Canadians to vie for Tony Awards

A few Canadian actors will be in the spotlight on Broadway's biggest night, with the Tony Awards now proceeding as planned after the last-minute settlement of a labour dispute.

On Friday, the producers of the Tony Awards and members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees announced they'd settled their dispute over non-union workers hired to help set up the Sunday evening gala at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre.

Though exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, the two sides said in a joint statement that union workers will staff the red carpet area, resolving the issue that sparked the dispute and threatened to derail the prestigious annual theatre celebration.

However, two other groups may still protest outside the Tonys gala: musicians upset at the replacement of live music with recordings and members of the Freedom Party, who blasted the musical The Scottsboro Boys as racist.

Irreverent, profane and critically acclaimed musical The Book of Mormonheads into the Tonys with a leading 14 nominations, including for best musical. Created by Avenue Q's Robert Lopez and South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the show about two young, Mormon missionaries in Uganda has already earned a raft of pre-Tony honours.

Trailing just behindMormon in nominations is The Scottsboro Boys. Based on a 1930s court case concerning nine African-American men unjustly accused of attacking two white women, the highly touted production garnered 12 nominations, including best musical and best lead actor in a musical for Winnipeg-born Joshua Henry.

Other best musical nominees includeCatch Me If You Canand Sister Act.

British-born Canadian actor Brian Bedford is also a Tony contender, withhis production of The Importance of Being Earnest vying for best revival of a play and his on-stage turn as the formidable Lady Bracknell a finalist for best actor in a play.

The stage veteran first directed and starred in Oscar Wilde's Earnest at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 2009.

"I have done 27 seasons [at the festival] and I'm proud of it. It's made my life actually," Bedford told CBC News in a recent interview.

"I knew for a fact that [North America] was where I wanted to be, but I also knew that I wanted to have a typical, classical English actor's career doing Shakespeare and the classics. That's what Stratford has provided for me, so that's why I say it's made my life."

Earnest's rivals for the play revival trophy include Arcadia, The Merchant of Venice and The Normal Heart.