Details of this year’s Tony telecast, airing June 13 on CBS, are beginning to leak out.
To the perennial question, “Who’s on first?” the answer is: Everybody!
The most important slot on the telecast has always been the opening number. That’s because it attracts the largest number of viewers, who peel off as the evening wears on (and on). The Broadway show that lands the opening slot usually enjoys the biggest bounce at the box office the next day.
The best example is “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.” It wasn’t a favorite with critics or Tony voters, but it took in nearly $1 million at the box office after kicking off the 1995 telecast, and ran for more than a year after.
Since then, producers have lobbied, connived, begged and bullied to be No. 1. This year, Tony officials are going the diplomatic route. They’ve come up with an opening that includes nearly all the shows, nominated or not. The working title is “Pop Songs You Might Not Know Are on Broadway.” Or, given the telecast’s usual low ratings, “Pop Songs You Might Not Care Are on Broadway.”
There’s a lot to choose from. “Million Dollar Quartet” alone has 22 songs, including “Blue Suede Shoes,” “I Walk the Line” and “Great Balls of Fire.”
“Come Fly Away” has the Sinatra catalog — “My Way,” “Fly Me to the Moon” and, of course, “New York, New York” — while “Promises, Promises” offers “I Say a Little Prayer” and “What Do You Get When You Fall in Love.”
“A Little Night Music” has “Send in the Clowns,” “Fela!” has “Zombie,” and “American Idiot” has the best of Green Day. “The Addams Family” slips in under the wire with “Da-da-da-dum, snap, snap.”
But where does that leave “Memphis,” which has an original score? Aha! David Bryan, who wrote the music and lyrics, is a founding member of Bon Jovi. It’s a stretch, but believe me, they’ll find something from “Memphis” that sounds like “Runaway” and slip it in.
Cast members, in costume, will perform the pop-hit medley. Surprise “guest performers” are likely to include “Glee” stars Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison (both Broadway babies), Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and, possibly, Jon Bon Jovi. Elton John, the producer of the Tony-nominated play “Next Fall,” might pop up as well. Tony host Sean Hayes will certainly sing something from “Promises” with his un-nominated co-star, Kristin Chenoweth.
It’d be a coup if the Tonys got Jay-Z to sing something from “Fela!” with the show’s star, Sahr Ngaujah. But I’m told
Jay-Z doesn’t like to sing at awards shows. He’s not even on board yet as a presenter.
The Tonys are carving out time for non-musicals this season if only because so many stars appeared in them. Look for Denzel Washington and Viola Davis to talk about “Fences,” Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson to discuss “A View From the Bridge,” and the wonderful Chris Walken to have some fun with “A Behanding in Spokane.”
I wish the Tonys could figure out a way to get scenes from straight plays on the telecast. The fear has always been that, out of context, non-musical scenes don’t make sense if you haven’t seen the play. But longtime Tony watchers will recall how powerful James Earl Jones, Mary Alice and Courtney B. Vance were in a scene from the original “Fences” on the 1987 telecast.
Viewers aren’t idiots. They don’t need to know the plot to enjoy a scene performed by Washington and Davis, or a tense exchange between Schreiber and Johansson.
Plays are just as important artistically and, when they’re doing the kind of business “Fences” is doing, commercially. They should be given their due.