Was there a half decent performance at the Tonys last night?- Page 2

[jv92]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 3:32pm

Yes, I saw that, but Bernadette's awkward clapping and smiling amused me more, supersam.

"People need to stop attacking this years Tony Awards." - No, we don't.

"Most all of the performances were thoroughly enjoyable, and most performers were excellent!" - No, they weren't. And re: performers, did you see Matthew Broderrick?

"If you bothered to see any of the good shows that were nominated, then you may have cared more about the awards." - I saw a lot of the nominated shows. I still didn't care too much. It's a big TV commercial.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 3:32pm

The whole evening seemed under-rehearsed. Except NPH, who is getting to that cloying "aren't I cute up here" point where Billy Crystal had treaded on the Oscars.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 3:35pm

Let's also bemoan the lost art of television directing for musical performances.

The directors and the camera people on the Tony shows for the past few years have made the numbers look infinitely worse than they are.

TV directors used to know how to do these kind of numbers. They seems to have forgotten.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 3:36pm

Probably the only minute that made me say "I want to see that" was the Les Mis ad.

^^^What Joe said. God, that was boring and I was at a party so I couldn't turn it off!

[broadwayfever]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 3:42pm

Hopefully, this will help in giving you a better idea as to what took place last night.

Highlights:

-Porgy & Bess performance (Best of the night)
-James Cordon's & Steve Kazee's speech (Very touching)
-Trey & Matt's 'establishment' skit They should've co-hosted)
-Les Miserables Trailer (very promising)
-Neil's 'Best Score' and 'Out of Time' songs (what he does best)
-Nice Work...performance (looked interesting)
-Once performance (very authentic)


So So:

-Newsies performance (just seemed a little off)
-Evita performance (tempo seemed way off)
-Book of Mormon 'Hello' skit (funny but it waned a little)


Lowlights:

-Godspell performance (reminded me of 'Up with People')
-Follies performance (just terrible and out of place)
-Jesus Christ Superstar performance (nothing like I remember)
-Hairspray performance (that was just a mess)
-Ghost performance (another mess)
-Audra's 'cringe worthy' acceptance speech (felt bad for her)


Biggest Mistake by the Tonys:

-The biggest mistake was not having Spiderman performances... what were they thinking? In order to attract mainstream America, you have to incorporate mainstream interests...and Spiderman is a huge interest. They really dropped the ball on this one. I mean, so many more people would've enjoyed watching Spiderman's 'Pull the Trigger' or A Freak Like Me' instead of that Godspell or Follies number. It would've added some life to the mostly boring show. In addition, many more people would've tuned in to watch the Tonys if they knew that Spiderman was going to perform.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 3:46pm

I thought Broderick was having an off night when I saw NICE Work, but the Tonys showed me that he ALWAYS looks bored playing the role.

[bdn223]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 3:52pm

Spiderman was offered a chance to perform...again....the producers turned the Tony's down...

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 3:54pm

Andrew Garfield and Jim Parsons' reaction shots during Godspell made more of an impact than the performance.

I think the song choices in general were the problem. Too many ballads. I get that they may sound pretty in the context of the show, but it doesn't make for good TV. Newsies and Leap of Faith were the only dynamic performances. Ghost was just depressing and JC Superstar was outright creepy. Once left viewers wondering how Cristin Milioti got a lead actress nomination for her performance as Deer in Headlights. And who picked that number from Follies?

An off year for me, on so many levels.

[bdn223]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 4:03pm

I remember 2 years ago everyone criticized Fella!'s number like they did Once's the problem is that both shows numbers don't work outside/sell their respective shows...the only number that would truly make Once look enticing on TV would be "Ej, Pada, Pada, Rosicka", "The North Strand" and possibly "When your mind's made up" I'm surprised they didn't do the latter...but the first 2 don't include Steve or Cristin much...though they are the most memorable numbers of the show and are also 90 seconds in length...

[broadwayfever]

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

@bdn

Again, Tony's mistake for not recognizing Spiderman's score. How the heck are you going to give the nod to two PLAYS ("Peter and the Starcatcher" and "One Man, Two Guvnors") over actual musicals? The Tony's really screwed that up.

[TheatreKid3]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 4:22pm

Best performances of the night, in my opinion, were NEWSIES and ONCE.

NEWSIES - just the combination using the intro from "Once and for All" was great (would have been incredible had they won). The dancing was great - I just think everyone was bored after seeing that number so many times. They always deliver, and I think they will probably benefit the most out of all the shows that performed based on those for performances for two reasons:
-it looks stunning and makes you want to see the show - and I think it was the one that typical viewers or those unfamiliar with theatre would be wowed by or love the most.
-they were the first to perform.

