I recently wrote something that kind of attempted to discuss the same things, though I guess a little more from a Broadway fanatic's perspective:
If you’re able to visit The Museum of Television and Radio on 52nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, you’ll find an array of Broadway-related television shows and specials to choose from. One of the most outstanding elements of their collection is the numerous Tony Awards broadcasts that they have available for viewing. I have had the pleasure of watching several of these past awards, mainly from the 70’s and 80’s. Here are some highlights of my viewings:
1971: The 25th Anniversary of the Tonys. A song was performed from every show that ever won the Tony for Best Musical, often by the original performers, many of whom were themselves Tony winners. Many of these performances have been featured on Broadway’s Lost Treasures . This was perhaps the most legendary Tony Awards broadcast of all time.
1972: Ethel Merman received a special achievement award, and so she sang a montage of songs from her most famous roles—Annie Oakley, Mama Rose, etc. This particular performance can be seen on Broadway’s Lost Treasures 3. Richard Rodgers also received a special award, and some of Broadway’s biggest stars performed some of his songs while he strummed them on the piano.
1976: In addition to the gift of seeing the original cast of A Chorus Line perform “I Hope I Get It,” and “One,” this broadcast focused on songs from great shows that somehow never won Tonys such as West Side Story (Don’t get me started on that one!). Additionally, special guest Richard Burton performed a scene from Hamlet.
1981: This broadcast focused on women's achievement in theatre and included Angela Lansbury performing “By The Sea” and Patti Lupone performing “Buenos Aires.”
1986: The 40th Anniversary of The Tonys. Once again songs from shows that have won the Best Musical Tony were performed, this time as more of a melody by a core set of star Broadway performers—Debbie Allen, Chita Rivera, Dorothy Loudon and Ben Vereen were among the bunch.
In fact, from about 1972 through at least 1986, each year the Tonys had one of these particular themes that featured performances from Broadway stars. One year, Gwen Verdon and Donna McKechnie danced together in the opening about “The Wide World of Broadway.” Themes ranged from famous screen stars that started in theatres to honoring understudies, to presenters and performers discussing the first time they ever saw live theatre.
There were many, many tributes to some of the great composers such as Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Julie Styne, George Abbott, and Jerry Herman, Presentations for these theatre legends were not sung by people who had nothing to do with theatre like Aretha Franklin, but some of the best and brightest stars of Broadway, such as Gwen Verdon, Bernadette Peters, Mary Martin, Tony Randall, Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews, and Robert Preston. Additionally, the Tony Awards of these years were co-hosted by 2 or several more of these legendary performers.
Moreover, many tributes were paid to historic Broadway theaters where that year’s particular Tony Awards ceremony was held, such as The Winter Garden Theater, or the Imperial Theater. A particularly memorable tribute occurred in 1983 to the Uris Theatre. That year’s Tonys celebrated the music of George Gershwin, and at the end of the ceremony, the theater was newly named the Gershwin Theater.
Certainly, those sort of tributes can no longer occur, at least a tribute to a theater while in that theatre, because since 1997, the Tony Awards were no longer held in Broadway theaters, but at Radio City Music Hall, a place that is not exactly as perfectly set to host Broadway performances, as recent broadcasts have shown.
The change in Tony broadcasts seemed to begin taking place in 1987, the first year that Alexander H. Cohen did not produce the Tonys. As the years have passed, efforts have been made to make the Tony Awards more mainstream, which inevitably means less of a total focus on Broadway and theatre, since in today’s society, that’s not exactly mainstream. In addition to moving the awards to Radio City Music Hall, performers and presenters became less people from the Broadway community and more recognizable screen actors and singers, such as Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J, and Roseanne.
Even when the Tonys do have performances by stars of Broadway, or at least stars who have recently performed on Broadway, the performances are at best substandard, such as Harry Connick Jr’s dull opening to last year’s Tony Awards.
Between that, the fact that the Tonys are given out at Radio City despite general agreement that performances from the nominated musicals do not hold up as well there as in Broadway theaters, and simply the fact that the spirit of the awards seem so different in the past broadcasts that I have watched at the Museum than the present broadcasts makes me wonder if the biggest difference in the Tonys comes from the general enthusiasm in the people who produce them.
Recent broadcasts lack the clear pride that the producers should take in Broadway. If, in addition to celebrating Broadway, the purpose of the Tonys is to promote Broadway, than the producers of the Tonys have done a terrible job of ensuring this promotion, as for the past couple of years the Tony Awards have been shown on a night of competitive television, and particularly this year when the Tony Awards will compete with the series finale of The Sopranos.
Maybe that’s what Alexander H. Cohen brought to the Tonys—not themes, performances, appearances, etc, but a general enthusiasm and passion for the theatre. Perhaps the key to improving the current state of the Tonys is to find someone to produce it with that same passion.
Until then, even if we have to sit through Roseanne singing the National Anthem, loyal theatre fans will be tuned into CBS the night of June 10, appreciating one of the very few times a national network dedicates 3 hours of programming to “celebrating” theatre.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
