Without the guardrails of text on a teleprompter, presenters had more license to say what they wanted last night. When presenting the award for Excellence in Theatre Education, the Gilded Age actress and Florida native Denée Benton referred to her home state’s autocratic governor, Ron DeSantis, as “the current Grand Wizard” of Florida, which was received with great applause. Later, DeBose completely forgot the names of the two presenters about to walk on stage (they were director Kenny Leon and playwright David Henry Hwang), resignedly pointing to undecipherable scribbles on her forearm and breaking through the seriousness of the evening.
After she was ruthlessly mocked for her rap at the BAFTAs in February, one wondered if DeBose’s Tonys hosting gig would be similarly cringe-inducing. In fact, she was totally endearing, even good-humoredly quipping, at one point in the night, “Alex and J. did the thing!”—a reference to a lyric at the BAFTAs which will no doubt follow her for the rest of her life.
Don’t Tell Her Not to Sing…
…she’s simply got to! As the Tonys are essentially one big commercial for Broadway, it behooves them to feature one of the most popular and successful shows of the year—even if it is not awards-eligible. Lea Michele’s turn as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl has been one of the biggest theater stories in recent memory, and her inclusion in the telecast seemed inevitable if somewhat unorthodox. Last night actually marked the second time that she has sung “Don’t Rain On My Parade” at the Tonys, after a first go during her Glee years, in 2010. Her more recent performance felt rushed, but you have until September to see her do it at the correct tempo.
In Conclusion
Given the unqualified triumph of Kimberly Akimbo over jukebox musicals or well-known adapted material, it is a sign that truly original work, based on new stories and brand-new music, can still grab an audience. Victoria Clark is a triumph, and gives a performance that is worlds away from the turn in The Light in the Piazza that earned her her first Tony in 2005. Graver themes of anti-semitism and brutality coalesced in Parade and Leopoldstadt, two of the night’s other big winners. With antisemitic hate and violence on the rise around the world, the power of these two pieces is clear—and happily, their recognition at the Tonys has only amplified the urgency of their messages.
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