Zeta-Jones and Johansson win first Tony Awards

British actors won the two big musical acting awards at last night's Tonys in New York. Douglas Hodge won best actor in a musical for La Cage aux Folles, having won an Olivier award for the same role last year when the show ran in London's West End.

Catherine Zeta-Jones won best actress in a musical for her box office smash performance in A Little Night Music (above).

It marked a double whammy of awards for the Welsh-born actress. On Saturday she was given a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for her film and charity work.

With Broadway currently dominated by Hollywood stars brought in to bolster receipts and egos, there were Tonys too for Scarlett Johansson (A View From a Bridge) and Denzel Washington (Fences).

The revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music is directed by Trevor Nunn. Zeta-Jones received mixed reviews when it opened before Christmas, with some critics saying she was too young and too beautiful to play the central role of Desiree, a fading actress and man-eater facing middle-age.

But the show has proved to be one of the hottest tickets on Broadway and theatre-goers report Zeta-Jones's performance improving all the time.

Taking the podium at Radio City Music Hall to collect her Tony for best leading actress in a musical, she exclaimed: "I don't believe it!" She thanked her co-star Angela Lansbury, her parents who were visiting from Wales and her husband Michael Douglas. "That man is the movie star and I get to sleep with him every night," she said.

Scarlett Johansson, visibly surprised according to the New York Times reporter, won the best supporting actress Tony for her Broadway debut as Catherine, the object of her uncle's lust in Arthur Miller's A View From a Bridge.

"Every since I was a little girl I wanted to be on Broadway and here I am," said Johansson, better known for her film roles in Lost in Translation and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Denzel Washington was the first black actor to win a Tony for a leading role in a play since James Earl Jones won in 1987 - for the same role, Troy Maxson, in the original production of Fences.

The big production winners last night were Memphis which won the coveted best musical award, and the British production Red, which won best play. Starring Alfred Molina as the American artist Mark Rothko, it won five other Tonys too, including best director for Michael Grandage. ·