79th Annual Tony Awards Recap

This week I'm getting back in the musical swing with a recap of Broadway's biggest night! 

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Time Codes:
00:00 - Opening Act
02:02 - Tony Awards Intro
03:30 - Number of Wins Per Show
04:53 - Full Show Recap & Winners
32:25 - Curtain Call

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up everyone, and welcome to another episode of Down Once More. I'm your host, Matt, and this week I am going to talk all about the American Theater Wing 79th annual Tony Awards presentation. So if you've been following and you're subscribed on YouTube, then you have seen a lot of Love Island USA content. And so if that's not your thing, here is an overcorrect. Here is an episode that is entirely for the theater nerds. Now, caveat, I am by no means a theater expert. I love musicals with my whole being. Do I know all the politics, the inner workings of them, all the history of some of the classic grades, like a chorus line, which we got an ode to attribute to in this year's Tony's? No, I do not. I know what I like, and I love it, and I will forever support Broadway and the arts. And so I am going to talk about this night that is built to celebrate that. A couple notes. Staying up and doing these nightly instant reactions to Love Island is making that first hour of my morning rough. And that's why I get up super early before I have to go to work. So that I'm at tip top performance still for work. But if you are watching Love Island USA, if you need some trashy reality TV, my instant reactions drop nightly on YouTube. And if you're an audio listener, then you notice on Saturdays there's a bonus episode where it's all my mashups from the week combined into one. So even if the nightly episodes aren't your thing, you can check it out on the week and get a glimpse at what is going on with the Youth of America. Uh, spoiler alert, they're making out a shit ton. All right, the Tony Awards. Let's get into it. One thing I want to say right off the bat is that I loved and was very impressed with the whole kind of tenor of this presentation. It was focused on celebrating the uniqueness of the performers, celebrating the LGBTQ community, which we saw a lot of in these performances, in the acceptance speeches, the talk about unity and bringing people together and community and family and uniting everyone and love. I thought was awesome. It's a great message to focus when there's so many things dividing everyone in the country right now. And I usually don't get political on here, but um celebrating the arts and everything that has kind of been attacking the arts recently and trying to quiet it or change it or restrict things, getting to have a night that just celebrates it and some of these amazing performers and put things to light on the stage is fantastic. And I really appreciated that almost everyone was given the chance to do their full speeches, and so many of them used it to celebrate the diversity of the theater and the message of unity right now. I thought that was awesome. Before I dive into specific categories, I'm going to give an overall winner's recap based on show. So the top winner of the night was Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the revival of the play. It got six Tony Awards across all the different categories. The Lost Boys, Ragtime, and Schmigadun, so three musicals. They each had four uh musical, four awards each, and then Cats the Jellico Ball won three awards, and then a number of plays Becky Shaw, Fallen Angels, Giant, Liberation, and Oedipus each got one win. Now, I always thought it was Oedipus. It was an Oedipus complex. This they every time they said Oedipus, uh Oedipus, Oedipus? That's something different. Uh Oedipus. And no, that see, I can't say it. It sounds weird. Oedipus. That's I think it's the I don't know. For some reason, I'm really struggling with saying that. And they're talking about how it's a story that's 2,500 years old, essentially, and it is still so relevant today, which is kind of sad. And so I don't know anything about the play, I just know the comments about the Oedipus complex. That's all I know. That's that's it. And so uh I'll get into who won what categories, the breakdown of the show, and I'm gonna start with the early awards, something that was on Tubi, it wasn't on the main show on CBS, and that's most of the technical awards, which I feel like is kind of sad. I think that the technical aspects are so important to what makes these shows successful. I wish they got a little bit more celebration and a little bit more of the limelight into sharing that as well as the big flashy categories. Because um, I'm just gonna dive right in. The first winner was best for best choreography was Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons from Cats the Jellicle Ball. And the reason I want to start with that one too is because Cats the Jellicle Ball's number that they performed during the main show, the choreography in that was amazing and what stood out to me. The dancing was wonderful, it had so much energy from the performers. It made me way more interested in that show