Thoughts on the Tonys (awards and broadcast)

As Tony time fades, of course I have opinions about the broadcast and who won the awards.  Hello, I always have opinions.  I should warn you that I'm currently listening to the cast album of The Bridges of Madison County because my pique at its treatment hasn't gone away.  That may infect some of this post...  oh, and as always, I borrowed photos from the Tony website.  I will remove them if requested.

Regarding the broadcast, it wasn't as fun as last year, darn it.  I can't assign all the blame to Hugh Jackman, who is still all that, but he was working maybe a little too hard.  It seemed he was looser and was having more fun in the backstage glances we got at each commercial break.  I know a lot of people were confused about the opening number where Hugh hopped through Radio City, but I found it charming.  I know and love the film (and musical number) it was paying homage to, so it made me smile.  I can certainly understand if you don't know that movie, Small Town Girl, or the number, "Take Me to Broadway," or even the late great Bobby Van, it would seem very obscure.  I liked it.  Shoot me.  I just think Hugh KNEW he couldn't top last year's super-colossal-amazing opening number, so he went completely the other way.  It probably didn't help that the camera people kept putting a camera in Neil Patrick Harris' face all night.

This year, I was on Twitter throughout most of the broadcast, so I could find out who won the 'technical' awards that aren't presented on camera.  The fact that these awards aren't presented on camera ticks me off every.single.year.  The Tony Awards are supposedly honoring the excellence of Broadway theater.  Well, if you're excluding the actual CREATORS of that excellence, your broadcast isn't doing a very good job.  I know, I know, CBS has to create an entertaining show that people will want to watch.  Look, seriously, the people who watch it every year are the same people who watch it every year.  We WANT to see that stuff!  People who watch NCIS aren't going to turn into the Tonys because LL Cool J is rapping.  (ugh, really?)  The fact that I couldn't see Jason Robert Brown accept his very deserving Best Score and Best Orchestration Tonys is just so depressing.  The little snippet of one of his acceptance speeches, as grand as that snippet was, didn't satisfy.  I missed all of the other creators we didn't get to see - the designers, the choreographers.  If you missed them as much as I did, you can find their acceptance speeces on the Tony Award website.

They even had to cut the In Memoriam video for the television broadcast because the show ran long.  To their credit, the Tony Award website posted it Monday afternoon, but still.  That should've been on the air, instead of rapping, or yet another clip from Wicked, or two numbers from shows that haven't even opened on Broadway yet (one of which may never open on Broadway).  It's the eternal frustration.  I guess I wish PBS would pick up that first hour again, so we could see all the awards and show our appreciation of the winners CBS doesn't deem worthy of the 'official' broadcast.

Regarding the musical excerpts, honestly, I completely understand why the producers of Rocky chose the production number they chose - they think that's the way to sell the show.  But that musical has an original score and we heard NONE OF IT, just themes from the movie.  Why would people go to see the Broadway musical Rocky when they could just rent the movie?  They'd go see it to hear the score!  At least that's what I think.  Ugh.  So there's that.  I didn't think the Aladdin number or the Les Miserables number came off very well (at least they didn't make me want to buy a ticket); the camera work on the After Midnight was weird and couldn't capture the joy of that dancing cast; A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder was delightful and just made it ever so clear that it HAD to win Best Musical (thank heavens it did!); Beautiful was nice, and Carole King coming out to sing along was terrific; Bullets Over Broadway, although featuring tap dancing, was dull; and the number from Hedwig and the Angry Inch made me even sadder that I'm not going to be able to see the show - Neil Patrick Harris was fantastic and the whole production number just exuded fun and excitement.  Too bad all the numbers couldn't come close to that.

As for the winners, I predicted a few correctly, but most of my hopes didn't turn out very well.  I was so happy about Jason Robert Brown, as I said before, but hello: Kelli O'Hara!  Not only did she not win, but her non-win was telegraphed at the start of the show when we saw she was sitting practically in the balcony!  All the other nominees were towards the front, but she was at least ten rows behind them all.  Stupid, rude, bad planning and not right.  I was very happy that Mark Rylance won for his Olivia, the most enchanting creature I saw on stage last season.  His acceptance speech was also quite lovely.  Most of the speeches were lovely, I will admit.  So many people thanked family and friends and teachers, and several mentioned the importance of arts in education.  That was good to hear.  It was great to see all of the nominated playwrights introduce their own plays, though the clips of the plays themselves weren't terrifically edited.

All in all, it wasn't the most engaging of Tony Award broadcasts I've ever seen.  Maybe because my attention was split due to social media.  But I don't think so.  When something got me, I put my tablet down.  It just didn't happen very often.  So last season went out with rather a whimper.  But there are a lot of things I'm looking forwad to next season - I'm probably the most eager for the revival of Albee's A Delicate Balance.  I hope to see that one several times.  I saw the last revival at least five times, and when we did a production of it in grad school, I watched every performance.  I just love that play.  I'm also looking forward to Donald Margulies' new play, The Country House, and I'm seriously excited about Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton.  I'm crossing my fingers that Jason Robert Brown's Honeymoon in Vegas comes in this season.  I just hope I can wrestle my budget into submission and see all I want to see. 

(As I type this, the final song from Bridges is playing.  Yes, Kelli O'Hara and Jason Robert Brown, love IS always better.  So please let me remember that as this next season gets under way.  I love this art form, this business, this tribe.  May we all be inspired and excited in the months to come...)