In case you need a reminder, the 2015 Tony Awards are on CBS this Sunday night, starting at 8pm (ET), with Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming hosting from the stage of Radio City Music Hall.
It’s true, the evening will probably continue to be one big commercial for Broadway. Still, the show promises to have the biggest cast ever seen at the Tony’s.
Here’s a preview of the performances:
- A medley of “Life Is Like A Train,” “On the 20th Century,” “I’ve Got It All” and “Babette,” featuring 2015 Tony Nominee and Tony Awards co-host Kristin Chenoweth and the cast of On the Twentieth Century.
- “Getting to Know You” and “Shall We Dance?” from The King and I, featuring 2015 Tony Nominees Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe and Ruthie Ann Miles.
- “Ring of Keys” from Fun Home, featuring 2015 Tony Nominees Sydney Lucas, Michael Cerveris and Beth Malone.
- “A Musical” featuring 2015 Tony Nominees Brian d’Arcy James, Brad Oscar and the cast of Something Rotten!
- A medley of “An American in Paris (pas de deux),” “’S Wonderful” and “I Got Rhythm,” featuring 2015 Tony Nominees Leanne Cope, Robert Fairchild, Brandon Uranowitz, Max von Essen and the cast of An American in Paris.
- “Love and Love Alone” and “I Would Never Leave You,” featuring 2015 Tony Nominee Chita Rivera and the cast of The Visit.
- A medley of “Lucky to Be Me,” “New York, New York,” and “Times Square Ballet” featuring 2015 Tony Nominee Tony Yazbeck and the cast of On the Town.
But, after all, it is about whose name will forever be followed by ‘Tony Award Winner’. That performance you’ll see from Kelli O’Hara from The King and I is what critics are overwhelmingly predicting will be the performance that finally gets her a Tony Award (she’s had 6 nominations.) Jonathan Mandell has her in his “should win” column.
Jonathan’s also with the critical concensus in declaring that Helen Mirren deserves to take home the prize for playing the Queen in The Audience. But there is plenty of drama remaining over whose (very brief) acceptance speech we’ll get to hear. As Jonathan points out, who really knows what 844 Tony voters will decide?
The Broadway League announced that Broadway just finished its most successful season ever. Ticket sales, up 7.6% ($1,365,232,182) paid by over 13 million theatregoers (an increase of 7.3%). Or, as Broadway producer Ken Davenport noted in his blog: “Broadway attendance in the 2014 – 2015 season topped those of the ten professional New York and New Jersey sports teams combined.“
The Diane Rehm Show dedicated an entire hour last Tuesday to talking about the resurgence on Broadway and how that translates to regional theatres. The panel included New Yorkers Ben Brantley, critic for the New York Times, Jeff London, freelance performing arts critic, and Seth Greenley, Broadway producer of Book of Mormon and the Tony nominated Disgraced, along with Maggie Boland, Managing Director of Signature Theatre here in Arlington , VA. It’s a thought provoking discussion, and a good lead-up to watching the awards show.
Something that may be missing from this year’s Tony Awards is their In Memoriam tribute to the talented people who made their final bow this year. Among those who made the news you’ll remember Mike Nichols, Elaine Stritch, and Robin Williams. Broadway lost many more. Here’s the full list.
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