A Recap/Review of the 72nd Annual Tony Awards!
Another theatrical season on Broadway has come and gone and with that, comes my favorite holiday, which is the American Theatre Wing's annual Tony Awards ceremony, honoring the countless people who have worked tirelessly on the new musicals, plays, and revivals that opened on Broadway each season. Although this was a very commercial Broadway season, with many of the shows that opened being based off of movies or other popular works, I loved this season so much so I knew was going to be thrilled no matter who won the awards....AND THRILLED I WAS.
The Band's Visit swept the Tony Awards, picking up 10 Tony Awards (including Best Musical), one for every single category in which they were nominated, except for Best Scenic Design (that award went to David Zinn for his colorful work on SpongeBob SquarePants). Also picking up one of the biggest awards of the night was Once On This Island who won the award for Best Revival of a Musical. Rounding out the awards on the musical side was the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel with two awards (Best Featured Actress for Lindsay Mendez and Justin Peck's choreography), and My Fair Lady with Best Costume Design for Catharine Zuber. On the play side of ceremony (What even is a play?), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child won six awards, with Angels in America and Three Tall Women being the only other plays that won awards last night. Overall, it was a really glorious evening that I loved almost every moment of. As per usual, I will recap the entire evening beginning with the red carpet.
The 2018 Tony nominees are the most attractive group of people I have ever seen. The best dressed stars of the evening were Ashley Park (nominated for Mean Girls), who was rocking a stunning burgundy ballgown, Hailey Kilgore (nominated for Once On This Island) who looked simply divine, and Taylor Louderman (nominated for Mean Girls), who wore a sophisticated orange dress, with a cape and a pink top and tail. Others at the ceremony who looked particularly stunning were Ariana DeBose (nominated for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical), Tina Fey (nominated for Mean Girls), Andrew Garfeild (won for Angels in America), Tina Landau (nominated for SpongeBob SquarePants), Ethan Slater (nominated for SpongeBob SquarePants), Taylor Trensch (performed the in memoriam with the company of Dear Evan Hansen), and Kerry Washington (presented Best Actor in a Play).
The hosts, Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban, were adequate. They had some funny bits, for sure, but I feel as if they weren't around enough for me to make a proper judgment on how they performed their hosting duties. The opening number, "This One's for the Losers", was entertaining. The lyrics were VERY simple for comedic purposes and it was effective. I loved the nod to the ensemble members, they deserve it. Another memorable moment from the two of them was when Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban came out dressed as Pierre from Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 and Jenna from Waitress. Bareilles was Pierre and Groban was Jenna, obviously.
While the performances from each of the nominated shows were quite good, the only ones that left a lasting impression on me were from The Band's Visit, My Fair Lady, and Once On This Island. Frozen's performance was also wonderful, but it was right in the middle of the telecast, so it was slightly overshadowed by the other performances that evening, as were the performances by SpongeBob SquarePants and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Lauren Ambrose's rendition of "I Could Have Danced All Night" brought me to tears, Once On This Island's performance was beautiful and energetic, and watching Katrina Lenk (Winner of the 2018 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical) sing "Omar Sharif" from The Band's Visit was a transcendent experience and I have never seen anyone perform a number like Lenk did "Omar Sharif." One of the highlights of the show was when students from the drama department of Majory Stoneman Douglas High School took the stage and sang "Seasons of Love" from Jonathan Larson's Rent. Their performance was by far one of the most uplifting and moving of the evening.
The Band's Visit is such a profound and PERFECT musical. They wholeheartedly deserve these honors. The Band's Visit is without a doubt the best musical of the season and I am exuberant that they were able to make it into the double digits in their award count. There are a few categories where I was not expecting them to take the award, as I thought the Tonys would share the love with SpongeBob SquarePants and Once On This Island in the technical categories. I knew that The Band's Visit would deservedly take the most important awards like Best Musical, Leading Actress in a Musical, and the untelevised Best Score (I thought Best Book of a Musical was a toss up between Tina Fey for Mean Girls and Itamar Moses for The Band's Visit), but I was not expecting that almost full sweep.
