Including Non-Nominated Musical Performances: Yay or Nay?

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:42pm

I say Yay.

Honestly, I think giving them one minute to showcase their musical was very nice and it gave the show a lot more flavor. It really showed everything that the season had to offer and it also shows what options people have when buying tickets.

[Boq101]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:45pm

nay, wasnt worth it AT ALL. Some of those awards should have been there for the world to see, not some dumb 2-minute mess.

[Boq101]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:45pm

Nay, wasn't worth it AT ALL. Some of those awards should have been there for the world to see, not some dumb 2-minute mess.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:48pm

I thought it was a great idea.

Megan Mullally was the highlight of the segment.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:48pm

YAY!!! Was glad to see them perform, even if it was for only 2 minutes each. If it helps to sell tickets, I'm all for it again next year.

[Broadway212]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:49pm

They should have made Megan do the whole song with the talking part and not sing it so fast.

[BroadwayBenny]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:51pm

YAY!

Megan was hilarious...it made me actually want to see YF a little. Sierra was great and made that oddly edited POYW/POYW(REPRISE) work beautifully. A Catered Affair was a little harder to get from what they had shown, but it was nice to hear at least a little of the score.

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:53pm

Definitely yay.

The performances keep the show interesting. And the community really needs to take advantage of this public platform to sell the merchandise. The tourists are now the people keep the business alive, and a chance for people outside of New York to be exposed to even more options is absolutely a positive.

[CyCoSpAz2]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:55pm

Yay, but not at the expense of Best Book of a Musical and Best Revival of a Play

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/15/08 at 11:55pm

It was a step in the right direction. I think it might need a little bit of work, but it definitely added a more celebratory atmosphere to the Tonys. Now, let them include performances by the plays and I'll be happy.
It worked really well. I thought Megan Mullally was in great voice but milked the Karen Walker schtick too much (which she doesn't do at all in the cast recording or the other clips I've seen of her in the show, so I don't know if she did it because it was on TV). I still think the LITTLE MERMAID costumes are laughable. And A CATERED AFFAIR just kind of didn't get a chance to stand out, perhaps from the uniqueness of the score.

[DrewBill]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 12:05am

Yay. I think it's nice that the Tony Awards are a celebration of the whole Broadway season, not just a night for the nominees. And if featuring other shows beyond the nominees helps bring in new audiences for the telecast and for Broadway, then that's good too.

But I do think this precedent may cause some problems in future years when there happen to be a lot of musicals in one season.

[rubyslippersxo]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 12:20am

Nay. It was nice that they were recognized, but I didn't really enjoy any of the performances. I would have rather seen other awards. Apparently, it was confusing to some of my friends, who thought they were all nominated for Best Musical.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 12:23am

I say yay, but only if PBS brings back their remarkably well-crafted Creative Arts hour, and definitely not at the expense of Best Revival of a Play not being telecast. That was ridiculous.

[Kitzarina]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 12:24am

Yay in theory, nay in practice. All it did was painfully highlight just why these shows weren't nominated. Of course, some of the shows that WERE nominated weren't much better (I'm looking at you, Grease and Cry-Baby).

[defyingravity07]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 12:26am

Nay, I would say yay if there was more a reason behind them other than upping ratings.

[choitoy]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 3:39am

They really should bring back the PBS Creative Arts Hour, and break up the award presentations during that hour with the non-nominated musicals.

I liked the idea, but I really only liked Megan's performance. I almost wished that they would have done a little more with the nominated play revivals instead.

[canmark]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 6:30am

NAY. Why not give more time to the NOMINATED plays, then to the NON-NOMINATED musicals?

[Weez]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 6:33am

YAY. If they're just plain not ever going to give any time to the nominated plays, then why not have more musicals? At the very least, let people like Faith Prince - who received a nomination herself despite her production being overlooked - knock out a little performance alongside the Best Musical Nominees.

Face it, an awards ceremony that has four musical numbers and a lot of people weeping as they thank Jesus and momma (okay, I'm exaggerating; as far as I can tell, it was a pretty good year for speeches) does not an entertaining three hour ceremony make. XP

And why look down on doing things to increase ratings? If ratings aren't respectable, the Tonys could go the way of the Oliviers, which haven't been televised for many a year. It's bad enough having to watch a bitty, jumpy webcast of the Tony awards; not watching them at all would be VERY sad.

Updated On: 6/16/08 at 06:33 AM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 6:44am

Nay. The LITTLE MERMAID performance was the only one that fit comfortably into that minute-long timespan.

CATERED AFFAIR came off dreadfully outside of the context of the show, and it was especially awkward with Matt and Leslie dancing on a completely different stage than Faith.

Part of what makes that YF scene so funny is the timing -- pauses, etc. -- and Megan was forced to speed it up, and it came off as very messy.

Not to mention that Best Book, Choreography, and Revival of a Play were left off the telecast.

Absurd.

[Steve2]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 6:44am

Yay

[dancinfan]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 8:06am

The concept is nice, but I would rather have seen the speeches for more of the "artistic" awards. I think it was, again, interesting but not really fair to make Circle of Life the opening number instead of something more traditional and all-encompassing. Maybe the opening number should represent all of the Broadway musicals (including the nominees). Perfect example: my favorite opening number of recent years was One Night Only with Hugh Jackman, the three trios of the season, and bits and pieces of all the other running shows, too.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 8:19am

I'm in the minority, but I say Nay. I mean, do the Oscars spotlight non-nominated films? On another point, win or lose does not necessarily a hit make and vice versa. Look at Passion -- it got a slew of awards and closed by the end of the year -- it was too problematic a show and word was getting out. On the other hand, Smokey Joe's Cafe did a great number on the Tony's that ensured its long and deservied run, even though it got no Tonys. The numbers haven't been all that great for Spring Awakening -- it's on the half-price every weekend. Just my opinion. If a show's gonna fly, it flies.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 8:26am

Movies are readily accessible all across the country. The current crop of Broadway shows is not. I think showcasing the non-nominated musicals was a nice idea, as well as highlighting the long-running shows - however, not at the expense of relegating major categories like Choreography, Revival of a Play and Book to the pre-telecast.

I'm particularly curious if Liz McCann, producer of the Tony Awards, will keep Revival of a Play in the pre-telecast when the production of Equus she's producing is up for that award next year.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 10:50am

You can't really compare the Oscars to the Tonys.
As Smaxie said, movies are indeed readily accessible to just about everyone. Also, the range of movies that get Oscar nominations is so much wider than the range of musicals that are nominated. It's just nice to take a look at what the season had to offer.
Again, it needs work, but it was a nice experiment and I hope it becomes a sort of tradition.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 11:02am

Meh. It was a good idea in theory, but it didn't come off very well. I would rather have seen more of the artistic awards.