BRYAN CRANSTON AND Neil Patrick Harris were the big winners at last night’s prestigious Tony Awards, scooping the Best Leading Actor awards in a play and musical respectively.

It was a disappointing night for the many Irish nominees - Boyle man Chris O’Dowd was up against Bryan Cranston for the title of Best Leading Actor in a Play, but the Breaking Bad actor beat him to the punch.

O’Dowd has received massive plaudits for his role as Lennie in Of Mice and Men, which critics have called “complex” and “astonishing”.

But it was Cranston’s widely-lauded portrayal of Lyndon B Johnson in All The Way that stole the trophy – the play also took the Best Play award.

Luckily Chris had been practising his ‘good loser’ face on Twitter earlier that day:

Cork actress Sarah Greene (The Cripple of Inishmaan) lost out on the Best Supporting Actress in a Play gong to British star Sophie Okonedo, who won the award for her role in A Raisin In The Sun.

Elsewhere the Neil Patrick Harris-lead revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch swept the boards, winning Best Revival of a Musical, Best Leading Actor in a Musical (Harris) and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical (Lena Hall).

Here’s NPH in action as Hedwig at the ceremony, which was hosted by Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman.

You can read the full list of winners here.

Previously: Chris O’Dowd has been nominated for a Tony Award>