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      Tony Award Nominations Postponed Because of Coronavirus Delays

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      This year’s Tony Award nominations will be delayed by nearly a week, administrators of the awards said Friday, because enough actors have been out with coronavirus cases that it has become difficult for awards nominators to see all the eligible performances.The Broadway League and the American Theater Wing, who present the awards, said nominations would now be announced on May 9, instead of May 3. The awards ceremony itself will remain, as scheduled, on June 12.The change reflects the extraordinary disruption the coronavirus pandemic has caused to this theater season. Multiple shows — on Broadway, Off Broadway, around the country, and in Britain, Canada and elsewhere — have been forced to cancel performances and shift schedules because of coronavirus cases.On Broadway several shows have been scrambling to open before the eligibility deadline, which was scheduled to be April 28, but will now be May 4. Four shows — “Paradise Square,” “Macbeth,” “Plaza Suite” and “A Strange Loop” — canceled multiple performances because of coronavirus cases. (Among those testing positive were the “Macbeth” star Daniel Craig and the “Plaza Suite” stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.)Even now, when all shows are running, some actors are still out. That has made it hard for the nominators to see all the eligible shows with all eligible performers onstage.There are six shows scheduled to open next week, including “Funny Girl,” “The Skin of Our Teeth,” “A Strange Loop,” “POTUS,” “Mr. Saturday Night” and “Macbeth.” More

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      Robert Morse, Impish Tony-Winning Comedy Star, Is Dead at 90

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      He dazzled as a charming corporate schemer in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” His later triumphs included a memorable role on “Mad Men.”Robert Morse, whose impish, gaptoothed grin and expert comic timing made him a Tony-winning Broadway star as a charming corporate schemer in the 1961 musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” who later won another Tony for his eerily lifelike portrait of the writer Truman Capote in “Tru,” and who capped his long career with a triumphant return to the corporate world on the acclaimed television series “Mad Men,” has died. He was 90. His death was announced on Twitter by the writer and producer Larry Karaszewski, who worked with Mr. Morse on the television series “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.” He did not say where or when Mr. Morse died.Small in stature but larger than life as a performer, Mr. Morse was still a relative newcomer to the stage when he took Broadway by storm in “How to Succeed.” Directed (and partly written) by Abe Burrows, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, and based on a book by Shepherd Mead, the show, a broad satire of the business world, was set in the headquarters of the World Wide Wicket Company, ruled by its peevish president, J.B. Biggley (Rudy Vallee). The plot revolved around the determined efforts of an ambitious young window washer named J. Pierrepont Finch, played with sly humor by Mr. Morse, to climb to the top of the corporate ladder. Among the show’s many high points was the washroom scene in which Mr. Morse delivered a heartfelt rendition of the song “I Believe in You” while gazing rapturously into a mirror.“How to Succeed” ran for more than 1,400 performances and won seven Tony Awards, including one for Mr. Morse as best actor in a musical, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The 1967 film adaptation, with Mr. Morse and Mr. Vallee repeating their roles, was a hit as well, and the show has been revived on Broadway twice. Mr. Morse always seemed more at home on the stage than on the screen. Five years before “How to Succeed” opened, he made an uncredited and virtually unseen Hollywood debut (his face was swathed in bandages) in the World War II drama “The Proud and Profane.” With no other screen roles in the offing, he returned to New York, where he had earlier studied acting with Lee Strasberg, and where he auditioned for the director Tyrone Guthrie and was given his first Broadway role in “The Matchmaker,” Thornton Wilder’s comedy about a widowed merchant’s search for a new wife. Ruth Gordon played the title role, and Mr. Morse and Arthur Hill played clerks in the merchant’s shop. Mr. Morse would reprise his role in the 1958 film adaptation. From left, John Slattery, Mr. Morse and Nathan Lane in the 2016 Broadway revival of “The Front Page.” Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesMr. Morse’s Broadway career continued with the comedy “Say, Darling” (1958), in which he played an eager young producer, and “Take Me Along” (1959), a musical based on Eugene O’Neill’s play “Ah, Wilderness!,” in which Mr. Morse was a doubt-ridden adolescent, Walter Pidgeon his sympathetic father and Jackie Gleason his hard-drinking uncle. Then came his star-making turn in “How to Succeed.”His success in that show led to movie offers, but not to movie stardom; he rarely had a screen vehicle that fit him comfortably. “The parts I could play,” he observed to The Sunday News of New York in 1965, “they give to Jack Lemmon.” When he co-starred with Robert Goulet in the 1964 sex farce “Honeymoon Hotel,” Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote, “It is hard to imagine good actors being given worse material with which to work.” He fared better, but only slightly, in “The Loved One” (1965), a freewheeling adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s scathing novel about America’s moneymaking funeral industry in which he was improbably cast as a British poet who finds work at an animal cemetery, and “A Guide for the Married Man” (1967), in which Mr. Morse gives a fellow husband (Walter Matthau) advice on how to cheat on his wife. Television proved more hospitable. In addition to guest appearances on various shows in the 1960s and ’70s, he co-starred with the actress E.J. Peaker in the 1968 series “That’s Life,” an unusual hybrid of sitcom and variety show that told the story of a young couple’s courtship and marriage through sketches, monologues, singing and dancing. Perhaps too ambitious for its own good — “We’re producing what amounts to a new musical each week,” Mr. Morse told an interviewer — it lasted only one season.Mr. Morse returned to Broadway in 1972 in “Sugar,” a musical based on the Billy Wilder film “Some Like It Hot” about two Chicago musicians — Tony Roberts in the part originally played by Tony Curtis and Mr. Morse, appropriately, in the Jack Lemmon role — who flee from local mobsters by dressing as women and joining an all-girl band en route to Miami. It brought Mr. Morse another Tony nomination and was a modest hit, running for more than a year.But his next show, the 1976 musical “So Long, 174th Street,” based on the play “Enter Laughing” — with Mr. Morse, still boyish-looking at just shy of 45, as an aspiring actor roughly half his age — received harsh reviews and closed in a matter of weeks. It was Mr. Morse’s last appearance on Broadway for more than a decade.He kept busy in the ensuing years, but choice roles were scarce, and he battled depression. He also had problems with drugs and alcohol, although he maintained that those problems did not interfere with his work; looking back in 1989, he told The Times, “It was the other 22 hours I had a problem with.”He starred in a number of out-of-town revivals, including a production of “How to Succeed” in Los Angeles. He was a familiar face on television in series like “Love, American Style” and “Murder, She Wrote” — and a familiar voice as well, on cartoon shows like “Pound Puppies.” But he longed to escape a casting pigeonhole that he knew he had helped create.“I’m the short, funny guy,” he said ruefully in a 1972 Times interview. “It’s very difficult to get out of that.” Eight years earlier he had told another interviewer: “I think of myself as an actor. I happen to have a comic flair, but that doesn’t mean I plan to spend my life as a comedian.”It took him a while to find the perfect dramatic showcase, but he found it in 1989 in “Tru,” Jay Presson Allen’s one-man show about Truman Capote. Almost unrecognizable in heavy makeup and utterly convincing in voice and mannerisms, he was Capote incarnate, alone in his apartment in 1975 and brooding over the friendships he had lost after the publication of excerpts from his gossipy novel in progress, “Answered Prayers.” Mr. Morse’s performance brought him his second Tony Award. A television adaptation of “Tru” for the PBS series “American Playhouse” in 1992 also won him an Emmy.Robert Alan Morse was born on May 18, 1931, in Newton, Mass. His father, Charles, managed a chain of movie theaters. His mother, May (Silver) Morse, was a pianist.In high school, Mr. Morse earned a reputation as the class clown; a sympathetic music teacher helped him transfer his energy from the classroom to the theater. He spent a summer with the Peterborough Players in New Hampshire, came to New York and, after trying and failing to get an acting job, joined the Navy in 1950. After his discharge four years later, he moved back to New York and enrolled at the American Theater Wing.Mr. Morse in an episode of “Mad Men.” “I said I’d be happy to be Bertram Cooper, chairman of the board, and sit behind a desk,” he said of being offered the role, which earned him five Emmy nominations. “It looked like the road company of ‘How to Succeed.’”Jaimie Trueblood/AMCMr. Morse’s first marriage, to Carole Ann D’Andrea, a dancer, ended in divorce. They had three daughters, Robin, Andrea and Hilary. He and his second wife, Elizabeth Roberts, an advertising executive, had a daughter, Allyn, and a son, Charles.Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.Mr. Morse’s success in “Tru” guaranteed that he would no longer be thought of as, in his words, “an aging leprechaun.” A wider variety of roles followed, including, in 2016, a return to Broadway in a star-studded revival of “The Front Page.”“In the small but crucial role of a messenger from the governor’s office,” Ben Brantley wrote in The Times, “Mr. Morse, who made his Broadway debut more than 60 years ago, proves he can still steal a scene without breaking a sweat.”But for the last three decades of his life, he was mostly seen on television. He appeared in more than a dozen episodes of the 2000 CBS series “City of Angels” as the unpredictable chairman of an urban hospital. And in 2007 he came full circle when he was cast as the eccentric head of an advertising agency in the acclaimed AMC series “Mad Men,” set in the same era as “How to Succeed.” The role brought him five Emmy nominations. “I was quite elated when Matt called me and said, ‘We’d love you to do this show,’” Mr. Morse told The Times in 2014, referring to the show’s creator, Matthew Weiner. “I said I’d be happy to be Bertram Cooper, chairman of the board, and sit behind a desk. It looked like the road company of ‘How to Succeed.’”Although Bertram Cooper was a straight dramatic role, Mr. Morse got to return to his musical-comedy roots in his last episode, aired in the spring of 2014, when the character died — and then reappeared, in a fantasy song-and-dance sequence, to croon the old standard “The Best Things in Life Are Free.”“What a send-off!” Mr. Morse said. “The opportunity to shine in the spotlight that Matt Weiner gave me — it was an absolute love letter. Christmas and New Year’s, all rolled into one.”Peter Keepnews contributed reporting. More

