Assassins Wins Big at Tonys!

Here's the final awards tally for Assassins on the American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards Website: five awards, including Best Revival and Best Director of a Musical. The broadcast featured a rendition of "Everybody's Got The Right" as it's heard at the end of the show - did any viewers besides me think that Mario Cantone looked strangely out of it? The orchestra played a peppy, brassy version of that song as the Tonys cut to commercial and I couldn't help thinking how this event gives everything the same hyperenergized showbiz gloss. Certain theatrical experiences don't lend themselves well to such an event. Tonya Pinkins in Caroline seemed grotesque and over the top, trying to give a very emotional rendition of a very emotional moment that's probably quite heart-rending in context but just seemed ugly and shrill in excerpt. Avenue Q (which turned out to be the Birdstone of the event with Wicked as Smarty Jones) seemed shrill and shallow. And then you get moments like Carol Channing and LL Cool J, which feel like they were manufactured by the show's producer, a baldfaced attempt to give Broadway some borrowed cool. Gack!
But of course I'm happy for the Assassins win, and proud too, thought it would've been nice if Todd Haimes has found a way, in the course of thanking a skazillion people, to thank one more, the guy whose idea started the whole ball rolling in 1978. With any luck, the Tony will mean more audience interest in the piece, which will mean more performances at the Roundabout and another wave of regional theater, college and amateur productions. And maybe, just maybe, there'll be a little bit of residual magic that will spill over onto Gemini The Musical, so that some year soon, you'll see Albert and me on a future Tony broadcast, looking hyperenergized and over the top as we accept our award for Best Musical. Hey - it could happen, you know!
In honor of the occasion, here's the image of me in the lobby of Studio 54 at Assassins opening nite: