*Disclaimer: I wrote this review before I knew about
the allegations against Kevin Spacey. Here, it’s particularly gross that
Spacey’s hosting duties include a closet joke, when he in fact didn’t come out
until he wanted to control the narrative after being accused of trying to
assault a 14-year-old boy, giving fuel to homophobes who equate gay men with
pedophilia. Way to throw the community under the bus, creep.*
Last year’s Tony’s, at least on the musical side (which is the one I’m most equipped to talk about,) were basically the Hamilton Awards. Now, that show deserved every award it won, and then some, but I did feel a little bad for some of the other nominees in the musical categories – based on the performances, it seemed like it was a great year, and it was unfortunate for other shows that they happened to come out the in the same season as something as incredible as Hamilton.
This year
wasn’t quite like that. The eventual
Best Musical winner, Dear Evan Hansen,
was quite the powerhouse and won multiple big awards, including Best Book, Best
Original Score, Best Leading Actor, and Best Featured Actress. However, it wasn’t entirely Dear Evan Hansen’s night. While it was the clear takeaway of the night
for me, the show I was most interested in checking out, Hello, Dolly! took home the other two acting awards along with Best
Revival, Come From Away won Best
Director, and there was a decent spreading of love among the technical and
design awards, particularly for Natasha,
Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.
It was
also different because, for me, it wasn’t a night that made me want to run out
and buy cast recording after cast recording.
This was a year where I came in knowing very, very little about the
nominated musicals – which isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker for the telecast –
but other than Dear Evan Hansen, none
of the new shows really wowed me. (Speaking
of the Best Musical winner: I’m still
not entirely sure what it’s about, and the teenness of it all brought to mind Spring Awakening, but overall, I’d say
it looks more interesting and better written than that previous teen-centric
juggernaut, which I enjoy but don’t adore.)
Nothing really struck me as bad or gave me “this show looks like a mess”
impressions (which can happen,) but nothing else quite sizzled. Andy Karl was quite good in the performance
from Groundhog Day, the cast of the Falsettos revival was to die for, and
the Josh Groban-led performance from Natasha,
Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 was exuberant. Still, the whole thing was a little “meh.” I feel like a number of shows might not have
chosen the most fitting song to perform, like I wasn’t quite seeing their best.
Some of
my favorite awards/speeches of the night ended up being more on the play
side. I didn’t know more about any of
them than the musicals, but all four of the new plays sounded really
interesting, especially Indecent. Cynthia Nixon, Best Featured Actress, had the
best political remarks of the evening in her speech, and I teared up at Best
Featured Actor Michael Aronov’s beautiful tribute to all who helped him on his
road to becoming an actor, especially his parents. (Also, the second Mark Hamill came out, I
knew he was there to introduce the “In Memorium” segment, but my lip still quivered
when he was talking about those we’d lost this year and concluded it with, “…and
a princess.”)
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