Here are the six things that struck me as I watched the Tony Awards Sunday night:ĭeBose, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Anita in Stephen Spielberg’s West Side Story, gave a master class on how to host an awards show - or really, any show. Instead, the show was surprisingly warm and welcoming - thanks in large part to its host, Ariana DeBose. Yet this Tony Awards didn’t harp on how hard COVID was for the industry.
One of the producers for The Lehman Trilogy, in his speech accepting the award for Best Play, said, with resignation, that “between the fourth and fifth preview were 577 days.” Many of the shows up for awards were supposed to open in 2020- until theaters unexpectedly closed for a year and a half. The 75th Annual Tony Awards celebrated Broadway’s first full season after the pandemic shutdown.
