My Report From The Tony Awards Rehearsal (Contains Spoilers)

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 4:02pm

I saw as close to the stage as you can get, front row orchestra. My hand touched the stage. It was AMAHZING!

Inches away from Julie Andrews, Bernadette Peters, Glenn Close, etc. Oprah and Julia Roberts were not at the rehearsal.

Here's my opinion on the contents of the Tony show. Spoilers will follow below that.

- The show is fluid without a host. Still, I missed that one person that holds everything together.

- The musical numbers are all outstanding. Surprisingly, THE WEDDING SINGER went over the most with the audience. Understandable, as it was a high power high energy number. THREEPENNY OPERA didn't do much to me, but I think it would look MUCH better on TV than it did live.

- There were reports that Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, and Beyonce were going to be there. They aren't. BUT - a Dreamgirls trailer will air during the broadcast. We didn't see it. During the commercials there is video entertainment from Seth Rudetsky for everyone in the audience.

- The opening number is lackluster (compared to the AMAHZING Hugh Jackman number from the 2004 telecast). Bland. Just bland. The end to the number is SOO overdone.

***SPOILERS BELOW***

I'm not going to just make a list and ruin everything. But I do have opinions on some things.

- When Hal Prince receives his Tony, there is a little number that follows (if you want to call it that) and at the end someone from a Hal Prince show comes out to sing a song. The singer is fine, but the "number" is quite cheesy and laughable.

- The August Wilson and Wendy Wasserstein tribute is quite nice.

- For the third year in a row, John Tartaglia and Rod make a return to present an award.

- Judging by rehearsal, it's not going to be as good as the 2004 and 2005 telecasts. There's no audience involvement. There's no one BIG blowout number (that's not from a specific show). There's no host.

- There's a Spamalot surprise when the American Theatre Wing executives come out to do their speech about the Wing. There should be more of this type of Broadway show involvement.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 4:22pm

"- There's a Spamalot surprise when the American Theatre Wing executives come out to do their speech about the Wing. There should be more of this type of Broadway show involvement."

Can't wait for this

Thank you for your review and insight.

[mominator]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 4:24pm

Aew we talking coconuts here?

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 4:27pm

Thanks! Glad to know what to expect.

[bigrab1018]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 4:35pm

how did you get to go?

[Mythus]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 4:38pm

Is it sad that I'm only really looking forward to the Spamalot surprise? The rest sounds kind of...dull. Except the performances.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 4:56pm

The most exciting thing this year will be who wins. Very good races this year.

It's not going to be a dull telecast...only in comparision to the past two years.

[catstagestud]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 5:01pm

Dreamgirls trailer!?! AHHHHH!

Cheers,

Christopher

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 5:43pm

I LOVE ME SOEM DREAMGIRLS

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 5:52pm

"For the third year in a row, John Tartaglia and Rod make a return to present an award."

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 6:51pm

I was there too...albiet not as close as CapnHook; I was in the second row of the first mezz, which in Radio City is very far back. Still, I was thrilled to go, and it was a great experience.

I think it's fine. I really didn't miss the host at all. Everything seemed to move faster and they certainly have enough presenters to make the show flow.

There's a lot of entertaining clips showed to the Tony audience during the commercials--quite a few featuring Seth Rudetsky--longest performers have gone without blinking--quite a few great old clips--lots of Patti, and a bit of the end of Dreamgirls' Tony performance. Wow.

Umm...I guess I won't spoil much of the show, but I thought the performances were great...Threepenny seemed a little dull compared to the rest and out of context, but what can you do?

So little fun things I noticed. Most of the companies before performing were right under me so I watched them quite a bit. Funniest moment had to be at one point John Lloyd Young and Daniel Reichard run up to the front...now all of the seats had people's names and pictures on them--for whoever would be sitting there. Anyway, John and Daniel took pictures with the "people" in the seats--put their arms around them anyway. It was really funny and cute. Unfortunately, I could not see who they were taking pictures "with."

And lots of them were greeting each other, hugging, It's fun to watch them interact like that. Poor Sweeney cast though had to hang on to their instruments in the orchestra before they performed.

Umm, Norbert was being very entertaining while he and Victoria practiced...he would just start skipping and dancing around the stage.

And it was great to see some people in person--most especially Julie Andrews, who of course presented the final award. I was worried when Julia and Oprah weren't there that Julie wouldn't but then I saw her cross the stage. Hehe. It was so great to see her live. Ahhhh.

And umm...guess that's enough. Other things you'll see tonight.

[xoxRogue]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 6:58pm

For the third year in a row, John Tartaglia and Rod make a return to present an award.

He's presenting Best Featured Actor in a Musical (I believe that's what he said on NY1).