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      Rae Allen, Tony Winner and TV Mainstay, Dies at 95

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      In a varied career, she had memorable roles in “Damn Yankees” and on “Seinfeld” and was nominated for three Tonys. She later became a director.Rae Allen, a Tony Award-winning actress who was seen in both the stage and film versions of the hit musical comedy “Damn Yankees,” and whose many television roles included a world-weary unemployment counselor to the jobless George Costanza on “Seinfeld” and Tony Soprano’s aunt on “The Sopranos,” died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 95.Her death, at the Motion Picture & Television Fund retirement home, was confirmed by her niece Betty Cosgrove.Ms. Allen made her Broadway debut in 1948 and her big splash seven years later, when she was cast as the sports reporter Gloria Thorpe in “Damn Yankees, the story of a middle-aged Washington Senators fan who makes a Faustian bargain to become a slugger named Joe Hardy and help his team keep the hated Yankees from winning the pennant. She led a group of nimbly dancing Senators in celebration of Hardy’s beneficial impact on the team with the showstopping song “Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, Mo.” (“Who came along in a puff of smoke? Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.”)Ms. Allen earned her first Tony Award nomination for that performance, which she reprised in the 1958 movie version, her first film. She received her second Tony nomination in 1965 for Jean Anouilh’s play “Traveller Without Luggage,” and won the Tony six years later, as best featured actress, for Paul Zindel’s “And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little,” in which she played a neighbor in a story about the relationship between three neurotic sisters.“The awful neighbors are also given precisely the right clumsy boorishness by Rae Allen and Bill Macy,” Clive Barnes wrote in his review in The New York Times. He called their scenes “among the most entertaining of the evening.”Her comedic skills were also on display in a memorable two-part episode of “Seinfeld.” She played Lenore Sokol, a deadpan counselor skeptical about George Costanza’s attempts to get an extension on his unemployment benefits, including his claim to have interviewed for a job as a latex salesman for a phony company, Vandelay Industries. She softens when he sees a photograph of her plain-looking daughter on her desk.Ms. Allen and Roberts Blossom in the 1961 Off Broadway production of Edward Albee’s “The Death of Bessie Smith.” Leo Friedman“This is your daughter? George says. “My God! My God! I hope you don’t mind my saying. She is breathtaking.”She asks if he wants her phone number, but after they briefly date, her daughter dumps him because he has no prospects.Ms. Allen later had roles in “A League of Their Own” (1992), as the mother of the baseball players portrayed by Geena Davis and Lori Petty,” and the science-fiction film “Stargate” (1994), as a researcher. She was also seen on TV series including “Brooklyn Bridge” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”In four episodes of “The Sopranos” in 2004, she played Quintina Blundetto, the aunt of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and the mother of the mobster Tony Blundetto, played by Steve Buscemi.Steven Schirripa, who played Bobby Baccalieri on “The Sopranos,” wrote in an email that Ms. Allen was “acting royalty” who was “respected by everyone in the cast.”Rae Julia Abruzzo was born on July 3, 1926, in Brooklyn. Her mother, Julia (Riccio) Abruzzo, was a seamstress and hairdresser. Her father, Joseph, was a chauffeur and an opera singer whose brothers performed in vaudeville. At 15, Rae played Buttercup in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore” in Greenwich Village.After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1947, Ms. Allen started her Broadway career as a singer in the musical “Where’s Charley?” She followed that with a role in another musical, “Alive and Kicking.” Her next three shows, also musicals, were “Call Me Madam,” “The Pajama Game” and “Damn Yankees,” all directed by the Broadway luminary George Abbott, who became a mentor and father figure.In the 1960s, Ms. Allen was in the Broadway productions of “Oliver!,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.”From left, June Lockhart, Betty Garrett and Ms. Allen in a 2006 episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”Ron Tom / © ABC /Everett CollectionBy then, her television and film career had begun to take off; in the 1970s, she also started directing. In 1975 she was named director of the Stage West Theater Company in Springfield, Mass., and in 1991 she directed a revival of “And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little” at the Zephyr Theater in Los Angeles.She twice directed productions of “Cyrano de Bergerac” — the first in 1978 at the Long Beach Center Theater, in Long Beach, Calif., starring Stacy Keach, and the second in 2010 at the Ruskin Group Theater in Santa Monica, starring John Colella.Reviewing Ms. Allen’s staging of Ibsen’s “When We Dead Awaken” at Stage West in 1977, Mr. Barnes wrote that it had “speed, conviction and perception.”She also ran acting workshops and was a personal coach. In her 40s, she received bachelor’s and master’s of fine arts degrees in directing from New York University.Ms. Allen’s marriages to John Allen and Herbert Harris ended in divorce. No immediate family members survive. More

