No awards present makes it to the top with out a few surprises, and tonight’s Tony Awards on CBS had a whopper: It went off with out a hitch.
The Pluto TV pre-show, not a lot. However extra on that in a bit.
With Ariana DeBose returning to host for the third time, the 77th Annual Tonys was like a how-to for awards exhibits, with almost all the performances by the Greatest Musical nominees (and the 12 months’s Greatest Play winner Stereophonic) showcasing every manufacturing at its greatest. (Which one fell a bit quick? Learn on.)
DeBose kicked issues off with a made-for-the-show musical quantity, sounding terrific even when a efficiency from one of many precise Broadway exhibits may need been a wiser choice. DeBose has stated this might be her closing Tony internet hosting gig, no less than for some time, and he or she’ll be missed: She is aware of the right way to maintain the highlight, and he or she is aware of the right way to hand it off.
The ceremony, which appeared beautiful in Lincoln Heart’s David H. Koch Theater (a first-time venue for the Tonys), moved alongside at a terrific clip, with acceptance speeches concise with out seeming rushed, various poignant moments (and much more tears shed, and that’s simply from Jonathan Groff), and a few distinctive and sudden wins to go together with the distinctive and anticipated ones.
Right here’s my tackle tonight’s excessive factors, surprises and, after all, a number of the lows. Fortunately, the previous outnumbered the latter.
- Alicia Keys and Jay-Z kicked the present into excessive gear with a rousing rendition of her “Empire State of Thoughts,” even when Jay-Z’s look didn’t seem like truly going down in the identical venue; it appeared like he was outdoors Lincoln Heart, and perhaps even pre-taped. Nonetheless, to TV viewers it probably mattered little: Hell’s Kitchen couldn’t ask for a greater showcase to get it seen coast-to-coast;
- Jeremy Sturdy, profitable for his main efficiency in An Enemy of the Individuals, thanked, amongst others, the ushers and employees at Circle within the Sq.. He didn’t point out how these very ushers effectively dealt with local weather protesters when the group Extinction Rise up interrupted a preview efficiency some months again. However those that knew, knew;
- Stereophonic‘s Will Brill beat out two of his solid mates – Eli Gelb and Tom Pecinka – for the Featured Actor/Musical trophy, and graciously requested them, and the play’s Greatest Featured Actress nominees Juliana Canfield and Sarah Pidgeon, to face and share within the second. As I wrote in my Predictions column, I’d have given Pecinka the slight edge right here, however we’re speaking hairsplitting. Your complete solid is phenomenal;
- Kara Younger, the primary actress of coloration to attain three Tony nominations (and all inside the previous 4 years), gained tonight for her Featured Function/Play efficiency in Purlie Victorious, and her acceptance speech was as charming as her Purlie efficiency was hilarious. She thanked the late greats Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, who, respectively, wrote and initially starred within the play many years in the past, and gave a candy Fathers Day shout-out to her dad Klay Younger, a longtime server at New York’s Rainbow Room the place Kara’s 2022 nomination for Clyde’s was introduced. Even sweeter was her point out of her great-grandmother Hazel, who “made it a degree to return to Purlie Victorious two weeks earlier than she transitioned”;
- Each the tribute to the late, nice Chita Rivera and the In Memoriam sections had been fantastically dealt with, with Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth and Audra McDonald joined within the former by DeBose (who did a positive rendition of Rivera’s signature track “America” from West Aspect Story). The In Memoriam section ought to be studied by each awards present producer from right here on in: Put a positive performer onstage (tonight’s was Nicole Scherzinger, signing “What I Did For Love” from A Refrain Line), however ensure that to indicate the massive, unobscured photos of the parents you’re honoring so everybody at dwelling can see them;
- Stereophonic playwright David Adjmi gave props to Playwrights Horizons, the Off Broadway non-profit theater that first staged the play. In actual fact, tonight was just about a tribute to town’s non-profs, with Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage and Manhattan Theatre Membership chargeable for birthing an inordinate variety of nominees, together with Stereophonic, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Mary Jane, Prayer for the French Republic and Mom Play;
- The musical numbers: The performances from the casts of The Outsiders, The Who’s Tommy, Suffs, Merrily We Roll Alongside, Illinoise and, to a barely lesser extent, Stereophonic gave everybody watching a good suggestion of what theatergoers have been speaking about for months. Stereophonic‘s “Masquerade” was too abbreviated, and Pete Townshend might have caught round longer on “Pinball Wizard,” however by and huge the numbers did what they’re presupposed to do;
- Acceptable‘s Sarah Paulson gave a pleasant shout-out to her chief rival for Greatest Main Actress/Play, acknowledging Mom Play‘s “nice Jessica Lange”; and Merrily director Maria Friedman spoke for a lot of when she addressed the late Stephen Sondheim to inform him “Merrily‘s in style!”;
- Hell’s Kitchen‘s Maleah Joi Moon, at 21 the evening’s youngest Tony nominee, took dwelling the trophy for Lead Actress/Musical in what was, other than Maria Friedman’s loss to Danya Taymor, the ceremony’s largest shock, and a welcome one;
- Merrily‘s Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe had been shoo-ins for the Main Actor and Featured Actor/Musical trophies, however their tearful acceptance speeches and clear affection for each other had been among the many evening’s sweetest moments.
And now, for the worst moments of the evening:
- Act One, the Tony pre-show, kicked off 90 minutes earlier than the ceremony correct, however I can’t be the one one who discovered no less than a number of minutes too late that Pluto TV’s streaming web site just isn’t the identical because the Pluto TV TV channel. Should you’re going to place a good portion of the night – 11 awards had been introduced on the pre-show – on a barely watched vacation spot like Pluto, no less than make it straightforward to get there;
- The opening quantity. All respect to Ariana, however the present did her no favors handing her a lackluster new track (composed by Subsequent To Regular‘s Tom Kitt) to kick off the present. The quantity got here off as weirdly generic, as if it had been designed to open any and each awards present;
- Happily, many of the musical numbers had been significantly better, “most” being the operative phrase. The massive exception: Cabaret. Not solely did the revival’s producers hold Gayle Rankin away from the mic — I imply, doesn’t Cabaret sorta belong to Sally Bowles? — however Eddie Redmayne’s herky-jerky efficiency because the Emcee (he sang “Willkommen”) appeared much more, let’s consider, eccentric with TV cameras in his face than it does on the August Wilson Theatre. I’m very curious to know the way it performed to the uninitiated;
- A few of the digicam angles didn’t serve different exhibits nicely both, notably the efficiency by the solid of Stereophonic. A part of the play’s visible attraction is observing the fictional Fleetwood Mac-like band’s recording session multi function huge, encompassing extensive shot, so close-ups essential. Tonight’s presentation was not as off-putting as seeing Redmayne below a microscope, however that’s not saying lots.
As for snubs, not many actually, although I suppose Maria Friedman’s loss might be thought of as such. And whereas Hell’s Kitchen gained solely two of its 13 classes, the victories had been two of probably the most memorable of the evening: Maleah Joi Moon and Kecia Lewis for Main Actress & Featured Actress in a musical. I’d have appreciated Illinoise to take extra awards (and its sole win, for Justin Peck’s lovely choreography, was introduced on the Pluto TV pre-show), however for a dialogue-free dance manufacturing, the present’s presence on tonight’s broadcast was just about a triumph in itself.
