Sept. 26, 2021, 9:48 p.m. ET
That is a great suit on Andrew Garfield.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:46 p.m. ET
“A Soldier’s Play,” Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1981 drama about racism in the American military, won the Tony Award for best revival of a play.
The play starred Blair Underwood, an Army captain who investigates the murder of a Black sergeant near an Army base in Louisiana in 1944. The play, which opened in January 2020, received seven Tony nominations, the most of any play revival.
Accepting the award, the play’s director Kenny Leon said the names of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, two Black people killed by the police last year, saying, “We will never, ever forget you.” He went on to speak about the lack of diversity among the most decorated playwrights.
“No diss to Shakespeare, no diss to Ibsen, to Chekhov, to Shaw — they’re all at the table,” Leon said. “But the table’s got to be bigger.”
“We need to hear all of the stories,” he went on. “When we hear all of the stories, we are better.”
Earlier in the night, David Alan Grier, who plays the murdered sergeant, won a Tony for best featured actor in a play. After he accepted his award, Grier spoke to reporters about the devastation of the past 18 months and his relief to see Broadway returning.
“I lost faith, I gained faith, I lost faith, I gained faith,” he said. “Finally there was a path forward, and I’m just happy for everyone.”
Deadline reported earlier this week that “A Soldier’s Play” will get a television adaptation centered on Grier’s character.
This award was the only top category for revival of a show this year; there were no musical revivals that qualified.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:43 p.m. ET
As the resident poet here, can I complain about this spoken word? I reviewed Daniel J. Watts’ one-man spoken word show, and I think he is a fabulous performer, but in general I am not into the poetry. I like this piece conceptually, though. This is all about accountability and complicity (which of course is a big problem in this industry).
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:44 p.m. ET
I found the gospel ending to be a bit much, too.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:41 p.m. ET
After being hobbled by the pandemic for the past 18 months, Broadway started its return this fall. For theatergoers, there is a rich menu to choose from. Here’s an overview of the Tony contenders worth seeing, as well as where to see them and when.
“David Byrne’s American Utopia,” an exuberant concert from the former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, and “Freestyle Love Supreme,” a mostly improvised hip-hop musical created, in part, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, will be awarded with special Tonys tonight. “American Utopia” is at the St. James Theater in a limited run that ends March 6. Previews for “Freestyle Love Supreme” start Oct. 7 at the Booth Theater, and the show opens Oct. 19; its limited run ends Jan. 2.
“Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” a lavishly designed, smash-hit adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie musical, has 14 nominations. Performances resumed last week at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical,” the incandescent Adrienne Warren’s star-making performance in the title role, is up for a dozen awards tonight. Performances resume Oct. 8 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. And “Jagged Little Pill,” a musical based on Alanis Morissette’s 1995 alt-rock album of the same name, earned 15 nominations. Performances resume Oct. 21 at the Broadhurst Theater.
If you’re looking for a deal on a hot-ticket show, you will search in vain. The shows offering discounts may still be in previews (which means critics haven’t yet weighed in) or have been around a while and are running low on fuel. Still, some excellent productions might be in the mix. Here are some ways to score tickets:
To guard against the heartbreak of counterfeit tickets, the safest bet is to buy through the show’s website or at the box office. The box office in particular has its advantages: You don’t have to pay the hefty service fees that are tacked onto online orders. But do check to make sure that the box office is open; prepandemic operating hours may not apply.
The TodayTix app is a trustworthy source for often-discounted Broadway tickets, which users buy online. The app can also be used for entering some shows’ digital lotteries, which offer a chance to buy cheap tickets. On the TKTS app, or online at tdf.org, you can see in real time which shows are on sale, and for how great a discount. But that doesn’t mean there will be seats left for the show you want by the time you get to the window — and you have to buy them in person.
