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      Jay-Z’s Big Tonys Duet With Alicia Keys Was Pretaped

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      The two stars brought down the house with “Empire State of Mind,” their 2009 love song to New York City, which they had recorded earlier on a grand marble staircase outside the auditorium.It drew one of the biggest roars of the night at the Tony Awards: Alicia Keys was performing a medley from her Broadway musical “Hell’s Kitchen” on Sunday when she walked out of the auditorium and was shown joining Jay-Z on a marble staircase for “Empire State of Mind,” their 2009 love song to New York City.“Had to do something crazy — it’s my hometown!” Keys said as the cameras followed her walking out of the auditorium at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. A video screen onstage cut to Jay-Z, the Brooklyn-born rapper and mogul, as he performed from the curved marble staircase just outside the auditorium. Keys was seen joining him.There was a reason Jay-Z never appeared on the Tonys stage except in video form, though. In a savvy trick of the production, the reunion between two of music’s biggest stars was pretaped and carefully edited to seamlessly make it appear part of the live performance on Sunday night’s Tonys telecast, according to two people with knowledge of the telecast preparations who were not authorized to speak publicly about them. (New York Magazine reported earlier that the segment had been pretaped.)Live or taped, the duet became one of the biggest moments of the night. The Broadway crowd went wild as Jay-Z closed with, “Brooklyn, New York City in the Tonys tonight!”Some in the audience — who were gathered to celebrate an art form where eight live performances each week is the norm — seemed to think that the performance was unfolding live just outside the auditorium.But those outside the auditorium quickly realized what was going on. CJay Philip, who won an excellence in theater education award at the ceremony, was watching the performance on a screen in the lobby, not far from the marble staircase where Keys and Jay-Z were being shown performing in front of a sculpture by Yasuhide Kobashi.“Maybe for a second I was like, ‘Oh, Jay-Z is here?,’” she said, before realizing it had been a theatrical sleight of hand. When she got back to her seat, her mother exclaimed, “That was amazing!”“I was like, ‘Well, I’m glad mom enjoyed it,’” Philip said.Another member of the audience, Wendall K. Harrington, a Broadway projection designer who received a special Tony for her work, said that while some people around her seemed confused about whether the performance was live, she wasn’t.“I was not fooled,” she explained. “I’m in the projection business.” More

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      Best and Worst Moments From the 2024 Tony Awards

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      Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s high-wattage performance was a highlight, as were first-time wins for Kecia Lewis, Jonathan Groff and David Adjmi.Ariana DeBose ended her third turn as Tonys host with a mic drop. Otherwise, last night’s ceremony offered a first time for everything and very nearly everyone. All eight winners in the acting categories took home their first trophies. (How is it possible that this is Jonathan Groff’s inaugural win?) The playwright David Adjmi, in his Broadway debut, won for “Stereophonic,” as did its director Daniel Aukin, also a Tony-winning newbie. Danya Taymor took home the prize for best direction of a musical for “The Outsiders,” her initial win. (“The Outsiders” also won for best musical.) In a mellow, equitable night, the other awards were spread among many of the nominated shows, with “Stereophonic,” “The Outsiders,” “Appropriate” and an ingeniously reimagined “Merrily We Roll Again” carrying home the top prizes. Here are the highs and lows — and wait, is that Jay-Z on the stairs? — of the ceremony.Now that’s putting on a show“The Outsiders” won best new musical. As the New York Times’s chief theater critic, Jesse Green, put it, Tony voters went with “the underdog show about perennial underdogs.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe producers and director were the same, but so much about this year’s telecast was a vast improvement on that of previous years. The pacing was swifter: The main broadcast ended on time and the pre-broadcast ended early. The dialogue was more dignified: no brainless chatter or mawkish introductions. The transitions were smoother: Sets were changed live on camera, saving time and showing us how theater actually works. And the investors who used to throng the stage when their shows won awards — not a good look, plus a traffic problem — were sequestered in some alternative universe and beamed in by video. All this allowed the show to deliver better entertainment while leaving room for thoughtfulness and giddiness, and both together. For the first time in a long time, the Broadway on TV felt like the one I know. JESSE GREENWrong-footed openingSara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe Neil Patrick Harris years set an imposing bar for Tony broadcast opening numbers, and this year’s attempt, a strained variety-show knockoff that prematurely promised “this party’s for you,” didn’t end the drought. The Tonys would have done better opening with “Empire State of Mind” from “Hell’s Kitchen” — the night’s highest-wattage performance, featuring Alicia Keys and Jay-Z. Or, better if not bolder: “Willkommen” from “Cabaret,” which was expertly staged for the camera and drenched in Eddie Redmayne’s kooky charisma. SCOTT HELLERThird time’s the charmWendell Pierce presenting Kara Young with her Tony, which she received for “Purlie Victorious.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Outsiders’ Wins Tony Award for Best Musical, ‘Stereophonic’ Best Play

