The Tony Awards On Sunday: Anyone Going To Watch?

Cafe Society
#1

I like the Tony Awards, and even though once again I have not seen any of the new shows nominated, I like watching the presentations of scenes and musical numbers.

Granted, it is hard to work up any enthusiasm for actors winning an award when, for the most part, I usually have never even heard of them before - still, it is fun to see someone get all atwitter when they win and thank the cast and the gang back at the Peoria Community Theater And Bar And Grill.

So - anyone gonna watch?
Seen any of the shows?

#2

I plan on watching - in fact, my best friend is coming down for the weekend, and we’re watching Sunday night. She’s my theatre buddy, and has seen most of the nominated shows this year (because of various circumstances, I missed our yearly trip to NYC to see the shows - it was a lot easier to see them all when I lived there :frowning: ).

I’m pretty excited about this year - I don’t have one show that I’m more excited about, really. I’d like to see Sutton Foster win, but only because I absolutely adore her.

E.

#3

I’m having a big party for the Tony’s. Mostly my wife’s theatre coworkers. That should be a hoot, there’s nothing quite as fun as savage insider criticism.

“They didn’t win? They’ll get their closing notice by the end of the week.”
“I worked with XXXX before, he’s stupider than a box of rocks.”
“Who did she blow to get that part?”
“Who did he blow to get that part?”

The only show I’ve seen this year is Wedding Singer. I doubt it’s going to win anything, but it got 4 more nominations than Tarzan. :cool:

#4

I’ve worked in New York theater for the past four years, and I have yet to watch the Tony awards. I always forget about it being on, and I never know who is nominated. Though this year there were some good shows: “Sweeney Todd,” “The Lieutenant of Inishmore”… I presume they’re nominated for something?

What network is showing it? I don’t get any cable channels.

#5

Heh - that’s what I do with the Daytime Emmys (having worked in soaps). Nothing like a good 2-3 hour snark fest about the folks you see sitting in the audience.

Hmm…got room for a new person at your party next year? :smiley:

My friend was pretty impressed with the Wedding Singer - like you, she doesn’t think it’ll win anything, but she really enjoyed it. She said her money’s on The Drowsy Chaperone.

E.

#6

I have to tape it this year – can’t be there to watch it live.

But I’ll be there for it.

#7

I went in 2000 (before the prices got ridiculous) and loved it! I’ll be driving back from my college reunion but will have the VCR set to get all the delicious details.

I feel sorry for people who can’t get to the theater in NY; watch and enjoy. There’s some great stuff this year. I call SWEENEY TODD, HISTORY BOYS, and THE DROWSY CHAPERONE for the main categories; still haven’t decided about Play Revival.

NY1, a local cable channel, does a full-blown red carpet arrival thing for two hours beforehand too, if you’re hardcore. I am.

#8

I’ll be watching. I look forward to seeing the performances from the nominated shows. Though all I’ve seen of the ones nominated was Sweeney Todd, so I’m not really rooting for anyone this year.

#9

I really miss NY1 since moving to Jersey. We used to watch “On Stage” every Sunday morning for our theatre fix.

#10

I wouldn’t be anywhere else darling. I would love to see Woman in White get best score, but it ain’t gonna happen. The big toss up is better Jersey Boys and Drowsy Chaperone as best musical. I loved them both, but JB is a “jukebox” musical, while Chaperone is more original, so it’s going to get the best Tony.

#11

Whereas, in a prediction of winners, they said JB will win as it is a road show that the producers across country want to win so it will sell more tickets, so non-NY voting members will be voting for it. We’ll see.

So I assume you will have the traditional snacks - champagne and strawberries, with some Carr’s crackers and brie cheese?

#12

I might watch, if I remember. Maybe it’ll get me off my duff and inspire me to plan a trip to parts east so I can see some of these in their native environment instead of on the road.

Really? I don’t recall the score as being all that memorable. The big deal with the Woman in White was the staging; the story itself is derivative, and the music isn’t all that great. YMMV.

