The 60 second annual TONY AWARDS

Thanks to my Broadway lovin' daughter Annie and her friend Brock for this review of the TONY AWARDS. The Lakers beat the Celtics 103-98 by the way. I'm sure no one was watching the game. All of America was glued to the TONYS.


Well the Tony's have sold out this year (and I do not mean in terms of seats). Here are some ways that the Tonys tried to up their ratings:

1) Having the show hosted by a Tony and Oscar winner…unfortunately it was Whoopi Goldberg. So I think those awards are canceled out by Hollywood Squares.

2) Beginning the evening with the big opening number of the Lion King…for no particular reason.

3) During the “Look Back at the Year of Plays” they kept showing movie stars and identified them. For example, the clip they showed from Cyrano was just a shot of Jennifer Garner. I mean the play is named after the title character, you could have at least showed him. Or his nose.

4) Only the big awards were on CBS. Even categories like choreography and orchestration were done earlier.

5) TEN performances. Including ones from musicals that weren’t even nominated for best musical!

*****

I have to say that I didn’t think there were any real surprises this year. In the Heights, South Pacific and August: Osage County were the big winners, and they were all well deserved.

Brock pointed out that every time they went to commercial break and said “The 62nd Tony Awards” it sounded like “The 60 second Tony Awards” (as in one minute long). This was probably just another ploy to get more viewers.

Patti Lupone was really wonderful, and that is saying something coming from me as I already have a bias against anyone who earns a career by starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals.

Passing Strange was…strange. I will leave it at that.

The commercials were all for Cadillacs, Dog Shows, and Medications. Hmmm I wonder what their target audience is? Not a lot of Chevy truck spots.

In the Heights seemed like a lot of fun. I love how the writer rapped his speech. Do you think the Tony committee paid him to do that so they could have yet another performance?

Now I am a huge fan of Harvey Fierstein. But after seeing the clip from A Catered Affair, I think that he needs to stick to playwriting.

The most ridiculous part of the night was when Whoopi went through the sets of plays that were nominated for Best New Play. Why didn’t they just have the cast members perform clips instead of teasing us with the furniture?

Also during that section Whoopi said something like, “Remember that Hitchcock movie with the spies?” Oh yeah, THAT one.

Yay Anna Shapiro! The second American Female to win for direction of a straight play. AND they’re both Northwestern professors. The other one just gave me a C on a paper.

I like how Mandy Patinkin grew out his beard so he could look like Stephen Sondheim while speaking on his behalf.

I love Sondheim. Even when he’s not there, he gave the best speech of the night.

The projections for Sunday in the Park with George were amazing. They deserved an award of their own.

Great to see the Grand Dame of Broadway -- Julie Chen present a Tony. When is she going to get her lifetime award in the theatre? Who else on the American stage can sing, dance, act, and host Big Brother?

Wow. I loved when Glenn Close gave that oh-so-heartfelt speech about how musicals can change the world, and then the first nominee she introduced was Grease. I know I personally have never been the same since I first heard “shoo bop shoo wadda wadda yipitty boom de boom”

I would like to end by saying how great it was to see the incredible Adam Kantor (A soon-to-be former Northwestern student) starring as Mark in Rent. He certainly puts the rest of us “Seniors to Watch” to shame.