As you may recall, actor Sean Hayes has been at the center of a controversy lately. He's starring on Broadway in the revival of Promises, Promises and an openly-gay writer for Newsweek began writing inane (I thought) articles about how Hayes, who is also gay, is therefore unconvincing in a straight role. Or something like that. It's one of those arguments where if there is any legitimate point in there, it's gotten well-buried under the stupid part.
Anyway, I wanted to note here that Mr. Hayes has just been announced as the host of this year's Tony Awards, which air June 13. So that may help Promises, Promises, which did not get swell reviews. The currently-reported box office grosses of the show are good but every bit helps.
Also good are the numbers for The Addams Family, which got even worse notices. Most shows on Broadway are down lately but those two are selling most of their seats. Perhaps we are reaching the stage where reviews, at least through the established channels, are becoming of less importance in the theater. (Grosses for Promises, Promises will probably be down this week because Kristin Chenoweth has been missing performances due to vocal problems. And it's also a sign of evolving times that I only know this because I signed up for her Twitter feed and she's been mentioning it there.)
So, uh, not that Hayes isn't a good choice but why isn't Nathan Lane hosting? He's in a show that could profit from the attention. He's funny. If they want someone who's well-known and gay, he's well-known and gay. He did it before and he was very good at it. Three weeks before the telecast is kinda late to be announcing your host…so I'm just wondering if they dickered with Lane for a while, things didn't work out and they finally went to Hayes. Or maybe they were waiting to see if Promises, Promises would run because they didn't want a host whose show had just closed.