Hunter Foster creates "Give the Tonys back to BROADWAY" campaign — Page 2

ray - Did you just say that Julia Roberts and Katie Holmes were snubbed by the Tony Committee? Are you kidding? They were AWFUL!

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Yeah god forbid the Tony's bring someone like greenday to perform when they are trying to save the ratings for the show (and they have had a lot to do with American Idiot)

Or how awful that Will and Jada or Jay Z were there, I mean after all all they did was produce a Tony Nominated show.

Or how about Mr Harry Potter himself, a film star right?

Do these idiots not realise TV which the Tony Awards is on is a business and with an audience demo of under 1.5 it should be thankful its on the air at all. And who says bravo or lifetime would want the Tonys? It's the ratings disaster of the awards season.

Maybe he should complain about the less than average Broadway performances this year which can't be doing Broadway any favours, or how about the dreadful producing on the show that makes it look like amateur hour. Or maybe the tactical voting that is turning the Tony's in to the Eurovision?

You know, the important stuff

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What were the songs that were sung that were not Broadway?

And don't tell me you watch the Tonys to find out what Mr. Shue and Rachel's theater credits are. Face it, we are going to watch the Tonys no matter WHO is on, it is the people who would NEVER watch unless Green Day and the cast of GLEE were on that we need to have watching.

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You're missing his point, Sue.

"Million Dollar Quartet" is a show ON Broadway. Celebrate this show on Broadway without explaining to me how I know these theatre songs outside of theatre. The focus should be on the stage musical, not the outside source material. I think they did a good job with MDQ, in that respect.

But when Green Day gets up to perform for ten minutes, fantastic or not, it's completely out of step and inappropriate.

I wouldn't want a Paul Simon concert when Capeman got a score nomination or a Four Seasons reunion concert when Jersey Boys was up. That's missing the point and focusing on pop culture, rather than celebrating theatre, which is what the Tony Awards is supposed to be about.

It comes off as desperate pandering without any dignity or respect for an awards show that is "supposed" to be respecting and respectful of theatre. They're giving us every other reason why we should be watching this show except for the real reason we should be watching it.

Imagine the opposite for a minute. What if the year Ian McKellan was nominated for an Oscar for "Lord of the Rings," he had walked out in front of the Academy members and the huge viewing audience and given us a ten-minute Shakespeare monologue. Everyone would be scratching their heads and checking their watches and wondering what the hell was going on.

EDIT: Imagine if Annette Benning were presenting at the Oscars, and they announced her as "Tony nominee Annette Benning" right before she hit the stage. Weird and inappropriate, right?

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Updated On: 6/17/10 at 08:10 AM

So again then... this is all JUST about the Green Day performance? I agree that it went on for too long, but all in all it was such a small percentage of the show that to start a petition/movement/whatever you want to call it just seems dumb. It was 7 minutes long... hardly a huge time waster in the long run.

By the way, the "Hollywood whoring" didn't work. The common-folk viewers they pandered to didn't tune in at all.

The ratings were lower than last year. So even with Harry Potter and Ricky Martin presenting trophies, despite that neither was on Broadway this year and won't be again until 2012, this "count the big pop stars and hit songs" approach was a bust.

I agree with Hunter. If CBS was telling the awards show producers to "give us pop culture or else," they should take the show elsewhere next year. Theatre fans will follow it on whatever channel it airs. And nobody else is tuning in anyway. So stop desperately focusing on anything trendy but theatre on "theatre's biggest night."

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Amen, Besty.

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"By the way, the "Hollywood whoring" didn't work. The common-folk viewers they pandered to didn't tune in at all. "

the only one that sort of bothered me was Michael Douglas and we know why he was there

I am with Marquise. Hunter sounds like a very immature child as well. Acting is a craft, regardless of where you get a "job"

Do you honestly think if Hunter was ever offered a big role in a HOLLYWOOD movie that could potentially be an Oscar winner, he would turn it down? no way. Let's hope it never happens, so we don't have to hear movie stars say "stop casting stage actors in our movies" *eye roll - jesus h.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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What does the "H" stand for?

You can twist his complaints to be commentary about anything of mainstream popularity on Broadway- and there's a lot these days.

I'm starting my own Facebook campaign- give the composing back to Broadway. I don't want to see a Four Seasons tribute band and an Elvis impersonator clogging up Broadway stages- I want shows with scores that were written for the show, not shoddily thrown together from a 1950s Billboard Top 40 list into a semblance of a plot. If that means American Idiot, Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia and Million Dollar Quartet have to close immediately, so be it!

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I give up. See it the way you want to see it.

But Hunter never said "shows like MDQ and American Idiot belong in Vegas, not on Broadway."

He's talking about the awards show and its blatant pandering and growing obsession with pop culture. Not about the content of the musicals or the stars themselves and their outside careers. This is about the Tony show's pathetic love affair with pop status, which has totally overshadowed its own love affair with the theatre, this year.

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It's not "get out."

It's just not the night to bring out nothing but film, TV, and music industry stars to present awards and pull the focus away from theatre.

Bring out the ones who were on Broadway this last season, fine. But not the ones who may or may not actually star in a revival in 2012. Where was (for example) Norbert Leo Butz or Marin Mazzie?

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Updated On: 6/17/10 at 09:29 AM