EGN NEWS DESK
OK, Broadway followers: It’s showtime.
The Tony Awards — the annual celebration of Broadway’s finest — are on Sunday night, with performances and prizes and who-knows-what-they’ll-say acceptance speeches.
Here’s what you may wish to know:
When is the ceremony, and the way can I watch it?
The major occasion, that includes songs from a lot of the nominated musicals and the announcement of a lot of the huge winners, is scheduled to start out Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern and to finish at 11.
The ceremony shall be broadcast reside on CBS, and will be streamed reside by Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers. (Paramount+ Essential subscribers can watch the subsequent day.)
A preshow ceremony, at which a variety of awards for design and different crafts shall be handed out, will happen from 6:30 to eight p.m. Eastern and shall be streamed on Pluto TV, a free service. (Go to Pluto TV on no matter gadget you’re utilizing, after which click on on the ET channel.)
If you’re in New York, you can even watch from Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center. That’s a seated space, open air, the place a simulcast will play. Skylar Astin will host, and there shall be some performances and visitor appearances. The free occasion begins at 6:30 p.m. Eastern; the simulcast begins at 8. Capacity is proscribed, and American Express cardholders are given precedence seating.
There are additionally quite a lot of ticketed watch events happening at bars and different venues. Here’s a listing from BroadwayWorld.
Who is internet hosting?
The broadcast ceremony shall be hosted, for the third 12 months in a row, by Ariana DeBose. Her profitable shepherding of final 12 months’s ceremony, which befell with quite a lot of issues brought on by an ongoing Hollywood strike, endeared her to theater lovers. She evinces limitless enthusiasm for Broadway — she has appeared in six Broadway reveals, and was nominated for a Tony Award for “Summer” — and she or he is an Oscar winner for her position in “West Side Story.”
The preshow ceremony shall be hosted by Julianne Hough and Utkarsh Ambudkar, two Broadway alums — she was in “POTUS” and he was in “Freestyle Love Supreme” — who work primarily onscreen.
Wait, what are the Tonys, and why do they matter?
The Tony Awards honor performs and musicals staged within the 41 New York theaters that represent Broadway. They are named for the actress Antoinette Perry, and are offered by the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing at an annual ceremony; that is the 77th version.
The awards are an enormous advertising alternative for Broadway — the ceremony is a vital approach for the business to introduce new reveals to potential ticket patrons.
The awards, chosen by a pool of about 800 theater-involved voters, could make a giant distinction within the monetary lifetime of a present, but in addition within the careers of artists, who typically have extra alternatives and might command greater salaries in the event that they win. For performs, specifically, Tony Awards may also imply an extended life — the winners usually tend to be staged at regional theaters and to be studied or carried out at faculties.
Where are the Tony Awards happening?
This 12 months’s ceremony is on the David H. Koch Theater. This is the primary time the Tony Awards have been staged at Lincoln Center; the ceremony’s longtime venue, Radio City Music Hall, has turn into too costly, so the Tonys presenters had been exploring options. The venue is smaller than Radio City, and this 12 months there was some consternation amongst co-producers. They increase some huge cash to finance Broadway reveals, however shall be requested to not come to the stage if their reveals win as a result of a lot of them received’t be seated within the orchestra. Also, no tickets are being offered to the general public this 12 months.
Who is performing on the ceremony?
All 5 of the contenders for finest new musical will current numbers in the course of the present: “Hell’s Kitchen,” which options the hits of Alicia Keys and is loosely based mostly on her adolescence; “Illinoise,” a story dance present that includes the songs of Sufjan Stevens; “Suffs,” which explores tensions inside the girls’s suffrage motion; “The Outsiders,” tailored from the basic younger grownup novel about youngsters in Tulsa, Okla.; and “Water for Elephants,” tailored from the novel a few touring circus.
Also, the casts from three of the nominees for finest musical revival — “Cabaret,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and “The Who’s Tommy” — will carry out. Those reveals will deliver a bit extra star energy, because the “Cabaret” forged is led by Eddie Redmayne and the “Merrily” forged options Daniel Radcliffe.
And the forged of “Stereophonic,” the main contender for finest play, may even carry out — the present options unique songs and is nominated for finest rating.
How is Broadway doing?
Not in addition to it was earlier than the pandemic. There are a number of reveals — 35 are actually operating — and there’s fairly a little bit of selection. But manufacturing prices have soared for the reason that pandemic, whereas attendance stays about 17 p.c decrease than it was, so it has turn into tougher for reveals to interrupt even, a lot much less make a revenue.
