Tony Awards Recap, DC Previews
Hello, play-goers! Sunday was theatre’s big night, with 4.3 million people tuning in to the Tony Awards. I rushed home from a pride pool party (happy pride!) to tune in—priorities! Here’s my recap, followed by some previews of upcoming DC theatre.
I’d seen 10 of the 38 eligible shows (and have tickets next week for two more)—a record for me! This year’s awards took place amidst a strike by the Writer’s Guild of America, whose members would usually write the script for the Tony Awards show. The union let the show go on, but with no script. This meant no prepared remarks for the presenters, which freed up more time for musical numbers and did away with the often-blah commentary that, in my opinion, slows down awards shows. I particularly loved how host Ariana DeBose handled it—she used her own wit to liven up the proceedings, improvising her comments. And she opened the show with a fabulous, wordless dance number that highlighted the award show’s new venue, the gorgeous United Palace in Washington Heights.
The evening’s biggest award, Best Musical, went to “Kimberly Akimbo,” which I absolutely loved and was a well-earned victory. While I didn’t see all the nominees, I also thought “Some Like it Hot” would’ve been a good choice for the winner. “Kimberly Akimbo” also won for its score by Jeanine Tesori—beautiful, moving; book by David Lindsay-Abaire—tightly plotted, laugh-out-loud hilarious, and so sweet; and acting for Victoria Clark and Bonnie Milligan—both performances were terrific!
In a first, two openly non-binary performers won for their acting: J. Harrison Ghee for “Some Like it Hot” and Alex Newell for “Shucked.” I saw Ghee’s performance and it was stunning—well deserved! Ghee plays a male bass player who witnesses a mob hit and dresses as a woman to flee; along the way, the character discovers they really love living as a woman and want to continue doing so. Ghee sings the beautiful “You Coulda Knocked Me Over With A Feather” to express these new feelings—the first moment of gender euphoria I’ve seen in a piece of theater and absolutely thrilling to witness. So Ghee is both breaking barriers as a performer and bringing to life a character who is exposing audiences to ideas about gender that may be new for them—such a nice antidote to a society that, in may cases, seems intent on squashing people’s authentic experiences of their gender.
This was a theme of the evening in that many of the winners are from marginalized groups: gays, people of color, non-binary, and fat people. It was so empowering to see them win and use their platform to encourage others to pursue their dreams! Here are my three favorite examples:
Bonnie Milligan gave a call out “to everybody that doesn’t maybe look like what the world is telling you what you should look like — whether you’re not pretty enough, you’re not thin enough, your identity is not right, who you love isn’t right — that doesn’t matter. ‘Cause guess what?”—holding up her award—“It’s right, and you belong.”
Alex Newell said, “Thank you for seeing me. Broadway, I should not be up here as a queer, non-binary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts. Anyone that thinks that they can't do it, I'm going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to."
Michael Arden (who won for directing the revival of “Parade”) said he was called “the f-word more times than I can remember. And all I can say now is I’m a faggot with a Tony!” The room roared with approval, and he encouraged everyone to “Keep raising your voices!”
What I especially love about the theatre world is that it is populated by former “theatre kids”—nerds who just loved going to the theater and putting on shows in their bedrooms (both of which I did, too!)—who have now grown up into “theatre adults” who are making it in a very tough business and are unabashedly overjoyed about that! The playwright Suzan-Lori Parks jumped up and down when her play, “Topdog/Underdog” won Best Play Revival; Newell declared, “I have wanted this my entire life;” and many winners thanked parents for exposing them to the arts at a young age. I love that no matter how glamorous these performers seem, they still retain that inner-nerd who just wanted to be on stage!
The awards show’s performances of numbers from this season’s best musical nominees were fabulous! I encourage you to check them out on Youtube, especially the numbers from“Some Like it Hot,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “Into the Woods”.
See the full list of winners here.
DC Previews
Fun Home at Studio Theatre: Jeanine Tesori just won a Tony for her score to “Kimberly Akimbo,” but audiences here in DC have an opportunity to see her other Tony-winning show, “Fun Home”! The musical, based on the memoir of lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel, tells the overlapping stories of her coming out and her (gay) father’s suicide. It is an incredibly moving story and stirring score. I’m really excited to see it! Playing June 28 - August 20.
1776 at Kennedy Center: This is a tour of the Broadway revival of the 1969 musical about the events preceding the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The twist here is that all the Founding Fathers are played by a “multiracial cast of women, non-binary, and trans actors.” It received mixed reviews on Broadway; I’m curious to see it partly because I’ve never seen a production of “1776”, and partly to see how the alternative casting changes our understanding of the nation’s founding. Playing just in time for Independence day, June 27 - July 16.
That’s all for now! I’ll be in NYC again soon for my last trip of the ‘22-’23 season and will follow up with my reviews! I always love hearing from you with ideas or questions!