Many shows, though not the monster hits, offer same-day rush tickets at the box office for much less than full price. Availability varies, but it’s worth swinging by the theater to check. Conveniently, Playbill keeps a running online tab of individual shows’ policies on digital lotteries, rush tickets, standing room and other discounts.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:40 p.m. ET
This tap performance looks like a tribute to the Nicholas Brothers.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:40 p.m. ET
Yes, very much so. I love this choreography.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:41 p.m. ET
Now it has transformed into dance/spoken word/political statement.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:41 p.m. ET
“This beat will resist arrest.”
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:42 p.m. ET
This is very electric.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:36 p.m. ET
“No diss to Shakespeare” is not something I expected to hear tonight, so thank you, Kenny Leon.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:36 p.m. ET
Kenny Leon, the director of “A Soldier’s Play,” speaks the names of Black people killed by police, the first specific invocation of those tragedies during this Tonys.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:37 p.m. ET
Leon’s point is basically a positive one, that the table needs to be bigger. He does not call for it to be torn down.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:37 p.m. ET
He asks that we “do better.”
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:37 p.m. ET
I think the second.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:38 p.m. ET
Something is sitting wrong with me about Kenny’s speech. It seems like a collection of motivational cliches to me. Maybe that’s too harsh but it sounded like checking boxes to me.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:39 p.m. ET
To white ears (i.e. mine) it sounds like he wants to be reassuring, that change will not be painful. I'm not sure he's right.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:34 p.m. ET
I’m going to be the grumpy contrarian again and say I wasn’t terribly impressed by “A Soldier’s Play.”
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:35 p.m. ET
I’ll grump with you.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:35 p.m. ET
It was ... fine. I personally liked “Betrayal” better.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:35 p.m. ET
Me, too.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:34 p.m. ET
The award for best revival, to “A Soldier’s Play,” was expected. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that show, but the production had some indelible moments.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:33 p.m. ET
Taffy, you are going to talk about Jake Gyllenhaal's pink suit.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:33 p.m. ET
I also want to talk about Jake’s pink suit!
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:34 p.m. ET
Your crystal ball is working, Jesse! Such a soft pink!
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:34 p.m. ET
Wait, are we going to totally ignore Annaleigh Ashford’s golden disco ball dress?
Best Revival of a Play
“A Soldier’s Play”
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:29 p.m. ET
The show has a function not only of encouraging people to come back to Broadway, as the title suggests, but also to help sell specific shows that were stopped in their tracks by the pandemic. So I expect (hope?) “Ain’t Too Proud” isn’t the only older show we see tonight.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:29 p.m. ET
Though I draw the line at “The Phantom of the Opera.”
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:28 p.m. ET
Now we have a very different style and aesthetic going with John Legend and the stars of "Ain't Too Proud." It actually feels very sedate and, honestly, a bit dull, especially after that big "Moulin Rouge" number.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:27 p.m. ET
The actress and comedian Julie Halston received an award for her charitable work around pulmonary fibrosis, the lung disease.
Halston — who has appeared in several Broadway shows, including “You Can’t Take It With You” and “Tootsie” — is a board member of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation and helped to create a charity event featuring Broadway performers that the nonprofit says has raised more than $2 million since 2010. Halston’s husband, the radio newscaster Ralph Howard, died from complications related to the disease in 2018.
The Isabelle Stevenson Award is given to a member of the theater community who has made a significant contribution to a humanitarian, social service or charitable organization.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:27 p.m. ET
John Legend is one of the producers of “Ain't Too Proud,” and it’s lovely to see him perform from it, but ... that show opened in 2019.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:25 p.m. ET
More fuschia!
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:25 p.m. ET
Was there a memo that went out about fuschia being the color of the night?
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:23 p.m. ET
As Karen Olivo has left the show, Natalie Mendoza is playing Satine.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:22 p.m. ET
I am in love with “Lady Marmalade.” Remember the version featuring Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim and Mya? It plays on my Spotify constantly.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:22 p.m. ET
It’s the only French I know!