ONCE - I'm proud of them for choosing to not do "Falling Slowly." While I love the song, I just feel "Gold" captures the spirit and essence of what ONCE is as it incorporates the movement and entire cast playing instruments. "Falling Slowly" does not translate well to TV, in my opinion, because the just stand there playing. While it is good in the show, it is not a good theatrical number to perform for the masses.

Posted: 6/11/12 at 4:30pm

The Newsies number was fine- except they should have just done one song. Usually a song has a quiet beginning, an explosion of dance and a big finish. That just seemed like a big bowl of yipping.

And it would have made no difference if they won- They performed first and the winner was announced 165 minutes later.

[bdn223]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 4:33pm

@Broadwayfever I do not understand what you are responding too...

[ken8631]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 4:59pm

I was tivo'ing and was ready to fast forward through the "Once" performance, even though was interested in seeing it. Was very boring to me (haven't seen it, no desire to now).

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 5:01pm

I thought the issue was, in many cases, poorly chosen numbers. Newsies was the only one that actually made me sort-of want to see something I had previous held no intention of seeing. The Godspell performance was a useless attempt at trying to replicate the Hair experience and exuberance and joy, and a complete waste of time. And wtf, Follies. Just wtf. So many choices, and that was the winner? Ironic that Leap of Faith was probably one of the better performances of the night.

[jv92]

Posted: 6/11/12 at 6:21pm

HAIR's performance a few years ago looked authentically joyful. Last night, GODSPELL's attempt was pathetic.

[PennybankBill]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 9:22am

I hated how Jim Parsons started to set us up with "The magic of live theatre" and then cut to 30 second pre-recorded clips from the nominated plays. What a turn off.

[Luscious]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 12:04pm

IMO, the best performance was by the cast of LEAP OF FAITH. Ironic, to say the least.

[jetts7]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 1:30pm

I think the Godspell performance would have been the best of the night if they had Hunter perform with them.

Posted: 6/12/12 at 1:47pm

You know Penny bank- that montage introduced by Jim Parsons was pretty effective I thought. And the best moment of theater presented was the Les Mis Ad. Makes me wonder if the "Live" part isn't overrated. If I produced the Tonys I think I'd suggest each show put together a for-minute prerecorded "digital short."

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 3:16pm

PalJoey is absolutely right!
"The directors and the camera people on the Tony shows for the past few years have made the numbers look infinitely worse than they are."

Catherine Zeta-Jones singing Send In The Clowns is a perfect example of that. She looked like she had lost the conductor and was frantically trying to find him. If that number had been staged properly, she would have been placed center stage and told "Just sing straight out to the audience and the cameras will do the work."

Of the numbers I saw:

Once - Did some cleaning woman get caught onstage and couldn't figure out how to get offstage? What was the point of having that woman walk around? We don't know the context it plays in the musical.

Evita - I know they're trying to sell tix off Ricky Martin's name, but that number stank. I know they didn't want to repeat "A New Argentina" because the 1980 awards blew the roof off with that number. But Money Kept Rollin' didn't make me grab my phone and call Telecharge.

Godspell - Light of the World just came across weird. It didn't "break through" our tv screens. Perhaps it was miked poorly but the singing sounded horrible.

[bdn223]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 3:35pm

@Gothampc that is the issue with most of Once's songs that there is no context for them...Guy literally walks into the bar and just plays Gold...it is that simple. The songs from the score are also mainly ballads, which are tougher to sell on TV...unless your Patti Lupone. That is why they usually The North Stand into Falling Slowly to make it appear as if there is some life in the score, when in fact that only happens twice in the show...The show is beautiful, but it just isn't lively.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/12/12 at 3:36pm

Just to give a comparison: This is how it's done, the event that had the phone company worried that all the usage over this broadcast would cause a phone outage in NYC. The camera work is almost perfect, the energy of the cast jumps through the screen and it makes you want to pick up the phone and call Telecharge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QtZxxbStjs

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 12:23am

That seems to be a problem when filming live performancesin general now. They want to use flashy camera work, that undermines the performance and gives no sense of it--see the way dance is filmed on So You Think You Can Dance (lots of spinning cameras), etc.

Although I just saw an interview with Cady Huffman where she spends a good minute bemoaning how badly her Tony clips were filmed (specifically the awesome Beat me Daddy number from Big Deal), but it's certainly got worse (didn't Michael Bennett actually direct the Tony performance of A Chorus Line himself?)

[bk]

Posted: 6/13/12 at 2:28am

Yes, that Evita clip is a perfect example - just shoot the damn number - it's not about the camera, it's about the NUMBER.

And I really cannot believe I'm reading that anyone thought that Leap of Faith number was good - the only number that came off half well was the opening Book of Mormon number.