To the the chagrin of hundreds of 13 year old Twitter and Instagram "stans" (stalker fans, many of whom only know about three of the nominated shows), the two shows with the most nominations were not as lucky as The Band's Visit. Mean Girls (12 nominations) walked away completely empty handed and SpongeBob SquarePants (12 nominations) only earned the award for Best Scenic Design. I was not surprised to see Mean Girls miss out on the awards, as the production received mostly mixed reviews, but I genuinely thought that SpongeBob SquarePants would perform slightly better in the technical categories. Aside from those categories, SpongeBob's best bet for a win was Ethan Slater (SpongeBob, himself), who lost the award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical to Tony Shaloub's Tewfiq in The Band's Visit. In addition to being viewed as a placeholder in the three categories it was nominated, Disney's Frozen did not win any of the three awards it was nominated for, but it doesn't matter because I love that show and it will run at the St. James Theatre for 90 years, regardless of what anybody says about it. I also suspect that the team behind Mean Girls aren't upset about their Tony fate, as I also believe that their show will run for years.
Although Once On This Island won only one of the eight awards for which they were nominated, they won the award that was the most worthwhile for them; Best Revival of a Musical. While I was personally rooting for My Fair Lady to win the award, Once On This Island needed it the most. They have not been killing it at the box office lately and I was predicting a mid-summer or Labor Day closing, had they not won. However, since they did win, they have definitely secured their spot on Broadway for a little while longer. What Michael Arden (Director of Once On This Island) and team did with the show is astounding and 100% worth the Best Revival Tony Award. My Fair Lady and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel do not need as much help at the box office, so I am very glad that the Tony Awards decided to give Once On This Island this amazing leg up. I am truly very happy for them.
I also must note that the fact Once On This Island was able to take down two of the most highly anticipated and praised shows of the season in the Best Revival category speaks wonders about this production. If you were to have asked me who would have won the category a year ago, I would have said Carousel or My Fair Lady, but here we are.
All of the performers who won in the performance categories are more than deserving. Katrina Lenk is enticing to watch in The Band's Visit and she is a literal Goddess. Tony Shaloub & Ari'el Stachel (Best Featured Actor in a Musical) are lovely in The Band's Visit, and Lindsay Mendez (Best Featured Actress in a Musical) is captivating as Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel and had my "vote" from the second she was announced to be playing the role. The standout speeches of the evening came from Andrew Garfield (won for Angels in America), Mendez, Stachel (Stachel gave THE best speech of the evening), and Glenda Jackson (Best Leading Actress in a Play), who endearingly called her Three Tall Women director, Joe Mantello, "John Mantello" in her acceptance speech.
Clearly, I have to talk about Robert de Niro's "F**k Trump" moment during the Tony Awards telecast. First, I will tell you the story of what happened from my perspective:
Once On This Island had just won Best Revival of a Musical and they went to commercial. I began to scream, because of course I did. When they came back from commercial, I knew Bruce Springsteen was going to perform next so I said ,"I don't care that much about this performance (No offense, Bruce), I am going to go cut some cake really quick." As I was getting up from my seat, I saw that Robert De Niro was on my television, but it didn't phase me. Next, they censored him and I didn't know what happened so I just kept cutting that cake. When I returned to my seat, Bruce Springsteen was singing. I had NO IDEA what this man on my television said. At the end of the ceremony, I turned on my phone and began to scroll through Twitter. Then, I said, "Wait a second...Robert De Niro was at the Tony Awards and he said 'F**k Trump???' WHERE WAS I??" It wasn't until I saw the video on my Twitter feed that I realized he said it while I was cutting the cake.
I actually don't have very much to say about the statement itself, other than I agree with it and that the moment he chose to say it took me by surprise (especially because I didn't know it happened until hours after he said it). I don't mind that he said it and I really don't think it was that big of a deal. Normally I tend to enjoy political statements at awards shows, but I really didn't care for or about this one because of how short and blunt it was. Overall, I just feel that De Niro could have used better language. If he did, then I would probably make more of a note on it. It would have been better if he said something more eloquent because then it opens up the conversation and hopefully he could have gotten someone with a different point of view to listen to what he had to say and maybe try to understand his point of view and why he wanted to use this platform to address it. I think that is something everyone should be doing. However, De Niro should not be under any sort of fire for it because he is protected by the first amendment and what he said was far from offensive. Maybe he shouldn't have said it, but it didn't upset me in the way it probably did some other people.