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:22 p.m. ET
On mine too, Maya, right after the Trout Quintet.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:21 p.m. ET
The "Moulin Rouge" set really is a spectacular spectacular.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:20 p.m. ET
The performance segments from the three nominated muiscals were taped at their home theaters, which ought to work better.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:20 p.m. ET
OK where’s my Tylenol. It’s fever dream time thanks to "Moulin Rouge! The Musical."
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:16 p.m. ET
A really wonderful thing about this theater is that, unlike on the subway, everyone’s noses are covered, too.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:15 p.m. ET
Just noticed no one on stage with David Byrne has any shoes on. ...
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:16 p.m. ET
That seems to be their modus operandi. They don’t wear socks in the show at their regular theater, either.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:18 p.m. ET
Not to be a sourpuss, but that number just doesn’t work as well on TV as it does in the theater. And that is my topic sentence for this concert portion of the Tonys.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:14 p.m. ET
Just got a good look at Chita Rivera’s crystal-studded mask, so fun.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:13 p.m. ET
David Byrne and the cast of “American Utopia” perform “Burning Down the House,” albeit not on the set they usually use. There’s something ... less theatrical about it. Though the audience is up and bopping.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:14 p.m. ET
Breaking: Bernadette Peters is getting her freak on. You heard it here first.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:12 p.m. ET
Leslie Odom Jr. is such a charismatic host already. I love how there’s more movement in this part of the show, that we started outside the theater in Times Square and then to the big stage and then the audience, where Odom spoke to stars in their seats.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:12 p.m. ET
Totally. Feels like a real party in there.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:12 p.m. ET
David Byrne is up next! He says the fire department advises against dancing in the aisles — but he is kicking off with “Burning Down the House.”
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:10 p.m. ET
I do love when people put the emphasis on the “way” in “Broadway”
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:08 p.m. ET
I’m excited for “Broadway’s Back” — the concert portion of the show. Leslie Odom Jr. is singing and dancing, and I just saw Elphaba from "Wicked"!
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:06 p.m. ET
Leslie Odom Jr. is looking sharp.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:06 p.m. ET
Welcome back to the live chat!
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:06 p.m. ET
Jesse, get out your dueling pistols.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:05 p.m. ET
The host of tonight’s Tony Awards concert — the portion of the evening broadcast on CBS — is Leslie Odom Jr., who arrived on Broadway as a replacement in “Rent,” but got his big break when he joined the original cast of “Hamilton” as Aaron Burr.
Odom, 40, won a Tony Award in 2016 for “Hamilton,” and this year was nominated for two Academy Awards for his work as both a performer and songwriter for the film “One Night in Miami.”
He was also featured in the films “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Harriet,” and will appear in the forthcoming “Knives Out 2.” His work on television has included “Smash” and “Central Park.” Also: he has recorded several albums of music.
Raised in Philadelphia and educated at Carnegie Mellon University, he now lives in Los Angeles. He is married to the actress Nicolette Robinson, and they have two children.
Odom was an outspoken advocate for profit-sharing by the cast of “Hamilton,” helping to lead a successful campaign to persuade that show’s producers to give a small percentage of the profits to members of the original company.
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:02 p.m. ET
This pre-show made the case that empathy and warmth are very much alive in the theater, and downplayed the business side completely. I am very happy about that. But let’s see if the investors still swarm the stage when best play and best musical are announced. Pandemic rules be damned!
Sept. 26, 2021, 9:00 p.m. ET
Adrienne Warren is only staying in “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical” for a few weeks. But now, when she leaves, she can take a Tony Award with her.
Warren’s performance as Turner, a role she originated in London and then again when the show opened in New York in 2019, has thrilled audiences. Jesse Green, a theater critic for The New York Times, wrote, “In a performance that is part possession, part workout and part wig, Adrienne Warren rocks the rafters and dissolves your doubts about anyone daring to step into the diva’s high heels.”
