Best M.C.: Perfect in Pink
Pink, a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who has never performed on Broadway, seemed like an odd choice, maybe even a desperate one, to headline the Tony Awards telecast this year. Even she admitted it, in the show’s opening number. (“For some reason, I’m the host.”)
But that number, and everything that followed, in fact proved the opposite: Pink was terrific, warm but not cloying, shiny but not slick, confident but not overbearing.
An easy way with a quip and a belt built for “All That Jazz”(which she sang and shimmied to mid-show) made it a pleasure to spend the usual eternity of three-plus hours with her. And not just a pleasure. As an outsider to Broadway, and the mother of a Broadway superfan daughter, she represented perfectly what the Tonys are trying to sell: the idea that theater, even if it is made by insiders, is meant to be loved by everyone. — JESSE GREEN
Best Visuals: Camera Work
The caliber of filming the featured musical numbers at the Tonys was impressively high this year, managing to accurately convey choreography that often spilled into the aisles, stormed down the catwalk or came bursting through a glittering rain curtain. Live performance can lose its immediacy when it’s compressed onto film, but the producers of the Tonys covered themselves (and many of the shows they were transmitting) in glory.
It was particularly impressive to see the way the camera(s) captured musicals that delight in chaotic stage pictures like “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” and “The Rocky Horror Show.” The shots managed to convey velocity and, importantly, too-much-ness, instead of flattening these unconventional shows into the picture plane. — HELEN SHAW
Best Reactions: The Audience
This has been one of the slimmest years in recent memory for new musicals on Broadway — which makes the electrifying spectacle of Sunday’s performances all the more thrilling.
The crowd at Radio City Music Hall certainly felt it, between Alex Newell’s range-defying acrobatics in tribute to “Chicago,” the death-defying death drops of “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” and a fictional rock concert from “The Lost Boys” that felt like the real thing. And with the roaring cheers, the “Cats” fan-flapping and the “Rocky Horror” time-warping, the level of energy and engagement made this year’s ceremony feel more alive than ever.
Broadway crowds are certainly ready for a return to a season of overabundance — are theatermakers? — NANCY COLEMAN
Worst Wait: A Win for a Female Playwright
Bess Wohl was exuberant at her ensemble piece “Liberation” winning best play — but in the feminist-history spirit of her show, she noted that it had been many years since an American woman had won that award: Wendy Wasserstein, all the way back in 1989, for “The Heidi Chronicles.”
The French playwright Yasmina Reza has won twice in between, most recently in 2009, but otherwise the best-play winners have been a roll call of men, who are disproportionately produced on Broadway.
Both “Liberation” and “The Heidi Chronicles” were also winners of the Pulitzer Prize for drama — an accolade that goes frequently to women. Just saying. — LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES
Best Shoutouts: Family Ties
It’s typical that winners will thank their families. (Imagine the awkwardness at home if they forgot!) But this year the theme of family — both given and found — seemed particularly profound, in the winning shows and in the winners’ speeches.
Shoshana Bean, a winner for “The Lost Boys,” took a moment in her acceptance speech to shout out single mothers, particularly her single mother. Caissie Levy, of “Ragtime,” gave thanks for both playing Mother and being a mother; her “Ragtime” co-star Joshua Henry thanked his wife for putting their kids to bed and her love and sacrifice.
The co-directors of “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” Bill Rauch and Zhailon Levingston, honored their families, in syncopation. And during the preshow, the writer and composer Cinco Paul, of “Schmigadoon,” spent most of his speech clarifying that his wife does not actually hate musicals.
Throughout, the evening pulsed with the idea that theater is its own family, a community that offers welcome and embrace to all. — ALEXIS SOLOSKI
In one fell swoop, Maya Rudolph and Cole Escola joined Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig, in the rarefied ranks of great presenting tandems.
Escola wrote and created the part of Mary Todd Lincoln in the hit show “Oh, Mary!” and Rudolph is currently starring in it on Broadway (the latest performer to put on Mary’s grand gown and wig since Escola departed). Since Escola won the Tony for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play last year, it made sense for them to present this award. The pair had a fantastic daffy chemistry, with an off-the-cuff looseness that felt semi-improvised and thus had a frisson of unpredictability.
Let’s cut to the chase and have Escola and Rudolph host the entire Tonys ceremony next year. Heck, they can also host the red carpet, the preshow, the nightcaps at Sardi’s and my subway ride home. — ELISABETH VINCENTELLI
Worst Minidocs: Videos About Plays
It’s very difficult to give viewers a sense of the plays that are nominated; they’re not like musicals, where a single number can introduce the world of the show. Over the years, the Tonys has tried different strategies, like having the playwright talking about the play, or presenting a live scene from a key moment.
This year’s option was, unfortunately, a dud: bland but competently assembled video packages that played right after commercial breaks — and therefore blended into the stream of pharmaceuticals ads. “Does Nathan Lane want to sell me Zyrtec?” I thought, before realizing that I was watching a tribute to “Death of a Salesman.”
I think watchers will have been excited by the musicals — it’s Broadway’s biggest night! — but as much as I adored these plays, I don’t know that I would have found them appealing if these minidocs were all I had to go on. — HELEN SHAW
Best Sincerity: John Lithgow and Lesley Manville
John Lithgow and Lesley Manville, who each have more than five decades of theater experience, are no strangers to the stage. But when they took home Tonys for their turns on Broadway this season in “Giant” (Lithgow) and “Oedipus” (Manville), they expressed genuine joy.
“I’ve had dozens and dozens of ecstatic moments onstage, but I have to tell you, right now, this moment has got to be one of the best,” a visibly emotional Lithgow said.
For her part, Manville, who had just closed her latest show, “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” at London’s National Theater on Saturday night, was positively flustered with gratitude. “It was my first time on Broadway, so this is such a big deal,” she said, adding: “Would somebody like to write a play for five women? We are quite bankable, you know.” — SARAH BAHR
Best Confusion: What Am I Up Here For?
The actor’s nightmare is a famous fear: of finding oneself onstage in a show and not knowing the script. The sound designer Kai Harada experienced a charming variation on that on Sunday.
A double nominee in the best sound design category, for both “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” and “Ragtime,” he heard his name called as the winner — but missed one detail. At the microphone, starting his acceptance speech, he realized he didn’t know which musical he had won for. He stopped, turned around to inquire, and found out it that was “Ragtime.”
Once he knew that, he knew whom to thank. Nightmare over. — LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES
