Apres the Tonys

(I'm coming off two+ weeks of watching the French Open, forgive me if a little 'en francais' sneaks into my post...)

Well, the Tonys are over, after tons of buildup and anticipation, at least by me.  The broadcast, big-picture-wise, was a disappointment.  I thought for sure the producers would cave and put at least the Best Score award on tv, especially since Sting was a nominee, but no.  Again, all of the awards by the creative people, the people who actually CREATE THE PRODUCT CBS IS TRYING TO SELL, got relegated to the commercial breaks.  It is so offensive on every level.  Why, why, why will they never realize that no one other than theater lovers are going to watch the broadcast?!  No one.  Ever.  Kiefer Sutherland is not snagging viewers.  Ashley Tisdale is not snagging viewers.  Even Jennifer Lopez, who even looked confused herself as to why she was there, is not snagging viewers.  Celebrate the ART, people.  And that means all of the art, not just the musical art.  Plays got such short shrift on last night's broadcast, it was appalling.  Why couldn't we have had a repeat of last year when all the playwrights came out to introduce their plays?  Little glances of B-roll footage didn't really do it for me.  All mentions of the Best Plays took less time than ONE musical number.  And several of the musical numbers were for shows that weren't even nominated for Tonys!  Ugh.  It was just a frustrating night.  If anyone has good ideas about getting the word out to the producing powers-that-be that everyone I was chatting with on social media was ticked off about these issues, please let me know.





photo credit: Getty Images

Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming were charming and seemed to be having a good time, but much of their scripted dialogue was rather terrible.  Like last year, the backstage stuff was better than the onstage stuff.  The musical numbers were ok; the best one was "Ring of Keys" from Fun Home.  That song is just, quality-wise, head and shoulders above most everything else out there, and little Sydney Lucas was giving a master class in acting through song.  Though I wasn't thrilled with Kristin coming out in an E.T. costume during the applause.  It was great to see Chita do a number from The Visit, though I might've put in a smidgen of "You, You, You" in there.  The sound mix wasn't great (revenge of the sound designers??), so it was hard to hear the trio singing "I Would Never Leave You" to Chita and the edit they did of "Love and Love Alone" didn't really show off that gorgeous choreography to its best advantage.  The mash-ups of several songs that On the Town, On the Twentieth Century and The King and I did were less successful, though Kelli O'Hara and Ken Watanabe sure exuded some sex in the snippet of "Shall We Dance."  I would've preferred to see just one extended number from An American in Paris, too, though what they presented did look lovely.  The number from Something Rotten did nothing for me and I was just as mad seeing a song from Finding Neverland as I was watching it in the theater.  That score is a MESS.

photo credit: Sara Krulwich

As to my predictions, I made predictions in twelve categories and got nine right.  Not too bad, I guess.  I was so happy for all the Fun Home love!  Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori gave kick-ass acceptance speeches, which would've been great to see on tv, but...you know how I feel about that.  At least you can see them online.  I wish there could've been some love for The Visit, too - due to their being shut out of the awards, the show is closing on Sunday.  That just breaks my heart.  I wish there were room for everything, shows that are daring and maybe don't completely succeed are intrinsically more interesting to me than big spectacle-y things. 

I was thrilled that Michael Cerveris won, he has been a favorite of mine for a very long time and his work is never less than impeccable.  I was surprised and thrilled that Kelli O'Hara won!  I had an inkling it might be her night, since she was sitting in the front instead of in the back (like last year) - her speech was delightful and you could tell that everyone in the house was happy for her.  The boy from Curious Incident was adorable, as was the gent from The Audience.  Helen Mirren can do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned, though it was strange for hers to be the first award of the night.  So much of the show seemed odd, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

photo credit: Sara Krulwich

I'm going to get the crabbiness out of my mind by watching videos of Lisa and Jeanine's speeches, along with Tommy Tune's delightful acceptance of his Lifetime Achievement Award.  I mean, really, they couldn't spare an extra 90 seconds to let Tommy Tune be on the fricking broadcast?!?!  (breathing deeply)  OK, now I'm getting rid of the crabbiness.  Goodbye to last season, hello to what's coming.  Most of the shows I'm looking forward to are revivals, which makes me kinda sad, but hopefully there will be some new things that just appear at the last minute.  Of course, the new show I'm most looking forward to is Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton.  I'm so bummed I missed it at the Public, but I will not miss it at the Rodgers.  I'm also looking forward to the new musical Tuck Everlasting - I saw a previous musical by the songwriting team and liked it a lot. 

But the revivals stand out in my mind so far.  Laura Benanti in She Loves Me?  Yes, please.  She Loves Me is a perfect jewel of a musical.  Clive Owen in Pinter's Old Times?  Annaleigh Ashford (one of my favorite winners from last night) and Julie White in Gurney's Sylvia?  Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell in Fool for Love?  Andrea Martin and Jeremy Shamos in Noises Off?  Jessica Lange, Gabriel Byrne and John Gallagher Jr in Long Day's Journey Into Night?  Oh my.  I've already put in a bid for one of those shows with a Tony voter friend, but clearly I'm going to have to make more Tony voter friends if I want to see everything.  Those are just the Broadway shows I'm interested in!  Everything at Signature Theatre is appealing to me, a friend has a show coming up at Primary Stages and Playwrights Horizons always has a good lineup.  Geez.  I'm starting to feel broke just thinking about next season.  Mustn't get crabby over projected possible poverty...

UPDATE:  As I was thinking about this post after I finished it, I was feeling pretty down again.  But I've been reading some articles that make me think that possibly, POSSIBLY, someone else is noticing what 'theater people' have been saying for years.  I thought I'd link to some of these articles because they say what I wanted to say, but they say it infinitely better.  Thank you, Mark Harris, for this terrific piece at EW.com; Jesse Green for this piece at Vulture.com; and Peter Marks for hitting the nail on the head at the Washington Post.  I'm sure there are more and I'll probably update further at a later time.  And, of course, if people would rather not have their link on my page, I'll remove it immediately...