Tony Award Performances: Are Some Lip-Synched?

Actually, a lot of them (if not all of them) are, much like what is done for the Macy's Parade. The shows want to be flawless for the audiences tuning in so they can better sell their show. Any mistake, especially vocally, could cost them. Plus, it just doesn't look good to make a mistake at the Tony Awards.

I could see them going that route based on some of the horrible sound issues they have had in recent years, especially the last few at Radio City. I seem to remember the show in general sounding better last year at the Beacon.

I always assumed it was just the soloists who sang live, mic-ing every single one of the performers in the show seems like it would be a nightmare. I remember Josefina Scaglione cracking on the final note of Tonight so there was no doubt about that being live, maybe some soloists do lip-synch.

Angela Lansbury is lip-syncing here. Her lips don't match the words at some points.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1-QQFUb3HI

But soloists clearly don't lip-sync anymore.

OK, not the Tonys, but I remember in Hugh Jackman's salute to movie musicals at the '09 Oscars, he sang live while Beyonce's much smaller portion was pre-recorded. Perhaps more to be expected at the Oscars than the Tonys.

I think producers must record vocals just as insurance in case of sickness.

During the year when Spamalot performed, Sara Ramirez had allergy issues (she thanked Claritin in her acceptance). People said she performed live, but I don't see how she could sing while being hoarse from pollen allergy.

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Wow it never occurred to me that the performances were not live on the Tonys. I knew they weren't on the Macy's Parade, of course. That's kind of disappointing. haha

And there ain't no Santy Claus neither.

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The ensemble is pretty much always recorded while the soloists sing live. I'm sure it's a sound/mic practicality issue. You can tell sometimes when the soloist is singing with the ensemble, the soloist sticks out, sometimes awkwardly.

I will never forget American newscaster Victoria Clark reporting from Italy during the Light in the Piazza performance.

The cast of Godspell has been tweeting pictures from their "Tony rehearsal," which took place in a recording studio with the cast at microphones.

Trust me on this one. I work at the Tony's every year. Believe me for the most part (meaning possibly the backgrounds) the actors are not lip synching. They are singing live. They may have ear pieces in because the orchestra is not in the theatre, or the orchestral tracks may be pre-recorded. Andrew Rannells sang live last year. Back in the 70's yes they all lip synched, and Angela had problems lipsynching WORST PIES" The only number I know for sure in that 1979 telecast was Lucie Arnaz and Robert KLien in THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG. Lucie insisted on doing it live.

Also if you don't realize the whole Tony Ceremony has a dress rehearsal Sunday morning where everyone goes through there numbers. The only thing that's different is they say the "winner for this rehearsal is"

Enjoy the Tony's this year...The Beacon is a beautiful venue.

Why are the Macy's parade performances lip-synched? I have a friend who was in Rent from 2001-2002 and she told me that when they did the parade they sang it live. No pre-recording. Why has that changed??

I can't get past people nowadays not being able to distinguish between an obvious synch issue originating from video tape and a synch issue originating from an actor's lips and bad sense of timing.

For example, there is no question that LuPone sings live on that Tony Awards Evita performance, but the battles on YouTube between those who swear she is merely mouthing to a track and those who swear it is live tends to come up every now and then and the mind boggles.

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