Looking back (Tony Awards)/Looking forward (upcoming theater season)

So, I got my wish:  the Tony broadcast last Sunday was pretty darned exciting!  The opening number was freaking fantastic, as was the closing rap.  Coincidentally, one of my favorite musical theater writers, Lin-Manuel Miranda, was involved in both.  I don't think it's a coincidence, actually.  He loves Broadway and theater as much as Neil Patrick Harris does, so that love just permeated everything.  The numbers were a delight.  Props to his collaborators, Tom Kitt and Thomas Kail.  And also major props to Michael John LaChiusa, for the very funny "I Want to Be in a TV Show" number.  [oh, and btw, all of these photos are from the Tony Awards website.  standard disclaimer applies.]

 

Neil Patrick Harris should host every award show ever broadcast.  Seriously.  He's just so super-talented and fun.  Hello, he did magic tricks!  Acrobatics!  Patter!  He had to dance next to Mike Tyson!!  NPH's energy, commitment, twinkle and general wonderfulness always makes me smile.  And smiling is always good.  I smiled a lot during the broadcast, I may have even shouted out loud a few times.  I shouted when I saw Pasek and Paul on screen (yes, I took a screenshot of them.  don't judge.  and, if we were only basing opinions on the musical numbers shown during the broadcast, A Christmas Story should've won Best Score, hands down.  that number played like gangbusters).  I shouted when Courtney B. Vance won - I've been a huge fan of his ever since I saw him do a scene from Fences on the Tonys a million years ago.  He was fantastic in Six Degrees of Separation as well.  So hurrah for him.  I shouted when Pam MacKinnon won Best Director for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.  I shouted extra loud when Virginia Woolf won Best Revival of a Play, and I may have scared my neighbors with how loud I screamed when Tracy Letts took Best Actor.  I was just beside myself that voters remembered his transcendent performance.


Those were my favorite wins.  I loved Cicely Tyson and Billy Porter; I thought Jesse Eisenberg spoke so quickly he must've had a dinner reservation coming up or a cab waiting for him; I couldn't understand one word those adorable kids were singing during the Matilda number (and it did not convince me that I have to see the show);  I thought Cyndi Lauper's speech was lovely and heartfelt, as was her performance of "True Colors" during the In Memoriam section; I'm bummed that they still can't bring themselves to present the Best Book award during the broadcast, and I was very sorry that Larry Kramer couldn't get honored on camera as well; I was thrilled that two women won for Best Director; a big huzzah to Chris Durang, though I do wish he had gotten to speak first; I was over the moon that Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone presented major awards and at the end of the evening, too.  They're the reat deal, theater-star-wise, and I was glad the producers of the broadcast recognized it.

So, last theater season closed on a high, at least in my opinion.  I felt much better after this year's broadcast than I did after last year's.  And I'm sure my opinion is all that matters to the powers-that-be.  Ha ha.  Now it's time to turn attention to the upcoming season!  Jeepers, there's a lot of great stuff coming up!  I'm going to have to ask for a raise!!  Or find rich single friends.

The entire season at Signature Theatre sounds thrilling to me, most especially the Horton Foote play, The Old Friends, starring Lois Smith and Betty Buckley.  Fireworks!  Can't wait.  I have the date tickets go on sale for that one on my calendar.  But I also am looking forward to the new David Henry Hwang play, and also at taking another look at Branden Jacobs-Jenkins play, Appropriate, which I found interesting at Humana this year.  Get ready for lots of posts about Signature over the next season.

I am also more excited than I should be about Cherry Jones in Glass Menagerie, and Mark Rylance coming back to Broadway in Twelfth Night and Richard III.  I'm a big fan of Jefferson Mays, so I'm dying to get a look at him in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder; Jason Robert Brown's The Bridges of Madison County is at the top of my list of musical must-sees (I admit it), as is If/Then, the new musical from Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey.  Oh, and the pairing of Waiting for Godot and No Man's Land.  Hello, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.  Seriously.  Must see.

I'm going to have to start saving my pennies.  And pacing myself.  Perhaps I should start a Kickstarter campaign: send the Magical MissTari to the theater!  I can see the plea now...