Not a fan of showcasing old shows or shows not nominated for Best. I WOULD like to see scenes from Best Play & Best Revival of a Play, but I recognize how difficult it can be to pull something out of context and make it work.
And, I do sort of agree with everythinytaboo in general: "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."
Yay (except I think they should've eliminated the Rent performance...then perhaps they could've made room for a couple of more awards).
The 3 shows not nominated for Best Musical added more variety to the Telecast and were nice highlights as to what is out there. The amount of time those 3 shows spent on stage equaled about the amount of time of one more full performance.
Despite that, I was a little disappointed that some of the bigger categories, such as Choreography and Play Revival were left out, but the production team did their best to incorporate those into the telecast (by showing the previously awarded clips) while trying to maintain good ratings for the show. The people who want to see performances outnumber the people who want to see someone give a speech for "Best Lighting Design of a Musical," which is why they cut out some of these categories. If they can't please the majority, they'll lose their audience, advertisers won't sponsor the show, and the Tony Awards won't be aired in the future. Ratings have already been slipping for the past few years.
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
I found it pretty innocuous as far as placement during the actual broadcast, but I don't like that it displaced several awards that usually make it onto TV.
I vote for doing performances from shows that are new that season. The Lion King/Rent thing was just ick to me and shoved out the Best Book/Best Play Revival off the air. I miss the PBS pre-show, which was so great.
I also would have preferred a bigger tribute to Sondheim.
I'm a guy who loves watching the Tony performances, so it was a treat to see all the non-nominated performances this year. However, I also sympathized with the performers in those numbers, mostly because I would hate to have to perform at an awards show I didn't get nominated for and have people analyzing my reasons for not nabbing a nomination. It's kind of a big slap in the face. Yes, you get to perform for millions, but it's still just a big ol' bitch slap.
I would say nay, as I liked all 3 non-nominated shows more before I saw those clips... because of the time constraints, they were all awkwardly edited, and didn't showcase the performers well at all.
As others have said, yay in theory but nay in practice. I like the idea, but it was ridiculous for Best Book, Revival of Play, etc, to be moved to the pre-show.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
Yay, but only for newer shows. But I did'nt really care for the non-nominated performances to much last night.
"Robin De Jesus has issues"~ JANET DACAL
"Yeah, and that's putting it lightly"~ ANDREA BURNS
"If you watched CBS on June 15th , I was nominated for a Tony... And I was in Camp"~ ROBIN DE JESUS
"...but I ^&#$@*% made you believe I was Italian!"~MATTHEW MORRISON
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I agree with the yay in theory, nay in execution side. I do like the idea of including older musicals that deserve recogition, but including brief snippets of the new musicals that didn't get nominated could lead to problems, and really did not work at all last night,
What they should do is some opening number incorporating all of the shows on Broadway, like in Hugh Jackman's One Night Only in 2004. That way you get to see all of the shows, but you don't have to sit through really awkward performances such as the one given by Faith Prince.
Also, they should've nixed The Lion King. I wasn't on last night so I don't know what you guys were saying, but I just thought it wasn't needed.
They should do it like Eurovision. Let the ceremony happen as it has been, but put Julie and Michael in a booth somewhere, give them booze, and leave them to provide a commentary. It would be AWESOME.