“I really look forward to the day that the bodies and souls and spirits of those that are involved in these shows that we’re celebrating can be invited and join the celebration with us,” she said in her acceptance speech. “Because those bodies, those bodies, those souls, those spirits, they are what makes Broadway.”
“And the second we started making this business,” she continued, “and creating the business and working through the business through the lens of humanity and honoring those, those bodies and those souls and those spirits, the more the art will be transformative. The more the art will change lives, the more the art will change this world because the world has been screaming for us to change.”
“I am so grateful for this,” she concluded, “it means the world to me, thank you so, so much.
“Tina,” which has been closed since the start of the pandemic shutdown, is scheduled to resume performances on Oct. 8 with Warren in the title role; she is planning to depart the production on Oct. 31, and will be succeeded by Nkeki Obi-Melekwe.
Warren is starring as Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, in an upcoming ABC series, “Women of the Movement,” with a producing team that includes Jay-Z and Will Smith. And she recently signed a development deal with another of the show’s producers, Kapital Entertainment.
Warren, 34, grew up in Virginia and studied acting at Marymount Manhattan College. She made her Broadway debut in 2012 in “Bring It On: The Musical,” and then four years later had a breakthrough role with her Tony-nominated performance in “Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed.”
In 2016, Warren was among the founders of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, which seeks to to combat racism. The organization is being honored this year with a special Tony Award.
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:53 p.m. ET
So do we think it’s all downhill from here? There are only three awards being given out in the 9-11 p.m. segment, so there’s a lot of room for mortifying “comedy.”
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:49 p.m. ET
Audra McDonald told me to go get a cookie, and I would never disobey her, so I’m going to grab some Oreos.
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:49 p.m. ET
I really liked the end of Adrienne Warren’s speech about bringing empathy to the industry, because of course what these kinds of awards shows emphasize is how much these are businesses.
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:47 p.m. ET
I don’t think "Tina" was the best show — bio-musicals, jukebox musicals are tough — but Adrienne Warren made it truly worth it. She really put all of the work into that performance. All of that dancing? The stamina! And the voice!
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:47 p.m. ET
Totally agree. I don’t like jukebox or bio-musicals, but her performance was bigger than my dislike for those things.
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:45 p.m. ET
Adrienne Warren for best actress in a musical, of course. On opening night the audience wouldn’t sit down during the mid-show ovation.
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:46 p.m. ET
She was absolutely amazing in "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical."
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:45 p.m. ET
Aaron Tveit is now a Tony winner.
This year was the first time Tveit has been nominated, and the circumstances were unusual: he was the only person nominated in the category, best leading actor in a musical.
Still, his win was not guaranteed: to claim the prize, he had to win the support of 60 percent of those who cast ballots in that category. And he did.
Tveit, 37, won for his performance as Christian, the besotted bohemian at the heart of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” which is adapted from the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film.
In accepting his award, he said, “We are so privileged to get to do this, to be on Broadway, to have a life in the theater.”
He added: “Let’s continue to strive to tell the stories that represent the many and not the few, by the many and not the few, for the many and not the few. Because what we do changes people’s lives. It changes people’s minds. It change’s people’s hearts. We can change the world with this. Let’s not forget that. This means more to me than I can ever say.”
Tveit arrived on Broadway as a heartthrob, playing the love interests in “Hairspray” (as a replacement Link Larkin) and “Wicked” (as a replacement Fiyero). His breakout came in 2009, when he starred as a dead adolescent, Gabe, in the hit show “Next to Normal”; he followed that up with a starring role as the con man Frank Abagnale Jr. in the short-lived stage adaptation of “Catch Me If You Can.”
Tveit, who is from the Hudson Valley and was educated at Ithaca College, is also known for starring in the “Grease: Live” television special (he played greaser-in-chief Danny Zuko) and for featured performances in a “Les Misérables” film adaptation (as the revolutionary Enjolras), and, most recently, this summer’s Apple TV Plus streamer “Schmigadoon!” (he was the bad boy carnival barker).
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:45 p.m. ET
Karen Olivo is not in attendance, and indeed has said it would be too difficult for her to watch the Tonys tonight. She has stepped away from commercial theater.
Best Leading Actress in a Musical
Adrienne Warren, “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical”
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:42 p.m. ET
Mary Louise Parker was quite stunning in “The Sound Inside,” not a role many actors could pull off.
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:43 p.m. ET
Best thank you, to her dog, Mrs. Roosevelt.
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:42 p.m. ET
Wow! Mary Louise Parker! She was great in "The Sound Inside."
Sept. 26, 2021, 8:42 p.m. ET
She has such attitude and fire. I love her.
Sept. 26, 2021, 7:55 p.m. ET
For the first time, a play, not a musical, has claimed the crown for best original score.
All five of the nominees in the category — “A Christmas Carol,” “The Inheritance,” “The Rose Tattoo,” “Slave Play” and “The Sound Inside” — have nary an aria, belt or 11 o’clock number (though they do have instrumental melodies).
This is only the ninth year that a non-musical play has been nominated for a Tony Award in the category. (The others: “Much Ado About Nothing” in 1973; “The Good Doctor” in 1974; “The Song of Jacob Zulu” in 1993; “Twelfth Night” in 1999; “Enron” and “Fences,” both in 2010; “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “One Man, Two Guvnors,” both in 2012; “Angels in America” in 2018; and “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 2019.)
But wait, you might be thinking, what about “Jagged Little Pill,” “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical” and “Moulin Rouge! The Musical”? Weren’t they eligible?
Nope. They’re all jukebox musicals, in which a majority of the songs are well-known popular music rather than original scores, and therefore aren’t eligible. (Though Turner, Alanis Morissette and the 161 writers whose 70 songs make up “Moulin Rouge!” catalog did win plenty of Grammys of their own.)
Of course, you might remember that there was one musical eligible for the award in the pandemic-shortened season — the young-adult adventure “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” — but it failed to pick up a single nomination in any of the categories it was eligible for, including this one.
So, a play it is.
Sept. 26, 2021, 7:46 p.m. ET
Lauren Patten’s path to a Tony Award seemed assured from the moment she stepped onto the stage in the 2018 pre-Broadway run of “Jagged Little Pill” at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.
Her rendition of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know,” midway through the second act, was so electric that a prolonged audience ovation stopped the show during the very first preview. The Boston Globe even wrote a story about it. And it continued, if anything intensifying, throughout the show’s prepandemic Broadway run, which began in late 2019.
Now the 29-year-old actress is a Tony winner — best featured actress in a musical — for her portrayal of Jo, a high school student whose heart gets broken.
Patten’s win comes at a complicated moment for her, as “Jagged Little Pill” wrestles with criticism over how her character’s gender identity has been depicted over time.
During the show’s pre-Broadway run, some people saw the character as a rare example of nonbinary representation in a major musical; when the show then transferred to Broadway, some of those fans were disappointed with how the role had evolved.
“We are in the middle of a reckoning in our industry,” she said as she accepted the award, “and first and foremost I want to thank my trans and nonbinary friends and colleagues who have engaged with me in difficult conversations and joined me in dialogue about my character, Jo.”
She continued, “I believe that the future of the change we need to see on Broadway comes from these kinds of conversations that are full of honesty and empathy and respect for our shared humanity. And I am so excited to see the action that comes from them, and to see where that leaves our future as theater artists in this country.”
In the Cambridge production, Jo described an argument with her mother, saying, “Yeah, Angie’s chill about the lesbian stuff, but last night she was like ‘I don’t get it; do you want to be a boy or a girl?’ And I said, ‘First of all, if I got to decide what I was, I’d be a koala.’ Then I tried to explain the whole gender spectrum thing.”
