2014 Tony Awards

 

Another Broadway season come and gone, another slightly giddy night sitting in front of a TV in the Midwest watching snatches of the year in theatre.  Some grumbles and eye rolls, as with any award show, but when it comes down to it, I really love the Tony Awards.

 

Hugh Jackman was back in the hosting seat after ceding his duties to Neil Patrick Harris for several years.  I always find him to be a fun and engaging host, and he had some nice bits this year.  His leading actress nominee songs were a delight, and I loved his reenactment of his teenage theatre-geek days of performing all the parts in The Music Man’s “Rock Island.”  (Very familiar for this theatre geek – awkwardly singing all the parts in Broadway numbers is my bread and butter.)

 

As always, I’m woefully under-informed about plays, so I’ll stick with the musical nominees for the most part.  This year’s telecast followed the trend of mostly featuring stuff we’ve seen before.  There were two movie-turned-musical performances that basically recreated famous scenes from their respective films (Aladdin and Rocky,) After Midnight and Beautiful featured actors playing famous singers of the past and singing their famous songs, Wicked was brought out for its tenth anniversary, and two of the revivals that performed (Les Misérables and Cabaret) are pretty much exactly the same as their previous productions.

 

Which isn’t to say that everything was same old, same old.  Idina Menzel performed a song from the new Tom Kitt/Brian Yorkey show If/Then, and best musical winner A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder positively tore it up, proving itself to be a very funny, excellently-scored Edwardian-era drawing-room-murder comedy (is that enough hyphens for you?)  Though Violet and Hedwig and the Angry Inch are technically revivals, both are on Broadway for the first time, so their performances felt a little more novel.  Also, for the first in my recollection, songs were performed from shows that haven’t even opened yet – one written by Sting and the other an adaptation of Finding Neverland.

 

Lots of appreciative winners this year.  On the play side of things, I liked Bryan Cranston’s speech and Mark Rylance’s ode to the man who brought the Globe back to London, and I love that, even after six Tony wins, Audra McDonald still falls apart when they call her name; I adore her.  James Monroe Iglehart’s victory dance was awesome, and I was very happy for both Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Hall.  Lena Hall’s speech was especially great; she was just completely floored and excited, so much so that her notes were actually shaking in her hands as she tried to read them.  Everyone who won from A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder was also fantastic.

 

I am, however, absolutely gutted that the final number wasn’t a recap of the evening. I just love those – Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman always did a great job, as did Lin-Manuel Miranda more recently.  In particular, last year’s closer with Neil Patrick Harris and Audra McDonald was glorious, and I think seeing Audra McDonald do a mic drop was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen.