An ardent story about a black gay theater artist facing self-doubt and social disapproval, “The Strange Loop” won a Tony Award for the best new musical on Sunday night and has already won the Pulitzer Prize. An award that gave another great praise to the challenging contemporary work that was done.
Nurtured by a non-profit organization and developed over the years, the show reveals two flashy pop musicals, the jukebox musical “MJ” about entertainer Michael Jackson and the irreverent wife of Henry VIII. I overcame the rethinking “Six”. , In a 6-way race.
“Strange loops” gathered Widely praised From critics; how personal the project was when Michael R. Jackson, the writer who worked on the project for nearly 20 years on Sunday night, won the first Tony Award as the best musical book. I admitted that it was warm.
“I wrote it when I didn’t know what I was trying to do in my life,” he said. “I didn’t know how to move forward. I felt invisible. I felt unprecedented. I felt misunderstood and made a little liferaft for myself as a black gay man. I wanted to. “
The ceremony — the 75th Tony Awards presentation — provided Broadway with the opportunity to celebrate its return and patience. The hurt industry is in full swing now, but still anxious for more customers.
The just-ending season was tough: it started late (most theaters remained closed until September) and was repeatedly confused (coronavirus cases erased the must-see spirit of that old show, Prompted for cancellation and absence of performers). The tourism industry was still depressed and there was a shortage of spectators.
“Our industry has experienced a lot,” said Marianne Elliott, who won the Tony Award for directing the gender-reversed resurrection of Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy “Company.” Said in the acceptance speech. “Sometimes I felt the live theater was in jeopardy.”
However, a glittering ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan celebrated the successful progress of the parade. The theater was reopened, the long-running show was revived, and a wide variety of plays and musicals arrived, entertaining, inspiring and inspiring the audience.
Tony played the best play in “Lehman Trilogy,” a bold story about the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers’ banking business. Using three transforming actors contained within the rotating glass box of the set, the play travels from the humble origins of the Wall Street giant in 1844 to its disgraceful collapse in 2008. Did. He chose Tony not only for the best plays, but also for the play director Sam Mendes. The stage artist, Es Devlin. And, despite pandemic protocols and public health concerns, Simon Russell Beer, a great British actor, thanked the audience for showing up.
“You trusted us,” he said. “You have spread your arms. Due to all these regulations, it was not easy to come to the theater at that time. But you welcomed us.”
“Lehman Trilogy” has beaten the other four candidates, “Clyde”, “Hangmen”, “Minute” and “Skeleton Crew”.
“Take Me Out” won the Best Play Revival category. In particular, it was a powerful field such as “American Buffalo,” “How I Learned to Drive,” “Trouble in Mind,” and “for colored girls thinking of suicide.” When the rainbow is Enuf. “
Written by Richard Greenberg, “Take Me Out” was first staged on Broadway in 2003 and won a Tony Award that year. This year’s revival, presented by the non-profit Second Stage Theater, was directed by Scott Ellis. It’s about what happens when the baseball player Jesse Williams portrays in this film comes out as gay. Jesse Tyler Ferguson picked up his first Tony for his portrayal of a gay player’s investment adviser.
First staged in 1970, the musical “Company” was witty, sometimes bitter, and Tony Award-winning for the revival of “Caroline or Change” and the starry sky of “The Music.” It surpassed the revival. Thanks to the charm of leading actor Hugh Jackman, it has become the best-selling show since Broadway opened.
The “Company” award not only praises the rethought-out work, but also respects Sondheim, the composer and lyricist who died in November, being respected as one of the most important figures in the American musical theater. It reflects. “Hamilton’s creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, under the guidance of Sondheim, tells him that he stands here on behalf of generations of artists who have encouraged him over time.” I paid tribute.
Organized by Ariana Devose and aired on CBS, the Tony Awards pay tribute not only to shows, performers, writers and designers, but also to Understudy, who has saved many performances this season. And, in honor of this season’s extraordinary variety, DeBose, who won an Academy Award as Anita for a remake of Steven Spielberg in West Side Story this year, said: This is in contrast to the how-to guide. “
She arose in the summer of 2020 when producers and theater owners scrambled to meet the demands of more representatives and opportunities for black artists after public unrest over racism. I paid attention to a large number of works by black writers this season. Candidates featured a number of black artists, reflecting the fact that this year’s work by Tony’s class black writers led to jobs such as black performers, designers and directors.