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      “The Outsiders,” a muscular musical based on the classic young adult novel, was named best new musical at the Tony Awards on Sunday night, while “Stereophonic,” a behind-the music play about a band making an album, was named best new play.Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” completed a four-decade journey from flop to hit by winning the best musical revival prize, while “Appropriate,” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s family drama about a trio of siblings confronting an unsettling secret, won best play revival.Here are the highlights of the 77th Tony Awards ceremony, which took place at Lincoln Center in Manhattan and was hosted by Ariana DeBose:We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Maleah Joi Moon Wins a Tony for Her Debut in Alicia Keys’s ‘Hell’s Kitchen’

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      Maleah Joi Moon won the Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical on Sunday night for her Broadway debut in “Hell’s Kitchen,” a fictionalized remix of Alicia Keys’s childhood.Moon recently spoke with The New York Times about earning a Tony nomination for her first professional role, a 17-year-old girl who discovered a gift for piano while chafing under her mother’s vigilance.“It’s surreal and it’s ridiculous and crazy and insane and all the things,” said Moon, 21. “But my inner child — the one that wanted to be Nala on Broadway — is like, this is aligned. It’s divine alignment. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t meant.”The other nominees in the best leading actress category were Eden Espinosa (“Lempicka”), Maryann Plunkett (“The Notebook”), Kelli O’Hara (“Days of Wine and Roses”) and Gayle Rankin (“Cabaret”).Moon’s first stage role was playing Dorothy in a school production of “The Wizard of Oz” — the same role that Keys first played as a child. She then threw herself into school productions: “Annie,” “Shrek,” “Sister Act,” “Rent,” “Into the Woods,” “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “West Side Story.”Before securing the role in “Hell’s Kitchen,” Moon had auditioned on Broadway for the role of young Nala in “The Lion King” and the musical “Six.” After her Tony win was announced on Sunday, she stayed in her seat for several seconds, stunned and sobbing.During her acceptance speech, Moon thanked her parents as well as Keys and the creative team at the Public Theater. “You saw something in me a few years ago, and you nurtured that thing ever since,” she said. More

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      ‘The Outsiders’ Wins the Tony for Best Musical