On Broadway, that exchange is gone, but Jo describes a conversation with her mother this way: “Oh yeah, the queer panic is at an all-time high. She’s like ‘Why would you choose to look like a boy?’ And I’m like ‘Why would you choose to look like the Talbots catalog threw up on you?’”
As early as 2019, the show’s writer, Diablo Cody, said “Jo has always been cis” and said the production didn’t “want the character to be read as trans or as nonbinary, because the actress who is playing the role is cisgender.” But earlier this month the production issued an apology as part of a broader statement about the issue.
“In Jo, we set out to portray a character on a gender expansive journey without a known outcome,” the lead producers said. “Throughout the creative process, as the character evolved and changed, between Boston & Broadway, we made mistakes in how we handled this evolution. In a process designed to clarify and streamline, many of the lines that signaled Jo as gender non-conforming, and with them, something vital and integral, got removed from Jo’s character journey.”
The character was built around Patten, who has been part of the show’s development since its early preproduction workshops, but the show has faced some criticism from those who think the character should be portrayed by a transgender or nonbinary performer. Patten recently apologized on Instagram, saying “I am profoundly sorry for the harm I caused.”
“It is my deepest hope for Jo to be a character that can be claimed and owned by folks of many queer identities — butch and masc women, nonbinary and genderqueer folks, trans men, and many more,” she wrote. “Theatre has the power and the potential to be expansive, and I hope that Jo can be a representation of that moving forward.”
Patten is scheduled to return with most of the original cast when “Jagged Little Pill” resumes Broadway performances on Oct. 21.
Sept. 26, 2021, 7:41 p.m. ET
Lois Smith, 90, is at last a Tony winner. And not just a winner — she is now the oldest performer to win a Tony Award for acting.
“I love the processes of the live theater,” said Smith, who won for her portrayal of Margaret, the caretaker of a sanctuary for men dying of AIDS-related illnesses, in Part 2 of Matthew López’s more-than-six-hour epic “The Inheritance.”
“I first worked on ‘The Inheritance’ in a workshop where Matthew López was finishing a play about the AIDS plague, and it was partly based on E.M. Forster’s book “Howards End,” which had been my favorite novel for as long as I can remember,” she continued. “E.M. Forster gave us — there’s a famous two-word message from “Howards End,” which is so apt, I think, tonight for all of us who are here celebrating the importance, the functions, of live theater: ‘Only connect.’ ”
In his review of the play in The Times, Ben Brantley called Smith’s performance as the show’s sole female character “quietly brilliant.” She beat out Jane Alexander, 81, who was up for “Grand Horizons,” as well as Cora Vander Broek (“Linda Vista”), Annie McNamara (“Slave Play”) and Chalia La Tour (“Slave Play”).Cicely Tyson, who died earlier this year at 96, previously held the record. She was 88 in 2013 when she won in the same category for her role in the revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful.”
In an interview with Variety in March 2020, Smith acknowledged that her performance schedule in “The Inheritance” was pretty, well, cushy. She doesn’t appear onstage until late in the play, which was performed in two parts. So she only performed three times per week.
“I think to myself, ‘Now what’s going to happen to me?’” she said. “This may be the end of me. Suppose somebody asks me to do eight shows a week, what am I going to say? It’s hard to imagine at this point!”
She was first nominated for a Tony in 1990 for “The Grapes of Wrath,” and she was nominated again, in 1996, for “Buried Child” — both times for best featured actress in a play.
Sept. 26, 2021, 7:40 p.m. ET
The vast majority of the Tony Awards granted on Sunday are honoring shows that have been rehearsed to an excessive degree — every step onstage precisely choreographed, every note and line repeated to perfection.
And while the cast of “Freestyle Love Supreme” has undoubtedly put in their share of rehearsal time to do what they do, the show is receiving a special Tony Award for creating something entirely different: an improvised, rapped, beat-boxed musical performance whipped up anew every night from audience suggestions.