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      Tony Awards to Announce Prizes in June at Radio City Music Hall

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      The 75th ceremony, honoring plays and musicals staged on Broadway, resumes its traditional calendar after a few years of pandemic disruption.This year’s Tony Awards will take place on June 12 at Radio City Music Hall as the theater industry seeks to settle in to some sort of new normal following the enormous disruption of the coronavirus pandemic.The ceremony — like the one last September that coincided with the reopening of many theaters after the lengthy lockdown — will be bisected, with one hour streamed by Paramount+, followed by a three-hour broadcast on CBS that is likely to be heavy on the razzle-dazzle.The Tonys, which honor plays and musicals staged on Broadway, are an important moment for the theater community because the awards are valued by artists and because the event serves to market the art form and the industry. The awards, formally known as the Antoinette Perry Awards, are presented by the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing.This year’s ceremony — the 75th since the Tonys were established in 1947 — will honor shows that opened between Feb. 20, 2020, and April 28, 2022. That unusually long eligibility window includes the 15 months when all theaters were shut down to protect public health. (Last year’s Tony Awards ceremony was a much-delayed event that considered only the reduced slate of shows that managed to open before the pandemic cut short the 2019-20 theater season.)The nominators, for the first time since 2019, will have a robust slate of options to consider in all categories.This season features nine new musicals, including the fan favorite “Six”; the critical darling “Girl From the North Country” (which opened one week before theaters shut down); the Michael Jackson jukebox musical, “MJ”; and the Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Strange Loop” (which arrives next month).In the play category, this season brought a record number of works by Black writers, the best reviewed of which were “Clyde’s,” by Lynn Nottage; “Pass Over,” by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu; and “Skeleton Crew,” by Dominique Morisseau. They will face stiff competition from “The Lehman Trilogy,” a widely hailed exploration of the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers written by Stefano Massini and adapted by Ben Power.The musical and play revival categories are strong as well.Many of the contenders have yet to open. Because of concerns about when audiences would return in large numbers, and then the arrival of the Omicron variant, numerous producers opted to open as late as possible in the season: 16 shows are still to open before the eligibility period closes.The nominees are to be announced on May 3, determined by a nominating committee made up of about 37 actors, theater administrators and others with a close knowledge of the art form but no financial involvement in the eligible shows.Then voting will take place, electronically. There are about 800 Tony voters, many of whom work in the industry and some of whom are employed by or have invested in nominated shows; they can only vote in categories for which they have seen all the nominees, and there are a few specialized categories in which only some voters are allowed to vote.The show, directed by Glenn Weiss, will air live nationally, with the streaming portion starting at 7 p.m. Eastern and the broadcast portion (which will also be streamable) starting at 8 p.m. More

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      How a Broadway Producer Spends His Sundays

