by Lola Furbee
The Tony Awards. Broadway’s biggest night, or as I always like to refer to it, a theatre fan’s Super Bowl. The 78th annual Tony Awards took place within the walls of Radio City Music Hall on June 8th. It runs similar to any other big award show that moviegoers or music lovers might be more familiar with, like the Oscars or the Grammys. The winners of every category get announced, with performances from the musicals of the season thrown in between. The Tony Awards were hosted by Cynthia Erivo this year, and between her charming quips and some big wins from my personal favorite shows of the season, the 78th Tony Awards were definitely one for the books.
As a lifelong theatre fan, it’s always felt like my duty to be a fan of the Tony Awards, as well. I’ve been a committed viewer of the awards show since 2018, and I plan to continue the trend in the future. There are a lot of stipulations around award shows, and I can recognize that a piece of theatre can be extraordinary and still miss out on the chance to even just be nominated. I also like to acknowledge the irreplaceable form of marketing the Tony Awards can be for a show that might not have been popular with the citizens of New York City, but can find an audience within the millions of viewers across the world who tune in to watch the awards show. The Tony Awards also allow me to connect with others in the theatre community in a unique way that can’t really be accomplished during the rest of the theatre season. It lets me ally with those who are rooting for the same winners as me, and I can share a sense of disappointment with others when our personal favorites don’t go home with a win at the end of the night. More than anything, though, it’s a time for me to simply geek out about the theatre industry to my friends and family members, who usually don’t care about what I’m saying, but support my endeavors anyhow.
Diving into the 78th Tony Awards specifically, I first want to discuss some of my favorite performances of the night. As I briefly mentioned before, most of the musicals of the season have the chance to perform a roughly three-to-five-minute piece from their show. Not all of the shows that perform have necessarily been nominated for any of the awards of the night, and unfortunately not every single show of the season is able to secure a slot for a performance. Some musicals will usually perform a number that fits into the time slot, while others might do a condensed medley that allows them to show off their most popular songs. I found many of the performances of the night to be captivating; successfully doing their job and making me invested to go see the show in full. However, my personal favorite of the night has to go to Floyd Collins‘s performance. I would assume that this choice wasn’t necessarily the popular one for people’s favorite of the night, but there was just something about it that caused it to stick out to me. I enjoyed that they featured the bulk of their cast on stage at the beginning of their performance, while still saving most of their time to highlight the lead of the show (and one of their nominees of the night), Jeremy Jordan. I loved the song choice that they went with, and while it might not have showed off any fancy costume changes or intricate set pieces, it instead highlighted the heart and truth that this musical portrays.
Additionally, I can’t mention the performances of the night without mentioning the ten-year anniversary performance that the original Broadway cast of Hamilton executed. The creator of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda concocted an ingenious medley of all of the best songs from the musical, weaving them together in such a way that I was up and applauding on my couch at home with each new reveal. It was incredibly special to get to see the original cast of such a monumental musical back together again and performing the songs that started it all. My younger self that memorized the entire Hamilton cast album was no doubt very pleased.
Finally, let’s dive into my most anticipated moments of the night: the winners. As I previously mentioned, I love to refer to the Tony Awards as a theatre fan’s Super Bowl, and the announcing of the winners always proves this to be true (at least, for me). If you had walked by my house that night, you would have assumed there was some big game on the T.V. based on all of the screaming and cheering I was doing whenever a category I cared about was being announced. For sake of keeping me from rambling too much, I will discuss the three categories that I had the most consideration in. That being: Best Direction of a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical.
Starting off with Best Direction of a Musical, I always care very deeply about this category whenever Michael Arden is a part of the season. I have briefly touched on this in one of the reviews I’ve written before, but I have been a massive fan of Arden and his work for as long as I can remember. He has not only been a great inspiration to me throughout my directorial journey, but I firmly believe that he serves as a beacon for some of the most ingenious performances that have graced a Broadway stage in the past decade. So, with his name in the mix for the 78th Tony Awards for his work on Maybe Happy Ending, there wasn’t a single other name in the category who I was rooting for more. I found myself in a rabbit hole of watching a lot of Tony Awards prediction videos leading up to the actual ceremony, with many of them predicting that Arden was hands down the frontrunner in winning Best Direction. Despite these videos, I still had some trepidation when the category came up, mainly due to the fact that I knew Jamie Lloyd had been receiving a lot of buzz for his work on the Sunset Boulevard revival. Nonetheless, I had no reason to be worried, as the prediction videos had all been correct, and Michael Arden was named the winner of Best Direction of a Musical that night. I was simply over-the-moon when the presenters read his name, and as you would expect from a man so thoughtful in his craft, he delivered a beautiful acceptance speech as well. In all, a well-deserved win that just scratches the surface in recognizing all of the incredible work this man has put out into the world.
