Tony! Tony! Tony!

The American Theatre Wings 2009 Tony Awards were this past Sunday. I love the Tonys. I know many of you may be rolling your eyes at the sheer nerd-dom that is the Tony Awards, but I think they're wonderful. A great way to celebrate our industry, to showcase the best and the brightest in the theater world.

That being said, there were a few flaws in this year's award ceremonies. It's pretty amazing to me when corporate America intersects with the theater world-- most often, disaster results. Theater is such a fleeting, temporal art, best seen in the long view and best appreciated by a live audience. To film such an event, with close ups and commercials and other television trappings often results in a very wonky experience.


Take the opening number. What a nightmare. Listen for all of the missed mic pick-ups. Listen to the actress backstage warming up and being broadcast on live television. The arrangements are terrible. It's confusing and hard to tell what's going on. And oh, yeah, at the very end (watch for it!) some dumbass brought a huge piece of scenery down on top of Bret Michaels, breaking his nose. Seriously? Theater people, we can do much better than this. Check it out for yourself:



There were some highlights, though. Check out the performance of the new musical Rock of Ages. Technically very well done, lots of fun (love that shout-out to Michigan!) and best of all, our good buddy Paul Schoeffler is featured. (He's the dude in the suit on the end).


And I really enjoyed the performance of Billy Elliot as well. Billy Elliot swept the Tonys this year, taking home 10 awards. And watching this piece, it's not hard to tell why. Not to mention that another good buddy of ours, Jamie Torcellini, is featured in this performance. Go Jamie!


Another huge congratulations to Brian MacDevitt, winner of a Tony for Best Lighting Design of a Play. Brian is a graduate of my alma mater, SUNY Purchase, and even suffered to teach me and my fellow stage managers a few lighting design classes. (Thanks for bearing with us, Brian!) Congratulations also to Jen Schriever, my classmate at Purchase and good friend, for her part in the lighting design win.

All together, it was wonderful to watch our industry be celebrated on national television. I just hope next year they invest a little more into some of the technical aspects of the production.