75th Annual Tony Awards in Review
Monday, June 13, 2022 at 10:16PM
NATHANIEL R in Andrew Garfield, Ariana DeBose, Billy Crystal, Broadway and Stage, Dierdre O'Connell, Jennifer Hudson, Joaquina Kalukango, Michael Jackson, Patti Lupone, Six, Tony Awards, musicals

by Nathaniel R

© Theo Wargo/Getty for Tony Awards Production

Ariana DeBose, fresh off her Oscar win, hosted the Tony Awards with enough theater kid energy to make Anne Hathaway blush. No reviews  will be able to claim (in good faith) that she didn't work her ass off to entertain the audience. She was "on" in every moment, pulling faces, doing little dance moves, singing, and engaging with the celebrity audience. She mentioned the 75th Anniversary several times but in truth the show's Diamond anniversary wasn't any different than any other Tony show; they've always mixed a couple "special" reunion-style performances with showcases for the current musicals (the ones that are still open that is). Even the Sondheim tribute -- which we expected to be epic -- was just one number long: Bernadette Peters singing "Children Will Listen" from Into the Woods. 

Best Speech, Ticket-Boosters, A New "EGOT" winner, and more after the jump...


JOINING THE EGOT RANKS
Jennifer Hudson completed her EGOT last night winning a Tony as one of the producers of Best Musical winner A Strange Loop. Congrats JHud!

Other celebrities who helped produce that show can also add their first Tony to their awards shelf (or another Tony in a couple of cases) though they aren't EGOTs (yet): Alan Cumming, Billy Porter, Mindy Kaling, Ilana Glazer, and RuPaul. 

WHAT'S IT CALLED AGAIN?
Though the experimental play Dana H won two Tony Awards, Best Actress and Best Sound Design, presenters kept getting it wrong. In addition to it's correct title it was also called Donna H and Diana H during the evening. 

BEST "SPECIAL" PERFORMANCE 
In Act One (only on Paramount+) that would the New York Gay Men's Chorus singing "Mame" for Angela Lansbury's Lifetime Achievement Award.  (Sadly the legendary actress wasn't there -- she's 96 years old so we hope she's okay. She usually shows up to things!) During the main show that honor goes to the Spring Awakening reunion performance, which reminded audiences how many stars that show made, proving the springboard for the careers of Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr, Skylar Astin, and Gideon Glick. Billy Porter's also did a gorgeous  rendition of "On The Street Where You Live" for the In Memoriam.

PERFORMANCE MOST LIKELY TO SHRED VOCAL CHORDS IF SHE'S DOING THAT 8 SHOWS A WEEK
Joaquina Kalukango, who later won Best Actress for Paradise Square, held a note so loudly and so long (with a flourish at the end somehow despite no break for a breath) that we worried for her! The show has been struggling -- of the musicals open on Broadway it had the third lowest attendance last week -- but that powerhouse performance surely sold some tickets. 

PERFORMER WHO OBVIOUSLY HAD THE MOST ROOTING INTEREST FROM THE CROWD
That's Joaquina Kalukango again. The applause was loud and Cynthia Erivo was visibly thrilled by her performance from her seat near the front. Presenter Danielle Brooks was also clearly elated when she won (they had worked together on the TV movie Mahalia). Kalukango isn't well known to the public yet having only made a handful of appearances onscreen (tiny part in One Night in Miami and four episodes of Lovecraft Country among them) but this was her second consecutive Tony run after leading Slave Play in that long ago pre COVID Tony season.

© Robert Deutsch, USA Today

PERFORMANCE MOST LIKELY TO SELL TICKETS
The Tony Awards, unlike the Oscars which weirdly pretend they're not selling anything, have always doubled as a shameless commercial for visiting NYC and taking in a show (or three). But it's unlikely that many of the shows last night got a big boost beyond maybe Company, which is still running and won five statues. There were a lot of solid performances but very few oh-my-god-i-must-see-that revelations.

We'll find out soon enough which shows got an actual boost in ticket sales -- most of the winners will get a small boost at least but there are always closings announced after the Tony Awards. If I had to place bets, I'd guess that Billy Crystal's surprisingly fun audience-participation silliness built around scat singing '... but in Yiddish' to promote Mr Saturday Night will give that show a boost despite no wins for the show. 

