Curtain Call: Performance Perspective

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Random Thoughts on the Tony Awards

“There’s not a person in this theater that doesn’t know what it is to be a salesman. To be way out there in the blue riding on a smile and a shoe shine,” Mike Nichols said upon accepting the best director award for Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at the 66th annual Tony Awards on Sunday night.

I know, if you cared about The Tonys you would have watched the show. I’ve shunned the pageantry in the past, and I actually missed quite a bit of the live broadcast this year (uh, hello Mad Men season finale?) Once upon a time, when I watched with unjaded high school eyes from my couch in rural northeastern PA, the broadcast was as close as I could get to the dream world I knew I belonged to more than the redneck reality into which destiny had cruelly dropped me. A couple of decades later, the stars have fallen from my eyes. It’s a hard sell, but I’d really rather be making new theater with like-minded lunatics who chose to live in Scranton, than sell my soul working on derivative musicals based on movies built around sitcom stars and revivals of revivals.

Still, Monday morning I watched clips of what I missed, and then I decided to fill this space with thoughts about it.

* Neil Patrick Harris is the reason why the program is watchable at all. His opening number — If life were more like theater, life wouldn’t suck so much — was the highlight of the telecast and some of the only new material seen all night. His musical mash-up later on was amazing, but technically one long inside joke egotistical theater veterans will use to flaunt their superiority.

* Last year’s broadcast was dominated by commercials for the TV series Smash which was fun to watch mainly because playwright Theresa Rebeck had to be messing with us in a big way. Also it brought legitimate theatre stars — e.g. Christian Borle and Megan Hilty — to the small screen instead of the other way around. When Borle got the Best Supporting Actor award for Peter and the Starcatcher a bunch of normally clueless Americans recognized him from Smash and felt a connection to live theater.

Award shows are more fun to watch with Twitter. And when that’s not enough, there’s always a drinking game.

* Everyone likes Nina Arianda, the 27-year-old talent who beat out a crew of seasoned veterans to receive the Best Actress in a Play award for her performance as Vonda in Venus in Fur. Take a look at her now (youtu.be/QbshA3vFMxI) so you’ll understand the hype to come.

 

* Never judge a straight (as in non-musical) play by its Tony Awards montage.

* After the creepy Jesus of Oz Superstar number there was also a number from Godspell. God help the American Theater. This is not the way to prove that theater is still relevant.

* Apparently Ghost: the Musical is a real thing. I heard about it once, but assumed it was a bad joke.

* Of the four Best Play nominees Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz (TV’s Brothers & Sisters) was the only non-derivative work. Peter and the Starcatcher is a prequel to Peter Pan with contemporary jokes. Venus in Fur is about staging an adaptation of the Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s novella. Clybourne Park, which won the award, is a response to A Raisin in the Sun and features at least one character from Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play.

* Both Peter and the Starcatcher and winning musical Once were developed at New York Theatre Workshop (www.nytw.org) so maybe keep an eye on them. The company’s 2012-13 season offers a refreshing number of women playwrights and directors.

* You will never see a cast of young men in NEPA dance like they did in that segment from Newsies.

* Sheryl Crow is writing the music and lyrics for an adaptation of the Barry Levinson film Diner? If you say so.

 

Watch the full telecast online at CBS.com, or watch the video highlights.