7:30 pm
Many a year at this time, I'd have already been jostling for an hour alongside the red carpet, getting in a word or two with the Tony nominees I knew or was rooting for. The best scheme was always to squirm in beside someone with a TV camera who would attract the press agents peddling the bigger names. It was sort of like the relationship between those small fish and big sharks, where the small fry eat the remnants left behind but also perform some service for their hosts. In my case, I usually knew more than the TV interviewers about the actual shows, so I could slip them a question or two.
But not now. I'm giving myself a year off (as I did last year, too), which means I get to take the couch potato route and see the show that most people see, the one on TV. I recognize the irony -- that the art form which glories in actual shared presence displays its wares, on this night, via the electronic enemy. Still, I'm expecting to have a real good time, no matter who wins.
8:20 pm
Three Billy Elliots! West Side Story! Stockard Channing! (Who was that in duet with her?) "Rock of Ages"! Dolly Parton! Liza! "Hair"! They sure packed them all into that opening medley, didn't they? Weird but wonderful to watch all the other shows join in on "Let the Sunshine In." Slightly ominous, though, to be reminded by the V-O that we were going to see more than the usual musical numbers this year, the sub-text being that they're eager to sell touring shows, with the inevitable result that fewer awards will actually be awarded on camera. And why is Neil Patrick Harris the host? "I'm on TV," as he said with due modesty.
Lots of star power, though: quick shots of Geoffrey Rush, Edie Falco, Angela Lansbury, then Jane Fonda as the first presenter. Did you notice that she neatly split the pronunciation difference between Ga-DOH and GOD-o?
Featured actor in a play: Roger Robinson! I couldn't be happier.
8:50 pm
"Shrek" led off with its strongest suit, word-play comedy, designed to appeal to the grownups while the story plays to the kids. And it featured Christopher Sieber, their best shot at an individual Tony -- with the three leads sitting back down in the audience to watch the finale.
Featured actress in a play: Angela Lansbury, her inevitable 5th Tony. The audience response seemed like the real thing, heartfelt. "Thank you for having me back."
A number from "Mamma Mia"!? So yesterday.
First play excerpt: "33 Variations." No, sorry -- just a little film clip. Will Ferrell, "as a Broadway veteran," "trodding the boards." Good joke: "best score," the naked cast of "Hair."
Book: "Billy Elliot." Score: "Next to Normal"! My first loss. (I expect many more -- like Best Orchestrations, which also went to "Next to Normal," as the V-O just told us.) Their thank-yous got the first abrupt cut-off.
"West Side Story" showed one of its best dance numbers, the Dance at the Gym, in which Tony and Maria have their Romeo & Juliet encounter. Sweet.
9:25
Susan Sarandon! "She looks pretty good," I said, in that unemphatic, tentative, noncommittal way you use when your wife is listening to you praise another woman. "She's FABULOUS," said wife growled back.
Director, play: Matthew Warchus, a great choice, but he should have won for "The Norman Conquests," which is a greater accomplishment. Although now that I think of it, it's the British cast. The "God of Carnage" cast is American and had to be rehearsed here, so maybe it was the right result, after all.
"A surprisingly big small play," Warchus called it, by "a writer of great precision and audacity." Note that he could have been talking about either Yasmina Reza and "Carnage" (as he was) or of Alan Ayckbourn and "Norman." Then he thanked his wife for keeping "calm back home," allowing him to "manufacture marital mayhem" on Broadway -- a remark that would have also applied equally to "Norman."
Director, musical: Stephen Daldry, "Billy Elliot." I love that he thanked the crew.
Special event: I predicted "Liza at the Palace," but in retrospect, I wish the Tony had gone to the wonderful "Slava's Snow Storm," which I saw a number of times off-Broadway. I wish everyone could have a chance to see it some time. Certainly everyone has already seen Liza one time or a half-dozen.
Posted
Jun 07 2009, 07:50 PM
by
Christopher Rawson