The 66th Annual Tony Awards - The Best of Broadway

 

I made it through last year's telecast of the Tony Awards but I couldn't make it through this year's show. Neil Patrick Harris was charming as usual.The Book of Mormon opening which included heavyweights Ricky Martin, Matthew Broderick, Judith Light and James Earl Jones was cute. Also, I love love love that Nina Arianda and James Corden took home prizes, instead of the usual suspects. However, I must confess. I flipped the channel as soon as I could to HBO's True Blood. And apparently I wasn't the only one from the dismal ratings the show received - 6 million viewers down 14% from last year and down from 60 Minutes, the show's lead in. 

As usual, post Tony coverage was aplenty. Let's look at some that I found interesting.

• The New York Post made a big deal about The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess beating out Follies for Best Revival of a Musical after Stephen Sondheim's scathing letter to the NYT last year. At this point, I wonder if anyone still cares. 
• Speaking of Porgy and Bess, Audra McDonald, Broadway's sweetheart took home her fifth Tony, this time for leading actress in a musical. She is the first Black actress to ever win so many Tony's. To celebrate the occasion, during her acceptance speech, she was nice enough to remind Black folks about what we hate about Porgy and Bess - Blacks depicted as rapists and junkies in this historic...opera, musical...opera-musical?  
• Breast cancer survivor Sheryl Crow, who is working on the score for a musical version of the film Diner, looked wonderful in her first appearance after announcing that she has a brain tumor.   
• For a brief minute, it looked like James Earl Jones thought that he was the winner when Candace Bergen announced that James...Corden won best actor for his amazingly funny performance in One Man, Two Guvnors. 
• Reactions to the Evita performance were lukewarm. An Evita performance where Evita barely sings a word. Very strange!!  
• For fashionistas, here are some takes on best dressed here and here as well as worst dressed here. 

Of the 30 shows up for nominations, 11 took home trophies. So, here they are...the best of Broadway. For those that are still playing, good luck getting a discounted ticket now.