MOST LOVE WITHOUT BEING NOMINATED!
Andrew Garfield got a lot of attention, hot off of his Oscar nomination for tick tick BOOM!. Ariana DeBose teased him in one of her numbers and in the year's funniest presenting bit, Nathan Lane had him in stitches while complimenting his tick tick BOOM performances. 

MOST NAME-CHECKED
Producer Chris Harper was shouted out over and over again in acceptance speeches, in a recurring gag, thanks to Patti LuPone's viral rant earlier this theater season when an audience member dared to talk back to her in a Q & A after the show and said "I pay your salary". Patti's infamous response. "Bullshit. Chris Harper pays my salary."

BEST SPEECHES
Death to the listing of names as a full acceptance speech! It's the dull bane of every awards show, with too many winners not treating it like a necessary evil but like their whole goddamn raison d'etre. The best speeches always combine a few key thank yous (important but if you list too many its meaningless and becomes white noise) with some kind of inspiring message, authentic emotion, and/or good humor.

Best Speech: Dierdre O'Connell, the semi-surprise winner of Best Actress in a Play for her long-since closed experimental play Dana H.

I would love this little prize to be a token for every person who is wondering, 'Should I be trying to make something that could work on Broadway or that could win me a Tony Award? Or should I be making the weird art that is haunting me, that frightens me, that I don't know how to make, that I don't know if anyone in the whole world will understand?' Please let me standing here be a little sign to you from the universe to make the weird art."

Runners up: Michael R Jackson the "big, black and queer ass" force behind A Strange Loop started like an amazing speech was coming but the orchestra threatening to cut him off (ARGH) threw him off and the speech while endearing was rushed and chaotic rather than impactful. Boo to orchestras trying to cut off actual speeches. Orchestras should only do that if someone is just listing names. If they're actually giving speeches, just let them talk!

Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Take Me Out) wrung a couple of laughs from the crowd and told a fun story about working at a Time Square gift shop when he was young, watching actors heading to their shows and hoping it would be him someday. 

COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS

The Lehman Trilogy, an original play, and Company, the Sondheim revival, were the Tony favourites each winning 5 statues including in their top categories Best Play and Best Musical Revival. In a little twist, A Strange Loop and SIX split the "top" new musical categories (Best Musical and Best Score) but both only won one additional Tony with the Michael Jackson jukebox musical MJ and Company taking the bulk of the wins for musicals. 

* show is already closed

BEST MUSICAL

BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

BEST BOOK OF A MUSICAL

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE 

Toby Marlow became the first non-binary winner.

BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL 

Oscar voters aren't the only voters who love biographical performances. This is three Tonys in a row where one of the lead acting musical trophies has gone to someone mimicking a pop star: 73rd Tonys: Stephanie J Block Best Actress for playing Cher; 74th Tony Awards: Adrienne Warren Best Actress for playing Tina Turner; 75th Tony Awards: Myles Frost Best Actor for playing Michael Jackson. Who's next at the 76th Tony Awards? 

 

BEST FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL


L Morgan Lee got a lot of attention as the first openly trans nominee, but nobody was ever going to beat living legend LuPone taking on one of the most iconic of all musical showstoppers "Ladies Who Lunch". 

BEST FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

BEST DIRECTION, MUSICAL

BEST SCENIC DESIGN, MUSICAL

BEST COSTUME DESIGN, MUSICAL 

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN, MUSICAL

BEST SOUND DESIGN, MUSICAL

BEST ORCHESTRATIONS

 

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY 

 

 

BEST PLAY

Despite closing way back in January The Lehman Trilogy practically swept, losing only one of its categories (Sound Design). In other words, those who saw it, were obsessed / remembered it vividly.

BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY

BEST ACTRESS, PLAY

BEST ACTOR, PLAY

BEST FEATURED ACTRESS, PLAY

BEST FEATURED ACTOR, PLAY

 

BEST DIRECTION, PLAY 

 

BEST SCENIC DESIGN, PLAY

 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN, PLAY 

 

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN, PLAY

 

BEST SOUND DESIGN, PLAY

 

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