An movie-inspired British musical and a withering French comedy triumphed over Broadway's American fare on Sunday when the 63rd annual Tony Awards were presented at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall.

Billy Elliot, the musical about a working-class British boy who finds his passion in the world of ballet, won 10 of the competition-leading 15 Tonys for which it was nominated, including the box office-boosting best musical Tony. Though composer Elton John (who had the idea of turning BillyElliot into a musical) and lyricist Lee Hall lost the best score Tony to Next to Normal (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's daring musical about a woman with bipolar disorder), the show also took the Tonys for best director (Stephen Daldry), best leading actor (shared by the three boys who take turns playing Billy) and best supporting actor.

Billy Elliot also won the Tonys for best book (Lee Hall), best choreography (Peter Darling), best scenic design (Ian MacNeil), best lighting of a musical (Rick Fisher) and best sound (Paul Arditti). For best orchestrations, Martin Koch (Billy Elliot) tied with Michael Starobin and Kitt (Normal).

Yasmina Reza, the French actress-turned-playwright, won her second best play Tony (the first was for Art) for God of Carnage, a scathing comedy in which two couples go from civil to savage as they try to resolve their sons' bloody fight.

Matthew Warchus won for directing the play and joked that he was hoping for a tie (he was also up for his direction of The Norman Conquests).

On the CBS Tony telecast, Broadway sold itself early and hard, starting off with what host Neil Patrick Harris called ''the biggest and most expensive number in the history of the Tonys'' -- and if it wasn't, it looked that way.

Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests won the Tony as best revival of a play, while the Public Theater's groovy Hair beat out the bilingual West Side Story for best revival of a musical.

All the acting awards but one went to first-time winners. As widely predicted, Geoffrey Rush won his first Tony as best actor in a play for Exit the King, a version of the Eugene Ionesco play he helped translate and which he smilingly described (twice) as a ''French existentialist absurdist tragicomedy that rocks.'' Marcia Gay Harden, the only one of the four nominated God of Carnage stars to go home with a Tony, thanked her husband for helping her ''rehearse'' the marital strife that helped her become best actress in a play.

Smiling, weeping and shouting her support for the art of theater, Alice Ripley also became a first-time winner, winning best lead actress in a musical for her bold portrayal of the disturbed wife in Next to Normal. David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish, the young dancing stars of Billy Elliot, made their own Tony history by becoming the first trio to share the award as best actor in a musical.

A tearful Karen Olivo took the Tony as best featured actress in a musical, for playing Anita in West Side Story. The dad in Billy Elliot, Gregory Jbara, was named the best featured actor in a musical and thanked his own young sons.

Olivo's counterpart on the play side was the evening's oldest winner, 83-year-old Angela Lansbury, who joined the Tony record books by tying Julie Harris as Broadway's most honored actress. Lansbury won her fifth Tony, this one as best featured actress in a play for portraying the eccentric Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit.

The actress also paid tribute to the man who created one of those Tony-winning roles for her. University of Miami grad Jerry Herman, the 77-year-old composer-lyricist of such musical classics as Mame, La Cage aux Folles and Hello, Dolly, thanked ''every soul who has touched my life in the musical theater'' as he received the Tony for Lifetime Achievement.

Roger Robinson won the Tony as best featured actor in a play for his role as ''conjure man'' Bynum in Joe Turner's Come and Gone, the drama President Obama and wife Michelle chose for their recent Broadway date night.

Creative awards in the play category went to Derek McLane for his 33 Variations set design, Brian MacDevitt for his Joe Turner's Come and Gone lighting design, Anthony Ward for his Mary Stuart costume designs and sound designer Gregory Clarke for Equus.

On the musical side, Tim Hatley (dressed in a Shrek green shirt and tie) took the award for his Shrek The Musical costumes.

Liza Minnelli, pronouncing the honor ''exquisite,'' took the Tony for best special theatrical event for Liza's at the Palace. Honored as the country's best regional theater was the 19-year-old Signature Theatre of Arlington, Va. For her philanthropic work, actress and Tony winner Phyllis Newman was honored with the inaugural Isabelle Stevenson Award. And a woman who spent her life selling theater, Shirley Herz, became the first press agent honored with a Tony honor for excellence in theater.

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