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      Theater may be struggling, but Ron Simons is committed to opening his next show, “For Colored Girls,” this spring.Ron Simons, one of a handful of Black Broadway producers in New York, has won Tony Awards for “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” “Porgy & Bess,” “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” and “Jitney.” Not to be outdone by the pandemic, he recently produced “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” which closed last month, and his next show, “For Colored Girls,” is scheduled to open this spring.“Recent events have allowed us to be fully expressed,” said Mr. Simons, alluding to the killing of George Floyd in May 2020 and the unrest and conversations about race that followed. “If done correctly, through storytelling, shows like ‘Thoughts of a Colored Man’ and others will help dispel ignorance and hatred.”Even though Broadway attendance is down and casts and crews are struggling to evade the Omicron variant, Mr. Simons remains optimistic. “People forget how long Broadway has been around,” he said. “Broadway is an institution that is not going away. It’s still strong and becoming more inclusive.”Mr. Simons, 61, lives with his partner, Jbya Clarke, 53, a personal trainer and wellness professional, on West 54th Street.THEATER HOURS Depending upon what time I got to bed the night before, Alexa wakes me with an obnoxious beeping sound around 10 or 11 a.m. When I’m raising money for a show, like I am with “For Colored Girls,” I tend to work into the wee hours of the night on Saturdays. I pick up the phone to see if there are any fires with the shows and if they need to be put out.“I tend to work into the wee hours of the night on Saturdays,” said Mr. Simons, who likes to sleep in on Sundays. Laila Stevens for The New York TimesPURGE Jbya is already up and has made coffee. Right now we’re drinking two coffees from Café Britt, one that’s Hawaiian and another that’s Costa Rican. I’ll drink it in whatever mug is available with cream and Stevia. That’s followed by a green juice made with spinach, pineapple, mango, collagen and MCT oil. It’s very cleansing. I have an addiction to fast food, it’s cheap, fast and easy. This helps the detox process. Every year I do an 11-day purge in mid-January. All I have is green drinks with protein powder. I like to start the year off with a healthy disposition. The purge makes me feel lighter and makes my brain clearer.SPIRITUAL STREAM I’m a member of The R.O.C.K. church in Houston. My cousin is married to the pastor. She preaches and oversees operations, so I watch the morning service on my computer. I find her inspiring. I’m always looking for inspiration and beauty. That’s how I counteract the news that’s been spreading over the country. I might meditate as well.He likes to tune in to services from a Houston church whose pastor is married to his cousin. “I’m always looking for inspiration and beauty.”Laila Stevens for The New York TimesBRUNCH By noon we are thinking about places to have brunch. Our favorite is Cookshop. I always say I won’t get a cinnamon roll, which come out warm and delicious, so I order wheat toast. I end up getting the cinnamon roll, too. And French fries. They’re my nemesis. We have one or two friends join. Sometimes we make brunch at our house, or we do it potluck, which is a good way to reconnect with some important people in our lives.MATINEE I’m a Tony voter, so I have to see all the new shows. If we don’t eat brunch we see theater instead. Because I’m so exhausted from the week, I tend to fall asleep at night, so Sunday makes me more of an alert audience member.Socializing in Chelsea, the Manhattan neighborhood where Mr. Simons and Mr. Clarke will often go for brunch. Laila Stevens for The New York TimesLUNCH WITH LIGHTING After theater Jbya and I walk around Hell’s Kitchen. I’m on a mission to have dinner at all the Hell’s Kitchen restaurants. Eating out is a different energy than eating in front of the TV. I look at the menus, what they’re serving and how are they rated. If there are a number of dishes that appeal to me I’ll consider going in. And it has to be clean with nice lighting. I’m a man of the theater. I always talk to people about the mood that lighting brings. Then we walk home because I’ve gained 20 pounds since Covid.PILES OF THINGS From 5 to 7 p.m., Jbya and I split up. He goes into his man cave, which is our media room, closes the door, turns off the lights and draws the shades. Then he watches something about the royal family, RuPaul or the Kardashians. I talk myself into opening mail, which I have let pile up for a month so that my box is so full it has to be given to our doorman to hold. Mail creates action items — like responding to an invite, paying a bill or cashing checks, all of which I hate doing. Or I try to organize my office, which usually looks like a hurricane hit it. Everything ends up sitting on my desk. Even though I create piles of things I need to do, it still looks like a mess. I’m a borderline hoarder. I love tchotchkes.The terrace of their home in Midtown Manhattan is one of their favorite places. Laila Stevens for The New York TimesTRAYS, TALK By 7 we’re deciding where to order in from, Seamless or Uber Eats. We might do Chinese food or Burger King. Jbya is a vegetarian and loves their Impossible Whopper; I usually order a Whopper, French fries and Diet Coke if I don’t have any at home. I finally bought TV trays, which makes me feel retro, which we bring into the media room. This is the best time for us to spend together. Evenings during the week are hard. We’ve both had very different days. He’s ready to talk and I’m all talked out from doing it all day. I’m still trying to navigate that so Sunday is a real coming together time for us.ACTION-PACKED ESCAPE We just finished “Tales of the City.” We like thrillers and science fiction, which is what we look for. I’m finishing the casting for “For Colored Girls” and am still in the capital-raising phase, so all week I’m dialing for dollars. Nights like this, I want something thrilling to wash over me like “The Bourne Identity” series, which we can watch over and over again, or “The Matrix” or “The Lord of the Rings.”Sunday evenings are for dinner and light viewing. “This is the best time for us to spend together.”Laila Stevens for The New York TimesGAMES PEOPLE PLAY By 1 or 2 a.m. we’re back in the bedroom. I call Alexa and she glows. I ask for a reminder about something or I’ll set the alarm. Then I tell her to play thunderstorm noise. It’s our version of white noise. Jbya falls asleep first. If I can’t, I play games for 45 minutes on my phone. I take West Game very seriously. It’s a fighting game where you build your town and battle against other players, and Toy Blast, which is a pattern-matching puzzle game. My lids get heavy and I fall asleep.Sunday Routine readers can follow Ron Simons on Instagram @ronaldksimons More

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      How BD Wong Spent Tony Awards Sunday

