Tony Awards Go Pink, but Musicals Fade to Gray

It seems both appropriate and ironic that after a season that was unusually bleak for new musicals on Broadway, this year’s most high-profile Tony Award went to a show that essentially recycles Golden Age favorites. That would be “Schmigadoon!,” a parody/homage also lifted from an Apple TV series, which on Sunday night took home the prize for best musical along with others for best book, best original score — though that adjective belongs in quotations here — and best orchestrations.The 79th annual Tony Awards, broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall, were hosted by Pink, the pop star, who admitted up front that her biggest link to the theater community was having a daughter who’s a huge fan. The ceremony was nonetheless packed to the rafters with stage stars, starting with an opening number that featured a reported 170 artists, among them Neil Patrick Harris, who was one of a couple of former Tonys hosts who turned up to give the first-timer pointers.Other performances included, in addition to numbers adapted from the nominated musicals, celebrations of the 30th and 15th anniversaries of the current revival of “Chicago” and “The Book of Mormon” and a more sober in memoriam segment showcasing Leslie Odom Jr., a Tony winner for “Hamilton,” singing “Without You” from “Rent”—a show that premiered 30 years ago itself, shortly after its creator, Jonathan Larson, died at only 35 years old.A Lincoln Center Theater production of another 1990s show, “Ragtime,” was pronounced best revival of a musical; its leading actor and actress, Joshua Henry and Caissie Levy also won, as many had predicted. But the big winner in terms of numbers was Joe Mantello’s duly acclaimed revival of “Death of a Salesman,” which garnered six statuettes, including best revival of a play.“Salesman”’s winning streak began prior to the broadcast, with awards for its stark, haunting scenic, lighting, and sound design; trophies were later given to Mr. Mantello and Laurie Metcalf, his frequent collaborator, tapped for featured actress in a play for her harrowing take on Linda Loman, the wife of Arthur Miller’s tragic protagonist. Accepting the Tony, her third, Ms. Metcalf acknowledged Mr. Mantello — who had guided her in another superb performance this season, in Samuel D. Hunter’s long-awaited but criminally short-lived Broadway premiere, “Little Bear Ridge Road.”Nathan Lane accepts the Best Revival of a Play award for ‘Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.’ Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards ProductionsNathan Lane, the four-time Tony winner who was up for a fifth for playing Willy Loman, lost to John Lithgow, who collected his third for his portrait of Roald Dahl in “Giant,” a Tony-nominated British import, by Mark Rosenblatt, exploring the beloved children’s author’s virulent antisemitism. But Mr. Mantello made sure to recognize Mr. Lane, noting, “Nathan…we all know you are one of our greats. You are and always have been the inspiration behind this production, and I want to share this with you.”Mr. Lane returned the favor in joining others from the production onstage to receive best revival of a play honors. “We all wouldn’t be standing here without the genius of Joe Mantello, who created this revelatory production,” the actor said, “and of course the genius of Arthur Miller.”Mr. Lithgow was humble, if cheeky, in his own speech: “You all deserve this,” he said, addressing the other nominees for leading actor in a play, but added, “I get it.” He gave credit to Mr. Rosenbatt’s play, though: While it been staged with “love and kindness,” it was he stressed, “a play about cruelty” and an “extraordinarily important play in this moment.”“Giant” proved an also-ran in the best play category, though, as did “Little Bear” and David Lindsay-Abaire’s “The Balusters.” Voters instead picked Bess Wohl’s “Liberation,” an earnest but critically-adored ode to second-wave feminism that recently won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Ms. Wohl was gracious in accepting, thanking her mom and her own daughters, who “remind me that I couldn’t have done this without them.” She then encouraged other women to use their voices and girls to “speak your truth—and may the world be wise enough to listen.”There was some more pointed pontificating at various points. In her early remarks, Pink described nominated plays and musicals as being appropriate as “the worst parts of history began repeating” and “our country became more divided than ever.” Ali Louis Bourzgui, who was awarded best featured actor in a musical for playing a young vampire in the spectacle-driven “The Lost Boys,” denounced “colonizers” and “fascists” and wished for the people of Palestine to “live a fruitful life, a free life, a full life without occupation.”Pink, host of the Tony Awards, with her family. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesThere were also lighter moments. Cole Escola, last year’s winner for best leading actor in a play for “Oh, Mary!,” had one of the best lines of the evening, calling “Oedipus,” a new adaptation of the Sophocles tragedy up for best revival, “a play that asks the question: Can women really have it all?” John Leguizamo had a funny bit later; introducing a segment from “Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York),” a nominated musical in which one character is a tourist, Mr. Leguizamo identified the request that “strikes fear in the heart of every New Yorker: ‘I’m in town and I want to visit Times Square.’”Other notable winners included the estimable British stage and screen veteran Lesley Manville, for her Broadway debut as leading actress in “Oedipus,” and directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch for “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” a revisiting of the Andrew Lloyd Webber chestnut that, while recognized as a revival, showed more imagination than any of the so-called original musicals represented here. Let’s hope that next season’s awards bring better options.

Tony Awards Go Pink, but Musicals Fade to Gray

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