The Tony Awards returned to Radio City Music Hall on Sunday for the first time since June 2019. And after riding a roller coaster like this for a year, the ceremony was a welcome opportunity to celebrate all of them (from understudy and swings to stage managers) and the show continues (and again). Confirmed by Covid Safety Officer). Ariana Devose, whose former theater Understudy became a recent Oscar winner, hosted the three-hour broadcast portion of the ceremony at CBS. However, Darren Criss and Julianne Hough, the hosts of the first hour of the ceremony at Paramount +, enthusiastically pleased one of our writers on the show. About the award itself: There were some nice surprises, but voters showed that they were anxious for something familiar. Here are the highs and lows that our writers have seen. Nicole Herrington
Best Stick: Billy Crystal creates a stupid charm
The television broadcast was professional, smooth, fast-paced and bland. Part of the problem: A generally gorgeous choice of musical material. Another: Middlebrow tones that are overly careful and do not cause discomfort. One of the few moments that broke through taste and dormancy was Billy Crystal’s “Mr. Saturday Night,” a new musical based on his 1992 film. In fact, his “Idish scat” (meaningless throat and spitting consonants sung like Ella Fitzgerald’s improvisation) is part of his behavior and legitimate. There is a reason. that. And when he took it out into the audience and threw it on the balcony, he found that accurate delivery and command of the room could make even the oldest and stupidest materials incredibly attractive. Shown. Jessie Green
Best Midshow Relief: “Strange Loop” Victory
In the first half of the ceremony, I was sweating that the 11-time nominee “A Strange Loop” hadn’t won anything. We expected the Pulitzer Prize winners to be wiped out, but when the broadcast began, it was clear that Tony’s voters were more inclined to the predictable choices of the winner’s circle. So, when “A Strange Loop” won the first award of the night, as the musical’s best book, Michael R. Jackson to celebrate his “Big, Black and Strange Ass American Broadway” show. It was thrilling to see him on stage. Scripts that push Jackson’s boundaries and make you think are not only broad in every sense of the word, but also cheerful and destructive. Maya Philips
Best Shout Out: Understudy and Nod to Swing
In the weeks leading up to the Tony Awards, various social media platforms have been talking about the demand for respect for Tony Awards swings, understudy, and standby. In a season often confused by the Covid-19 infection, these performers filled out for the nominated players at the next show of the show, sometimes with just a few notices.
Night host Ariana Devose said in her opening confession: “The show is done by many people, not just the faces you know and love.”
Understudy couldn’t be nominated, but the winners and presenters found a way to pay homage to them. In Paramount +’s “Act One” special, “MJ” winner and director choreographer Christopher Wheeldon shouted “all the swings and understudy that pushed us to the stage this season.” I will bow. “
In the main program, “Take Me Out” winner Jesse Tyler Ferguson thanked her for her research. “Company” winner Patti LuPone welcomed not only Understudy, but also Covid-19 compliance officers. And in large production numbers, Devose took a little longer while being lifted into the air to thank the swings.
Perhaps the biggest compliment came during the production number of the musical “Six”. Jane Seymour was played by the show’s dance captain, Mallory Maeke. He was hiding a few hours before the actress Abby Mueller, who usually plays the role, tested positive for Covid-19. Maedke intervened. The show continued. ALEXIS SOLOSKI
The Best “Glee” Alum: Darren Criss
It’s appropriate that Darren Criss was one of the hosts for the 2022 Tony Awards. Before appearing on Broadway, he made a big break in the series “Glee,” a bridge between pop music and Broadway. He and Julianne Hough (formerly a “Dancing with the Stars” pro who didn’t miss a step if the costume came off before the scheduled moment) sparkle with an hour-long hosting gig. Infused adorable and enthusiastic nerds into the quality of the entertainment world. Tony’s “Act 1” part. And the opening number for Paramount + Stream, written by Criss, was more enthusiastic than the opener for Ariana DeBose in the flagship section hosted by CBS. Elizabeth Vincentelli
Worst Display: Evening-Long Memory Loss
It is the theater people’s job to imagine and step into an alternative world. However, there was a serious cognitive dissonance in the collectively imagined world of Tony Award ceremonies. It celebrated the Broadway post-shutdown season for four hours, thanks to strict Covid safety measures. The most visible is the exact need for a mask. For the audience.
Curiously, the photo the industry chose to present to the TV camera at Radio City Music Hall was a real sea, as if Broadway lived in the post-Covid world. In the vast orchestra section where the candidates were sitting, there were few masks anywhere.
The brass band of “The Music Man” paraded the aisle. Ariana Devose, the host of this year’s Tony Awards, sang straight into the face of her audience. And three winners from the “company” resurrection — Patti LuPone; her director, Marianne Elliott. And their producer, Chris Harper — made a mocking mention of the audience rejecting masks at their show. Funny, sure, but they too were real faces in the crowd.
Broadway responded to all the affectionate screams that Tony and Tony Award winners gave the Understudy, Blanco, and Covid safety teams as essential to performing so many pieces. I couldn’t wonder about choosing a regular TV visual. Be careful, you know how terrifying it will be when positive test results start to come in. LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES
Best Look: Theater Stars Shine and Shine
The Tony Awards are not exactly known to be a major fashion event, at least compared to the other award-winning shows that make up EGOT’s initials. But maybe it should be. On Sunday, the main stars were seen in the main appearance. The biggest trend is in the high brilliance and brilliance of a big theater night.