This year's Tony Awards were a blast! It was a very cathartic way too close out a fun season and I adored seeing so many shows and artists I love being honored. I am absolutely ecstatic for all the winners and I would not change a thing. I am so proud of all of the nominees and winners, but especially Ariana DeBose, Taylor Louderman, Lindsay Mendez, and Ashley Park who I have been watching for years now. They are finally Tony nominees and one of them is a winner! This season also brought many people who I wasn't aware of to my attention. Lauren Ambrose, Hailey Kilgore, Katrina Lenk, Ari'el Statchel, and many more have earned a fan for life. I have no idea what to expect from the 2018/2019 season, which will includes new shows such as The Cher Show, Pretty Woman: The Musical, King Kong, The Prom, and so far the only musical revival that has been announced is a Kelli O'Hara led revival of Kiss Me, Kate. The previous few seasons have been exceptional, so I fully expect this next season to live up to them. If you still haven't caught up with all of the Tony eligible shows for 2018, then here is a Spotify playlist that I made to help you out. I have already started on my 2019 Tony predictions, so let's get rolling!
You can view the full list of the 2018 Tony Award winners here.
You can view the full list of the 2018 Tony Award nominees here.
The Band's Visit swept the Tony Awards, picking up 10 Tony Awards (including Best Musical), one for every single category in which they were nominated, except for Best Scenic Design (that award went to David Zinn for his colorful work on SpongeBob SquarePants). Also picking up one of the biggest awards of the night was Once On This Island who won the award for Best Revival of a Musical. Rounding out the awards on the musical side was the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel with two awards (Best Featured Actress for Lindsay Mendez and Justin Peck's choreography), and My Fair Lady with Best Costume Design for Catharine Zuber. On the play side of ceremony (What even is a play?), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child won six awards, with Angels in America and Three Tall Women being the only other plays that won awards last night. Overall, it was a really glorious evening that I loved almost every moment of. As per usual, I will recap the entire evening beginning with the red carpet.
 |
| 2018 Tony Nominee, Hailey Kilgore from Once On This Island, looking astonishing on the red carpet. Photo: Just Jared on Facebook |
The 2018 Tony nominees are the most attractive group of people I have ever seen. The best dressed stars of the evening were Ashley Park (nominated for Mean Girls), who was rocking a stunning burgundy ballgown, Hailey Kilgore (nominated for Once On This Island) who looked simply divine, and Taylor Louderman (nominated for Mean Girls), who wore a sophisticated orange dress, with a cape and a pink top and tail. Others at the ceremony who looked particularly stunning were Ariana DeBose (nominated for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical), Tina Fey (nominated for Mean Girls), Andrew Garfeild (won for Angels in America), Tina Landau (nominated for SpongeBob SquarePants), Ethan Slater (nominated for SpongeBob SquarePants), Taylor Trensch (performed the in memoriam with the company of Dear Evan Hansen), and Kerry Washington (presented Best Actor in a Play).
 |
| Every time 2018 Tony Nominee, Ashely Park (Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls) showed up on my television, I gasped and said "OH MY GOD, IT'S ASHLEY!!" I am so proud of her. Photo: Caitlin Moynihan of Broadway.com |
The hosts, Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban, were adequate. They had some funny bits, for sure, but I feel as if they weren't around enough for me to make a proper judgment on how they performed their hosting duties. The opening number, "This One's for the Losers", was entertaining. The lyrics were VERY simple for comedic purposes and it was effective. I loved the nod to the ensemble members, they deserve it. Another memorable moment from the two of them was when Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban came out dressed as Pierre from Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 and Jenna from Waitress. Bareilles was Pierre and Groban was Jenna, obviously.
