Watched the Tony Awards last night. It was a great show, a big improvement over last year. Last year’s opening number was simply a recap of “The Book Of Mormon,” and there was also no In Memoriam segment. Luckily this year, there was, and this year’s opening number once again encompassed all the major shows. This Tony opening number was definitely the best one I’d seen, and that long standing ovation was well-deserved. I obviously don’t go to Broadway shows as much as movies, so I was often looking at the awards show website Gold Derby for the experts opinions on who would win. Most of their predictions were correct, although there were some surprises. Perhaps the biggest was Tom Hanks losing to Tracy Letts for Best Lead Actor In A Play. Letts is usually known for writing plays, not acting in them, but he is a very talented guy nonetheless. He wrote the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play “August: Osage County,” and also wrote the screenplay of the movie version coming out this November. At least Tom Hanks will have a chance to win another Oscar next year and tie Daniel Day-Lewis’s record. He has two high-profile roles in which he plays real people: the heroic titular character in “Captain Phillips” and as Walt Disney in “Saving Mr. Banks.” Not sure yet which the Academy will embrace more. I was glad “Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike” won Best Play. It’s a parody of Anton Chekhov’s classic themes, and I studied Chekhov in the one theater class I took in college. I was disappointed that “Matilda” lost to “Kinky Boots,” though. I’ve always been a big Roald Dahl fan, and I’ve heard of nothing but good things about it. But congrats to “Kinky Boots though.” As expected, there were tons of musical performances. My favorites were “Matilda,” “Annie,” “Pippin,” “Cinderella,” and Cyndi Lauper’s performance of her song “True Colors” during the In Memoriam segment. There was also an impromptu performance by Laura Benanti, Andrew Rannells, and Megan Hilty, Broadway stars who recently starred in the respective cancelled NBC shows “Go On,” “The New Normal,” and “Smash.” The idea was entertaining, but I felt that it wasn’t really necessary. The Tonys can make a great 3-hour musical, but not everything has to be sung on it. Onto the speeches. At awards shows, the speeches can be categorized like this: the shocked speech, the passionate speech, the tearful speech, the shout-over-the-music speech, the excited speech, and the humble speech. There was at least one of every type of speech made, and here were the best examples: Shocked speech—Courtney B. Vance, winner for Best Featured Actor In A Play, “Lucky Guy.” Passionate speech—Judith Light, winner for Best Featured Actress In A Play, “The Assembled Parties.” Tearful speech—Cyndi Lauper, winner for Best Original Score, “Kinky Boots.” Shout-over-the-music speech—Andrea Martin, winner for Best Featured Actress In A Musical, “Pippin.” Excited speech—Patina Miller, winner for Best Lead Actress In A Musical, “Pippin.” Humble speech—Cicely Tyson, winner for Best Lead Actress In A Play, “The Trip To Bountiful.” Neil Patrick Harris was once again great as the host. Many of his jokes were about the nominated shows, but he also threw in some funny Shia LaBeouf, Mike Tyson and Justin Bieber jokes as well. He’ll also be hosting the Emmys in September. Part of the reason for that is because the Emmys rotate networks every year. CBS always does the Grammys and Tonys, ABC the Oscars, and NBC the Golden Globes. The Emmys always rotate between ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. This year, it’s CBS’s turn, and Harris also hosted the last time it was CBS’s turn in 2009. But of course it’s also because he’s a great host, and I bet it’s only a matter of time before he hosts the Oscars too.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:47:42 +0000
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