Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

#1

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 1:02pm

Some interesting and strong choices, though I'm not sure I'd say that Patti's barely intelligible Anything Goes belongs in the top 10.
The 25 best Tony Awards performances

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"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#2

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 1:26pm

Liza Minnelli's performance from "The Act" at the 1978 Tonys should have been included. One of the best Tony performances ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPfZKFbpcmQ

#3

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 1:46pm

What is it with Feldman's obsession with "Best" lists? Can't he just write a column?

#4

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 2:09pm

Tonya Pinkins would like a word with this journalist. Or is he just going to pretend that she didn't destroy the audience with "Lot's Wife" at the 2004 Tony Awards? http://youtu.be/FGju5KsIYG0

#5

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 2:32pm

I agree with the top 3. But Evita at 20 and Anything Goes at 7? That must be a mixup.

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"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim

#6

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 2:38pm

I'm glad Betty's "Memory" Made the Top 10. It was one of the best vocal performances she's ever given.

#7

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 2:45pm

I agree with the top 3. But Evita at 20 and Anything Goes at 7? That must be a mixup.

I think I would've switched them, too.

And I was delighted to see "We'll Take a Glass Together" in the top 5. That performance is just fantastic.

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When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad

#8

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 2:54pm

Perhaps Feldman didn't truly appreciate the imagery of Tonya Pinkins slamming the iron down on her sex.

I would agree that The Act probably deserves a place on that list most likely instead of The Life. And A Chorus Line deserves spot #1 not only for the performance, but the honor it was awarded by its length and placement in the telecast.

And though I'll probably get flack for this, I'd replace Bernadette's Rose's Turn and Spring Awakening with On the Twentieth Century and Rent.

Honrable mentions:
42nd Street revival
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
On the Twentieth Century

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"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#9

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 2:56pm

No love for the Conga? I mean...swing?

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"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

Updated On: 6/4/11 at 02:56 PM

#10

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 3:03pm

I totally agree with Jordan re: Buckley. I (and everyone else, I'm sure) has heard that song performed hundreds of times, in so many different contexts, and by so many different singers, but I have never heard it sung better than that.

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"Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos."-Stephen Sondheim

#11

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 4:12pm

Love Feldman and love his lists. They're designed to engage people, and they do.

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#12

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 4:22pm

By far the best Memory- couldn't agree more. Also am shocked at how high Anything Goes was.

I would have liked to see We'll Take A Glass in the Top 3, and although it was not a performance from 1 musical, I would like to have seen the opening from 2 years ago with every single musical and revival featured get some love- I still get chills when the curtain rises and everyone begins singing "Let The Sunshine"!

#13

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/3/11 at 4:53pm

Love this list.

Feldman is a huge supporter of "Caroline, or Change" so I'm surprised he didn't include Pinkins's performance. But she was not in very good voice that night.

Evita is number 20 because it was lip-synched, as the article says. And "City Lights" just goes on forever.

#14

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/4/11 at 7:51pm

Think Ragtime should be on the list and ranked in the top five. Something was just so phenomenal about it.

#15

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/4/11 at 8:24pm

This one gets my vote!
There you are!

#16

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/4/11 at 8:29pm

Completely agree with adding Drood to the list- fantastic performance. I'd much rather have that than Company- I think Esparza's performance, at least on the Tonys, was awful.

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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.

#17

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/4/11 at 10:57pm

No love for SIDESHOW with Ripley and Skinner???? That was an amazing performance

#18

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/4/11 at 11:10pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEVi5oug7Rk

My favorite opening number in the years since I started watching telecast (which was 1995). Watching that cast pour out of the Ford/Hilton/Foxwoods and ending up on that enormous stage of Radio City, and still fill it out nicely, was incredible. No wonder the show was not able to turn a profit after a four year run, with a cast that size.

I also loved the design for that show. That blue dress they put Kate Levering in anchoring that line of gold and silver was simply stunning.

#19

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/4/11 at 11:12pm

I wouldn't have included "Spring Awakening". Wasn't Pinkins sick that evening. I seem to remember hearing that she didn't want to do "Lot's Wife". It was a good performance but not as powerful as she normally did it. I saw her shortly before the Tonys and she tore the house down.

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Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

#20

Time Out NY'S 25 Best Tony Performances

Posted: 6/5/11 at 12:57am

I still think Judy Kuhn's performance of the title song from "Rags" is one of the most powerful I've ever seen.

So simple. So phenomenal.

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"...and in a bed."