The Tony Awards: Is Broadway back?
Broadway made a record-breaking $1.08 billion in ticket sales this season.
“Theater is in danger of becoming popular,” said Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times. At the 65th annual Tony Awards this week, host Neil Patrick Harris jokingly proclaimed Broadway “not just for gays anymore” in the opening musical number. And indeed, the season’s record-breaking $1.08 billion in ticket sales suggests that this one-time “poor corner of showbiz” no longer depends on a niche audience of any kind. The Tonys telecast often feels like a plea to average Americans to start caring about live theater; this year, it merely “delivered an ‘Amen’” to an already ebullient season.
The evening “was not exactly brimming with surprises,” said David Cote in the London Guardian. As expected, The Book of Mormon, the critically acclaimed musical by South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone, “danced away with nine awards.” Nearly as predictable was that, as in five of the past six years, a show from Britain won Best Play. This year, it was War Horse, a production featuring a fairly maudlin script but “beguiling” equine puppets. The other nominees, Jerusalem, Good People, and The Motherf***er With the Hat, were “equally deserving of plaudits,” but the Tony voters evidently decided to go with spectacle over literary merit.
It’s still not clear whether Broadway can ever again become “fertile territory for independent spirits,” said Clyde Haberman in The New York Times. Despite some fresh standouts, the majority of shows currently playing on Broadway are either “reworkings of material from other media” or nostalgia-fueled “jukebox musicals.” Here’s hoping that The Book of Mormon has established a new template, said Michael Riedel in the New York Post. That musical won the hearts of audiences and critics by combining daring satire with a “cheeky sense of humor and old-fashioned showbiz know-how.” It’s a potent mix that, along with this year’s other original shows, has helped Broadway re-establish itself as a major force in mainstream popular culture.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
****
And the winners were...
Best Play: War Horse
Best Revival of a Play: The Normal Heart
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Best Musical: The Book of Mormon
Best Revival of a Musical: Anything Goes
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
5 conspiratorial cartoons about FEMA
Cartoons Artists take on paper towel politics, king-sized conspiracies, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Take an island-hopping trip around Brittany
The Week Recommends From neolithic monuments to colourful harbours, there is much to discover
By The Week UK Published
-
Why has Joker: Folie à Deux divided critics?
Talking Point The sequel to Joker is 'staggeringly inept' in its attempts to explore mental health issues – but Lady Gaga is 'magnetic'
By The Week UK Published
-
If/Then
feature Tony-winning Idina Menzel “looks and sounds sensational” in a role tailored to her talents.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Rocky
feature It’s a wonder that this Rocky ever reaches the top of the steps.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Love and Information
feature Leave it to Caryl Churchill to create a play that “so ingeniously mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The Bridges of Madison County
feature Jason Robert Brown’s “richly melodic” score is “one of Broadway’s best in the last decade.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Outside Mullingar
feature John Patrick Shanley’s “charmer of a play” isn’t for cynics.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The Night Alive
feature Conor McPherson “has a singular gift for making the ordinary glow with an extra dimension.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
No Man’s Land
feature The futility of all conversation has been, paradoxically, the subject of “some of the best dialogue ever written.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The Commons of Pensacola
feature Stage and screen actress Amanda Peet's playwriting debut is a “witty and affecting” domestic drama.
By The Week Staff Last updated