Tony Thoughts

Cynthia Erivo closes the Tonys.
Producers of Maybe Happy Ending in the
background.

This year's Tonys were a ratings high with a 38 percent increase in viewership from last year. That's a great sign. When I was working at Back Stage from the 1990s into the early 2010s, the ratings would drop every year. Cynthia Erivo did a great job as hostess, delivering a socko opening and closing specialty number. Including the pre-show on Pluto TV, the ceremony clocked in at just under four and a half hours, and they STILL didn't include the recipients of the Tony Honors (Great Performances, the New York Library for the Performing Arts, New 42 and Michael P. Price, executive director of Goodspeed Musicals) or two special Tonys (the band for Buena Vista Social Club and the special effects team for Stranger Things: The First Shadow). They could have at least mentioned them, it would only taken a few seconds. Also, apart from Edwin Robinson of Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, the winner of the Theater Educator Tony, they didn't mention the winners from the Pluto TV segment for those who couldn't find it on their Smart TVs.  

I did pretty well with my predictions, getting 19 out of 26 right. The biggest surprise was Nicole Scherzinger winning for Best Musical Actress over Audra McDonald for Gypsy. Though I voted for Scherzinger, I expected McDonald to win her record-breaking 7th Tony because she was served a side of shade by Patti LuPone in a New Yorker interview which set the Internet afire. (LuPone said McDonald was "not a friend" and remained silent when asked about her performance as Mama Rose. LuPone has since apologized profusely to McDonald and Kecia Lewis who accused LuPone of "microaggressions" when the former complained Lewis' show Hell's Kitchen was too loud.) Scherzinger is now next in line to play Rose in about ten years, maybe after Lady Gaga.

Some All That Chat posters were upset that Scherzinger won because she is allegedly a Trump supporter. This accusation surfaced when the former Pussycat Doll liked a picture of Russell Brand wearing a red hat resembling Trump's MAGA logo. Even if she did vote for Trump and supports him, that has nothing to do with her outstanding performance as Norma Desmond. Those who would deny her recognition because of her political beliefs are no better than Trumpers who would punish anti-Trumpers for their views.

The musical numbers were mostly entertaining but the sound was awful, garbling the lyrics. Death Becomes Her and Just in Time probably came off the best, while the numbers from Operation Mincemeat and Dead Outlaw didn't work well out of context. (I still don't understand why Just in Time and Real Women Have Curves were given numbers since neither was nominated for Best Musical.) The first casualty of the Tony aftermath has announced its imminent closing. Smash which only received one nomination for Brooks Ashmankas' featured performance (he won a Drama Desk in a three-way tie with Tony and OCC winner Jak Malone of Mincemeat and Michael Urie for Once Upon a Mattress), will close on June 22. 

Nicole Scherzinger, Happy Ending, Oh Mary! Win Drama League Awards

The Drama League Awards were presented on Fri. May 16 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in a ceremony hosted by NY-1 News theater reporter Frank DiLella.

Nicole Scherzinger of Sunset Blvd.
won the Distinguished 
Performance Drama League Award for 2025.

Nicole Scherzinger won the Distinguished Performance Award for her work in Sunset Boulevard; the well-respected honor can only be won once during the career of an actor. Maybe Happy Ending took home the Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical, and Oh, Mary! won for Outstanding Production of a Play. (Maybe Happy Ending has won the Outer Critics and the New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and is the  favorite the Best Musical Tony.) For the first time in 25 years, in any category, Eureka Day and Vanya tied for the honor of Outstanding Revival of a Play, and Outstanding Revival of a Musical was awarded to Sunset Boulevard. In the directing categories, Sam Pinkleton took home the Outstanding Direction of a Play award for Oh, Mary! and Michael Arden took home Outstanding Direction of a Musical for Maybe Happy Ending. 

The competitive awards were presented by previous Distinguished Performance Award Winners Annaleigh Ashford, Norbert Leo Butz, Danny Burstein, Audra McDonald, and Sutton Foster. Previous honoree for the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing, Schele Williams, presented the  Outstanding Direction of a Play & Musical Awards.

Tony Award winner and star of this season’s Old Friends, Bernadette Peters, presented both the Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater to her co-star, Tony and Olivier Award winner Lea Salonga, and The Gratitude Award to acclaimed theater, television and film producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, represented on Broadway this season with Smash; Tony Award winner Sam Gold (Romeo + Juliet) presented the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing to Tony and Drama League nominee Whitney White (The Last Five Years, Liberation); and Michael Cruz Kayne (Sorry For Your Loss) presented the Contribution to the Theater Award to Kate Navin and Audible Theater.
 

B'way Review: Sunset Blvd.

Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis in
Sunset Blvd.
Credit: Marc Brenner

While appearing on The View talk show, Patti LuPone described Sunset Boulevard (or Blvd. as it is titled in the current Broadway revival) as a “lumbering” musical. LuPone originated the role of Norma Desmond in London in 1993 for this adaptation of Billy Wilder’s 1950 film classic and was subsequently replaced by Glenn Close for the Broadway premiere. The “lumbering” adjective is an accurate description of Trevor Nunn’s original staging of this mammoth show which heretofore has mainly been a vehicle for whoever played the leading role of a faded, mad silent film star desperate for a comeback. Lonny Price’s 2017 revival, also starring Close in a totally different performance, stripped down the elaborate set and got closer to the raw emotions of Don Black and Christopher Hampton’s book. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s symphonic music which captures the creamy film-score style of Hollywood’s Golden Age and the snappy, pop-jazz of the 1950s, also emerged more vibrantly. Jamie Lloyd’s inventive, multi-media production, now at the St. James after winning several Olivier Awards in the West End, goes even further than Price’s and makes Lloyd and the production itself the real stars.

Tom Francis and Nicole Scherzinger in
Sunset Blvd.
Credit: Marc Brenner

To be sure, former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger delivers an electric, galvanizing performance as Norma, but Lloyd’s staging is so fresh, startling and gripping, he deserves equal praise. Eliminating conventional scenery and props, the action takes place on a mostly bare stage apart from a few chairs and a giant screen. Jack Knowles’ noirish lighting design creates the proper shadowy atmosphere. Costume designer Sutra Gimour who also designed the starkly minimalist set, has dressed the company in black and white to evoke the monochromatic tones of the original film and the noir efforts of its era. Cast members with cameras and lighting equipment intermittently film the principals and their images are simultaneously projected on the screen. (Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom are credited with the impressive video and projection design.) There are even opening and closing credits, just like in the movies.

B'way Update: Follow-Up on Scherzinger, LuPone, Lewis Controversies

Nicole Scherzinger in 
Sunset Blvd
Credit: Marc Brenner

Nicole Scherzinger has issued an apology in response to internet buzz that she is a Trump supporter and should be penalized by  boycotts of her show and denying her a Tony Award for Sunset Blvd. The brouhaha all started when Scherzinger responded with a like to an Instagram post of British comedian Russell Brand sporting a red hat with the slogan "Make Jesus First Again." (The font and style of the hat resembled Make America Great Again hats sported by MAGA Trump voters.) Scherzinger commented "Where can I get that hat?" The post was jumped on several Internet users as Scherzinger's Trump support and they went nuts, calling for her head. I wrote that the former Pussycat Doll can vote for whoever she wants. It should not effect her performance or her chances for a Tony. In responses to the furor, she issued the following statement on Instagram:

“I deeply apologise for the hurt caused by my recent engagement with some social media posts.

“When I commented on these posts, I made the mistake of not realising that they could be easily interpreted as being politically related and I apologise to anyone who understandably reached that conclusion.

“Many presumptions are being drawn, which do not reflect who I am, what I stand for, or who I voted for.

“Many of the marginalised communities feeling hurt and concerned by the results of the presidential election are people I care about most.

“I stand with them, as I always have, throughout my life and career.

“If you know me, you know that.

“Like so many others, in times of adversity and uncertainty, I turn to my faith.

“I believed that the posts I engaged with were about encouraging people to choose love and faith – ‘putting Jesus first’.

“For me Christ embodies peace, compassion, hope, and above all – unconditional love, especially for those who may feel it the least right now.

“I come from a place of love and I will always support values that bring us closer together. It’s so important we come together with compassion, and love one another more now than ever. Nicole.”

If all Scherzinger did was like a hat that resembled a MAGA Hat, she didn't do anything worthy of censure. Even if she liked something Trump did or said, she has a right to her opinion and to express it. Bur she didn't do that. The overly hysterical reaction to Scherzinger's brief comment demonstrates the over sensitivity of certain members of the Left and is an example of the kind of self-righteous, intolerant, overblown behavior that pushes people away from the Democratic Party and may be part of the reason Harris lost. (Ironically, Trump is also guilty of characterizing those who disagree with him as "the enemy.")

In related news, Kecia Lewis characterized Patti LuPone's describing Hell's Kitchen as "too loud" as a racist (if unintentional) microaggression. LuPone's show The Roommate and Lewis' show Hell's Kitchen share a wall. LuPone complained sound from Hell's Kitchen was bleeding into The Roommate during quiet moments. LuPone contacted the sound team at Hell's Kitchen and requested the sound levels be adjusted. It was also reported when a fan asked LuPone to autograph a Hell's Kitchen Playbill, the star responded, "I'm not signing Hell's Kitchen, they're too loud." The sound team did change the levels and LuPone sent flowers and a thank-you note to the sound team.

"In our industry, language holds power and shapes perception, often in ways that we may not immediately realize," said Lewis, who won a Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance in Hell's Kitchen, in her open letter to LuPone. "Referring to a predominantly Black Broadway show as 'loud' can unintentionally reinforce harmful stereotypes, and it also feels dismissive of the artistry and the voices that are being celebrated on stage." 

Lewis then called on LuPone to apologize. 

What should LuPone have done differently? Should she have done anything differently?