The first prestigious season since the theater was closed due to a coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 was the 34 works that were eligible for the Tony Award between February 20, 2020 and May 4, 2022. We featured 56 works, including. Productions, many of them are long-term hits. )
Covid’s challenge was expensive. In the 2021-22 season, 6.7 million people attended Broadway shows, down from 14.8 million in the 2018-19 season, which was the last full season before the pandemic. Total sales decreased from $ 1.8 billion to $ 845 million.
The Tony Awards were an opportunity for Broadway to seduce TV viewers to become Times Square visitors. But one challenge is that the number of viewers for all award shows on television is steadily declining. Tony Awards viewers recently peaked at 8.7 million viewers in 2016 when Hamilton was a competitor. With 5.4 million viewers in 2019, last year the Tony Awards held a ceremony in September to coincide with the reopening of the theater, with only 2.6 million attendees.
This year’s winner features Broadway veterans, including Patti LuPone, and her third Tony on her ferocious turn as a married friend who chronically added alcohol to the single protagonist at the “company.” Won the award. And Phylicia Rashad won the second Tony by playing a factory worker in the “Skeleton Crew”. Among other Tony Award-winning performers is Hoaquina Whiskas, who was the main owner of a 19th-century New York City tavern at Paradise Square. Matt Doyle, who played the groom in the strange case of Jitter on a wedding day in “Company,” and Deirdre O’Connell, who won her amazing lip-synching performance as a victim of kidnapping in the play “Dana H.”
“I hope this little prize will be a token for everyone who is wondering.” Are you trying to make something that can be performed on Broadway, a Tony Award winner, or a strange piece of art? Are you trying? Annoying me, it scares me, I don’t know how to make it, don’t know if anyone in the world understands it? “Oconnell said. “Stand here and let you make a small sign from space to create strange art.”
“Strange Loop” is the story of a Broadway guide named Asher who is trying to write a musical about a Broadway guide who is trying to write a musical. Many of his ideas are self-critical and are portrayed by six performers, each appearing in multiple outfits. The musical began off-Broadway and was produced in 2019 by the playwright Horizons in connection with production. After winning the Pulitzer Prize, Jackson continued to polish the show for commercial production on Broadway this year, and another pre-Broadway piece was staged at the Woolley Mammoth Theater Company in Washington, DC.
“Six” and “MJ” did not succeed in the 6-way race for the best new musicals, but they did some big wins.
“Six” won the Tony Award for the highest score in the first few minutes of the ceremony. The music and lyrics were written by two young British artists, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, who came up with the idea when they were undergraduates at the University of Cambridge. .. Musical costume designer Gabriella Slade also won Tony in a contemporary Tudor-style clubwear outfit.
“MJ” also won important awards such as lead performance by 22-year-old Myles Frost, who played his first professional stage role, and choreography to please the audience by musical director Christopher Wheeldon.
Another candidate, “Girl from the North Country,” features Bob Dylan’s song. “Mr. Saturday night”, starring as a comedian who washed away Billy Crystal. And the “Paradise Square” about racial relations in New York during the Civil War did not seem to be a factor in competition.
The first hour of the award ceremony was only available on the streaming channel Paramount + and was hosted by Darren Criss and Julianne Hough, who are currently starring in Broadway plays. He is the revival of “American Buffalo,” and she is a new play called “POTUS.” They began the night with a Broadway is Back tribute written by Chris, praising the virtues and challenges of the play (this song is an Oscar bargain and includes a plea for not slapping. Was).
The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Angela Lansbury, a five-time Tony Award-winning beloved star in stage, film and television, more than anyone else. Lansbury, 96, couldn’t attend directly or accept in the video. On her behalf, actor Len Cariou, who co-starred with Lansbury in her Tony Award-winning original Sweeney Todd, pays homage to her and gives a video of her career highlights. I introduced it.Then New York City Gay Men’s Chorus We played the title song of “Mame”, the first award-winning show of the five Tony Awards.
The Tony Awards, named after actress Antoinette Perry, Broadway leagueIndustry associations representing theater owners and producers, and American Theater Wing, A theater advocacy group. The award has been awarded since 1947. There was no ceremony in 2020, and last September’s ceremony honored the truncated pandemic season show.