Did you watch the Tony Awards last night? The evening began with Hugh Jackman proving his physical fitness -- his knees get such a workout -- by hopping through his entire continuous shot production number, basically a tour of the backstage and upcoming performers in costume.
That led to a night of high energy but strange and touristy musical number choices like numbers from ancient top-selling shows (Les Miz and Wicked) rather than new ones that need the sales help and non-Broadway celebrities like Sting and Jennifer Hudson taking up a lot of room to sell shows that aren't even open. It'd be a bit like the Oscars going "how about Interstellar?" while giving prizes to Gravity back in March.
Hugh Jackman also rapped with LL Cool Jr via the famously chatty opening number of "The Music Man" Hugh Jackman has now spent 14 years of his career playing Wolverine and at this point he's really wasting his life (I mean once you have 100s of millions, what's 20 million more?). He needs to commit and make only movie musicals before he's too old.
Highlights and winners of the night after the jump...
Jennifer Hudson doing a very generic anthem song from "Finding Neverland"
• Lena Hall's Anna Paquin like adorable hyperventilating acceptance speech for Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• Jonathan Groff's pitch perfect imitation of John Travolta (you knew it would happen) while introducing Idina Menzel
• Hugh Jackman's Best Actress presentations where he sang and danced with or embarrassed the divas
• Neil Patrick Harris's performance of "Sugar Daddy" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• Vera Farmiga looking hotter than she's looked since the 2009 or 2010 Oscars - whichever year she wore that fuchsia number
Bomer and Quinto
• Zachary Quinto and Matt Bomer presenting together in veritably matching glasses wreaking hormonal havoc on twitter - gay nerd fiery explosions of lust.
• and the most historic moment of the night was Audra McDonald's SIXTH Tony win. She has now won the most Tonys of any actor, male or female, and in every category an actress can win in: Best Actress in a Play, Best Actress in a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Play and Best Featured Actress in a Musical. If some movie producer doesn't try to bring her Billie Holiday to the big screen they are insane. And I still have no idea why some producer didn't try to transfer her Porgy & Bess to the bigscreen either. It's not like we couldn't use a new movie version of that one with her once in a generation voice. Other adaptations that would suit her on the bigscreen Caroline or Change or this new play right here; Oscar loves a biopic.
And also my friends and I went to college with her husband Will Swenson #namedropping #gag
THE WINNERS
Best Musical "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder"
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical Neil Patrick Harris, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical Jesse Mueller, "Beautiful -- The Carole King Musical"
Best Play "All the Way"
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play Audra McDonald, "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill"
amazing how she subsumes her own giant voice to do Billie's much different one
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play Bryan Cranston, "All the Way"
Best Revival of a Musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"
Best Revival of a Play "A Raisin in the Sun"
(I swear this wins Tonys every time it's revived. And it's revived ALL THE TIME)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play Mark Rylance, "Twelfth Night"
(He's returning to movie screens soon. It's been a long time.)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical Lena Hall, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"
Best Book of a Musical Robert L. Friedman, "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder"
Best Direction of a Musical Darko Tresnjak, "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder"
Best Direction of a Play Kenny Leon, "A Raisin in the Sun"
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theater "The Bridges of Madison County"
(Strange that this one two music awards and still wasn't nominated for Original Musical)
The Genie beat Aladdin's Abs as "Best Featured Actor in a Musical"
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical James M. Iglehart, "Aladdin"
Best Choreography Warren Carlyle, "After Midnight"
Best Costume Design of a Musical Linda Cho, "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder"
Best Costume Design of a Play Jenny Tiramani, "Twelfth Night"
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play Sophie Okonedo, "A Raisin in the Sun"
SOPHIE!!!
Best Lighting Design of a Musical Kevin Adams, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"
Best Lighting Design of a Play Natasha Katz, "The Glass Menagerie"
Special Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre Jane Greenwood
Tony Winner Sophie Okonedo! Alan Cumming. Vera Farmiga
Regional Theatre Award Signature Theatre
Isabelle Stevenson Award Rosie O'Donnell
Honors for Excellence in the Theatre Joseph P. Benincasa Joan Marcus Charlotte Wilcox
P.S. Here's a hopping number that surely inspired Hugh Jackman from adorable Bobby Van