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. 9:25Susan 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 also have 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.
9:40 pm
What was that? Granted, my attention is somewhat frayed, pecking away at this laptop as I try to watch (sort of like being backstage, after all), but that quick cut-away to previously awarded Tonys was hard to follow. Did they say that best orchestrations was a tie between "Next to Normal" and "Billy Elliot"? That explains Matthew Warchus' crack about "rather hoping for another tie" (i.e., with himself), the tie being something he would have known about before we were told. So I get a half-point here, after all.
Best book, "Billy"; best choreography, ditto. Did I get those right?
And the regional theater Tony to the Signature Theater of Arlington, Va. -- on the recommendation of the American Theatre Critics Association. I make that point because I'm an ATCA member. So I understand what drives the Theater Wing to have its annual spot extolling itself, but it's always one of the dullest parts of the telecast. (I heard later that my friend Jeffrey Jenkins, who moderates some of the Theater Wings "working in the theater" seminars, showed up in the video clips. So I guess I wasn't watching very carefully, or I just assumed the spot would be boring and worked at making a post.)
Supporting actor, musical: Gregory Jbara! What a sweetheart he is and showed himself to be, talking to his kids in his thank you, and bringing out his wife, who took care of them while he was on Broadway taking care of all those Billy Elliots.
Supporting actress, musical: Karen Olivo, speaking up for the dream in us all. I regret not having yet seen "Next to Normal," but I'm intrigued by what I've heard and seen so far.
10:20
Jessica Lange appears. "Also beautiful," says Mary, unprompted. "I like these beautiful mature women." (Well, yeah, to tell the truth, so do I.)
Actor, play: Geoffrey Rush. Classiest speech so far, with its clever leap from "French existential absurdist tragedy" to a witty insistence on the Frenchness of all the other nominees, including the one in the play by David Mam-ay.
And then the necrology -- what a huge, sad list. Natasha Richardson. Harold Pinter. Edie Adams (who starred in the first Broadway musical I ever saw). James Whitmore. Horton Foote. Clive Barnes. Tom O'Horgan. Bea Arthur. Robert Anderson. Robert Prosky. Pat Hingle. Anna Manahan. Eartha Kitt. Hugh Leonard. William Gibson. Paul Sills. And Paul Newman. How can we lose so many? And almost every year it's like this. How profligate life -- and talent -- can be.
Another section of earlier awards announced, and what with glancing down at the laptop, I just didn't get them all. But I did see that "Joe Turner" won for lighting and "Billy Elliot" won a bunch more, as I expected. And did "Shrek" really win for costumes, as I predicted (without any real confidence)?
I loved Frank Langella's riff on failing to be nominated for "Man for All Seasons." Great deadpan, impish humor. Actress, play: Marcia Gay Harden (a good choice). "What a glorious season to be on Broadway." Another classy speech, with deft praise of her fellow nominees.
Then Sir Elton John. (Sir? What's happened to the peerage? Well, whatever, it happened long ago, when England really did become a democracy.)"
Legally Blonde" does a number: call it an ad.
Harvey Fierstein, with that extraordinary growl of a voice, awards best revival of a play to "Norman Conquests," which deserved to win, and best play to "God of Carnage," which I feel less enthusiastic about -- it's a fine, crisp play, but I was rooting for Horton Foote's "Dividing the Estate."
11:15
Sorry, a long wait for this installment. I couldn't tear myself away from the prodction numbers; the one from "Jersey Boys" was better than the show.
I enjoyed the producer's praising the "God of Carnage" cast as "the acting equivalent of Rodger Federer." And it was a treat to see the elusive, diminutive Yasmina Reza in person. (Well, TV gives that illusion.) I didn't think she ever left Paris.
Angela Lansbury introducing Jerry Herman! They don't make ‘em like them any more. Well, of course they do -- show biz is amazing that way -- but you have to wait decades to discover just who they are.
Kristen Chenoweth is always welcome, right? Accepting the musical revival award she handed out, Oskar Eustis wore one of those white ribbons (so did Anne Hathaway) urging repeal of the California ban on gay marriage.
David Hyde Pierce entered with a great joke, then awarded best actor in a musical to Alice Ripley, clearly a popular winner in the hall. You could see how intensely she believed her JFK quote about the power of art over politics. "Musical theater is a fine art," she insisted. Yes, indeed.
Liza, wearing all her troubled, astonishing life in full view, brought a lot of tradition to the best musical award to (of course) "Billy Elliot." Among the thanks-yous, the one I thought stood out was to John Barlow, "Broadway's greatest publicist." There are several others who would contend for the title, but it was extraordinary to hear a publicist so praised -- and this on the same night that much admired and liked publicist Shirley Herz received a Tony Honor (not quite a Tony, but who's counting?).
And the telecast saved the best for last, a tightly written version of "Tonight," commenting on the evening. Some writer was working quickly and under pressure backstage, but kudos to Neil Patrick Harris, who more than justified his emceeship with faultless delivery. Here's the only lyric I had time to get down: "this show could not be any gayer, if Liza were named Mayor, and Elton John took flight!" I'm off to find the full lyrics, doubtless already available somewhere on the web.
BUT FIRST: how did I do on my predictions? Frankly, I think I was ridiculously lucky, especially with the design awards, where I did some guessing, but a quick count shows me with 20.5 right and 6.5 wrong. That's what? 76 percent? I'll take it. But I better go check before I crow.
LATER: Yes, 20.5 out of 27 is right. I checked Gwen Orel's picks, and she had 13 out of 25, which is really unfair, because she saw more of the nominated shows than I did.
But nothing's fair in the predictions biz, Gwen.
LATER, STILL: I've just read all of Gwen's posts from backstage, and it's extraordinary how much material she recorded and how well she captures the dynamic of the print media room. But what I really enjoy is the personality she gives it (hers, of course). To read her posts, go to pgTHEATERnow at the top of the Theater page (www.post-gazette.com/theater. Or use this direct link. In either case, you'll have to work back through 11 posts, but it's well worth it.
Posted
Jun 08 2009, 12:00 AM
by
Christopher Rawson