Tony Awards kick off with salute to losers

NEW YORK — Andrew Garfield won the Tony Award for best leading actor in a play on Sunday for his work in Angels in America, Tony Kushner's monumental drama about life and love during the 1980s.

Garfield plays a young gay man living with AIDS in the sprawling, seven-hour revival opposite Nathan Lane. Garfield dedicated the win to the LGBTQ community, who he said fought and died for the right to love. He said the play is a rejection of bigotry, shame and oppression.

"We are all sacred and we all belong," Garfield said. He then referenced last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision which ruled in favor of a baker's right to deny a gay couple a wedding cake based on his beliefs.

"(Let's) just bake a cake for everyone who wants a cake to be baked," he said to rousing applause.

Co-hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles kicked the show off with a self-parodying duet on piano for all the losers out there — including them.

Rosanne star Laurie Metcalf won the award for best featured actress in a play for her work in a revival of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women.

Billy Joel gave his friend Bruce Springsteen a special Tony Award. The Boss said he felt welcomed "on the block."