It's Showtime

Bully for the 2011 Tony Awards.  Charming, witty and fast-moving. It's also a rare awards show where you look forward to the production numbers.  Most of them, of course, were from nominated shows, but the two--or three if you accept his concluding rap--that host Neil Patrick Harris did, especially the opening about how Broadway isn't just for gays (a bit on the nose?) were also good.  I also liked his shots at the Spider-Man musical.  (There was also some swearing by others--planned and unplanned--that was censored.  I guess in a year where a Best Play nominee is The Motherf**ker With The Hat, that's to be expected.)

The top awards were fairly predictable.  The voters--who I assume, unlike for the Oscars, see all the nominees--were clearly going to give Best Musical to The Book Of Mormon, Best Play to War Horse and Best Revival of a Play to The Normal Heart. (It must be quite a revival. It was up against three superior plays, and you'd think the piece--an angry work set in and written during the early days of the AIDS crisis--might be dated.) The only question mark was the showdown between Anything Goes and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying for Best Revival of a Musical.  I guess Daniel Radcliffe not even being nominated for How To Succeed (after the previous two leads won Tonys) should have tipped off Anything Goes had it.

At least the acting categories had some suspense.  Not having been in New York last year, I didn't see any of the performances, but occasionally you hear so much about something you figure it's a lock.  This year I don't know if there were any clear favorites.  The winners were a decent mix of national names (John Larroquette, Ellen Barkin, Frances McDormand) and Broadway favorites (Sutton Foster, Mark Rylance, Norbert Leo Butz).  BTW, Butz wins for Best Actor?  Isn't the part of Hanratty in Catch Me If You Can a supporting role?  I wonder if the two nominees from Book Of Mormon split the vote and allowed him to take it.

War Horse and The Book Of Mormon were the big winners. (Chris Rock announced the award for Best Musical.  He said everyone already knew who'd win so it was a waste of time, like taking a hooker to dinner.) Both these shows are hits already.  The question now is how many marginal shows that didn't win big will close?