In my opinion, any respectable gay man should have been watching the Tony Awards last night. LOL. Even the evening's fab host, openly gay actor Neil Patrick Harris, claims the Tonys is the gayest show on TV with icons Liza and Elton leading this year's guest stars and performers. It doesn't really matter to me how gay the show is -- last night's was just pure entertainment. Period. There were many fine moments during the show but the most memorable for me was honoring Jerry Herman and his amazing body of musical theater work. I'm proud to admit that I could sing along with every number shown on his tribute montage and I did see all the shows in various stagings ... in revivals or regional productions, of course. Although I would have paid anything to have experienced the grandness of the musical theater experience of old.Anyway, before I get too carried away, I was also very glad for BILLY ELLIOT's big win. I had to work hard to get my ticket for that show late last year and it was worth it! The show brought the "big musical theater" back to the Broadway stage. The three Billy's winning the lead musical actor award was a delightful surprise too. Although I only saw Trent Kowalik in the show (he did the show's featured number in last night's telecast), I did meet both David Alvarez and Kiril Kulish backstage and got them to sign my playbill and program as well. I am such an autograph whore when it comes to my Broadway playbills and programs. Ha!
I hope GOD OF CARNAGE is not closing any time soon! Need to plan my next trip to the big city.
By the way, this morning I was reading some of the news about the show and was surprised to see all the brouhaha about Brett Michael's accident with a descending stage prop. I did see that happen last night but I wasn't sure if it was a mishap. That stage was sooo busy and bustling with sooo many talents for that opening number that it was difficult to keep track of all the actions. It was indeed one of the best openers I've seen in recent years.
So did you watch the show last night? What are your thoughts? Have you seen any of the productions that were nominated? Oh do share.
~MG
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3 comments:
YES I watched the show last night, as any self respecting gay man, or lover of theater should have, and as always, I enjoyed it TREMENDOUSLY! Some of my fond memories are: The opening number, which gave me chills. Seeing wonderful Angela Lansbury win again was tremendous. Watching the three charming and talented young "Billys" try to give some sort of an acceptance speech was cute as can be. Watching Lisa acting just a tad strange around the edges, as she's known to do...but who couldn't love her? Noticing how many men were sitting next to men and some women sitting next to women in the audience was nice, including David Hyde Pierce, who just revealed his marriage to his partner a few days ago. The musical numbers were so enjoyable, and one of my high points as well, was the tribute to Jerry Herman, who has certainly given ME more
wonderful memories and super theatre moments than any other writer of musicals. I was fortunate to see HELLO DOLLY and MAME back in the era when shows tried out in Philadelphia before they went to Broadway. I will never forget those nights sitting there and seeing these stupendous shows on stage before my eyes, back when this small town boy was in his early 20's. It's sad that the Tony Awards always draw such a small viewership, but I'm glad that a network will still step up to the plate and carry a program that never fails to entertain more than any other awards show going!
Oh gosh! I love it when someone else enjoys something more than I did. LOL.
I enjoyed the Tony's as much as you guys did. In fact I was at Tony Awards party that my friend (and fellow Billy Elliot fan) threw. Except for a few sound problems this was one of the better Tony broadcasts that I can recall.
I got quite a kick of out of NPH's closing number. There are some goood stories online about how they were revising the lyrics for that right up to the end.
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