Neil Patrick Harris will host the 63rd annual Tony Awards tonight, June 7th. This year’s ceremony will be held in Radio City Music Hall and will be televised by CBS. There will be a star-studded list of presenters, such as Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Lange, Frank Langella, David Hyde Pierce and Kevin Spacey.
Early reports indicate that “Billy Elliott The Musical” will be the big winner at the end of the night.
Viewers can expect a spectacular night of Broadway styled performances. There will be 3 hours of songs, dance, drama and impressive talent……….and a small amount of time devoted to the awards.
This year, the Tony’s are going for a different style. They want this show to introduce the Broadway talent to the television audience so they have opted to present the technical and design awards before the televised show. They also will give out some performance awards before the show too. This has outraged many of the Broadway family who feel too many talented people are not getting the recognition that they should.
With the design awards out of sight from the television audience, there is now more room for not only performances by the nominated musicals, but also the touring companies of Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia and Legally Blonde. Since the audience will seeing the casts from the actual production coming to your town, most feel it is a push to – buy your tickets now!
Making the Tony Awards nothing but musical number after musical number is a ratings ploy helping not only viewership, but ticket sales. But many critics wonder if performances by top stars like Dolly Parton and Elton John are needed to ensure people tuning in on Sunday night. Will it ensure that there will be more than the usual audience watching the Tony’s? That question will be answered Monday morning.
Many people are complaining that without the observation of the presentation of the awards, the Tony Awards will just become a show filled with fluff. Most diehard Broadway lovers love the tributes to actors, dancers and composers who are not the popular stars and they love to cheer and cry or the accolades they get at the Tony’s. But, it seems that does not make good TV.
For Clay Aiken fans, the question is not who will win, but will Clay attend the ceremony. And, most of his fans are cheering on Christopher Sieber who has been nominated for “Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical.” Congratulations, Christopher, for your nomination. We hope that you walk away with the trophy.