Alex Timbers has won the Tony 2021 award for best direction for a musical for helming “Moulin Rouge! The Musical”.

Timbers outclassed Phyllida Lloyd (Tina — The Tina Turner Musical) and Diane Paulus (Jagged Little Pill) for the award.

It is Timbers’ first-ever Tony Award. The show is about the goings-on in a turn-of-the-century Parisian nightclub, updated with tunes like “Single Ladies” and “Firework” alongside the big hit “Lady Marmalade.”

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Timbers has been nominated twice before, for directing “Peter and the Starcatcher” in 2012 and directing and writing “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.” He has been a production consultant on David Byrne’s “American Utopia,” directed “Rocky” and “The Pee-wee Herman Show” and is directing “Beetlejuice” for the second time next spring.

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He picked up a Lucille Lortel Award for directing the off-Broadway production of “Here Lies Love” and went on to direct the show at London’s National Theatre. Other notable off-Broadway credits include the “Love’s Labour’s Lost” in Central Park and the Roundabout Theatre Company’s 2016 revival of “The Robber Bridegroom.”

The award show will be followed by a two-hour concert on CBS
which is essentially an advertisement for Broadway titled “Broadway’s Back”.

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The concert will include performances from the three Best
Musical contenders Jagged Little Pill, Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Tina: The
Tina Turner Musical as well as David Byrne, John Legend, and a reunion of the
cast members of Hairspray.

Jagged Little Pill received the most nominations with 15 to
its name followed by Moulin Rogue! The Musical, which received 14 nominations.
Slave Play and Tina: The Tina Turner Musical received 12 nods each while The
Inheritance stands on 11 nominations.