Tony Awards

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

So I'm sitting and enjoying a duet with Hugh Jackman and Neil Patrick Harris when I can't believe that I hear NPH sing, "if I'm the bottom then you're the top." ROTFL.

[Poolboy21409]

I just signed on to say the same thing. What a hoot. Now I have always wondered about Jackman but I don't wonder anymore. Wonder how many of the main stream audience will even get this entendre. Plus the opening skit with Neil Patrick and bout being a gay on Broadway---"Not Just For Gays Anymore", Great opening. Thanks Sam.F for starting this. Thought I would be the first

[happyguy2]

I must agree. It was a bang-up job that NPH did and no doubt can be left about Jackman being at least bi. I was struck by just how many people were in the audience with same sex dates. and I loved Robin Williams' joke about his beard. And the show was great entertainment too.

[JT Brooklyn]

Well we know at least 3 People watched this year!

[bostonman]

I just signed on to say the same thing. What a hoot. Now I have always wondered about Jackman but I don't wonder anymore. Wonder how many of the main stream audience will even get this entendre. Plus the opening skit with Neil Patrick and bout being a gay on Broadway---"Not Just For Gays Anymore", Great opening. Thanks Sam.F for starting this. Thought I would be the first

 

Did anyone think it ironic after that (funny but terribly underrehearsed) opening number about Broadway not being just for gays, that the first 3 major numbers shown from the nominated musicals were (virtually) all-male numbers? (Yes, there was Miss Jones in How To Succeed and a few women in the number from Catch Me If You Can, but Scottsboro Boys was all male - and if you add the few non-singing men in the Mormon song, that was a 4th all-male number!)

 

I will say that having Martha Wash out there to do "It's Raining Men" was unexpectedly emotional for me. When that song first hit the charts in 1982, I had just started college, and by that time I had been out for over a year, but I was still really just beginning to celebrate my sexuality. And that song is one of a handful of late-era disco songs that really has strong memories for me. And with the (perhaps unfortunately) cheap drag-show feel to the staging of that Priscilla excerpt tonight, and with Pride Week just finishing up in Boston, seeing this really brought back some memories for me, lol.

 

Poor Paul Shaffer, though - the attempt to put him into the number towards the end looked like it really backfired.

 

Biggest surprise of the evening - I really liked the Spider-Man song. (And I really hated the Mormon song, despite a winning performance of it - musically, that's third-rate material if not worse. Quirky/funny lytics, but not musically rewarding.)

 

Best acceptance speech - Nikki James (best featured actress, Mormon) - she seemed totally floored by the fact that she won - it was very moving to watch her "in the moment" as she had nothing but raw emotions to deal with.

 

Worst acceptance speech - Mark Rylance (best actor, Jerusalem) - just as he did when he won both the Tony and the Drama desk Awards for Boeing Boeing, he decided not to thank anyone, but instead went self-indulgent and recited a non-sequitur piece by Louis Jenkins that had nothing to do with anything. Whatever his intentions, to me this comes off as insincere. I'd rather he forfeit the award to someone who'd seem more grateful about receiving it.

 

Worst performances - 1) the cast of Memphis trotting out the same number they did last year. This time, with absolutely no diction (or maybe they weren't actually singing in English anyway?) - I couldn't understand a word of it. The two ironies about this song - first, as this show was being workshopped before Hairspray (even though Hairspray made it to Broadway first), the understandable accusations that this song is just a pale rewrite of the (vastly superior) "You Can't Stop The Beat" are unfounded. And - the supreme irony, I suppose - the most memorable part of the song (when they're all singing "na na na, na na na na na" etc) is all the more memorable because it's really the release section of the classic "The Greatest Love Of All." I'm not quite accusing David Bryan of stealing the music, lol - but it's virtually the same. ;-)

 

The other worst performance was John Leguizamo - I think that was part of his one-man show that he was rambling on and on with. Despite some funny moments, I kept wondering what this had to do with anything, and how long he was going to go on for.

 

Honorable mention for worst performances - Brooke Shields (especially), Stephen Colbert, and Bobby Cannavale, who needed lots more rehearsal on their "featured solos" in the opening number. OUCH!!!!!!!!

 

And honorable mention for best performance - NPH's "poetry slam" ending (penned in "real time" by Lin-Manuel Miranda). Kewl!! ;-) (And even though the show was running late, CBS didn't cut him off!!!!)

[jackhammer91406]

I have to agree. The opening number was fun to watch. I also thought Neil did a good job hosting overall.

Here's a link to the opening number if you missed it....

 

And the rap number at the end was pretty good as well but you probably need to see the show to understand all of it.

here's a link for that clip;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns4kV9C6ga0&feature=player_embedded

[good ol boy]

Grinning from ear to ear to ear!

[leigh.bess.toad]

Thanks Jackhammer for the link. It's Not Just for Gays Anymore was absolutely hysterical. "Come in and be inspired, there's no sodomy required", "It's not just for dudes who like dudes", "the glamour of Broadway is beckoning straights -- the people who marry in all 50 states".

 

NPH can do no wrong. I'm so looking forward to spending the next two nights with him. Unfortunately, he'll be on the screen while I'm only in my movie seat.

 

But Colbert's part of the opening makes me very Sorry-Grateful.

[uwsman2]

The most important thing about the Tonys, for me, is that The Normal Heart won the Tony for best revival of a play. On the thirtieth anniversary of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic, a serious play about the early years has an important message for all of us about opportunities lost and the importance of accountability in our lives. And it is so wonderful that Larry Kramer lived to see this day, in light of all the challenges he faces living with HIV and other medical complications of that, and to have the vindication of the theater community saying that he created something important, something worth honoring. This is overwhelming, and so much, much more important than who gave the best speech or sang the queerest song.

[+ Axiom2001]

I have to agree. The opening number was fun to watch. I also thought Neil did a good job hosting overall.

Here's a link to the opening number if you missed it....

 

And the rap number at the end was pretty good as well but you probably need to see the show to understand all of it.

here's a link for that clip;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns4kV9C6ga0&feature=player_embedded

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It's been a week since "The Tonys" aired, and I am still basking in this "afterglow!" I thought it, the show, was stellar in contrast with its counterparts!!

[+ sf westcoaster]

Headed to New York next week - managed to get a ticket for the top four (best new and best revival). Book of Mormon is a total sell out - by morgaging the home I managed to get tickets for it.

 

Agree the Tonys show was, as far as awards show go, outstanding - one of the best ever.