 |
| Sara Barellies as Pierre & Josh Groban as Jenna. Photo: AP. |
While the performances from each of the nominated shows were quite good, the only ones that left a lasting impression on me were from The Band's Visit, My Fair Lady, and Once On This Island. Frozen's performance was also wonderful, but it was right in the middle of the telecast, so it was slightly overshadowed by the other performances that evening, as were the performances by SpongeBob SquarePants and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Lauren Ambrose's rendition of "I Could Have Danced All Night" brought me to tears, Once On This Island's performance was beautiful and energetic, and watching Katrina Lenk (Winner of the 2018 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical) sing "Omar Sharif" from The Band's Visit was a transcendent experience and I have never seen anyone perform a number like Lenk did "Omar Sharif." One of the highlights of the show was when students from the drama department of Majory Stoneman Douglas High School took the stage and sang "Seasons of Love" from Jonathan Larson's Rent. Their performance was by far one of the most uplifting and moving of the evening.
 |
| Students from Majory Stoneman Douglas High School singing on The Tony Awards. Photo: Theo Warger of Getty Images |
The Band's Visit is such a profound and PERFECT musical. They wholeheartedly deserve these honors. The Band's Visit is without a doubt the best musical of the season and I am exuberant that they were able to make it into the double digits in their award count. There are a few categories where I was not expecting them to take the award, as I thought the Tonys would share the love with SpongeBob SquarePants and Once On This Island in the technical categories. I knew that The Band's Visit would deservedly take the most important awards like Best Musical, Leading Actress in a Musical, and the untelevised Best Score (I thought Best Book of a Musical was a toss up between Tina Fey for Mean Girls and Itamar Moses for The Band's Visit), but I was not expecting that almost full sweep.
At this year's Tony Awards, they made the choice to televise Best Book rather than Best Score, for the possibility of a Tina Fey win. This upset me so much because without a score, a musical would be a play. The Tony Awards should have televised both categories, especially because they have in previous years and it took David Yazbeck years to finally earn a Tony Award.
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| Katrina Lenk (Dina) singing "Omar Sharif" to Tony Shaloub (Tewfiq) in The Band's Visit on The 2018 Tony Awards. Photo: John P. Filo of CBS. |
To the the chagrin of hundreds of 13 year old Twitter and Instagram "stans" (stalker fans, many of whom only know about three of the nominated shows), the two shows with the most nominations were not as lucky as The Band's Visit. Mean Girls (12 nominations) walked away completely empty handed and SpongeBob SquarePants (12 nominations) only earned the award for Best Scenic Design. I was not surprised to see Mean Girls miss out on the awards, as the production received mostly mixed reviews, but I genuinely thought that SpongeBob SquarePants would perform slightly better in the technical categories. Aside from those categories, SpongeBob's best bet for a win was Ethan Slater (SpongeBob, himself), who lost the award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical to Tony Shaloub's Tewfiq in The Band's Visit. In addition to being viewed as a placeholder in the three categories it was nominated, Disney's Frozen did not win any of the three awards it was nominated for, but it doesn't matter because I love that show and it will run at the St. James Theatre for 90 years, regardless of what anybody says about it. I also suspect that the team behind Mean Girls aren't upset about their Tony fate, as I also believe that their show will run for years.
Although Once On This Island won only one of the eight awards for which they were nominated, they won the award that was the most worthwhile for them; Best Revival of a Musical. While I was personally rooting for My Fair Lady to win the award, Once On This Island needed it the most. They have not been killing it at the box office lately and I was predicting a mid-summer or Labor Day closing, had they not won. However, since they did win, they have definitely secured their spot on Broadway for a little while longer. What Michael Arden (Director of Once On This Island) and team did with the show is astounding and 100% worth the Best Revival Tony Award. My Fair Lady and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel do not need as much help at the box office, so I am very glad that the Tony Awards decided to give Once On This Island this amazing leg up. I am truly very happy for them.