as someone who wasn't a fan of regular cats and hearing mixed things about previous iterations of the Jellico Ball. Uh, just seeing that cast on stage and the energy they brought to it made me very interested in the show in general. And without that choreography, the show doesn't work as well, especially with this uh revival and reinvention making it as like a uh ballroom competition. So shout out them. We now I I do have a confession, I did not watch this on Tubi. I had uh other things going on yesterday, and I watched a little bit of the Tony Award. Well, I'm recording this on Monday, so that's what I mean by yesterday, and I watched like the first half hour of the Tony Awards, then pivoted to Love Island, and then finished watching the Tony Awards today. And because of the quick turnaround time on the episodes, I did not get a chance to go back and watch these early awards. So my apologies there, but I did want to still bring attention to them and give shout-outs. So Best Scenic Design of a Musical was one by Dane Laffrey from The Lost Boys, Best Scenic Design of a Play, uh Chloe Lamford for Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Best Lighting Design of a Musical, Jen Shriver and Michael Arden from The Lost Boys, which the clips we saw from it, the technical aspects looked absolutely amazing and mesmerizing for that show. And I am very excited for the cast album to release, which I'll talk about a little bit later. Best lighting design of a play, uh Jack Knowles one for Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Best original score, music and or lyrics written for the theater. Uh Shmigadoon, one for that, for the score written by Cinco Paul. Best sound design of a play was Mikael Soliman for Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Uh Best Sound Design of a Musical, Kai Harada for Ragtime. Best Orchestrations, Doug Besterman and Mike Morris for Schmigadune. Best costume design of a musical, Queen Jean from Cats the Jellico Ball, which the costumes were a lot of fun in the number. Very few cat ears. They just looked like very fun and flashy costumes, which I enjoyed. Uh best costume design of a play was Jeff Mashi for Fallen Angels. And Best Book of a Musical was Shmigadoon, also by Cinco Paul. So Cincle Paul did the book, music, and lyrics. Then we get to the actual Tony Awards on CBS, 79th annual, hosted by Pink. And the opening number featured Pink as Peter Pan, uh, and then Neil Patrick Harris coming in, pulling her down, telling her to do her own thing, were there some cheesy jokes and dialogue at times? Yeah, that's what all these shows are, right? But then when it pivoted to a rendition of Lady Marmalade from Moulin Rouge, changed to tweak the lyrics to feature the performers and titled Leading Lady Marmalade, and just how many women it featured on stage, uh dancing, singing, all this Broadway royalty. I thought it was amazing, and it was so much fun what they did with that number. I really enjoyed the opening. And then Pink gave a very great opening speech, was the first one talking about inclusion and how Broadway right now kind of fits the needs of the time. And you have these shows like ragtime that are bringing back up and two strangers carry a cake across New York. That's these two different people from different walks of life just finding something to bond over and unity. And I thought that was really cool to see and a really good, like, way to kick off the show. Our first winner was John Lithgau for lead actor in a play for his role as Roll Doll in Giant. And they called out it was his third Tony win. His first one was 53 years ago. And so I I'm a fan of John Lithgow. I think the first time I was actually introduced to him was in it's a toss, but it was either Dexter or it was How I Met Your Mother as Barney's father. So weird way. So cool to see him win. Third Tony win, first one 53 years ago, both in plays that originated in the same theater in London. So I thought that was a fun fact that he shared. Uh, then we got a Shmigadoon number, it was the opening number called Shmigadoon. I I get why they went with that one. It started with like Sarah Chase and Alex Brightman walking through the crowd and then finding themselves in Schmigadoon. It is a fun number, has a lot of fun energy. It introduces the show, the play. But from the Apple TV series, the one song from season one that's stuck in my head is the Corn Puddin song. And I get that one doesn't feature the ensemble as much, so and it's a smaller scale number. So I get why they didn't choose that one. However, it's a fun one. It's my favorite from the TV series, which it sounds like the play is very similar to the original TV series, but a really fun number for our first live performance of the night. And for those of you who are not familiar as well, usually what they do uh the nominees for best musical or best revival of a musical each perform a number throughout the show. So we're getting the performances from those different nominees. They're given a chance to showcase their talent and their work live, and I think that's really awesome. And that's one of my favorite parts of the shows. The