Moving onto Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. This was inarguably one of the tightest categories of the night, with not five, but six performers receiving a nomination (at the Tony Awards, whenever an acting category gathers more than five nominations, it means there was a tie among the voters). I am a massive fan of every single actor that was nominated in this category, so it was difficult, even for me, to choose who I wanted to root for the most. Ultimately, the rumor mill surrounding the Tony Awards pinned Darren Criss of Maybe Happy Ending and Jonathan Groff of Just in Time as the two most likely to go home with the award at the end of the night. While I am absolutely a devoted Jonathan Groff enthusiast, I held out a lot of hope that Darren Criss would be the winner of the night–mostly due to the fact that Criss’s show is my personal favorite of the season. And given that Groff had just won a Tony Award the previous year for the exact same category, I thought the chances of Criss going home with the win were pretty high. So, when previous, three-time Tony Award host Ariana DeBose read off Darren Criss’s name for the winner of the Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical category, I was nothing but ecstatic. Not only was Criss’s win another win added to the Maybe Happy Ending repertoire, but it was a win for the Asian community in general–with Criss being the first ever Asian American actor to win in his category. With such a historic win in the books, it was shaping up to be a great night for me and the shows I held so much love and care for.
Last but not least, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. Now, slight spoiler alert, but my exciting wins of the past two categories unfortunately don’t carry through to this category as well. Instead, I had to face a big loss in this category that night instead. In years past, this category has been the one that I hold the most passion toward. Just this past Tony Awards season, for example, I was rooting very hard for Daniel Radcliffe to win in this category for his performance in Merrily We Roll Along, and lo and behold, he did just that. And this year was no different, as one of my all-time favorite actors received his first ever Tony nomination this year for his featured role in a musical. It was then a surprise to no one that I had a lot of emotions going into this category, rooting for, of course, Taylor Trensch. Trensch has been starring in Broadway shows for over a decade now, and I have been a massive fan of such performances for almost equally as long. Before the Tony nominations were even announced, there had been rumors speculating that he was likely to be nominated for his performance as Skeets Miller in Floyd Collins, so I don’t think anybody screamed louder than me on that May morning when his name was announced as one of the nominees. The elatedness over his nomination was unfortunately dimmed over the following few weeks, as many prediction videos pinned Jak Malone most likely going home with the award for his performance in Operation Mincemeat instead. It was with this stipulation that I went into this category that night, knowing that Trensch most likely wasn’t going to go home with the win, but knowing that I would still be cheering for him all the same. Sadly, when Adam Lambert and Charli D’Amelio walked out onto the stage to announce the winner of the category, Malone’s name was the one read, not Trensch’s. And despite the major wave of disappointment that surely washed over me at the initial time of his loss, I still can’t help but feel proud of Trensch for his accomplishments. As, while I wish he would’ve gotten the chance to walk away with an award (and give an acceptance speech, knowing him it would’ve been hilarious), I am glad he was finally given the chance to be recognized for his work, and the media circuit surrounding his soul-baring performance in this show was nothing but a joy to witness. Trensch will remain a winner in my heart, and I hope that one day he will be recognized in the same light by the Tony voters in the near future.
As I mentioned at the start of this long-winded article, the 78th Tony Awards occurred almost two months ago as of this writing. Broadway and its shows have surely been facing the effects of the wins and losses of the night, with my personal wins having resulted in great ways today. Michael Arden is set to be directing another show in the upcoming Broadway season, and Darren Criss is still performing to adoring audiences every night in Maybe Happy Ending. And what is the most exciting news of all, to me, Taylor Trensch is set to star in Bat Boy: The Musical at New York City Center this upcoming October. Overall, a successful Tony Awards season, and as always, I will be excitedly anticipating all of the performances and winners of the 79th Tony Awards next year.
