Tony Awards (Theater Awards)

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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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      in Theater

      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

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      in Television

      For a Broadway Torn by a Pandemic, a Split-Personalities Tonys

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      The streaming part of the ceremony actually did a better job conveying the electricity of being in a theater than the CBS special billed as “Broadway’s Back!”It’s no surprise that the Tony Awards ceremony on Sunday night took much more time and bandwidth than usual, swallowing up more than four hours that were split between two platforms. After all, it had a big agenda: to honor the shortened 2019-2020 season and everything that came after, including the ongoing pandemic and a cultural reckoning in the theater, as in the world. Also, of course, with special urgency now, the event wanted to encourage possibly wary theatergoers to buy tickets to shows by highlighting Broadway’s performers as they return to the stage.With so much on its to do list, how did the Tonys do? Jesse Green, The New York Times’s chief theater critic, discussed the presentation — or, rather, the presentations: one on Paramount+ and one on CBS — with James Poniewozik, The Times’s chief television critic, and the contributor Elisabeth Vincentelli.JESSE GREEN The Tony Awards ceremony was deliberately broken into two halves: the first more like a private industry dinner, on Paramount+, to give out most of the awards efficiently; the second more like a desperate advertisement, on broadcast television, to lure tourists back to Broadway. (The second was even called, somewhat ambitiously, “Broadway’s Back!”) But did either of you feel, as I did intensely, that the two shows were almost psychotically different, even if they were written and directed by the same team? One half gave us the art form that wants to speak in serious terms of the human soul and cultural change. The other gave us weak comedy bits and bad timing.ELISABETH VINCENTELLI It felt like one of those horror films where a lab-made creature’s parts suddenly take on a life of their own: What used to be an awkward — but often very entertaining, in its own way — whole suddenly became split into separate bits and pieces. Mind you, those bits and pieces meant that even with four hours of airtime, the show still ran long!JAMES PONIEWOZIK The two shows were undeniably different. I’m not sure I mind that, though, at least in theory — we can get to my issues with the execution. Broadway was hit by the pandemic uniquely among art forms, but the Tonys really have the same challenge that all televised awards shows have now: Who is this production for? Is it for the die-hards or the casuals? Is it for the artists or the audience? Is it meant to honor the creative work of the past year(s) or sell tickets for the next? The Tonys answer was essentially, “Why not both?” There was definitely whiplash for those of us who managed to find Paramount+ and watch both halves. But I’m not sure how big that audience was compared with the CBS-only crowd.VINCENTELLI Splitting the awards from the musical numbers is what, I suspect, CBS had wanted to do for ages: shove the awards to the side because nobody (in the network’s view) cares, and focus on the fun stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised if they continued with that format in the future.PONIEWOZIK That split, by the way, is what the Grammys have done on CBS for years — shunt most of the awards off prime time and put on a big show for the general audience. That worked pretty well for them this year.GREEN The difference, and what makes the split feel more neurotic to me, is that the theater, abetted by pretentious theater critics like myself, often tries to imagine it is upholding a more noble tradition. Certainly it’s an older tradition. In any case, given the choice to divide the awards, it’s surprising how the first half managed to provide everything the second half was supposed to — warmth, dignity in a difficult time, Jennifer Holliday live! — and the second half largely failed to, except in the recorded segments from the nominated musicals.VINCENTELLI The combination of Sheryl Lee Ralph’s introduction and Jennifer Holliday’s performance of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” is bound to become a YouTube classic. CBS might be trying to turn the Tonys into the Kennedy Center Honors, which they also broadcast — they’re well placed to know that in 2019, the Honors scored more viewers than the Tonys. So that’s the model: celebrity presenters of big numbers. Having the awards themselves on Paramount+ also testifies to the siloing of audiences.Danny Burstein in a performance by the “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” cast. The critics agreed that the number worked well on TV.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesPONIEWOZIK I would question whether the theater is more inherently “noble” than TV or any other art form. But another argument, another day. More to the point, if the theater wants to celebrate its hard work and creative spirit, you can rent a nice hall for that and do it privately. If you expect a broadcast TV audience, your obligations are different — no one is entitled to the attention of millions of people. But I agree that (to my surprise) the first, industry-awards part actually did a better job of conveying the excitement and electricity of being in a theater!GREEN The “concert” half, not a bad idea in theory, was in fact so poorly routined and timed that it erased all the gains of the “awards” half. The final 30 minutes, which felt like an entire additional day, was a train wreck of bad calls: ballads, duets, redundant improv from “Freestyle Love Supreme” — when what you really wanted in that spot was the “Moulin Rouge!” kickline and confetti cannons.VINCENTELLI I don’t think I ever need “Moulin Rouge!” anything. That said, that number worked on TV and may well have done its job, which is to sell tickets.GREEN I’m not a huge fan of “Moulin Rouge!” myself, but I thought it looked fantastic on the screen, using the cool medium to tone down its manic red hotness. Even if it hadn’t won 10 awards, the most of any show, it would have done itself a lot of good with that performance.PONIEWOZIK The flow of the CBS portion was just weird. The “concert” wasn’t an awards show, but there were three major awards, and the last one was given out a half-hour before the end, sabotaging the momentum. I also question whether the song choices — between the general nostalgia of the production and Broadway’s reliance on jukebox musicals — did much to sell an audience on experiencing new theater. (Disclosure: I already have tickets for “Caroline, or Change.”) You’re telling me to feel excited (and safe) going back to a theater in 2021, and giving me a selection of songs I could have heard on one night of “American Idol” in 2005.VINCENTELLI And as on “American Idol,” there was no mention of plays, which the Tonys still don’t know what to do about. Unless I blinked and missed it, there was no attempt to even describe them, let alone feature excerpts.PONIEWOZIK Yes, Elisabeth! Four hours (plus overtime!!!), and you can’t even give us a taste of the plays you want us to come back to Broadway for?GREEN Generally you can’t come back for the plays; they’ve closed. But the world of Broadway is changing, even when the awards don’t. “The Inheritance” swept the big play categories, winning four major awards, and “Slave Play,” its main competition, got skunked — but it was “Slave Play” that has announced a return Broadway engagement, starting in November. I’m shocked “Slave Play” didn’t win, but there’s no point in litigating the voters’ choices; they are always unintelligible and, as far as television is concerned, beside the point. Unintelligibility may even be a plus. Drama!Daniel J. Watts, right, and Jared Grimes during their performance. The spoken word piece, featuring tap, addressed the racial equity concerns of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, which received a special Tony.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesVINCENTELLI In terms of the overall tone, I was very happy to be spared the usual self-conscious posture of theater, which thinks of itself as a beleaguered band of misfits toiling for an underappreciated art form/industry and reacts with a bizarre mix of self-importance and defensiveness. Theater folks feel like the Marvel and “Star Wars” nerds of yore, before they became the de facto rulers of popular culture. Sunday night had a much more interesting, and overall healthier, balance of positivity, eagerness and joy. Of course at times there was frustration and anger, too, expressed most starkly in Daniel J. Watts’s spoken-word number, but that’s another way to let passion speak.PONIEWOZIK To me, the job of the whole shebang was to convey through TV the excitement of seeing theater live, in a room. What did that well? Jennifer Holliday’s performance, of course — not just because she’s a legend, but because it was a theatrical performance. She was in character. (Whereas too many of the duets, however beautifully sung, simply felt like watching two celebrities I like enjoy being back together.) I thought the recorded performances from other theaters might kill the live vibe, but it helped that they had audiences. And the buzz of the first awards portion — you could just feel how pumped everyone was to be in the room — in a way recreated the live experience better than some of the performances.GREEN Yes: What was good was whatever felt like live theater, not like an “I Love New York” commercial. Still, it’s very strange to me that the main thing all these Broadway creatives couldn’t pull off was a Broadway entertainment spectacular. (Who puts all the socko material at the beginning, leaving none for the end?) I think it’s time to give other writers and directors a chance.VINCENTELLI The second half of the show felt a little rote because something changed over the past 18 months in terms of access. The Tonys used to be the only place we could catch Broadway stars do a number on a screen. But in 2020, we streamed them a lot, and the newness of watching, say, Kelli O’Hara or Audra McDonald slay a number was dulled — because we watched Kelli O’Hara and Audra McDonald slay a lot of numbers online last year.PONIEWOZIK It would not be awful for the Tonys (and other awards) to learn a little from streaming. The most entertaining work of theater I saw during the pandemic may have been Annaleigh Ashford doing an insane version of “Mr. Mistoffelees” from “Cats” while cooped up at home for Miscast21.VINCENTELLI Yes! The Tonys need a good dose of that freewheeling social-media spirit.GREEN And maybe, hear me out, it should keep to a TikTok length. More