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      “The Outsiders,” a muscular stage adaptation of the classic young adult novel about class conflict between a pair of high school gangs, won the coveted Tony Award for best musical on Sunday.The show, which has been gaining steam at the box office, is set in Tulsa, Okla., in 1967, and is based not only on the best-selling 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton, but also on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film adaptation.The musical is gritty, bloody and relentlessly youthful — the creative team eliminated virtually all adult characters, and the show features some of the most effectively vivid violence seen on a Broadway stage, using a mix of fight choreography, strobe-like lighting and percussive sound design to evoke the brutality pervading these adolescent lives. The show is saturated with water and dirt, but also with poetry and literature, as its orphaned protagonist turns to reading and writing to escape the circumstances of his childhood.The show received mixed reviews from critics; in The New York Times, the chief theater critic, Jesse Green, wrote that “many stunning things are happening on the stage of the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater — and from the sobs I heard the other night, in the audience, too.” But, he said, “structural problems mean its achievements don’t stick.”Nonetheless, in recent weeks the show has been playing to full houses, fueled in part by healthy interest from young patrons, and it has been grossing about $1 million a week, which is solid but not spectacular for a show of this scale. The Tony Award should provide the show with a box office boost.“The Outsiders” features a score from the country duo Jamestown Revival in collaboration with the Broadway musical artist Justin Levine; the musical’s book is by the playwright Adam Rapp, also in collaboration with Levine. It is directed by Danya Taymor — a niece of “The Lion King” director Julie Taymor, she is helming a major musical for the first time — and choreographed by the brothers Rick and Jeff Kuperman.The musical began its production life with a run last year at the nonprofit La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. The Broadway production, which opened in April, has a huge producing team led by the Araca Group, established by two brothers, Matthew and Michael Rego, and their childhood friend Hank Unger. The show was capitalized for $22 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.To win the best musical Tony, “The Outsiders” bested “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Illinoise,” “Suffs” and “Water for Elephants.”A cast recording of “The Outsiders” was released in May by Sony Masterworks Broadway. And the musical’s producers have announced plans to start a North American tour in the fall of 2025, opening at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. More

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      Jonathan Groff’s Star Turn in ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ Lands Him His First Tony

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      Jonathan Groff, a gregarious performer who loves and is loved by Broadway, finally won his first Tony Award on Sunday night, picking up a trophy for best leading actor in a musical for his star turn in a transformational revival of “Merrily We Roll Along.”The award bestows industry recognition on a musical theater star who has also found success onscreen: He voices the characters Kristoff and Sven in Disney’s “Frozen” films, had a recurring role on the television series “Glee” and played King George in “Hamilton,” a performance that reached a wide audience through the live-capture film (as well as the popular cast album).The Tony recognizes Groff’s empathetic portrayal of Franklin Shepard, a Juilliard-trained composer who jettisons his youthful idealism, his stage career and his co-writer to become a successful film producer. Groff uses his considerable charm to give the character, who can seem like a sellout, more depth, and in the process has helped make the musical, which was a notorious flop in 1981, into a huge hit this time around. (Another key factor: One of Groff’s co-stars is Daniel Radcliffe, of “Harry Potter” fame.)Groff’s performance, which is the scaffolding on which the production is constructed, was widely praised by critics. Jesse Green, writing in The New York Times, described Groff as “thrillingly fierce,” and said “Groff, always a compelling actor, here steps up to an unmissable one.” And Charles McNulty, writing in The Los Angeles Times, said, “The key to making this work — which is to say making us care — is the performance of Groff, who humanizes Frank’s choices without sentimentalizing his arc.”Groff, 39, arrived on Broadway as a swing in a short-lived 2005 flop, “In My Life.” He has been nominated for a Tony Award each time he has returned to Broadway since — in 2007 for his starring role as a rebellious adolescent in the original production of “Spring Awakening,” in 2016 for his peacockish performance in “Hamilton” and this year for “Merrily.”The stretches between Broadway roles have been filled with screen work — he starred in the streaming series “Looking” and “Mindhunter,” as well as the “Frozen” films. He has also periodically worked Off Broadway, including as the first star of a 2019 “Little Shop of Horrors” revival that is still running, with a variety of well-known performers in leading roles, at the Westside Theater.The “Merrily” revival, directed by Maria Friedman, began its New York life (there were earlier chapters, with different performers, in Britain and Boston) with a 2022 Off Broadway production at New York Theater Workshop. The Broadway run opened last October; the final performance is scheduled to be July 7. More

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      Sarah Paulson Wins Her First Tony for Best Actress in a Play

