It's that time of year again, the time when I talk about the Tony Awards, my favorite performances, and the show as a whole. Hosted once again by Arianna Debose after she absolutely crushed it last year this year.. has a lot to talk about so let's dive in shall we? I will not recap it beat for beat but rather what stood out to me, both good and bad. But first congrats to all the winners and "The Outsiders" for winning best musical.
The funny part is the amount of obstacles I had to overcome just to watch this year. First I paid for a month of Paramount Plus like I usually do, but this year the version that held the Tony Awards was not both versions but rather the more expensive AD-free package. Secondly that I missed some of the performances and awards presented due to a severe storm warning and alert in my state so I missed an award, a speech or two, and basically all of Suffs. But from what I did see, this was an okay show this year, very middle of the road.
In terms of hosting Ariana Debose did a good job, the opening number had a good message but also was a bit of a mixed bag. She did well with the hosting duties but the set this year was super odd. The set was super minimalistic and barren aside from two giant Tony Awards on display, which helped some performances but made some of them a tad head-scratching. For example "Water For Elephants" just had all these steel beams and "Suffs" just walked in place on a barren patch of stage while "Hell's Kitchen" and "The Outsiders" took advantage of the said environment and added a couple backdrops and really set the scene.
Some of the performances were amazing, while some were just okay, the speeches were very inspiring and it was great to see awards going to all sorts of shows instead of a clean sweep. After watching the awards and performances the shows I find myself wanting to see and hoping for a tour are, Merrily We Roll Along which I already love among many other great Sondheim works, Hell's Kitchen, and The Outsiders. The show did it's job because I wanted to listen to many of the albums from these shows and find new favorite songs and stuff to add to my playlists, and maybe even want to see some more than just the ones listed.
Of the speeches, I loved Jonathon Groff's and was so happy he won. Kecia Lewis, Shania Taub, and Daniel Radcliff just to name a few, all of the speeches were great, and it was nice to see the wins passed around multiple shows instead of a clean sweep. The only show that semi-swept was Merrily Which cleaned up in all but one of its nominations, but seeing a Sondheim show win especially one that was once so universally despised is nothing short of amazing and earns no complaints. Of the performances my liberties were "Hell's Kitchen", "Merry We Roll Along", "The Outsiders" and "Tommy" but I will never turn down a giant epic performance of pinball wizard. If it was any other song I would have been just fine with it, but Pinball Wizard sealed it for me.
There were a couple of baffling moments as well, whole groups of winners filmed out in the lobby, some performances taking place in the lobby like Jay Z, Brooke Sheilds wearing crocs, the lack of set, and talk of the insiders tipping the winner of the night to "The Outsiders" due to its large number of producers. With all that aside it was just an okay night, with some enjoyable performances, and I want to see "Hell's Kitchen", "Merrily We Roll Along" and "The Outsiders" as soon as possible, one great aspect of the Tonys is showing people shows they can go and see. I have the albums to all three of these shows as well as "Illonoise" and "Suffs" saved to my library now, for future reviews, and to find new favorite songs to listen to on repeat and add to my playlists. I found some new stuff to listen to, saw some great performances, saw some shows I want to see live now, and saw some great speeches. An all-around fine night.
