The Tony Awards went about as expected: Inside jokes, great production numbers, men kissing, winners who couldn't get their acceptance speeches down to time, and no real shockers when the envelopes were opened. What's kind of interesting about the show is that it serves a dual function insofar as the theatrical world is concerned: It allows the kind of self-congratulation that every creative community seems to require…and it also serves as a prime-time infomercial for Broadway. Each show trots out its jazziest number and hopes to create a run on the box office the next day. Sometimes, it does; sometimes, days after the Tonys, a couple of shows close. Based on their spots on tonight's show, I'd guess Hairspray, Man of La Mancha, Gypsy and maybe Nine are going to sell some tickets tomorrow, but none of those shows were probably in any jeopardy. Man of La Mancha has been playing to about 70% capacity, which is probably acceptable, and the others have been at 90-100%. (I notice, by the way, that The Producers is down to around 80% capacity, which doesn't even put it in the Top Ten. Bet they announce some big stars stepping into the production soon.)
The most embarrassing moment of the Tony broadcast came after Christopher Reeve announced the award for Best Director of a Play. Joe Mantello vaulted to the stage to accept and somehow managed to not acknowledge Reeve sitting there in his wheelchair, unable to even extend a handshake. (A screw-up with the microphones of the Def Poetry Jam was also unfortunate.) The most thrilling moment for me came when Bernadette Peters came out and performed the hell out of "Rose's Turn" from the new production of Gypsy. Ms. Peters has received mixed reactions for her performance. Some of it is from that bitchy faction of theater buffs who arbitrarily decide it's time to tear down some star they used to love, but some of it has been from critics who actually seem to be responding to what they saw on stage. They said — some of them — that Bernadette didn't have the power or presence to pull off the role…and perhaps at earlier performances, she didn't. But for the Tonys, she performed the big, climactic number from the show — an amazing feat. Out of context, done without the entire show before it, some stars couldn't begin to do justice to "Rose's Turn" but Bernadette was amazing. Right after it aired, a friend who saw her in previews and didn't like her then e-mailed me, "If that's how she's doing the show now, I'm going back to see it again."
The biggest surprise was how the show used its expanded time. In the last few years, we got an hour of "minor" awards on PBS, then a rushed two hours on CBS in which they presented the rest of the trophies and tried to showcase all the production numbers. CBS inexplicably went for three hours this year and a lot of folks assumed it would be the same three hours, only all on one channel. Instead, they presented those "minor" awards before the broadcast and summarized them briefly on the show, thereby allowing three hours for what recently has been done in two. It made for a much, much better show, though I doubt it will cause ratings to soar. Most of America still doesn't care about awards to people they've never heard of for shows they'll never see.