Four Musicals Are Favorites for Tony Awards : Broadway: Ceremonies will ring down the curtain on a star-studded season. ‘Jelly’s Last Jam’ leads the field with 11 nominations.

NEW YORK — A star-studded Broadway season closed Sunday with four musicals--”Crazy for You,” “Falsettos,” “Jelly’s Last Jam” and a revival of “Guys and Dolls”--leading contenders for 1992 Tony Awards.

The year was marked by renewed interest in the theater, generated by movie stars performing on Broadway.

Film actors who took to the stage included Glenn Close, this year’s Tony Awards host. Others are Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman, Jessica Lange, Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda, Tony Randall, Rob Lowe, Lynn Redgrave, Raul Julia and Sheena Easton.

“Crazy for You,” a new musical built around old songs by George and Ira Gershwin, was the favorite for best musical, although “Falsettos,” a tale of family and friends in the age of AIDS, had many supporters.

“Jelly’s Last Jam” led the field with 11 Tony nominations. Its star, Gregory Hines, was a strong candidate for the top musical acting award for his portrayal of jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton.

Top contenders for best play were “Dancing at Lughnasa,” Brian Friel’s memory piece about five unmarried Irish sisters, and “Two Trains Running” by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson.

The 1991-92 Broadway season was the most bountiful in more than a decade. Yet when it began last fall, only one new American play--”Park Your Car in Harvard Yard”--was scheduled to open before Christmas.

The fall’s only success was “Dancing at Lughnasa,” which arrived in October from London. And the only new musical before Jan. 1 was “Nick & Nora,” the season’s most publicized flop, which closed a week after it opened.

The season picked up in the new year. Despite the recession, 24 productions opened on Broadway between the end of January and the end of April. Many opened in April to gain momentum for the Tony nominations, announced May 4.

And audiences did respond. During the last three weeks of April, more than 200,000 people saw a Broadway show each week, according to the League of American Theaters and Producers. Those numbers were the best since 1989.

The 46th annual Tony Awards show, presented by the American Theater Wing and the League of American Theaters and Producers, was to be televised live from the Gershwin Theater.

A special Tony Award for outstanding regional theater, recommended by the American Theater Critics Assn., was given to the Goodman Theater of Chicago. Another special award was given to “The Fantasticks,” the longest-running show in off-Broadway history.

The Tonys are named for Antoinette Perry, who was a leading force in the American Theater Wing during World War II and a founder of the Stage Door Canteen.