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      The actor, a recent transplant to Brooklyn, navigates his new neighborhood while dealing with the chaos of red carpet prep.For someone who struggles with what he described as “legendary, decades-long insomnia,” BD Wong usually makes rest a priority on the weekends. “With Sundays, in particular, there are the fewest responsibilities and the fewest things scheduled,” Mr. Wong said. “So that is really the day that I can sleep.”But last Sunday, there wasn’t much time for snoozing, except for when Mr. Wong was in the barber’s chair, as he prepared to introduce a duet at the 74th Annual Tony Awards.A Broadway veteran, Mr. Wong is still known for his Tony-Award-winning performance in “M. Butterfly” in 1988. Since then, he has worked in theater and in television, including shows like “Law and Order: SVU,” “Oz” and, most recently, “Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens,” where he plays Nora’s father, Wally.He also made his directorial television debut with the second season of “Awkwafina,” admitting that he was resistant to the idea at first. But, he said, “I felt ensconced as a member of this creative family.”Mr. Wong, 60, just relocated from the Financial District in Manhattan to Brooklyn Heights with his husband, Richert Schnorr, 37, a creative director, and their cat, Lox.CRAVING, SATISFIED We went for breakfast at this diner on Montague that we discovered: Grand Canyon Restaurant. I had the thing that I have been trying to get for days, which was a toasted sesame bagel with an egg and ham.Mr. Wong, left, and his husband, Richert Schnorr, out for a (messy) snack.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesLox, Mr. Wong’s one-eyed cat, tasting some ice cream.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesSO MUCH FOR THAT ERRAND I had my niece’s wedding present that I had to wrap and thought, “We need ribbons for the presents, so let’s go out for a walk along the Brooklyn Promenade.” We also stopped for ice cream and took pictures of the ice cream truck. I got a vanilla Frosty dipped in a chocolate shell, and Richert got a Chipwich, which is his favorite. I accidentally left the ribbon at the CVS.BEAUTY SLEEP The barber is right across the street from my apartment, and it’s a place I tried once before and liked. Whenever I sit in the barber chair, I fall immediately asleep. So I actually was able to multitask and take a nap while the guy cut my hair.“I think it was supposed to be a shark,” Mr. Wong said of his hydrating mask. “Everyone else thought it looked like The Joker.”An Rong Xu for The New York TimesSKIN CARE There’s a groomer that I always try to book when I have an event in New York. Her name is Jennifer Brent, and she knows that I like to try to relax with a face mask. So, she brings a deck of face masks, and one of them is an animal face mask that has this colorful animal face. I think it was supposed to be a shark. Everyone else thought it looked like The Joker.FAMILY TIME Having our family Zoom — siblings, parents, cousins, in-laws, it’s for whoever is around — is definitely one of the most deeply settled routine things. We opened the Zoom while I was getting makeup on, and Richert was there to help facilitate what was happening in our house. They haven’t seen our apartment yet; they’re dying for us to give them a virtual tour, but we’re refusing to do it because we’re not ready.A Zoom session with family members is  “one of the most deeply settled routine things.”An Rong Xu for The New York TimesTIED UP While I was getting dressed, I could not remember how to tie the knot on this particular high necktie that I wore when I was on “Gotham.” I played this character who wore these weird tie knots, and I did that really well and easily when I was on the show. But then as soon as the show ended, I forgot how to do that. I had to look up a video of how to tie this crazy knot. I finally got it about 15 minutes after we were supposed to get in the car. I put the rest of the outfit on, and we did modeling for the Zoom.BD NOT BEBE I got a call on my iPhone from a driver asking repeatedly for “BB,” which is always irritating, letting me know he was parked outside and looking for me at least an hour before we were supposed to go. At the same time I could also hear a woman client on the line, urgently wanting to know where her car was, as if the phone connections were crossed. I realized it was actually the dispatcher, not the driver, calling me. I started to explain that it was way too early for me to get in the car, and I kept saying, “No, this is BD Wong,” as the woman customer’s voice became more insistent. All of a sudden it became super clear what was happening when I recognized the lady customer’s voice: It was Bebe Neuwirth looking for her ride to Radio City.After a button on his tuxedo popped off, Mr. Wong had to make a quick fix on the way to the Tonys. “I’d really never done that before.”An Rong Xu for The New York TimesWARDROBE MALFUNCTION As we were walking down the street to get into the car, one button on my tux jacket popped off. We found the button, and we decided to go back inside my house to get a safety pin. We come up with these campaign badges that have pins in them. I get in the car, and as I’m pulling the pin out, it flies out of my hand and slips into a crack in the seat. The photographer went to CVS, bought a sewing kit, and I spent the whole ride to the Tonys sewing the button. I’d really never done that before. Then, the photographers on the red carpet took the pictures that are online now.PREGAME The awards show rents out this Applebee’s to serve as a “green room.” They put out food, and all the monitors at the bar are tuned in to the broadcast. I was so wound up by this point I actually had a whiskey, which I normally wouldn’t do, and then proceeded to debate with my green room buddy Adam Pascal to see if he could get away with having a beer before he sang. He was the perfect person to spend this time waiting to go on with because he’s so friendly and even-tempered. I introduced Andrew Rannells and Tituss Burgess singing a duet together.POST-SHOW I have a very supportive, wonderful husband, and he watched the whole awards show, so he could report back to me. When I got home, he explained the parts that were his favorites, and we had an assessment. I took a minute to decompress with my phone and looked at some pictures that were posted from the red carpet, but then I went to bed. To be quite honest, I was exhausted from the entire day.Sunday Routine readers can follow BD Wong on Twitter and Instagram @wongbd. More

