The 2015 Tony awards was not a show fit for a queen. Most of the production numbers fell flat. A startling number of celebrities couldn’t read the teleprompter. The hosts, Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming, seemed occasionally embarrassed and deliberately underdressed. Actually, the underdressed part was pretty terrific: Cumming crushed it in multiple pairs of formal shorts and, at one point, the gown from The King and I.
However, while most of the awards were about as surprising as a $5 pack of Twizzlers from a Broadway concession, it was a very good night for women, for royalty and for subjects of a certain constitutional monarchy.
There were big wins for The Audience, Skylight and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. But the night really belonged to Fun Home, a small American musical that was originally an unlikely candidate, even for a Broadway transfer.
The Tonys has two jobs: to honour the best talent on Broadway and to sell Broadway to the rest of the US and the world. This year, it succeeded quite well at the former and failed epically at the latter. Then again, Broadway grosses last year broke new records, despite a middling season artistically, so one lousy Sunday night on network television probably won’t dim too many marquees.
At the beginning, the co-hosts greeted the crowd: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and those of you who don’t identify as either,” a second-rate joke for a show that still segregates by sex. The duo then segued into an astonishingly lacklustre medley and never really improved, especially for those who recall recent emcees Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman hosting with such dash and aplomb.
Chenoweth and Cumming are both superlative performers given the right material, but their banter seemed strained, and some of the bits, like following the devastating song from Fun Home (performed by the 11-year-old Sydney Lucas, easily the highlight of the broadcast) with a wildly lame ET joke, made you die inside a little.
Helen Mirren was expected to win best actress for The Audience and, of course, she did, looking fittingly majestic. This is a lady who can make riding the subway appear glamorous. All curtsy. Her co-star Richard McCabe deservedly won the award for featured actor, but another royal entry, Wolf Hall, didn’t fare as well, collecting only a single award – for design.
Among the other British imports, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time scored a win for best play, best actor, best director and picked up several design awards, too, while David Hare’s Skylight won for best revival of a play.
Best revival of a musical was a hotly contested category with the prize going deservedly to The King and I, whose lead Kelli O’Hara, already a five-time nominee, whistled a happy tune when, in another tight group, she finally won for her effortless portrayal of the governess Anna. Ruthie Ann Miles also won for her portrayal of Lady Thiang and her acceptance speech, which she read from her iPhone and which began with a blurted, “Please recycle!”, was adorable.
But the big story of the night – aside from the impossibly awful Finding Neverland number and the camera angle during the in memoriam segment (yes, Josh Groban can sing pretty well but, no, he’s not dead yet) – was Fun Home.
While some prizes were expected to go to An American in Paris,which took home awards for choreography and design, Fun Home just about swept the board, with awards for the book, the score, the direction, its leading actor and, the big one, best musical. A show about a lesbian cartoonist and her closeted father may have seemed to small and too niche for the Tony voters, but they moved right in.
To make room for more production numbers, the awards to Lisa Kron for book and lyrics, and Jeanine Tesori for score weren’t part of the broadcast. You’ll have to go to YouTube to see their heartfelt speeches. And you should.
Their win was historic, marking the first time women have won for both words and music. It was also quite a good year for women in other mixed categories like the design awards, also left out of the broadcast in favour of more excerpts from non-winners like It Shoulda Been You and Gigi.
Just as the producers of Fun Home were giving their acceptance speeches, they were shooed off stage so that a replacement cast of Jersey Boys could sing December 1963.
Oh.
What a night?