It’s funny; we haven’t gotten Jersey Boys out here in LA (or if we have, I missed it), but we did get the Drowsy Chaperone. I thought it was a great play, but it totally misses the mark as a musical. Musicals for me should be memorable – you should walk out of them humming the tunes. Drowsy Chaperone was hysterically funny; I can’t remember the last time I laughed as much. But the music wasn’t memorable (and was, at times, deliberately awful – think the song on the airplane at the end). But as a play with music in it, I thought it was great.

Okay. Now I’m going to try to watch on Sunday to see if it wins.

#13

Unless, of course, you’re my husband, who I still catch sometimes humming or singing something and when I ask, “What the heck is that?”, he says it’s something from The Drowsy Chaperone. And it’s been at least 6 months since we saw it. We never watch the Tony’s, and we’re watching Sunday just to see how Drowsy does, we loved it that much.

#14

Am I the first one to weigh in on how it went? I wasn’t even gonna watch it! But since I was home, and thanks to youse guys I remembered, I went ahead and watched for the first time ever.

It was pretty cool. I liked watching the bits from the shows I haven’t seen. I wish they would show more of the plays, though. It wouldn’t have to be live, but when they showed those 10-second snippets I kept thinking “more!”

I was disappointed they didn’t include any of Nellie McKay in the performance from “Threepenny Opera,” though. She’s dynamite. Maybe she couldn’t make the show, or something.

#15

The opening number was spectacularly unspectacular. Harry Connick lounge-singing random Broadway hits while 60 random Broadway stars stood on an elevator platform behind him. It wasn’t Rob Lowe/Snow White bad, but still…meh.

I see they exhumed Patricia Neal and took Hal Holbrook out of mothballs for this…I didn’t know either one of them were still alive!

#16

It wasn’t the best Tony Awards show I have ever seen, but it was pretty good this year. Harry Connick sucked, but the rest of the show was everything I was hoping for - snippets of this and that, and some familiar faces and some new faces and high drama when someone won and a few funny moments, “Republican puppet - that sounds familiar…”

Made me want to go see some Broadway shows, and that is, after all, the point of the whole evening.

Luckily, quite a few shows are headed here to Las Vegas, but sadly, HAIRSPRAY closed today at the Luxor. PHANTOM is opening at The Venetian, SPAMALOT coming to Wynn and THE PRODUCERS opening soon at The Paris…so looks like I will be getting my Broadway fix in my own backyard!

And from the ads shown during the Tony’s, looks like some interesting shows coming to Broadway this season as well - so looking forward to next year’s show.

#17

quite a night for the “Boys”–both History and Jersey.

Did anyone else notice that page 82 of the TV Guide said a lifetime achievement award was going to Harold PINTER? :wally

I hope they apologize to Hal Prince at some point. And that issue is a keeper.

#18

I had my theatre buddy down from Michigan to watch the show last night, and that was a standard theme between the two of us and ElzaHub last night - somebody would come on stage, and the first words out of our mouths would be “I thought he/she was dead!” :smiley: . So last night was what we referred to as the Zombie Tonys.

No real disappointments here, although I am a bit surprised at Jersey Boys’ win. I really thought it would go to Drowsy Chaperone, but I guess the backlash against jukebox musicals has been quelched.

And yeah, Harry Connick Jr sucked, for the most part, but I still would’ve given anything to be Kelli O’Hara during that number ;).

Okay - one major complaint - why is it that last year’s featured actress in a musical got more to do in terms of presenting than your lead actor and actress in a musical? I was looking forward to seeing more than ten seconds of Norbert Leo Butz (my other husband) and Victoria Clark. Yes, I know whats-her-name is on Grey’s Anatomy, but who cares? It’s the Tonys. Norbert and Victoria should’ve gotten more air time and been allowed to do more than announce that they presented the technical awards. I thought that was in really poor taste.

E.

#19

If that song from Wedding Singer is any indication of the rest of the show, I have next to no interest in seeing it. What a bland song. The choreography was high energy, but also kinda blah.

#20

Three of us at my Tonys party saw Wedding Singer in previews, and were horrified at the choice of song. Terrible song to try and showcase the show. The show, while definitely not “great theatre” is a lot more fun than that song was, bleh!

Was Paul Schaffer drunk or high or what? He was grinning like he had smoked a joint the size of a baseball bat.