by Patrick Ball
Hamilton, just celebrated at the Emmys, swept the Tonys six years ago.
Eighteen months after Broadway’s curtains dropped due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, they finally rose again last week as New Yorkers and theater lovers across the country welcomed their favorite witches, lions, and founding fathers back to Broadway. Correspondingly, The American Theater Wing and The Broadway League have set the 74th annual Tony Awards for the curtailed 2019-2020 Broadway season for this Sunday. Yes, you read that right, this weekend awards are finally being handed out for productions from an eligibility window that ran from the literal *summer* of 2019 to February 2020 -- a lifetime ago! (It's been two years and three months since the 73rd annual Tony Awards were held.)
Luckily, theater-related talent and content has been gracing our screens in abundance over the past year to help ease the wait...
Hannah Waddingham, who just won the Emmy for "Ted Lasso", received her first big showbiz nomination (The Olivier Award) way back in 2007 for "Spamalot!" on the West-End
Television series like All Rise, The Good Fight, Girls5eva, and “the New York theatre actor’s home away from home” Law and Order franchise, have filled their casts with a host of theater favorites. Even this past weekend’s Emmys featured a number of theater shout-outs. In a speech celebrating Disney+ sensation Hamilton’s win, the fabulous Renee Elise Goldsberry extolled the virtues of the relationship between stage and screen. And Best Comedy Series Ted Lasso’s supporting actress winner, the long-admired star of the London stage Hannah Waddingham, delivered this statement to the industry across the pond:
“West End musical theatre performers need to be on screen more. Please give them a chance, cause we won’t let you down!”
And on our movie screens, both streaming and theatrical, there has been more theater-film crossover this year than any in recent memory, with at least eight new screen musicals, either original or adapted, receiving a major release this year. From the warmly received In the Heights and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, to the divisive Dear Evan Hansen, and Stephen Spielberg’s upcoming Oscar hopeful West Side Story, there’s been something for everyone. Not to mention, the upcoming adaptations of Stephen Karam’s Pulitzer-winner The Humans and Shakespeare’s oft-filmed Macbeth from Joel Coen directing superstars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand for straight-play fans.
It remains to be seen how many of the upcoming stage to screen works will manage to become hits, but it’s clear the pipeline from the stages of New York to the sound stages of LA is a-flowin’.
But, for both die-hard stage fans and awards show obsessives, one major thing has been missing. The Tony Awards are consistently one of the most entertaining and earnest awards shows of the season. This year, the ceremony serves multiple purposes: to award those shows from so long ago (a few will have reopened by the time the show airs) and to welcome American audiences back to the theater. CBS and Paramount+ are planning a four hour evening, hosted by Tony winners Audra McDonald and Leslie Odom Jr., with a more traditional ceremony on the streamer, followed by the 3 top categories weaved into a concert celebration on CBS proper. Leading musical nominees include Jagged Little Pill, a jukebox show featuring the music from that iconic Alanis Morissette album, Tina: The Tina Tuner Musical, and the stage incarnation of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge. On the play side, it looks to be a battle between London import The Inheritance, a moving and inventive gay twist on E.M. Forster's "Howards End", and the provocative and powerful Slave Play from Zola’s own Jeremy O. Harris.
Moulin Rouge! on Broadway
On Thursday we'll break down the players and make our predictions ahead of Sunday's ceremony. It may be mighty late, but it’s awfully fun to jump right back into major awards show mode before the embers from The Emmys have even cooled. Grab your playbill and unwrap those candies, the show’s about to begin.
The Tony Awards will take place on Sunday night 7:00-9:00 PM EST on Paramount+ (most of the categories including acting awards) and 9:00-11:00 EST on CBS for live musical performances and three final awards (presumably Best Musical, Best Play, and Best Revival of a Play)