Newsday from New York, New York • 9

APPEARED Well With By Drew Fetherston Broadway broadcast crumbs of its best current offerings to a national audience last night, as the street's professionals gathered for the 1988 Tony Award ceremonies. The field this year had strong competitors in each of the 19 categories. Despite the presence of several U.S. entries, the early going as in past years had a pronounced British accent, as Andrew Lloyd Webber's opulent "'The Phantom of the Opera" took five of the first awards. The other early multiple winners were all-American: "Anything Goes," the Cole Porter musical revived at Lincoln Center, took three awards, including one for best revival; Butterfly," the David Henry Hwang drama based on a true but unusual love-andspy story, took two awards.

For 'Anything Goes," Bill McCutcheon was honored as best supporting actor in a musical; Michael Smuin took the award for choreography. Smuin added a touch of physical eloquence to his acceptance, IN EARLIER EDITIONS Tonys improvising a few dance steps on his way to the stage of the Minskoff Theater and conventional few words of acceptance. B.D. Wong received the award for best supporting actor in a drama for his portrayal of the transvestite spy in Butterfly;" John Dexter's direction of the show also was honored. One question that had simmered for days would Madonna, currently appearing in the nominated play appear in the awards ceremony as well? was answered affirmatively in the first hour of the nationally televised show.

Although she did not appear with co-stars Ron Silver and Joe Mantegna in the excerpt from the play, she did present the special Tony for regional theater to the South Coast Repertory Company. "Speed-the-Plow" received important recognition shortly thereafter, when Silver was honored as best leading actor in a play. Madonna's work in the ceremonies matched her effort in the play: She displayed An0 AP Photo Angela Lansbury rehearses for the awards show. Rights Official Pendleton Dies at 57 Combined News Services San Diego Clarence M. Pendleton, 57, the controversial chairman of the U.S.

Civil Rights Commission, died yesterday after collapsing while exercising at a San Diego hotel health club, officials said. Pendleton died at about 11:13 a.m. at the Mission Bay Hospital after efforts to revive him failed, deputy coroner David Lodge said. He was believed to have suffered a heart attack, Lodge said. Pendleton, appointed to head the commission by President Ronald Reagan in 1982, was riding a stationary bicycle at the Hilton Beach and Tennis Resort when he collapsed, hotel officials said.

Pendleton, a San Diego resident, was a member of the health club, Please see TONY on Page 40 Photo by lion Naso Lisa Emery signs autographs outside the Minskoff Theater on her way into the Tony Couple Slain While Children Listen By Rita Giordano A Cambodian refugee couple were bound, gagged and shot dead in their Brooklyn living room early yesterday, as their children bound as well listened in horror from their parents' bedroom. Sok Choeung, 40, and his wife, Sokhom Sar, 37, were found dead on a sofa at their 1589 Ocean Ave. apartment in Midwood at 1:30 a.m. yesterday, police said. Their hands and feet were bound with electrical cord and their mouths were covered with tape.

They were shot at close range, the wife three times in the chest, and the husband, once in the head and once in the chest, police said. The assailants, who police believe may have been let in the apartment around midnight, tied up the couple's two children, a 13-year-old boy and a 7- year-old girl, and left them in an adjacent bedroom unharmed. Three to four young Asian men were being sought in connection with the execution-style slaying as police tried to piece together a motive for the grisly crime. "We have several leads from the Cambodian said Capt. Daniel McKenna at the 70th Precinct.

"It possibly could be a robbery as the apartment was ransacked." Another lead the police are investigating is that the shooting possibly was a linked to feud between the deceased and another Cambodian family over two young people from the families who are rumored to have run off together. Sgt. Willie Shaw of the 70th Precinct said police were interviewing the family of a 15-year-old girl who community sources told investigators had run away with the dead man's nephew. The family had filed a missing person report on the girl, Shaw said. Police were also seeking the nephew yesterday.

Yesterday, police struggled with different languages and customs in seeking answers. Shaw said Police Officer Porsche Than, the department's only officer who speaks Cambodian, was called in to help with the interrogations. "We got a culture barrier. We got a language barrier," Shaw said. The dead couple's son, identified by a neighbor as Rithy, managed to free himself and his sister of their bonds and run to a friend's home.

Both chil- Clarence Pendleton said Gary Lingley, director of the hotel's tennis club. Pendleton was alone in the exercise room when he collapsed at about 10 a.m., an hour after arriving, Lingley said. "Two members heard a small noise, a scream maybe, we don't know what it was," Lingley said. "About a minute later, when they Please see BIKE on Page 41 Please see DEAD on Page 40.