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      'Slave Play' Is Returning to Broadway

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      The play, which had been nominated for 12 Tony Awards, will return to Broadway in November.“Slave Play,” the buzzy and provocative drama that was nominated for 12 Tony Awards but won none, will return to Broadway this fall.The playwright, Jeremy O. Harris, announced the plan just after midnight Monday morning, about an hour after the award ceremony shutout, at an after-party held to celebrate “Slave Play” and the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, an antiracism group.Harris had been planning the return engagement, win or lose. And he said on Twitter that he never expected to win.“Slave Play has never won one of the major awards of any of the great voting bodies but changed a culture and has inspired thousands of ppl who didn’t care about theatre before,” he wrote on Twitter. “I saw someone randomly reading the play in Slovenia. We already won.”The play’s 12 nominations made it the most nominated play in history, and had it won as best play, it would have become the first play by a Black writer to claim the Tony since 1987. It lost to “The Inheritance,” a sweeping drama by Matthew López that explores 21st century gay life in the aftermath of AIDS; López was the first Latino to win the prize.“Slave Play” imagines a radical form of role-playing for sexually frustrated interracial couples as a way of exploring the lingering effects of slavery in America.“Slave Play” becomes the eighth play by a Black writer slated to run on Broadway this season, so far, a record number. It’s also one of several return engagements by shows whose runs had ended before the pandemic, including “American Utopia,” “Freestyle Love Supreme,” “Springsteen on Broadway” and “Waitress.”“Slave Play,” which had an Off Broadway run at New York Theater Workshop, ran on Broadway from Sept. 10, 2019 through Jan. 19, 2020. It did not recoup its capitalization costs, but that is not unusual for plays.The producers said the return engagement would be at the August Wilson Theater, and would run from Nov. 23 to Jan. 23. They then plan to transfer the production to Los Angeles for a run at the Center Theater Group.The Broadway run will again be directed by Robert O’Hara, and will feature much of the original cast, including Ato Blankson-Wood, Chalia La Tour, Irene Sofia Lucio, Annie McNamara and Paul Alexander Nolan. However, Joaquina Kalukango will not rejoin the cast in the role of Kaneisha; she is starring in a new musical, “Paradise Square,” scheduled to start previews in February, and will be replaced by Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, who previously played the role in a developmental production at Yale.The lead producers are Greg Nobile and Jana Shea; among the other producers is the actor Jake Gyllenhaal. The producers pledged to make 10,000 tickets available for $39 each and to hold invitation-only “Black Out” performances, as they did during the initial run, for Black audiences. More

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      The Best and Worst Moments of the Tony Awards

