The 77th Annual TONY Awards Performances — Page 3

I thought the theatre looked gorgeous and I liked that it was at David Koch. I just wish the plaza wasn’t such a zoo so they could have a proper red carpet around the fountain. I hope they have it there again next year.

I’m sorry if this has already been discussed and I missed it, but is there any talk about a Merrily transfer to London? Watching the performance again and really wanting to see this a third time.

My random thoughts after watching last night.

1) Best speech of the night belongs to Jonathan Groff. Very touching speech and you can see why he is adored by the Broadway community.

2) Opening number was not good and did nothing to build excitement for the rest of the evening.

3) Ariana DeBose is a beautiful and sexy woman but does she really need to change dresses ever 30 minutes -lol.

4) I thought "The Outsiders" were the best performance of the evening, will be interested to see possible bump in box office sales from Tony win.

5) I loved dance shows like "Movin Out" and "American In Paris" so I was really looking forward to seeing dance from "Illinoise". I know I am in the minority but I was sadly underwhelmed by the performance.

6) I liked the "Chita Rivera" tribute, nice touch having short dance numbers from "Chicago" and "West Side Story".

7) Anytime I see Pete Townsend play guitar I secretly wish he could summon his inner youth and smash the guitar on the stage after he is finished playing -lol.

8) "Stereophonic" was not showcased well by being squeezed in without any introduction and context about the show. The show would have been better served not playing at all.

9) "Merrily We Roll Along" reminds me of "The Producers" in a way. Like "The Producers" is the show any good or is it just enjoyable because of the chemistry of the cast. Will wonder how well this show will do on tour.

10) I actually liked "Water For Elephants" a bunch more than I thought I would before the show last night.

I liked the opening song itself except I couldn't understand all of the lyrics. I recorded it and went online to watch it again thinking it might be clearer but it wasn't.

Zeppie2022 said: "9) "Merrily We Roll Along" reminds me of "The Producers" in a way. Like "The Producers" is the show any good or is it just enjoyable because of the chemistry of the cast. Will wonder how well this show will do on tour."



It's not going on tour. (Unless I missed an announcement.)

"It's not going on tour. (Unless I missed an announcement.)"

OK, thanks for information. I guess that kind of answers my question. If show needs the OBC to tour then maybe the show is really not that good.

That opening number looked like a cheesy dance number from Carol Burnett!!! DeBose needs to go, trying too hard!! Where's Bette Midler????????

Hilarious

Vulture:

BIENVEN-EW 3:28 P.M.

So You Saw That Creepy Eddie Redmayne Cabaret Performance

https://www.vulture.com/article/tonys-2024-eddie-redmayne-cabaret-performance.html

"On Sunday night’s Tony Awards broadcast, the Best Revival of a Musical–nominated production of the so-good-and-classic-it’s-honestly-hard-to-****-it-up-this-bad Kander and Ebb show staged a performance of its opening number, “Willkommen,” without so much as a trigger warning. Redmayne’s portrayal of the role made iconic by Joel Grey is scary in all the wrong ways. The Emcee should definitely be a menacing, uncanny figure, but he’s also actually supposed to lure the audience in for the show’s knife twists to work. This song is an invitation and an induction. The Emcee must have a degree of charm, or sex appeal, or feeling of camaraderie, so that you get that gut-sinking feeling of complicity as the fascism closes in.

But Redmayne is repulsive and confusing, igniting a fight-or-flight response in thousands of innocent viewers who did nothing to deserve this. Looking like a waxy Five Nights at Freddy’s malfunctioning animatronic stripped of its fuzzy bulk and coated in a taut layer of borrowed human skin, he is shot in extreme close-up as he makes direct eye contact through the television screen into your living room. He can see you. He can eat your thoughts. If given the choice between Redmayne and Samara, I would try my luck with Samara. Having watched this, I am not convinced I won’t die in seven days."

Updated On: 6/17/24 at 06:54 PM

Play Esq. said: "Broadway Flash said: "I just feel like the Met is so unique and opera specific. Icant imagine the Tony’s being in there because it is an opera house after all. Actually, I don’t think it’s ever been used for anything other than the Met’s season, and then the American Ballet Theatre does a month of performances between mid June to mid July. Sure it would be bigger but sorta off brand for the Tony’s. Plus, I don’t even think it would be allowed. And the schedules would never work out because of the ABT that comes in right after the end of the Met’s season. Andthose ballets sell very well."

I spend a good amount of time at the Met any given season, and agree that this could be a good choice. While it is predominately used for opera and then ballet in the summer, the Met produces shows for artists (both their own and for rental). Theyalso do graduations like other Lincoln Center venues (sadly, my law school graduation was at Avery Fisher Hall...it'll always be the Avery Fisher to me).Also the capacity of the Met is about 1000 more than the Koch.

I think the Met would be a great choice., it's a stunning venue, maybe the most beautiful in the US. They also have several donor rooms that could be used for for press or VIP. ABT doesn't begin until this week, so there wouldn't be any conflict there, especially with advanced planning. God knows the endowment needs the money."

They use to do the MTV awards from the Met back in the day and I loved how they’d use the space.