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      in Theater

      'The Inheritance' Wins Best Play at the Tony Awards

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      “The Inheritance,” the sprawling two-part play about gay culture in the wake of the AIDS epidemic, won the Tony Award for best play, making Matthew López the first Latino playwright to win the award.Inspired by the novel “Howards End” by E.M. Forster, “The Inheritance” began its life in London, where it was a commercial and critical success.López wrote in The Times, “In writing ‘The Inheritance,’ I wanted to take my favorite novel and retell it in a way that its closeted author never felt free to do in his lifetime. I wanted to write a play that was true to my experience, my philosophy, my heart as a gay man who has enjoyed opportunities that were denied Forster.”Accepting the award onstage, López said he was indebted to Forster; Terrence McNally, the playwright who died last year of complications from Covid-19 and whom López described as a mentor and the “spiritual godfather” of the play; and Miguel Piñero, the first Puerto Rican playwright to be produced on Broadway.He also urged the industry to improve its representation of Latino writers.“We are a vibrant community reflecting a vast array of cultures, experiences and yes, skin tones,” he said. “We have so many stories to tell. They are inside of us aching to come out. Let us tell you our stories.”Tom Kirdahy, who produced the play and was married to McNally, said, “This award is in loving memory for all the beautiful souls lost to AIDS and Covid, and it’s dedicated to the love of my life, my husband, Terrence McNally.”The play, which ran more than six hours in two separately sold parts, opened in November 2019 and closed with the pandemic shutdown on March 11, 2020 (it had originally planned to close on March 15). More