The honor comes at a fitting time for the industry: It was a production that, by its nature, celebrated the fleeting and constantly reinventive experience of seeing live theater.
The show ran for several months at the Booth Theater starting in September 2019, and it is set to return to Broadway on Oct. 7, followed by a national tour starting in San Francisco. But the troupe’s origins go back to the early aughts, when it was established by Anthony Veneziale, Thomas Kail and, most recognizably, Lin-Manuel Miranda — before “In the Heights” and “Hamilton,” both Tony Award winners for best new musical.
In his review for The New York Times, Ben Brantley wrote that it was an “exultant master course in the fine art of hip-hop.” Among the fluctuating cast on Broadway were Veneziale and Utkarsh Ambudkar, with a rotating lineup of surprise guest stars, including Miranda and fellow “Hamilton” alumni Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson and James Monroe Iglehart.
Tony viewers who missed the 2019 run will get a taste of “Freestyle Love Supreme” at the end of the ceremony, when the cast is set to give the evening’s closing performance.
Sept. 26, 2021, 7:22 p.m. ET
David Byrne’s “American Utopia” originally ran on Broadway from October 2019 to February 2020. But it’s not a play or a musical, the Tony Awards nominating committee decided, rendering it ineligible in the top categories.
But there is one label that’s safe to apply to Byrne’s intimately staged theatrical concert: Cultural phenomenon. The show, which was born as a 26-country concert tour for Byrne’s 2018 album, “American Utopia,” rode the momentum to a four-month Broadway run, a Spike Lee-directed concert film that premiered on HBO and HBO Max last October, and now a return Broadway engagement that kicked off earlier this month.
In his review of the Broadway production, Ben Brantley called it a “cloud-sweeping upper” of a show in which Byrne “emerges as an avuncular, off-center shepherd to flocks of fans still groping to find their way.”
Byrne, 69, is set to lead his band of barefoot, gray-suited musicians in a performance at the Winter Garden Theater during tonight’s broadcast, in which “American Utopia” will be honored with one of three special Tony Awards.
The show’s 20 songs come from Byrne’s 2018 album of the same name, along with hits from his time as Talking Heads frontman and throughout his solo career, and are interspersed with cabaret-style patter about neuroscience, civil history and Brazilian, African and Latin instrumentation.
On a recent bike ride through Queens ahead of the show’s return to Broadway earlier this month, Byrne, a devoted cyclist, told The New York Times reporter Melena Ryzik that he didn’t mind the show’s outsized presence in his current slate of projects.
“It’s a very moving show to do,” he said, “and a lot of fun.”
Sept. 26, 2021, 7:18 p.m. ET
Danny Burstein has been nominated seven times for a Tony Award. Now he’s finally a winner.
Burstein won the featured actor in a musical award for his work in “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” in which he plays the impresario Harold Zidler. The musical, which opened on Broadway in 2019, has just resumed performances.
Burstein, 57, is a much-loved Broadway veteran, who has appeared in 18 shows over the last three decades, often to acclaim. In recent years, he has starred as Alfred P. Doolittle in a revival of “My Fair Lady” and as Tevye in a revival of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The award comes at a difficult time for Burstein. His wife, the actress Rebecca Luker, died last December of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as A.L.S. or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Earlier last year, Burstein was hospitalized with a frightening case of Covid-19.
“And I want to thank all of you,” he said in his speech, “because whether you know it or not, my wife passed away in December of A.L.S., and you all showed up for us, you were there for us whether you just sent a note or sent your love, sent your prayers, sent bagels.”
He continued, “It meant the world to us, and it’s something I’ll never forget, and I love being an actor on Broadway. Thank you.”
Burstein was raised in New York City and educated at Queens College and the University of California San Diego.
Sept. 26, 2021, 7:08 p.m. ET
As Broadway attempts to rebound after an extended shutdown, theaters and productions are leaning on government funding to get up and running.