skits in between are always a little bit cringy, and there's one later on that I'll touch on that made me like cringe internally, and I'll talk on why. But the next award was actress in a featured role in a play, and Lori Metcalfe won this for Death of a Salesman. Her third Tony win, last one was in 2018. Then we had ragtime give their performance, and ragtime is one that was high up on my list going into this just by hearing and seeing Joshua Henry's performance of Wheels of a Dream. So, so powerful and moving and amazing. And so I was bummed that that wasn't the song we got. However, it makes sense. It's a two-person song. This is a large ensemble cast. So I get why you don't do that one because all three of your leads were nominated for the best actor actress. So you had Joshua Henry and Brandon Uranowitz for lead actor, and then Casey Levy for Best Actress. So I get that you want to give all of them a chance to shine, kind of with that opening number, and you're showing off the ensemble and how great they are. The opening number isn't one of my favorites from that cast album. So, but it was a solid performance all around and just seeing everyone together on stage. But if I was someone I think that wasn't familiar with ragtime, that performance isn't one that would make me want to go see it right away in the theater, if that makes sense. The next award we got was best direction of a musical, and Jalen Livingston and Bill Rausch won for Cat's the Jellico Ball. So reimagining it as a ballroom competition and just that very unique and new what direction that they gave the show for this revival. Uh, just by everything I've seen, absolutely deserved to win that award. Um, they also gave a great talk about inclusion and ballroom being for everyone and how it originated, and I thought that was really cool to see. Next award was Best Direction of a Play, which Joe Mantello won for Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Then we got our number from Titanic. Now, Titanic is a show that I'm not very familiar with. Bowen Yang introduced it and talked about how this show posits like what if Celine Dion was on the Titanic, and it is a comedy, and they gave their number and it was very comedic, some innuendo, tongue-in-cheek comments, and Marlo Mendel, who plays the lead in it, was nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. And so I just I don't know what it was. There was something about the performance, the cast was all fantastic. I had forgotten that Melissa Barrera was in this as Rose, and I just what took me back, I think, is I was expecting the actress to be kind of a Celine Dion. So I was expecting Marla to have more of a voice similar to Celine Dion's, and that wasn't the case. And I think that was a very interesting choice. I feel like when you are playing a person, and it's a little bit parody, it's a little bit of a spoof, right? Uh, it's not a true story by any means, but if they're playing an iconic singer with an iconic voice, you would think you'd find someone whose voice kind of matches that, or is so unique on its own that they make it their own and powerful, which Marla Mendel I felt like gave a great performance. It was just not what I was expecting. My light went out halfway through recording, that's fun. The next award we got was featured actress in a musical, which Shoshana Bean won for her performance in The Lost Boys. Uh, this was her first Tony win. She talked about uh gave a great shout-out for the single moms and for women who are out there and not to be afraid of who they are and putting themselves out there. And I thought that was great, a very emotional and powerful speech as well. Then we got the cats, the jellico ball number, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Uh, I respect that they didn't really make the people look like cats. I did appreciate that, just some fantastic costuming. And then I thought, like I said earlier, the c the choreography, dancing, and talent was amazing. It made cats more fun for me because they sing one of the numbers from the regular cats in it as well. Then we got the award for best play, which was won by liberation, and it was accepted by the author, the playwright for it, Best Wall. And she called out how it has been almost 40 years since an American woman playwright won the award. So shout out her. Then we got Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York's performance. And this it's a two-person show, Sam Tutty, Christiani Pitts, and they did a mashup of the opening number New York and American Express. And it was so much fun, the energy they brought to the stage for having as many Tony nominations as they did and not winning a single one. That's kind of hard for me to see, but all the winners very deserving. And so Two Strangers is one that I've listened to the cast album and gotten into it recently, so it all held a special place in my heart. Whereas ones like The Lost Boys, their cast album isn't out yet. Uh Ragtime's cast album is out and fantastic, but they're in different categories. You got Revival and you got Best Musical. But, anyways, loved, loved, loved that performance because I