The Tony Awards are always
interesting to watch, even if they are not that great sometimes. This year was a great year never the less.
Let’s begin with our hosts. When it
was announced that this year that Kristen Chenowith and Alan Cumming were going
to do it, I knew that it would be a good fit. Although there were certain
cracks that they made that did feel like a bit much (do we really need to know
that much about Alan’s sex life?) and although their opening was underwhelming compared
to the previous years, they were perfect onstage together. They had great
chemistry, could sing and dance together and were the right amount of talented,
cheerful, and welcoming with a large dash of the wacky in between shows. From
tap-dancing escorts for wordy Tony winners to some of the most memorable costumes
ever worn by a host in any awards show (ET!
The King and I!), they definitely made this year one of the most
enjoyable Tony Awards in a long, long time.
What about the performances? Here’s
the deal with them. Last year we had an average host and fantastic
performances, this year we had two great hosts and a lot of at least okay
performances. The shining crown among them was Fun Home’s Sydney Lucas performing “Ring of Keys” with such honesty
that it moved the whole house. Vocally, she used proper breath control and had
a very clear forte. Her interesting choice of “turning” to Beth Malone (who
plays her character as an adult) as if the woman she is singing to in the song
is literally her older self. It will be exciting to see where this 11-year old
actress will go in her future. Although Kelli O’Hara opened The King and I ‘s bit with the most
annoying song in the whole show, her grace, presence, and stunning voice made
it a joy to watch. The rest of the performance was just infectiously joyful to watch. Lady Tiang was amazing to hear and watch, and
who knew Ken Watanabe could sing and dance?!
We got some simple choreography but
fantastic dancing with 20th
Century, American in Paris, and On the Town. Their choreography appeared to
be simple and much in the vein of classic musical theatre, but the thing about
classic musical theatre is that it always appears
to be simple to the point where they sometimes all look the same in each
show. But the truth is that it is very visual, athletic, and energetic, meaning
that it takes some versatile dancers to pull it off. And why not? Broadway
belongs to the dancers just as much (if not a little more) than the singers.
The three shows also displayed some of their best songs from each show- how can
you not smile while listening to “I Got Rhythm” or “New York, New York”? On
the 20th Century particularly has music with little jazzy
touches that makes it more catchy and unique from most pre-1960 musicals.
Even Gigi,
which will always be a bad show no matter how pretty you make it due to its
curse of a lazy plot, gave us a rousing, bouncy rendition of “The Night They
Invented Champagne” with the bubbles as a lovely touch. Something Rotten could have given us a different number, but what
they chose (“A Musical”) was appropriate for the Tony’s and especially the
beginning. Their hilarious references and topping it off with a funny, engaging
performance from Brad Oscar as Nostradamus was entertaining to watch. It made
me more curious about the show, whether its ultimately bad or good, and I will
do more research on it when more songs and video clips are released. That alone
should serve the purpose of having each of the shows perform at the Tony’s. The Visit showed that Chita Rivera is
still one awesome woman, even after Anita and Fastrada and even though we did
not get to see her show off her incredible dancing. Although some staging
choices of their snippet looked strange without context of the show (her
younger self and the eunuchs, for example) and when you are showing off your musical,
you want it to make sense out of context because you don’t know how familiar
each audience member is with said show. Still, they gave a bizarre, yet
haunting performance of one very intriguing musical.
The weakest link of the
performances came from Finding Neverland.
Although I love the movie and I was excited about this musical, the music was
too dull for me to get into it. Matthew Morrison’s blank looks made his
energetic onstage partner look over-the-top to achieve imabalnce onstage. With
some strange choreography choices (Why would the dancers just run onstage,
kick, and then run off? Can’t they stay?) and music that forces the “inspirational
song” musical topes out from down under,
it was a drag to watch. (Which is sad, considering how much potential this
musical had when it was announced).
Josh Groban’s (or Jooooosh
Groooooobaaaaaan!) performance during the In Memoriam was not as strong as he
has been in the past. He was adding too much vibrato (for Josh Groban), was
tense in his throat, and his vowels were strange. But it gave me chills to
watch the ensembles of the shows and the orchestra pop up so that the Tony’s
could acknowledge their talent and hard work a little more.
We received some sweet acceptance
speeches. However, I was immensely disappointed that some of the most important
awards, such as Best Book, Best Composer, and so on, were not aired. Does CBS
assume that the people at home watching the Tony’s are dumb suburban’s who only
care about the glamourous actresses wearing fabulous dresses? Plus, Tony
history was made. Jeanne Tesori and Lesa Kron became the first only female composer team to win a Tony.
But we did not see that. I know you
can watch the speech online, but it is still important to watch all of the
people who create theatre get recognized for it. During the Oscars, we see the
screenwriters and cinematographers win, so why not here? So what if it would
last “too long”, I’d stay up past midnight! So what if “we need to air commercials
to pay for us airing this”, show ads in the corner if you must!
But I am getting off track. The
winners, both predictable and unpredictable, gave us some great reactions and speeches.
My three favorites came from Kelli O’Hara, Alex Sharp, and Ruthie Ann Miles.
Kelli and Alex were ecstatic and human, not only do they thoroughly deserve the
awards (especially Kelli, who gets hers at long, long last) but they were able
to move the whole house with their touching speeches. Sharp made a few touches
comments after the audience gazes at the fact he has recently graduated from
Juliard and won for making his Broadway debut as a teenage boy with autism. I
adore it when someone wins an award when they did not expect to win, and
tonight that honor went to Ruthie Ann Miles. From what little I saw of her, she
gave a lovely performance. But watching her pull up her Iphone to read her
speech while halfway in tears was endearing. It was funny that they made the
sound of the tap dancing warning to take her off, and then seeing her panic and
finish up. When it is unexpected and unprepared, that makes the acceptance
speeches feel more genuine, no matter how many people they thank.
