Weekend Poll: Dirty Rotten Norbert Leo Butz Voted Favorite Tony Winning Actor

With a week left until the 2010 Tony Awards, Broadway.com asked readers to look back at a decade of Best Actor winners. Which lead performance in the past ten years was your very favorite? The results are in, and we’ve got some “Great Big” news for Norbert Leo Butz: The Dirty Rotten Scoundrels star (who picked up the Best Actor Tony in 2005) tops the poll for his portrayal of aspiring conman Freddy Benson with 22% of the votes.

Following closely in second place with 21% is Jersey Boys’ original Frankie Valli, John Lloyd Young, who won the Best Actor trophy in his Broadway debut in 2006. Third place goes to the decade’s first Best Actor winner, Kiss Me Kate’s Brian Stokes Mitchell, who earned 16% of votes.

Two of Broadway’s biggest stars, Nathan Lane (The Producers) and Hugh Jackman (The Boy From Oz), tied for fourth place with 8% of votes. (Fun fact: Both actors hosted the Tony ceremony the year they won their awards.) And since Nathan and Hugh finished in a dead heat, we'll include Hairspray’s Harvey Fierstein in the top five, with 7% of votes.

Thanks for voting, and be sure to check in on our complete Tony coverage!