared for this. ... I just want to dedicate this to everyone who has a dream," Olivo said in an emotional acceptance speech after receiving deserved acclamations from the 800+ Tony voters.

Olivo’s award was the only winner for “West Side Story” which got four nominations including one for Argentina’s Josefina Scaglione as Maria. The revival has been praised for incorporating more Spanish lines and lyrics to songs as well as taking a closer look at bigotry and racism.

Olivo took a gamble by leaving her leading role in the Tony-winning “In the Heights” for a supporting role in “West Side Story”. But as she observed in a March interview, the chance to play Anita was too good to pass up:

"[The decision] was more about the role itself. It’s an amazing and iconic part," adds Olivo, who’s of Dominican, Puerto Rican and Chinese descent.

"And it had more to do with the actual [show], which I have known and loved since I saw the movie when I was 5 or 6. It was the sort of thing I would want to do regardless of where I was in my career."

The evening was dominated by “Billy Elliot” which won ten Tonys though its composer Elton John was upset for best score.

Image- newsday.com (Karen Olivo (right) received praise and honors at last night’s Tonys).
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, New York Daily News, TonyAwards.com, AP, The Ledger