The 75th Annual Tony Awards marked the start of Broadway’s first full season since the pandemic. Many of the shows nominated for Oscars were set to premiere in 2020, but theatres were forced to close for a year and a half.
In winning the award for Best Play, one of the producers for The Lehman Trilogy resignedly stated, “between the fourth and fifth preview there were 577 days.”
Despite this, the Tony Awards did not emphasize how difficult COVID was for the industry. It didn’t beg visitors to come back. Instead, thanks in large part to its host, Ariana DeBose, the show was surprisingly friendly and welcoming.
Here are six observations I made while watching the Tony Awards on Sunday night:
1. Allow Ariana DeBose to host the entire event.
DeBose, who earned an Oscar for her role as Anita in Stephen Spielberg’s West Side Story, provided a master class on how to emcee an awards show — or any program, for that matter. She strutted into the audience and sat on Andrew Garfield’s lap, amusing and playful. She was emotional, breaking down in tears as she spoke about her mentor, a theatrical teacher. She was open and honest, gently reflecting on the theatre industry’s racial inequities. (“I feel like the Great White Way is more of a nickname than a how-to guide,” she remarked.)
She was also engaged, which was a big plus. She didn’t treat the awards like a Hollywood Improv show; she wasn’t fighting with anybody else on stage for laughs or attention. Instead, it was as though she reached out and grasped the audience by the hand, inviting us into her living room to watch the play together. She simply appeared to be having a wonderful time.
“Broadway’s back, sweetheart, and she’s waiting for you!” she said at the end, and we believed her.
2. The Tony Awards are diverse! That is unless they aren’t.
For a time, it looked like this year’s Tony Award winners would be virtually entirely white.
The show spent a lot of time emphasizing how welcoming theatre is to everyone, and the nominees were diverse, but the winners… weren’t.
As the Tony Prizes progressed, it appeared like the new musical A Strange Loop, about a struggling Black gay man, would end the night with 11 nominations but no awards. What are the awards for the best musical director, best score, best scenic design, and best lighting design? All of them went to other concerts. The Tony Awards made a big deal about L Morgan Lee of A Strange Loop being the first openly transgender performer to be nominated for a Tony.
But suddenly everything changed. A Strange Loop won Best Book (almost a foregone conclusion given that it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2020) and — surprise! — Best Musical.
Phylicia Rashad for Skeleton Crew, Myles Frost for MJ, and Joaquina Kalukango for Paradise Square were among the other winners of color (who earned a standing ovation, the only one of the evening, for her thrilling award show performance).
The United Kingdom, though, was the night’s biggest winner. All of the winners were British: Simon Russell Beale, Sam Mendes, Marianne Elliott, Toby Marlow, Lucy Moss, Bunny Christie, Es Devlin, Gabriella Slade, Jon Clark, and Ben Power.
3. Kudos to understudies (and standbys and swings and stage managers and …)
The unheralded workers that keep the show running, especially when the big names are out with COVID, were a recurring topic throughout the evening. Understudy Mallory Maedke, who performed in a piece from the new musical SIX at the Tony Awards, had only a few hours’ notices before she had to go on, according to Ariana DeBose. In their acceptance speeches, others, such as Jesse Tyler Ferguson, praised understudies, standbys, and swings. In addition, the stage manager of Paradise Square was introduced to the cameras. Also, 150 Broadway COVID safety managers were given seats at the awards event, and they waved from the balcony to the television viewers.
A brief note: it’s common to believe that everyone who stands in for an actor is an understudy. Understudies, on the other hand, perform in the ensemble before moving on to lead roles if necessary; standbys are performers who stand by offstage in case a lead performer is unable to perform, and swings cover multiple ensemble roles.
4. Jennifer Hudson was awarded the EGOT.
Hudson had already won an Emmy, a Grammy, and an Oscar, and she added a Tony to her collection today. She is credited as a co-producer on A Strange Loop, which she joined after it was transferred to Broadway. She is the 17th artist to earn an EGOT, and the second Black woman to do so.
5. Dana H was finally given the credit she deserved.
Dana H was so little-known when it closed in November of last year that two presenters mispronounced it. (George Takei referred to it as Diana, while Josh Lucas referred to it as Donna H.) But that was an incredible, gut-wrenching performance. When playwright Lucas Hnath was in college, he assembled recordings of his mother relating the story of her kidnapping, and performer Deirdre O’Connell lip-synced to the audio. O’Connell spends practically the whole performance alone on stage.
Mikhail Fiksel of the play won the Best Sound Design, which seemed like an “of course” moment given that the show was entirely dependent on sound.
However, O’Connell, who was up against Mary-Louise Parker and Ruth Negga, won the Tony Award unexpectedly.
6. Everyone misses Stephen Sondheim
Because Company’s music and lyrics were written by Stephen Sondheim, who died on Nov. 26 last year, there was a sense that it might win Best Revival even before the Tony Awards. Yes, it did.
But Sondheim was also honored in a charming tribute that featured Bernadette Peters singing “Children Will Listen” from his 1987 Broadway musical Into the Woods. Thanks to those excerpts of Sondheim talking about how the arts are about educating, it felt nostalgic but not sugary. It, like the rest of the award presentation, reached out to the audience to lure them in.
