There was SO much wrong with the Tony's last night, it's hard to keep it to one thread, — Page 4

Not for anything, but hasn't Mr. Sondheim repeatedly said that he wasn't thrilled with his lyrics for West Side Story? And would it have been such a travesty to perform a song he actually wrote the MUSIC for? Argh. That really pissed me off, last night.

Who DIDN'T know it was a stunt double?? Did you really think that the production would have allowed Applegate to perform that stunt?

It doesn't matter that a stunt double took the fall, just watching her climb up to the stage in that dress made it the funniest moment in the show!

That, and the Spelling Bee sequence.

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I was also less than impressed with Bee. That said, I was impressed with Piazza, and am very happy I have tickets to see it during my summer theatre bing. DRS was adequate, but I am not exactly dying to see the show, especially because it was brought to my attention Norbert will be out when I see it. Granted, I don't watch to judge the show on the Tony's broadcast either.

The Hugh/Aretha duet was all kinds of wrong. Sondheim did not deserve that. As others have said the song choice was all kinds of wrong. If it was the only one Aretha knew, they should have gotten someone else to perform. I doubt anyone who was watching, was simply watching to see Aretha.

Tony's are a time to salute the best of Broadway and should showcase only Broadway. The Tony's will never be the Grammy's, nor do I want them to be. If I wanted to see Hollywood celebrities, I would watch E!

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I know this surely isnt the story of the night, but I really felt the entire actual telecast ran about as smooth as that horrible Spamalot final acceptance speech. Some show numbers were introduced, some just plain weren't. Edward Albee's salute was chopped up and horrible, with background music playing over his entire speech. Jerry Orbach's memorium was cut off by Jesse Martin's number. Jesse Martin just plain sang way past the cutoff AND went suddenly sharp. Sara Ramirez seemed to have mic problems during the Spamalot number. Some numbers featured little to no closeups when they were needed. My god, just SO many problems and awkward transitions.

Bee was wonderful. The cast is really nice offstage too. As far as Chritina's fall, I just didn't think about a stunt double having seen the show. But last night was a bigger fall. maybe the cold medicine I am on made me a bit less sharp! I taped the show for a friend so I will look again tonight!!

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My few comments, trying not to repeat anything said:

Sara R. - She seemed quite sick, and to my ears, her vocals in the Spamalot performance sounded pre-recorded.

Same performance - who was the person who decided to use strobe lights on the Tonys?! Hope no one had a seizure!

Opening medley of current running shows - really liked the idea, and we haven't had that sort of thing in a while. But it was obvious that the medley was poorly constructed. DRS' portion was in a key much lower than in the show, and coupled with (I think?) the fact no one could hear the orchestra made Norbert/John try to sing much higher - it was a bit bad.

If the production spent that much money on the display set (That circular/box thing that opened in interesting ways to reveal logos/pictures of plays) why couldn't they film brief scenes of the plays? I understand some have closed, but still...

Hugh's "dance" montage was cute, but it didn't fit. It would have been much better to work him into a large production number.

I thought Piazza worked well, actually. I'm much more interested in seeing it after viewing it. I just hated that Victoria had to use a handheld mic at first. Some major sound problems were going on.

NOTE: Don't sing "Somewhere" towards the end of a long awards ceremony. People will start to fall asleep. If you are using Aretha Franklin, do an uptempo.

Why did Jerry Orbach get a tribute song, but no one else? I loved the idea, and it (somewhat) worked Ebb into it, but leaving out Cy Coleman is a travesity. It would have been much better to do some sort of medley, with people who have ties to the people. Hell, do New York, New York to represent Ebb. It'll lead back into the theme of the ceremony.

I guess I'll quit whining now. I'm ever so thankful that these are still shown on network tv, I just wish they wouldn't rush the pre-production so quickly. Get it right, do it right... it'll be more financially & artisically rewarding. And, who knows, maybe you'll start making Joe Schmo regular person interested in actually seeing these shows. What a thought!

Charlie
magicpiane@kc.rr.com

I'm thinking they probably thought their bases were covered by having Charity perform.

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Showing scenes from Sweet Charity does not suffice to pay tribute to Cy Coleman's entire career.

(Applegate/Charity haters, please insert pointless "I hate Sweet Charity" comments here)

If Sweet Charity hadn't been nominated for best Revival, I wonder if the tony committee would have come up with something to pay tribute?

Any tribute to Coleman should have included a sampling of many of the shows that showcase the man's incredible talent and range. And Chita Rivera.

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I wonder...

It seemed like everything was so thrown together and just...I dunno, like someone dropped the ball - so much was sloppy and just...I dunno, creatively bad, and bad material for Hugh, etc.

Do you think with all the complaining and how obvious all the 'glitches' were, that there'll be some story soon about what happened that it all got all effed up?

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I don't know if it was previously mentioned, but I was so annoyed seeing the desperate housewife presenting and also sitting in a highly visible seat in the audience. I'm sick of seeing the lot of them.

>>Yes and not just Bernadette but Joanna too.

this is very distressing.
NEW IDEA!
wouldn't it have been FABULOUS to have done something like the broadway: the leading ladies special?
The Sondheim Tribute: do a song that a) he actually likes b) he actually wrote the music to with c) people that are on the ball, performance-wise. Bernadeete and Joanna are great choices esp since they were both in attendence already. saluting sondheim in one song would be tough since he has such a huge range of matarial, but if they're going for the "cute" factor, a duet of "you could drive a person crazy" would have worked just fine. if they were going for "sentimental" a less over-used song than "somewhere" would have been appreciated. how about "being alive" or "you're gonna love tomorrow" (many from follies would do) or... well, just about any steve song at all.
The Orbach tribute: someone said earlier "try to remember," and i think that would have worked perfectly. it would have been very inappropriate to mix the sondheim tribute with the in memoriam part and have sung "everyday a little death."
The Cy Coleman Tribute: wouldn't it have been fun to have a swell duet of "what you don't know about women"? that's always a crowd pleaser and can be increibly entertaining when done correctly. i esp love emily and alice's version, but an appearence by two people that haven't been on bway in a few years might be a bit akward.
that's all my advice for today.
and why do the crusty old people get the plan the broadcast when 9/10 people on this board have infinatly better ideas? (i'm not even including myself in that, just to be clear).

Here, here, Al!! I started to watch this travesty live then realized I was TiVoing it (and figured why waste my time being bored when I can fast forward through it on Monday).

Thrilled to see Bernadette at the opening, then was extremely disappointed in how they chose to use her.

Was less than thrilled with Hugh Jackman as host this year (and I do love me some Hugh) but like other posters here...not sure who should be picked to breathe some life back into the Tonys

Agree with most who found the numbers from the musicals to be a bit lackluster/disappointing. After seeing the performances I want less to see Piazza (was that just a poor choice of songs or are they all that hum-drum??) than I did after reading all the glowing posts here a few months ago. As a matter of fact, if I based my show choices on their Tony performances the only show I would truly want to see is Spelling Bee.

If this show was supposed to make America want to come to Broadway, I'm afraid it failed miserably.