I also must note that the fact Once On This Island was able to take down two of the most highly anticipated and praised shows of the season in the Best Revival category speaks wonders about this production. If you were to have asked me who would have won the category a year ago, I would have said Carousel or My Fair Lady, but here we are.
 |
| In addition to winning the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, Once On This Island also gave the best performance of the evening. Pictured here is Alex Newell (Asaka) and Hailey Kilgore (Ti Moune). Photo: Joan Marcus |
All of the performers who won in the performance categories are more than deserving. Katrina Lenk is enticing to watch in The Band's Visit and she is a literal Goddess. Tony Shaloub & Ari'el Stachel (Best Featured Actor in a Musical) are lovely in The Band's Visit, and Lindsay Mendez (Best Featured Actress in a Musical) is captivating as Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel and had my "vote" from the second she was announced to be playing the role. The standout speeches of the evening came from Andrew Garfield (won for Angels in America), Mendez, Stachel (Stachel gave THE best speech of the evening), and Glenda Jackson (Best Leading Actress in a Play), who endearingly called her Three Tall Women director, Joe Mantello, "John Mantello" in her acceptance speech.
 |
| Lindsay Mendez accepting her Tony Award. Photo:Valley Morning Star |
Clearly, I have to talk about Robert de Niro's "F**k Trump" moment during the Tony Awards telecast. First, I will tell you the story of what happened from my perspective:
Once On This Island had just won Best Revival of a Musical and they went to commercial. I began to scream, because of course I did. When they came back from commercial, I knew Bruce Springsteen was going to perform next so I said ,"I don't care that much about this performance (No offense, Bruce), I am going to go cut some cake really quick." As I was getting up from my seat, I saw that Robert De Niro was on my television, but it didn't phase me. Next, they censored him and I didn't know what happened so I just kept cutting that cake. When I returned to my seat, Bruce Springsteen was singing. I had NO IDEA what this man on my television said. At the end of the ceremony, I turned on my phone and began to scroll through Twitter. Then, I said, "Wait a second...Robert De Niro was at the Tony Awards and he said 'F**k Trump???' WHERE WAS I??" It wasn't until I saw the video on my Twitter feed that I realized he said it while I was cutting the cake.
I actually don't have very much to say about the statement itself, other than I agree with it and that the moment he chose to say it took me by surprise (especially because I didn't know it happened until hours after he said it). I don't mind that he said it and I really don't think it was that big of a deal. Normally I tend to enjoy political statements at awards shows, but I really didn't care for or about this one because of how short and blunt it was. Overall, I just feel that De Niro could have used better language. If he did, then I would probably make more of a note on it. It would have been better if he said something more eloquent because then it opens up the conversation and hopefully he could have gotten someone with a different point of view to listen to what he had to say and maybe try to understand his point of view and why he wanted to use this platform to address it. I think that is something everyone should be doing. However, De Niro should not be under any sort of fire for it because he is protected by the first amendment and what he said was far from offensive. Maybe he shouldn't have said it, but it didn't upset me in the way it probably did some other people.
This year's Tony Awards were a blast! It was a very cathartic way too close out a fun season and I adored seeing so many shows and artists I love being honored. I am absolutely ecstatic for all the winners and I would not change a thing. I am so proud of all of the nominees and winners, but especially Ariana DeBose, Taylor Louderman, Lindsay Mendez, and Ashley Park who I have been watching for years now. They are finally Tony nominees and one of them is a winner! This season also brought many people who I wasn't aware of to my attention. Lauren Ambrose, Hailey Kilgore, Katrina Lenk, Ari'el Statchel, and many more have earned a fan for life. I have no idea what to expect from the 2018/2019 season, which will includes new shows such as The Cher Show, Pretty Woman: The Musical, King Kong, The Prom, and so far the only musical revival that has been announced is a Kelli O'Hara led revival of Kiss Me, Kate. The previous few seasons have been exceptional, so I fully expect this next season to live up to them. If you still haven't caught up with all of the Tony eligible shows for 2018, then here is a Spotify playlist that I made to help you out. I have already started on my 2019 Tony predictions, so let's get rolling!
 |
You can view the full list of the 2018 Tony Award winners here.
You can view the full list of the 2018 Tony Award nominees here.
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