So, tonight is the Tony Awards - Broadway’s awards to shows most people tuning in have never seen (or have even heard of, for that matter).
Still, I will be watching - fun to see snippets of the shows and check out what is hot on Broadway this season.
However, for me the most fun is to watch the acceptance speeches - usually quite dramatic and over-the-top. Unlike the Oscars, it seems Tony Award winners spend hours/days/months preparing and memorizing an acceptance speech, should they win. Some of the speeches have esoteric references and quotes from literary sources, well-timed and prepared quips plus the occasional insider joke. Many give speeches that would be more apt for someone being honored for curing cancer - the seriousness and raw emotion (camera cut to fifth row to see spouse sobbing uncontrollably) gushes forth in soliloquies suitable to end Act III.
I will not be able to watch the show live tonight and will wait to see it on DVR tomorrow - but raise a drink and toast me should someone reference “this incredible journey” to receive this award.
Despite my somewhat cynical appreciation of the show, I am truly looking forward to watching it. Unlike the Oscars, at least there is some unpredictability and the occasion laugh-out-loud moments. Plus, what’s not to like about watching selected scenes from hit musicals and dramas?
Am I the only one who was sick of all the American Idoit hype? That is ALL they hyped.
This broadcast wasn’t as exciting as past years. I dunno, most of the offerings seemed really kind of generic Muzaky. Not a lot of good “Broadway” stuff.
There were no " OMG I GOTTA SEE THAT" moments, or shivers down my spine minetes the way there was with Patti LuPone doing Everything’s Coming Up Roses or The Wedding Singer, or Next to Normal, or Billy Elliot or Hair. (LOVED the opening last year…but then again I LOVE the music from Hair) There really wasn’t a lot of the same energy this year.
I already knew I wanted to see Promises, Promises (LOVE Kristen Chenoweth) as well as La Cage Aux Folles. The performance cracked me up…The Birdcage is one of my all time favorite movies, and I could see where they got a lot of the lines.
Maybe Memphis.
Did anyone get the vibe that the choreography in Fela was done by the same people who did the Lion King?
Catherine Zeta-Jones sadly cannot sing worth crap. She’s better then she was in Chicago (where she was screaming) But she still can’t sing. I wish they’d done a performance that included ANGELA! Especialy since Send in the Clowns is just so cliche! Or maybe Bernadette could have played Desiree.
LOVED Just Jack as host. I was VERY impressed, and his jokes cracked me up. Loved Spiderman and Little Orphan Annie. " To any right wing polictions who are watching on the sly…"
LOVED Matthew Morrison doing " All I Need is the Girl" I LOVE that song from Gypsy.
I was SO stoked when Memphis won Best New Muscial. YAY for rubbing it into the flannel punk hipster’s faces LOL. :p:D
Two signs I am a theatre nerd. I pointed to Laura Benati and said " Hey, I’ve met her and I have her autograph. (saw her in Gypsy and Wedding Singer…she said she LOVED my laugh)
and I reconized a BUNCH of the death tributes, that most people wouldn’t catch on to (June Havoc, the orgional Baby June from Gypsy, and the last Ziegfeld Girl. )
I thought Catherine Zeta-Jones’ performance was great. I don’t know why they chose *that *song from the show, but she did a masterful job. Incidentally, Sondheim said that that song was specifically written for a singer with a limited vocal range (I think it was an aging Glynnis Johns).
I had two problems with Catherine Zeta Jones’s performance. One was the quality of her voice, but from her presentation speech later, I think she was actually having throat problems, so I can’t really judge her on that. The other was the constant gratuitous dramatic pauses: “Send in … … … the clowns.” Didn’t like that at all. And there are many better numbers from the show that would have highlighted more of the cast, but I guess CZJ is a star, so…
Other than that, I was mostly underwhelmed. Don’t much care about any of the best musical nominees, although “Million Dollar Quartet” looks like fun. The number from “La Cage au Folles” was the highlight, for sure.
Also, I had no idea Sean Hayes could play the piano like that. Very impressive.
I always wish that we’ll actually get to see scenes from the best play nominees, and I’m almost always disappointed.
The Catherine Zeta-Jones performance was just plain weird. She was jerking her head around in this very strange, mechanical way - I don’t know much about the show but I thought maybe she was trying to give some extra oomph to her voice. Between that and the wide-eyed face she made throughout the song I was wondering if she was about to grab and axe and go after someone in the audience or something.
I wasn’t impressed by much of what I saw. Not interested in La Cage aux Folles at all- I like Kelsey Grammer, but I saw The Birdcage many years ago and I don’t need to watch the whole thing all over again. Memphis looked completely blah. The lyrics, the choreoraphy, and the music were all really trite. I don’t know what part of that was supposed to be award-worthy. If your song ends with a bunch of "na na na"s, that’s really game over as far as I’m concerned. I’m not sure even the Beatles pulled that off successfully.
I’m sure this has been commented on by a lot of people all over the world, but I was kind of stunned to see that all five men up for the leading actor Tony were primarily film actors. I know how much Hollywood has taken over Broadway but that caught me off guard. Liev Schrieber is the only one of that group who maybe does a majority of stage work; we’ve seen him in Henry V and Talk Radio. Maybe they were all great but I found it weird to see that. I didn’t see A Behanding in Spokane myself - my girlfriend did - and we were both confused about Christopher Walken getting an award nomination for being The Christopher Walkeny Guy.
Which isn’t to say nothing looked like it was any good. We saw In the Next Room over the winter and it was very good. We may do Red and Fela at some point based on what we saw during the show.
I watched last night, a long time since seeing the Tony Awards, and enjoyed it. Really lovely to see that level of true drama folks at good heights.
But, yikes, that performance from Memphis, just drove me sick and sad. I’m a big fan of Dewey Phillips and the whole Memphis music milieu and history, know it well, and loved the thought of his life as the basis for a musical. But that song/dance was just a flat cartoon mess, awful, and had no resemblence to what Memphis music is. Please tell me that the whole show is better than that song.
Catherine Zeta-Jones was performing the song in character. She plays an elderly, severe woman who has just been bitterly disappointed. It’s not supposed to be a light, airy Judy Collins lullaby.
Yes, totally. You hit the nail on the head. Her singing was too flourishy. Maybe you need to see it being sung in the context of the show to get the reference. And CZJ was the big draw, but so was Angela! Maybe if they had highlighted something better, I would have said " I want to go see it" Then again, I think that A Little Night Music is kind of a “sophisticated” soap opera.
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… You OWE me a new monitor!..Perfect desciption of her singing!!!
Yes ditto. The dancing from Promises, Promises looked good, but I was SORELY disappointed. It seemed like this was a “touring” version of the Tonys. Good stuff, but not AWESOME Broadway caliber style.
I thought that Fela! was supposed to be really good…but again wasn’t impressed.
I find it hard to believe CZJ’s singing voice could possibly be worse than Judi Dench’s (who performed Desiree in the 1995 Royal National production). The song was written, as has been noted, for an actress who wasn’t much of a singer in the first place.
Shoot, out of town and missed it.