Under the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program, the federal government allotted $16 billion to preserve theaters and other live-event venues as they weather the financial losses of the pandemic. The program has been plagued by delays and other blunders, but as of last week, $9.7 billion had been awarded to organizations across the country.
Hundreds of millions of that total has gone to Broadway, according to records from the Small Business Administration, which manages the grant program.
The funding amounts, which are calculated based on an organization’s earned revenue from 2019, can reach a maximum amount of $10 million. Many Broadway theater owners and productions qualified for that amount.
The three musicals nominated for the top award all received the maximum funding, or near it: “Jagged Little Pill” and “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical” each received $10 million, while “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” received $9.9 million.
Some shows were able to qualify for more funding because of their touring productions. “Hamilton,” with its four touring shows, was awarded $50 million.
The $10 million injection was not enough to keep “West Side Story,” the avant-garde revival of the classic musical, alive. The show, which did not qualify for the Tony Awards because not enough voters had seen it before the shutdown, announced last month that it would not return to Broadway. The show said it would return its grant.
Sept. 26, 2021, 7:05 p.m. ET
Eight acting prizes will be given out tonight — four for work in musicals, and four for work in plays.
The musical prizes all have heavy favorites, and the favorites would all be first-time Tony winners.
Look for Adrienne Warren to win the leading actress in a musical prize for her star-making performance as Tina Turner in “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical,” and for Lauren Patten to win as featured actress for her showstopping vocals in “Jagged Little Pill.”
Aaron Tveit, the only nominee for leading actor in a musical, should easily pick up that prize for playing the bohemian Christian in “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.” (He needs to win support from 60 percent of those who cast ballots in the category to do so.) His co-star Danny Burstein is the favorite in the featured actor category, for playing the impresario Harold Zidler.
The play categories are thought to be much tighter, in part because there are fewer voters — to participate in any Tony race, a voter had to have seen each nominated performance, and that narrowed the pool of qualified voters.
But watch for one possible record to be set: Lois Smith, 90, is a leading contender for best featured actress in a play, for her work in “The Inheritance.” If she wins, she will become the oldest person ever to win a Tony Award for acting, a record previously held by Cicely Tyson, who won at 88.
Sept. 26, 2021, 6:54 p.m. ET
As hard as it may be to believe, the last time a play by a Black writer won the Tony Award for best play was in 1987, when August Wilson won for “Fences.”
That could change this year, when the leading contender is “Slave Play,” a daring drama by Jeremy O. Harris that uses an imaginary form of couples therapy to explore the lingering impact of slavery. The play scored more Tony nominations — 12 — than any in history; it won strong review from critics and managed to achieve a level of buzz that is rare for any play, although, like most plays, it ended its run without recouping its capitalization costs.
But “Slave Play” was also polarizing, leaving an opening for another drama to claim the prize. The most likely upset would be by “The Inheritance,” a two-part drama by Matthew López about two generations of gay male New Yorkers. That play was heralded in London, but was greeted with far more skepticism in New York; its run was also unprofitable, and was cut a few days short by the pandemic.
The most likely winner in the category of best play revival will be “A Soldier’s Play” or “Betrayal.”
“A Soldier’s Play” is a 1981 drama by Charles Fuller, about the murder of a Black sergeant in the U.S. Army, that won the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published. It was then adapted into a Hollywood film, but didn’t make it to Broadway until 2020. The production, directed by Kenny Leon, starred Blair Underwood and David Alan Grier, and was presented by the nonprofit Roundabout Theater Company.
“Betrayal” is a 1978 play by Harold Pinter about an extramarital affair. The revival was a commercial production, transferred from London, directed by Jamie Lloyd and starring Tom Hiddleston.
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September 27, 2021 at 05:42AM
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2021 Tony Awards Live Updates: 'A Soldier's Play' Wins Best Revival of a Play - The New York Times
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