2015 Tony complaints — Page 3

""Why, she's already a better actress then Kendrick. By a long shot. Of course, we may find that this is her peak -- but I certainly hope not."
Well that I couldn't disagree more with. I feel like Lucas is cute and can sing well, but she always has that deer in headlights look whenever she's on stage. "

You say deer in the headlights, I see every little discovery as Small Allison notices about the delivery woman. I found her so present in every moment of the song.

"""Why, she's already a better actress then Kendrick. By a long shot. Of course, we may find that this is her peak -- but I certainly hope not."
Well that I couldn't disagree more with. I feel like Lucas is cute and can sing well, but she always has that deer in headlights look whenever she's on stage. "
You say deer in the headlights, I see every little discovery as Small Allison notices about the delivery woman. I found her so present in every moment of the song."

Me, too. I think she's tremendous.

^yes

Thank goodness! Is there a video of it on Youtube yet?

While I was pleased with nearly all of the winners, I really think they need to get new producers and director next year. In no particular order:

-- everything felt rushed (even "Shall We Dance" intro, robbing it of any emotional impact) and unforgivably during the In Memoriam segment.

-- Tommy Tune is a very funny guy; give us his whole speech! Ditto Stephen Schwartz.

-- They play off the FUN HOME company, to make room for a 10 year old juke box show? If you want to perform it over the closing credits, fine, but don't give the big prize winner the bum's rush to make it happen.

-- After all the hype, the "It's a Musical" number from ROTTEN underwhelmed. I hope it is more impressive in the theater. It also highlights my fear of a smug tone of self-awareness that I dislike.

-- When I saw ON THE TOWN in December I wanted to be wowed by that opening number; it didn't then, and I'm still not impressed.

-- The Tonys should get one of the directors of the Met Opera HD series who know how to handle large crowd scenes. So many of the big musicals came off as amateurish. Maybe it is better to select intimate songs (FUN HOME; GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE last year) rather than the whole kitchen sink. (exception: PIPPIN's number of 2 years back was phenomenal).

-- Please get better footage and a smarter selection of the excerpts from the plays. I loved CURIOUS INCIDENT, whereas that clip would not have made me want to buy a ticket.

-- The Tony viewing audience isn't going to decide whether to tune-in based on an incongruous presenter like Jennifer Lopez or Marg Helgenberger, so ditch the transparent attempt at hipness(?) and Q-Scores and give us real Broadway actors please.

-- I didn't care much for ON THE 20th CENTURY but loved Chenowith in it. The medley they used on the broadcast did that show no favors. It seemed schizo and incoherent; why not use the opening (as they did) and then segue to "Veronique" which shows off Kristen's pipes and comedic chops? A missed opportunity.

-- I want to love AMERICAN IN PARIS, and hope that it is the format of the awards show that failed to impress rather than the musical itself. Now, I'm leery.

Cheers everyone

Thanks Tazber. What a shame they didn't include Mickey Rooney and Victoria Mallory though!

Updated On: 6/8/15 at 04:00 PM

My complaint (and I have this complaint every year): The presenters NEED to learn how to correctly pronounce all of the nominees names!

It's insulting when they stumble over pronunciation or, worse, just completely decimate it.

The nominees deserve better.

Ruthie Ann Miles cell phone speech killed me. Terrible!!

I wouldn’t say this is necessarily a “complaint,” but I felt most of the performances were underwhelming and I was left very disappointed, particularly with the shows I was on the fence about seeing, but had heard wonderful things about. I know you really can’t “ judge a musical by its Tony Performance,” but I think I was able to get a good sense of a few and was disappointed with the findings.

I hadn’t been originally intending on seeing “An American in Paris”, but since I’ve been hearing about how incredible and breathtaking the choreography and dancing are, it piqued my interest. I thought, if I had a free show slot during my trip to NYC, I could get past what I heard was a very light book/story (something that usually turns me off in musicals) and be swept away by the movement. However, after seeing the Tony performance, I was left less than intrigued and, truthfully, bored. When a show’s shining aspect is the dancing, it should be easy to show off your chops in your allotted Tony segment than some other shows (i.e. “The Visit,” where it seems the musical performances needed to be seen within the context of the show). The dancing didn’t move me a bit and I was left feeling detached and disappointed after everything I had been hearing. It got officially crossed off my list after that.

I felt similarly with “Something Rotten!’s” performance (especially hearing that song is the show stopping number of the musical), although not to the extent I did for AAIP. I understand that song is longer in the show and I did think it came off better than AAIP. But, it did seal the deal in crossing SR off my list, as well – I felt like I got a good sense of what the show is and, if that song is the show at its best, then I don’t think it’s the show for me.

I wish “On the Twentieth Century” had chosen a different performance, as well. It’s not necessarily a show I think I would be interested in, but I had seen two previous song performances from it and found Kristin’s performance to be so full of comedic genius, I understood all of the hype around her performance it made me interested in possibly seeing the show just for her performance (I also think Andy Karl is excellent). I didn’t think their Tony performance showed any of that brilliance I had seen from other performances.

Is this that thing where one female can't be praised without knocking another?

I have a ticket to An American in Paris for next week - I purchased it before the Tony's and after the Tony performance, I'm trying to sell it. I wouldn't hate watching it, but I'd rather spend my toll and gas money into the city on another show.

So from my point of view, the Tony performance didn't make me want to rush out and see it.