love both of those songs and both of those leads. Then we got the award for featured actor in a musical, which was won by Ali Luis Burzigi from The Lost Boys for his role there. He also gave another call for like safety and minorities in his speech, and thought that was amazing. Uh, then we got a medley from Chicago. So it was intro by Queen Latifa, who played Matron Mama Morton in the movie, and then it opened with Alex Newell uh playing Matron Mama Morton and singing When You're Good to Mama, and then it went into Cellblock Tango, and then Pink came out uh to perform all that jazz, which I think this was a plug and just a sign. I think we're gonna get Pink in Chicago. Uh almost all of her talking heads and her opening talked about how much she loves Broadway and respects it, and kind of how it was like her audition to be on a show. And so that would make sense to me. Um, Chicago is one of the most stunt-casted shows. It's been the revival's been running, I think they said 30 years. And so they're always putting some celebrity or bigger name in there as Roxy Hart, and I think Pink would absolutely nail that role. Uh, she's got a very powerful voice, a fantastic energy. I think she'd be very good there. Then we got the award for lead actress in a play, which was won by Leslie Manville for Oedipus. Um, it was her first nomination and win for the Tonies, but she is a two-time Olivier winner, which is the West End's Tonies, essentially. Then we got the number from the Rocky Horror Show, which this was one of the most fun performances of the night. Uh, I got into Rocky Hor late in life, and the music is fun, the energy is exhilarating and contagious, and I it opens with sweet transvestite performed by Luke Evans, and then the time warp. And I was not expecting to see Luke Evans's ass tonight. Uh, him and his fishnets and thong and um corset. Great look, he pulled off and sounded very good, very impressed with Luke Evans. Weird thing, his nipples are like the same color as his skin, and I don't know if that was painted or tanned, or if that's actually I don't I don't think I've ever seen anyone with nipples the same color as their skin, but I digress. Uh, with Time Warp, Darren Chris and Mo and Yang were out there on it, having a great time. It there's just so much energy in that song, and it is so fun. The crowd was loving it, the crowd was doing some callouts at the beginning of it. So, good time with Rocky Horror show. Then they did a skit where Pink talked about how we may be losing free speech, so it's really important while we still have it to say the things that matter. And this was the weirdest skit of the night, which I didn't really care for. Uh, she went to women like Rose Byrne and uh why am I blanking on the names of the other two women? And they both said like jokey things, like I think you should be able to text at the slow parts in a play. I think um, I don't remember, but they were just random, not serious ones. And then Bobby Canavale, who is there next to Rose Byrne, he talked about the importance of free speech and Broadway still celebrating that. So it was just it was weird to me that you had the three women not take it seriously, especially Danielle Brooks as woman of color. It felt weird, and I I'm probably overthinking it and getting butthurt about something I have no right to and doesn't actually matter. But to have a woman of color just kind of make a joke about free speech and losing that instead of having her be the one saying the powerful message, giving that to Bobby Canaval was kind of weird to me. Uh, then we got the award for best revival of a musical, which ragtime won, and I was so happy to see that. However, it was so weird, they were giving their speech, and they had the producer, they had a couple of the producers talk, and then when they pivoted to um the other the female producer, who I don't know her name, apologies. Then she, as soon as she started to talk, they played her off, which was so weird because they hadn't played off anyone else before. I don't know if they had a limit that there were supposed to only be two people that spoke per show or what, but that was weird to me, especially like John Lithgau opening the night, which we're Respect to him for his work and his talent. He gave a very long speech and acceptance speech. And I feel like they need to allow extra time to run off. They need to like give a 30-45-minute buffer at the end of it, in my opinion, so that these people who are celebrating their work get a chance to say their words. It is, I don't know, the best musical, best play ones. The fact that the award is accepted by the producers, I can get because they're the ones who believed in it, funded it, helped everything go there. However, getting to see the talent, like I'm gonna talk about it here in a little bit. For the best musical award, the fact that the leads aren't even getting a shout out was so, so weird to me. But I was so glad Ragtime won this. Uh, that was my prediction and my hope when I did my kind of Tony once the nominations were revealed a month or so ago and gave my talk about that. Uh, then they had the in-memorium section