I don’t see any Tony threads on the front page of CS, so I assume there are none, and will start one.
Billy Crystal opening the show? Great. The man has become an awards hosting legacy, and that’s ripe for some good jokes. “Hello, Billy? It’s Hugh.” “Yes, I know it’s me, but who am I talking to?”
I’m just amused endlessly that Hugh Jackman can be a very lightfooted Broadway actor and the XMen movies’ Wolverine. And I enjoyed his musical number about not being allowed to dance for liability purposes with upcoming XMen shooting.
I was a bit put off by the sassy black woman who won an award for Best Actress in a Play (Adriane Lenox). She seemed grateful, but a little too vain. Good line, though “I can’t do dishes and hold this award at the same time!”
The choreographer winner? Just too cute. And just snubbing enough.
Okay, can someone make sense out of that Elaine Stritch story from Nathan Lane, maybe a transcription?
I lost track somewhere between grabbing Jackman’s buttocks and holding one of somebody’s names hostage.
A true WTF moment if ever there was one.
Weren’t the La Cage Dancers GREAT!?!?!
I mean they were fantastic!!!
Albee was both amusing and touching – he has done some great work and really does deserve the recogniton.
Okay this has moved into the Twilight Zone:
WTF is Al Sharpton doing in The Spelling Bee show?
Is that show really all that good? I wasn’t impressed much with the music I heard here – though the writing seems okay in a joke-in-every-sentence kind of way.
My wife has just come in and nixed the Tonys on me. Fortunately I have a tape rolling, but I am suddenly more understanding about why so many men who love theatre are gay.
I agree that Christina Applegate was very weak, but the fall she did when she came out to present was great (was that really her, or a double?)
About the tribute to Sondheim: Aretha didn’t seem to get that she was singing in a duet, and not a competition. Also they could have chosen a song that Sondheim wrote both the music and lyrics for, and one that the home audience hadn’t already heard about ten times tonight in those TIAA-CREFF commercials.
Nope. You just posted two minutes before me. Basically, a simulpost. No offense, honest.
Sadly, I missed the last hour to hour and a half because of a little household emergency. So I didn’t hear Aretha. I did pause long enough for “Find Your Grail.” I am psyched that Spamalot won Best Musical. The cast recording is absolutely hilarious, and I only lament that I won’t be able to see the show until it’s a touring cast coming down to DC. I was impressed by The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’s music, and I might have to check the show out now.
I agree Christina Applegate was far from impressive. Part of it, I fear, is that they revived a show that should have remained dead. It felt dated the entire performance, for everybody, not just Ms. Applegate.
I’ve been whooping it up over here. A friend of the family won a Tony for best leading actress – Cherry Jones. She plays the gruff looking nun in Doubt.. She is nothing like the woman she portrays. I couldn’t even recognize her in the portions of the play they showed!
I am wondering if the young woman who won for “featured role” – the one who talked about washing dishes – is from Memphis. She is also in Doubt. If so, this was a big night for West Tennessee gals. (Cherry is from a small town.)
I thought Ramirez was going to pop out of that dress. Bummer.
Christina has a lot of talent, but I don’t think it fits with the show Sweet Charity. Watching her get ready to present, the fall and crawl, was hilarious, but she doesn’t pop at all as Charity. I actually think she was BETTER here (at the Tonys) than in the other clips I’ve seen of her in the role. Yet, reviewers and voters seemed to think she was pretty good in it.
I was hoping for an underdog Musical win. I saw Spamalot (in previews) and thought it was pretty funny, but not really superb.
I’m old enough to remember her as Norah Aldridge on the soap The Doctors.
Anyone else catch Chita’s censoring. She started to pay tribute to the great songwriters who passed away this year–“Fred Ebb and John–Cy Coleman” Obviously, she was about the say John Coleman (Ebb’s partner) but caught hereself. The censors silenced it.
Did anyone else think that the entire second half of the show was just plain sloppy? The “Razzle Dazzle” number seemed like it was cut off arbitrarily (and that was a pretty inappropriate number to do – since the song implies that Ebb had no talent). Things were rushed, presenters were not introduced, and the “Best Musical” award at the end was announced without naming the nominees. Most of the acceptance speeches seemed long, too.
I think the show started running over badly due to the longer than usual acceptance speeches, and they were desparately cutting things to fit it in.
And what makes CBS think that the viewers of the awards are so sick? Two-thirds of the ads were for drugs!
Turner had rhuemetoid arthritis and the steroids used to treat it are affecting her health.
Did I miss Jerry Orbach in the list of dead people? I wasn’t really paying that much attention. Although I appreciate it that the Tony audience mostly has enough class to wait until the end to applaud.