'Spamalot' leads with 14 Tony nominations

"Spamalot," the musical comedy billed as "lovingly ripped off" from the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," won 14 Tony nominations Tuesday in the race for Broadway's top honor. "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," another musical based on a film, and "The Light in the Piazza," a musical with a score by the grandson of Broadway great Richard Rodgers, each received 11 nominations.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony at Radio City Music Hall on June 5.

"Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning tale about suspected child abuse at a Catholic school in 1964, led in the nonmusical play categories with eight nominations, followed by Martin McDonough's "The Pillowman" with six.

At the top of the revivals pack were Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross," each with six nods.

Hollywood was well represented with James Earl Jones, Kathleen Turner, Alan Alda, John Lithgow, Billy Crudup, Hank Azaria, Mary-Louise Parker, Laura Linney, last-year Tony winner Phylicia Rashad and Christina Applegate receiving nominations.

In addition to Azaria, Tim Curry, Michael McGrath and Christopher Sieber received acting nods for "Spamalot," but David Hyde Pierce was overlooked.

San Diego's Old Globe artistic director Jack O'Brien and Joe Mantello, who won the two directing Tonys in 2003 and 2004, are again nominated. O'Brien is in the running for "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," which he first staged at the Old Globe last fall, and Mantello for "Glengarry."

The nominees:

Play

"Democracy," "Doubt," "Gem of the Ocean," "The Pillowman"

Musical

"Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "The Light in the Piazza," "Monty Python's Spamalot," "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"

Revival, Play

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "Glengarry Glen Ross," "On Golden Pond," "Twelve Angry Men"

Revival, Musical