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      Despite an evening split between streaming and TV, the message on Sunday night was clear: Broadway is back.Jennifer Holliday performing “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” from “Dreamgirls,” at the 74th Tony Awards.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesBest: Obviously, Jennifer HollidayThere were lots of great numbers during the first half of the Tonys, and even a few in the second half. But no one else did what Holliday did when she planted herself center stage and let rip with “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” It’s not just that she sings her signature song like no one ever sang anything. It’s that the singing is secondary, merely the outward expression of something much larger within her. Musical theater at its best delivers the human soul, in joy or agony or confidence or shame, to an audience willing to receive it; it’s a communion. For a few minutes, 40 years after she first bowled us over, she did it again, in joy, agony, confidence and shame. JESSE GREENDavid Byrne, whose “American Utopia” received a special Tony Award.Evan Agostini/Invision, via Associated PressJeremy O. Harris, whose “Slave Play” was nominated for best play.Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Tony Awards ProductionsBest: A Red Carpet With HeartAs red carpets go, the one at the Tony Awards is often defined by what it doesn’t have: an hour of commentary from E!, high fashion affiliations and monthslong angst about who will wear which designer. But what it lacks in commercialization, it makes up for in heart, especially this year, with Broadway having just reopened after the devastation of the pandemic shutdowns. Instead of action heroes in penguin suits, you get David Byrne in a royal blue get-up, no tie and white brogues. And wherever the golden-boy Jeremy O. Harris goes, the carpets sparkle a little brighter. STELLA BUGBEEThe choreographer Sonya Tayeh, who won for “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesBest: Sonya Tayeh’s Energy and MessageSonya Tayeh’s striking goth-goddess look at Sunday night’s Tonys — a shiny black tux with a cummerbund and no blouse; sleek hip-length black hair on one half of her head, the other half shaved; large, shimmering hoops and a lip piercing — would have been enough to land her on any list of bests. But it was her moving acceptance speech for best choreography, for “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” that shook me. Delivered so calmly and thoughtfully, it shifted the energy of the room. Tayeh, 44, said: “As a brown, queer, Arab American woman, I wasn’t always welcomed. It takes graceful hands to lead people like me to the door.” Her mother is Lebanese; her Palestinian father, who was not part of her upbringing, died when she was young. “It’s been 10 years since a woman has won this award,” she continued. “Though I’m honored to be part of this legacy, this legacy is too small.” MAYA SALAMThe 74th Tony Awards were at the Winter Garden Theater.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWorst: The Confusing, and Unnecessary, Streaming SetupIn an industry that is constantly working on — and scrutinized for — its level of accessibility, why are they making it harder for audiences to watch the vast majority of awards? All but three honors were given exclusively on Paramount+, not to mention some of the best performances of the evening. I have internet access and the bare-minimum streaming savvy to sign up (and to cancel my free trial at the end of the week), but plenty of interested theater fans don’t. Paramount+ also lacks the ability to rewind and pause its stream — how else am I supposed to go back to the beginning of Jennifer Holliday’s stunning performance and watch it ad nauseam? NANCY COLEMANLois Smith won best featured actress in a play for “The Inheritance.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesBest: A Nonagenarian WinnerLois Smith has done something no one else who has spent nine decades on this planet has achieved: Won a Tony Award for acting. Smith, who won best featured actress in a play for her role in “The Inheritance,” gave a sweet shout-out to “Howards End,” the E.M. Forster book on which the play is based, naming it her favorite novel. And then she quoted the novel’s famous two-word message, an apt one for live theater’s return: “Only connect.” SARAH BAHRPerformance by the cast of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesBest: The ‘Moulin Rouge!’ Performance We NeededI saw “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” — roughly a thousand years ago, if my math is right — and felt a bit of a sensory overload by the end. Tony viewers got a glimpse of it in the cast’s performance: Multiply those vibrant skirts, high kicks and brisk pop numbers by a couple of acts and an intermission, and you’ve got one of the most aggressively energetic musicals in recent Broadway history. I enjoyed it then, but Sunday’s effort — prerecorded at the Al Hirschfeld Theater, the show’s home base — felt like the musical had finally found the perfect setting. Watching any theatrical work from behind a screen can dim its intensity, and perhaps the initial vibe could use a bit of dimming. But what better time is there to revel in the adrenaline rush, and the vivacity, of going to the theater? Everything about “Moulin Rouge!” — or, at least, the upbeat parts performed on Sunday night — is brimming with celebration. It’s exactly the kind of splashy abundance we’ve so missed this past year and a half. NANCY COLEMANIn the second half, Leslie Odom Jr. and Josh Groban did a comedy bit.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWorst: Processed CheeseThe successful first half of the double broadcast fooled me into thinking the show’s writers and producers had at last seen the error of their past ways. There were no cute introductions, no fake patter, no pyrotechnical chyron curlicues, just sincerity, warmth and professionalism, modeled by Audra McDonald as the host. Then the second half arrived, reneging on the promise of the first. By the time its host, Leslie Odom, Jr., engaged Josh Groban in a hoary comedy bit — Odom lured the supposedly surprised Groban to the stage to perform an “impromptu” tribute to theater educators — you knew that the show had turned its back on the intelligence of theater it was meant to honor. There was nowhere to go but down. JESSE GREENKristin Chenoweth, left, and Idina Menzel reunited to sing “For Good” from “Wicked.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesBest: Chenoweth and Menzel, On One StageThe roof of the Winter Garden Theater was just barely still attached after Jennifer Holliday’s searing rendition of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” but Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel’s “Wicked” reunion once again threatened to blow it off. The actresses, who originated the roles of Glinda and Elphaba respectively, sang “For Good,” a duet that — with Chenoweth in a poofy pink dress and Menzel in a somber black number — reflected the extremes of Broadway’s pandemic shutdown and buoyant, four-hour return. And when they sang the line “I have been changed for good,” it felt like they were speaking for an entire industry. SARAH BAHRChristopher Jackson, James Monroe Iglehart, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Wayne Brady and Aneesa Folds performed an on-the-fly Tonys recapSara Krulwich/The New York TimesWorst: Didn’t These Guys Just Win a Tony?“Freestyle Love Supreme” has been around for nearly two decades, its Broadway run in late 2019 was strong enough to earn it a special Tony Award, and one of the musical improv troupe’s founders is a Broadway darling himself, Lin-Manuel Miranda. But instead of being a highlight of the night, the on-the-fly Tonys recap fell victim to its setting. “Freestyle Love Supreme” usually thrives off audience contributions. But the broadcast clock was ticking, and instead of interacting with the myriad stars in front of them — who wouldn’t want Andrew Lloyd Webber to describe his day for the sake of comedy? — these performers blandly reenacted the moments we’d just sat through, and with little extemporization. There was certainly plenty of talent onstage: theater-fan household names like Miranda, Chris Jackson and James Monroe Iglehart; and impressive rising members like Aneesa Folds and Kaila Mullady. That just made the end of the evening all the more disappointing. NANCY COLEMAN More