Tony Awards 2021: Winners, Performances, and Takeaways
Monday, September 27, 2021 at 11:46AM
NATHANIEL R in Andrew Burnap, Audra McDonald, Broadway and Stage, Danny Burstein, Lois Smith, Mary Louise Parker, Moulin Rouge!, The Inheritance, Tony Awards, musicals

by Nathaniel R

The incredible Audra McDonald hosted the 74th annual Tony Awards last night

Did you watch the Tony Awards on Paramount Plus or the "Broadway's Back" concert on CBS last night? Two years and three months after the 73rd Tony Awards and 11 months after the nominations were announced the 74th "Annual" Tony Awards were finally held. Those awards were celebrating the very short very depressing theater season of 2019/2020 which ended with lots of sickness (Moulin Rouge the Musical in particular was hit very hard by COVID-19 in the spring of 2020) and lots of crushed dreams as several shows never opened and others were pushed back two years and some had to close well before they ran out of steam. Cut to September 2021 and the shows that did somehow survive the two years shutdown are reopening or will reopen by the end of the year.

Let's look at the winners, the hightlights, and what we can clean from all of this after the jump... 

Best Musical 

Six scheduled musicals were never able to open so for the first time that we can recall in our NYC years there were only jukebox musicals to choose from. In the end Moulin Rouge! had enough razzle dazzle to slay its competition winning 10 Tonys in total. 

Best Play 

In comparison to the musical field there were several options for Tony voters for new plays. The Inheritance was the last show I was able to see before Broadway's closing and though it moved me considerably (I sobbed in part two which is very unlike me!) I certainly didn't expect it to triumph over the much more widely discussed Slave Play.

TAKEWAY: It's easy to suspect that with the twin wins of The Inheritance and Moulin Rouge! the Tony voters were in the mood to celebrate the traditions, conscious and otherwise, of Broadway more than its innovations. They chose a classic text inspired (Howards End) very gay piece for Play and a huge glitzy adapted spectacle for Musical. 

Best Revival of a Play

 

As with musicals, there were only 4 revivals to choose from for voters since more than half of the expected shows weren't able to open (two of those never-born revivals, Plaza Suite and Take Me Out are coming this season instead).  While Betrayal was star-led and well regarded A Soldier's Play took this one. (It was originally an Off Broadway hit in '81 and then an Oscar nominated movie in '84)

TAKEWAY: The Tony Awards and the follow up concert last night gave lots of air time to black artists and the fight for racial justice including a a special Tony to The Broadway Advocacy Coalition and a special spoken word / dance performance during the CBS concert, but A Soldier's Play and Tina had to carry that banner alone in terms of wins since the polarizing Slave Play went 0 for 12 with its nominations (which honestly surprised us but perhaps it shouldn't have!)

Best Book of a Musical

Diablo Cody (Juno) is halfway to her EGOT now.

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre 

The rare time that no musicals were honored in this category (since most of the shows that played in that very short season were jukebox musicals) 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

I just peed a little.

 

This was the win that surprised me the most but perhaps all the stars cancelled each other out so newcomer Burnap, who is just 30, won. It surprises because The Inheritance always feels like a true ensemble piece rather than a leading man piece. In the end Tony Awards voters were into The Inheritance much more than critics or ticket buyers.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

 

Mary Louise Parker won her second Tony and was very emotional about her fellow nominees. She joked to Audra McDonald "you have enough of these, you can't have this one." But one really must ask now... what will Laura Linney (who is just as incredible onstage as she is onscreen -- which isn't always the case) have to do for a win? 

Her speech was lovely and her dress, also lovely, had a story. It belonged to her mother and MLP quipped that the dress was older than she was. 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical 

In the buildup to this envelope opening when they joked about the rules of a sole nominee needing 60% of the votes to win, I had a weird panic... what if he doesn't... this joke would be so cruel. But of course Tveit who treads the boards regularly was well liked enough to get 60% "yays" from the ballot. 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical 

As suspected Adrienne Warren took this one for her lively Tina Turner. The "biopic" thing about the Oscars is also sort of true for stage though it's far less automatic for statues. 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

 

As suspected. It's such a good role!

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play 

 

Lois Smith just set an all time record, winning at 90. She's the oldest actor ever to win the competitive Tony. Very well deserved too as she was incredible in Part Two of The Inheritance. 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

 

Seventh time was the charm for Danny Burstein, one of Broadway's greatest treasures.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

 

Lauren Patten sang the show-stopper "You Outta Know" in Jagged Little Pill though for the Tony Awards performance the cast performed a medley of "Ironic" and "All I Really Want" so it was her co-stars Elizabeth Stanley and who got the job of selling tickets to the show (since that's what those live broadcast numbers are always about)

Best Scenic Design of a Play 

A third scenic design win for Rob Howell for the immortal Christmas show.

Best Scenic Design of a Musical 

This was a given considering the elephant and such and transposing the glitz of Baz Luhrmann's movie classic to stage well in the visual departments.

Best Costume Design of a Play 

A second costume design win for Rob Howell (who also won scenic design for this same show)

Best Costume Design of a Musical

A 10th win for the always busy Zuber. 

Best Lighting Design of a Play

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

Townsend beat himself (as well as one competitor) to win for Moulin Rouge!

Best Sound Design of a Play 

TAKEAWAY: A Christmas Carol really cleaned up in the technicals even though it missed the "Revival" nomination. So we suspect this means the Tony Voters just weren't that into revivals and plays this past year, especially from a technical standpoint. Minimalism can only take you so far with voters. 

Best Sound Design of a Musical 

Best Direction of a Play 

Best Direction of a Musical

Best Choreography

Best Orchestrations 

 

More takeaways?

BEST PERFORMANCES 

 

  1. "Duets" - legendary duos reunited from Ragtime, Rent, and Wicked. For music theater geeks like us this was bringing the house down
  2. "Moulin Rouge (medley)" - Danny Burstein 4ever. It's so hard to properly convey his stage charisma but he brings it in every show. He's nearly always the MVP no matter how good everyone else is in any given musical. Even in Follies, which is always about the women, he was just riveting in a role that's usually underwhelming. 
  3. Spoken Word/Dance - Tony nominee Daniel J Watts (Tina) and tap dancer Jared Grimes and assorted dancers did a thrilling political number. "What does your silence sound like?"
  4. "Aint to Proud to Beg (medley)" - Though the Temptations' biopic-like show is underwhelming and a bit monotonous, in short doses like this it's fabulous. John Legend and James Harkness were particularly fun together as they danced off stage.
  5. "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" - We sometimes feel for Jennifer Holliday that she's had to sing this one song over and over again thousands of times for 40 years (literally) but on the other hand it's always a thrill. Great pipes tragically depreciate over time -- even for the very best singers of all time -- but thankfully Holliday started young (she won the Tony for Dreamgirls when she was just 21!) so at nearly 61 she can still bring it.  

TAKEWAY: it was quite strange to see a who four hours of Broadway celebration and hear not one original song. Everything was from the American theater songbook or from off broadway music realms like pop and rock. Hopefully the 2021/2022 season (which is just beginning) will bring us some new music. You can't have a living artform without new works.

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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