Take a look at Joaquina Vedracango, the leading actress in the musical and Tony Award-winning. She wears a golden gown with hanging jewels and is tied with an electric lime green bow.
Then there was Ariana Devose’s head-to-toe black sequined gown. Kara Young’s metallic two-piece ball gown. Utokarshuan Budkar’s suit is covered with pearly buttons. Vanessa Hudgens big, golden abstract planet earrings. Billy Porter’s space-era jacquard silver tie. There was a woman wearing crystals and beads like armor. There was a man channeling Michael Jackson (a fringed epaulette) and Elvis (a high-colored low-cut shirt) — bringing enough glitz, charm, and intricate embroidery to occupy a few Broadway costume designers. Jessicasta
Worst attempt at nostalgia: not “Smooth Criminal”
There are many complaints about Michael Jackson’s jukebox musical “MJ”. So it’s no wonder that Tony Awards performances (stars, Miles Frost, and some of the companies running “Smooth Criminal”) are a bit boring. Musicals are hollow in nature. Michael Jackson’s opacity and trauma and his life of controversy make it difficult to find enough compelling and cohesive material to tell a story on stage. So the name of the game is nostalgia, and the show passes by with the momentum of fans who are happy to see and hear some of Jackson’s career’s most iconic performances. But everything is impressive, and even the choreography is limited to trial-and-error truth with few nuances and variations. The airless enormousness and form of the Tony Awards stage has ejected what the charismatic “MJ” might have had in other ways. Maya Philips
Best experimental inspiration: love for “strange art”
Deddle O’Connell’s “Dana H.” Victory — Early in the evening, both presenters called it “Donna H.”. And “Diana H.” — Comes as an amazing surprise. An actress of absolute passion and accuracy, O’Connell, 70, has taken her career off-off-Broadway and enriched the work of her two-generation playwright with traditional and very strange works. Did. (She is currently starring in Will Arbery’s “Corsicana” At the playwright Horizon. )
In “Dana H.,” she lip-synced to the disastrous audio recorded by the playwright’s mother, Lucas Hnath. And in her acceptance speech in the middle of a ceremony where more traditional fares are usually rewarded, O’Connell is worried if the art they make turns out to be too difficult for Broadway. Dedicated her Tony to the house. She argued that her presence should inspire her memorable, terrifying, and incomprehensible art.
“Please let me stand here,” she said. “Be a little sign to you from space to make strange art.” Now, Tony’s future writer and director, let’s make strange art. ALEXIS SOLOSKI
Best Spotlight: Playwright Medley
At a typical Tony Awards show, playwrights are as famous as animal trainers and children’s Wranglers. (It’s a permanent embarrassment that they rarely talk, even if the job wins.) This year’s presentation may not have brought them the glory they deserve — after all. By the way, they are at the heart of the whole enterprise — but it was a longer, smarter and more insightful segment that gave them. Each of the five best play candidates answered some simple questions about themselves and their work. Their answers were edited together like a medley. What word does Tracy Letts, the author of “The Minutes”, use to describe it? “Cheerful,” he said with a self-serving sparkle. What is Lynn Nottage’s favorite line of “Clyde’s”? “A small amount of salt makes food taste better. Too much salt makes it inedible.” And Ben Power, author of the “Lehman Trilogy,” wrote a play about his own life. Do you want to explain? “It’s about the same as the’Lehman Trilogy’, but with a happier ending.” Jessie Green
Worst Trend: Reward Marquee’s Name
The worst part of the night wasn’t the moment, but most of the time the fact that the most famous people and shows won. Voters felt eager for something familiar to them in the first full season after Covid Broadway. Even if it’s familiar, it’s a fun retread of Sondheim Show (“Company”) and Spice Girls (“Six”) who have changed their gender.
There were two major exceptions to that trend. Off-Broadway veteran Dedre O’Connell won the Best Actress Award for the play “Dana H”. Michael R. Jackson’s bracing “A Strange Loop” won the highest musical award. Elizabeth Vincentelli
Best Heroine: Hoakina Whiskas Lift “Paradise Square”
“Paradise Square” is not the best musical. And it makes Joaquina Calcango’s inspiring performance as the show’s tough and wide-ranging heroine Nelly O’Brien far more impressive. An otherwise monotonous Tony broadcast, excerpts from “Paradise Square” brought some coveted vitality to the stage. Beginning with the ensemble’s singing and dancing, which performed the gorgeous choreography of the musical, this segment became Kalukango’s solo showcase, which enthusiastically enthusiastically performed her large number of characters, “Let It Burn.”
Thanks to the camera close-up (which is rarely seen in the theater world), I was able to see the details of Calcango’s performance. Her face seems to open to a mind-boggling roar, and by the end of her song her entire face is darkened with tears. No wonder she later won the Musical Best Actress Award. Watching her acting is like watching a Roman candle burst on a starless night. It’s such powerful and beautiful. Maya Philips