segment where Leslie Odom Jr. performed without you from Rent. And my God, it was so damn good. Leslie Odom Jr.'s voice is amazing, and then that paired with Jonathan Larson's lyrics and how emotional and powerful that song is. It was so good, so good. One of my favorite performances of the night. Then the next award was featured actor in a play, which was won by Audin Ehrenreich from the play Becky Shaw. And this was his Broadway debut. And so you're setting the bar high. Your Broadway debut, you're getting a nomination and a win right off the bat. So shout out to him. Then we got our number from The Lost Boys, uh, another one of the nominees for best musical. And this was so fun. I haven't watched the original Lost Boys movie that this is an adaptation of. I know there's vampires, I know it's punk rock, and the energy on stage and the fire, and just this number giving the vibes of being inside like a punk rock club was awesome. I loved it. I cannot wait for this cast album to release on July 24th, so I can just dive into the music more. Then we got our award for best revival of a play, which was won by Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Uh Nathan Lane accepted the award. There's kind of some stuff. The producer, Scott Rudin, he left the industry recently due to accusations of bullying and bad behavior. So that's unfortunate. But Nathan Lane, I'm always a big Nathan Lane fan and all the things he's been in. So glad they got a win for that and he was able to accept it. Then we got our number from Book of Mormon, which was another one of my favorites of the night. I've talked on here before. Book of Mormon is one of the funniest musicals and the best times at the theater I've ever had. So they had Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Robert Lopez come out to introduce it. And they just opened, they were talking about like many, many years ago, the great Christian prophet Joseph Smith found Golden Plates, which was a fantastic call out. I can't remember who it was in The Governor. There was a whole thing online. I remember seeing a blip of it. I'm chronically offline, so I didn't get in the weeds with it too much. About people were mad because um the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wasn't on the list of Christian churches, it was its own category and church, and there were a number of people online up in arms about that. So I thought them kind of taking a jab at that was so so on brand for them. Uh, just throwing the great Christian prophet in there. Then uh saying that it was great they were able to take Joseph's work, add some songs, and make it slightly less racist. I that was very like self-aware as well. Because Book of Mormon is one of those that has been called out at times for being kind of insensitive in its depiction of the people of Uganda, and they have made some adjustments over the years. And so, I mean, it's the creators of South Park, they are going to be blunt, they are going to be a little raunchy, they're gonna be a little obtuse, but the fact that they call it out, I thought was kind of clever. And the number they did, I was so excited, they didn't man up. Uh, I believe is the one that they performed on, I think it was the 65th when they won Best Musical, and Andrew Randles got a chance to shine in that. So, this Josh Gadd having more of a chance to shine, the original cast, seeing Nikki M. James on there, who originated the role of Nabalong guy. And I like Nikki M. James. I did not realize she was in Broadway so much. I loved her in Daredevil Born Again, season two, primarily. She was in season one a little bit, and then finding out that she was in SUFs, the musical, and seeing her amazing performance in the Pro Shot and PBS great performances, and then seeing her on this was so fun, and it was such a fun number. I really enjoyed it. Then they had Rachel Zegler come out and do a tribute to a chorus line, celebrating 50 years of a chorus line. And I don't know, I'm not too familiar with a chorus line, but everything from the clips of it is a whole chorus line of people. So this would seem like it would be a good performance to have an ensemble up there on stage instead of Rachel Zegler standing there and singing solo. Don't get me wrong, she has an amazing voice, and she sounded amazing and crushed it, but that was just weird. It's like we're gonna do a tribute to a chorus line with just a single solitary performer standing on stage and singing. I don't know, a little odd. Then was the award for lead actress in a musical, and Casey Levy won this for ragtime, and I was so excited to see her win. I absolutely loved her performance as Diana in Next to Normal last year. She has such an amazing voice on the Broadway cast album for Frozen. Her as Elsa is so powerful as well, especially with the new numbers, and she is so good on the ragtime cast album. So so happy to see her win. Then was lead actor in a musical, which Joshua Henry won, and that was the one I was really hoping and pulling for. His performance as Colehouse Walker Jr. is so so powerful in all the clips I've seen, and his voice is so powerful and amazing on the cast