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      Sarah Paulson won the Tony Award for best actress in a play for her performance in the family drama “Appropriate.” This is Paulson’s first Tony.An Emmy winner who made her name in television, Paulson, in her first stage role in a decade, appears in the Branden Jacobs-Jenkins play as a sharp-tongued elder sister who is reunited with her siblings to deal with their deceased father’s estate.“Appropriate,” which won best revival of a play on Sunday, became one of the buzziest shows of the year, partly because of Paulson’s star power.The role takes endurance. Set at the family’s home in Arkansas, the play is largely propelled by the reactionary anger of Paulson’s character, Toni Lafayette, who is seeking to protect her father’s legacy from mounting evidence that he harbored racist convictions. Her approach involves searing insults aimed at her siblings, played by Michael Esper and Corey Stoll.Thanking Jacobs-Jenkins in her acceptance speech, Paulson said: “I will never be able to convey my gratitude to you for trusting me, for letting me hold the hand of Toni Lafayette, a woman you have written who makes no apology, who isn’t begging to be liked or approved of but does hope to be seen.”Though Paulson has found fame in television series like “American Horror Story” and “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” — winning an Emmy for her performance as the prosecutor Marcia Clark — her career has roots in theater. And she was exposed to Broadway early on. After she moved to New York City as a child, her mother worked as a waitress at Sardi’s, a Broadway haunt that just so happens to be next door to the theater where “Appropriate” opened in December.Paulson’s first job out of high school was as an understudy on Broadway for Amy Ryan in “The Sisters Rosensweig.” (Ryan, who starred in the play “Doubt,” was also nominated in the leading actress category this year.)The nominees also included two movie stars: Jessica Lange for “Mother Play” and Rachel McAdams for “Mary Jane.” Betsy Aidem was nominated for “Prayer for the French Republic.”Paulson’s win carried echoes of the Tony Awards in 2005, when her girlfriend at the time, the actress Cherry Jones, won the award for her performance in the original production of “Doubt.” Paulson, who was seated beside her, kissed Jones ahead of her acceptance speech, coming out publicly for the first time as being in a relationship with a woman.On Sunday, when she won the award, Paulson kissed her longtime partner, the actress Holland Taylor. More

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      ‘Stereophonic’ Wins the Tony Award for Best New Play

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      “Stereophonic,” which eavesdrops on a folk-rock quintet whose members make up and break up as they lay down tracks for what will become a smash LP, won the Tony Award for best new play on Sunday. Its 13 Tony nominations are the most a play has ever received.It was the fifth award of the night for “Stereophonic.” Daniel Aukin won for best direction of a play; Will Brill, who plays the band’s bassist, for best featured actor in a play; David Zinn, for best scenic design of a play; and Ryan Rumery for best sound design of a play.A meditation on the joy and torture of creative collaboration, “Stereophonic” — written by David Adjmi and directed by Daniel Aukin, with songs by Will Butler — is a transporting work of naturalistic drama and a star-making break for its cast. Set over the course of a year, first in a recording studio in Sausalito, Calif., and later in Los Angeles, it embraces the technical aspects of recording.“I took that as a challenge,” Adjmi told The New York Times. “So much of it, the banality of the process, is part of what’s so beautiful about it, the granularity of it.”“Stereophonic,” which opened in April at the Golden Theater, is a critical hit. “The play is a staggering achievement and already feels like a must-see American classic,” Naveen Kumar wrote in a review for The Times.Remarkably, many of the cast members had barely played an instrument before rehearsals began. And none of them had played professionally. But after an unusually rigorous rehearsal period, they became a band, supporting one another even through bum notes and fitful tempo.“We all hit wrong notes all the time,” Sarah Pidgeon, a star of the show, said. “But it still works because it’s real.”The other nominees for best new play were “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” “Mary Jane,” “Mother Play” and “Prayer for the French Republic.” More