Thoughts:

The opening number was really bad and I was extremely disappointed. Remember eleven years ago when Neil Patrick Harris blew all of our minds with a huge, classic Broadway showtune full of clever lyrics and references to all of the shows that season that even had a bit of a rap section near the end to appeal to people who enjoy contemporary music who are for some reason watching the Tony Awards? Gone are those days. I think that not having Neil Patrick just makes the Tony openings somehow worse. It can't be a coincidence that the shows he hosted and produced had the best openings consistently. I think that the only logical explanation is that he has a better understanding of theatre and thought that was an important thing to make really good. I don't blame Ariana DeBose, though she's not really the best host. I think she can be great at moments, I really do feel she deserved her Oscar for West Side Story, I just think that she's not very versatile. I feel like, if they can't get back Neil Patrick Harris, there are a lot of better people. I would take James Corden over Ariana DeBose. He has a lot of hosting experience at the very least. Or get back Kristin Chenoweth. I'd take Idina Menzel, she's famous enough. Or Bette Midler! Or Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad. Their bit of the broadcast was one of the funniest and most inspired bits, they're always great. They could definitely host. I love the Tony Awards because, at the end of the day, even the crappy performances are exciting on account of the fact that Broadway is inherently exciting. But this year was not great.

My favorite performances were probably Cabaret and Merrily. I completely understand people's problems with Eddie Redmayne but I've always liked him more than most. I think that a lot of it has to do with how much I love oldschool theatre, which does involve a lot of exaggeration in physicality and facial expressions. Harvey Fierstein is my favorite Broadway actor (loved his bit by the way everything he says is amazing) and he similarly loves those wacky, exaggerated choices. I do think the camera wasn't doing Eddie any favors, though. The ensemble was great and I felt the vocal performance Eddie gave was unexpectedly excellent. I will say, though, Alan Cumming was a whole lot better. And Joel Grey. But I never expected Eddie to be as good as them. Merrily, as I have said again and again, is my favorite show I have ever seen on Broadway with the possible exception of John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig. I felt that all three central performances were approaching the kind of greatness you very rarely see from contemporary Broadway performers anymore, and Jonathan and Daniel's victories were so special to me. This is a show I have loved since I fell in love with Sondheim, and this production was so amazing and this felt like a victory lap. I understand criticism of the fact that there wasn't as much malice as necessary, but go back and really watch Daniel Radcliffe's eyes in those moments when you feel Jonathan's somewhat sinister insistence... Nowhere near as heart shattering as seeing the full song in the context of the show, but for those that know the show I do feel they were still remaining very firmly in character. Honestly I wanted them to sing Now You Know, but I understand they wanted to show us Jonathan Groff and Now You Know also might run too long or something. There was a part of me praying they'd do Franklin Shepard Inc. It doesn't happen often that they'll do a big solo like that anymore, but they used to do that all the time. Andrew Rannells singing I Believe in Book of Mormon comes to mind. And Daniel Radcliffe is such a huge star that it surprises me they didn't want to show him off. Whatever, I love Merrily and this production is my favorite version of it ever.

I thought Tommy was actually alright. I mean, the problems everybody has said are definitely true, but it was exciting and showy and powerful. I feel like, if somebody happened to be flipping through and saw that, they'd wanna go see the show. I know it's actually a terrible production but the performance wasn't really that bad. And then there's the Hell's Kitchen performance. Um. It was fine. I thought a lot of the vocals were very good. It wasn't very clear what it was about though. Illinoise had some great dancing, I think it was definitely good, but I'm not at all sure what it was about???? Outsiders was cool but it was a bit sloppy. I know Brody Grant (well "know" as in I met him a few times before he got to Broadway) so it was very special to me to see him killing it up there, but the show is whatever. The In Memorium just reminded me of how cool it was to see Andrea Bocelli and his son on the Oscars so that was a bit of a no go for me. Good vocal performance though. The Chita part was cool, I miss her. Hillary Clinton being a Tony nominee and yet not being the Democratic nominee is very funny to me and Suffs was good. I hope it gets to be very successful. I thought it was an excellent show, but this maybe wasn't the best number ever to show what the show is really like. Stereophonic felt confusing and kind of misguided. It's a great show but this did not show it. Water for Elephants was cool but I'd be lying if I said I remembered the song at all.

And I think it's amazing that Ben Platt gave Daniel Radcliffe his Tony, since Ben Platt is going to be playing Charley Kringas in the movie. I think this is a big, career redefining role for Daniel Radcliffe. I hope he does more musicals. I can't stress enough how phenomenal he is in Merrily. The tickets are so expensive now that nobody will get to see it but if you can only see one show out of the Tony winners definitely go see Merrily.

Play Esq. said: "I’m sorry if this has already been discussed and I missed it, but is there any talk about a Merrily transfer to London? Watching the performance again and really wanting to see this a third time."

Don't you want to let these performers rest?? No, there has been zero talk of a London transfer. This is lightning in a bottle. I 1000000% doubt they'd have a London production of with this exact cast.

I thought Water for Elephants and Merrily came off best because they looked like, you know, musical numbers from Broadway musicals. It's still a critical stylistic necessity: show us pieces of shows. Elephants rushed the splice but recovered and wisely focused on its catchiest melodic hook. Merrily was an actual scene from the show. I loved Illinoise in the St. James, but moving the singers down to the floor (likely required) made them compete with the ballet, and the camera doesn't respond well to a dual focus..Suffs seemed to be doing its Macy's Parade performance early. The anthemic entreaty should've been stirring but somehow just felt well-intended.

Cabaret looked like an "edgy" college theater production, a company too green to understand that less is more - even with a performative 4th wall eliminating number - or to have any idea how to trust the material. Whoever thought playing every lyric to the camera would provide intimacy was dead wrong; it suggested a group of narcissists singing into a mirror. .

Updated On: 6/18/24 at 09:44 AM

They're all in this CBS playlist on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBS34APvqtnHJO07pgZv5Z4sGycqnWmgb

The Tony Awards channel also has some extras like interviews with the winners right after they accept their award