album and performances, and I was so happy to see him win. I think his like the cheers and applause and ovation for him was the biggest of any of the night by far, I felt like. He said he kind of gets his thoughts out with music, so he did like kind of an improvised song while playing the guitar with like thanks and just his feelings and emotions. I thought that was so sweet and loved that. Then the big crowning final award of the night was the best musical award, which was won by Shmigadune. So shout out, Shmigadoon. Um, it was produced by Lauren Michaels of SNL Fame, and so he got up there, talked a little bit, and when the other producers talked, I didn't hear them say her name. So apologies for not giving her a shout out. But I thought it was funny. She called out and thanked Apple TV for canceling the third season so that they could pick up the show and run with it and bring it to Broadway. I do hope that now, with all its wins and popularity, that the Apple TV show now gets a third season. Hopefully at Apple TV, maybe somewhere else. But I loved the series, and it sounds like the third season was all written, the music was all written for it. So bring it back. Let's start a campaign. Bring it back. Um, I didn't see Alex Brightman and Sarah Chase on stage at all. That was kind of weird. Like I said earlier, it was weird they didn't get a shout out at all. You're thanking all the producers, directors, the people behind the scenes that brought the show to life, which is fantastic. But also, you can have the best people there. And if your performers on stage can't sell it, then you got nothing. But that was it. They also kind of got played off towards the end. That was wrapped up the 79th annual Tony Awards. Overall, I was very happy with the winners. Now, the play categories are not ones that I am familiar with or follow, so just being transparent there. But the musicals, every one made me more excited to listen to the cast albums, find out more about these shows. I really enjoyed it. I feel like we had a great crop of shows this year. I was kind of shocked Shmigadoon won. I thought maybe Lost Boys for all of its feats uh would have snuck in there. Like I said, Two Strangers not getting a single win was hard for me. I I do feel like sometimes those smaller cast shows, so like it's a two-person show, those are harder to capture the audiences. However, they also have to do so much more work on stage. They're not getting a break. If you're two leads, their chemistry doesn't work, then you've got a flop on your hands. And I felt like at least just listening to the cast album and seeing their live performances tonight, I felt like they had amazing chemistry together and was bummed that they didn't get more of a celebration, but their performance was wonderful. And so I can't wait to see what those two do in the future. So that's that's it. That's gonna do it for this episode of the podcast. A couple things in the works. The review of Rockadoodle with Brad will still happen. I'm also looking at doing a review of Mama Mia with Stage. Then there's gonna be more Love Island reviews dropping nightly on YouTube, my instant reactions, and then on Saturday, the compilation of each of those instant reactions from the week. And that'll be on all audio platforms, which, if you haven't figured it out yet, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, you can watch it as well. So if you want to see my face, or maybe maybe it's a bad idea, maybe don't go watch it, just listen. And maybe you see my face, you're like, Why the fuck am I listening to this guy? Which which is fair. But you can, if you want, watch on those platforms, watch on YouTube. Matt's Coffee Corner episodes are dropping every Sunday on short form platforms. So TikTok, Instagram reels, Facebook reels, and YouTube Shorts. So make sure to subscribe there as well to get an insight into my approach to coffee and one of my other passions besides musicals. Musicals, coffee, and movies. Those are my three passions, and there's probably something else in there. Love island currently. So tune in to all of those things. Do me a favor. I love to see you guys' comments, your reactions. Let me know what win you are most excited about from the Tonys in the comments. Go leave us a review on Apple or Spotify, wherever you listen, wherever you watch. Love seeing your feedback. DM me on Instagram. Love having chats with you guys, uh, hearing your suggestions, which I need some more of those. I want your suggestions for what coffee you want me to make on the weekends and give that a shot. I want your suggestions for what you want me to talk about when I do my Matt's coffee corner, what you want me to talk about on here, what movie or what show we should review next. Let us know. Drop it in the comments on YouTube, go to Instagram, leave it on the comments there, shoot me a DM, any of that fun stuff. Love to hear from you. Thank you all for taking your time to watch or listen to it. Thank you all for being here, and thank you all for being subscribers, because I know you are, and ultimately, have a great week, and don't forget to go down once more. Later.