| re: The Tonys' 75th anniversary: So many possibilities ... and the roads they didn't take | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 12:43 pm EDT 06/13/22 | |
| In reply to: The Tonys' 75th anniversary: So many possibilities ... and the roads they didn't take - WaymanWong 01:02 am EDT 06/13/22 | |
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| I second all Wayman’s suggestions for reunion pairings! Aside from a few mentions that it was the 75th Tonys, and some nods to past classics (notably, Agnes de Mille and her lasting influence before the Choreography Tony; the original THE MUSIC MAN and COMPANY before the Best Revival Musical Tony; the Sondheim tribute), this awards show had little, if any, sense of history. In particular, I found the opening number disappointing, both in the choices and in the “mashups.” The number referenced, either in lyrics or underscoring, 30 different shows. 31, if you count the oldest one, the Gershwins’ “I Got Rhythm” for 1930’s GIRL CRAZY or 1992’s Tony winner, CRAZY FOR YOU. That song was, by far, the oldest choice. The next oldest were three choices from 1957’s WEST SIDE STORY: the opening vamp, a snippet of “Somewhere,” and underscoring of “America.” Well, maybe three from one show was overkill, given the limited time, but it’s understandable, since the host has an Oscar for playing Anita. (CHICAGO and THE SOUND OF MUSIC also got two references.) I’m not saying they should have tried squeezing refs to all 74 Tony winners musicals; most viewers, even those who like musicals, are not likely to recognize a brief lyric from REDHEAD or CITY OF ANGELS or TITANIC. But I do find it very odd, on a significant anniversary, that there was no Bock and Harnick, no Lerner and Loewe (though maybe we can excuse that with Billy Porter’s choice for the memorial segment), no Cy Coleman, no Jerry Herman (though maybe we can excuse that with title number from MAME for Angela Lansbury’s special Tony), no Frank Loesser, and no Rodgers and Hammerstein save THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Instead, we got pieces of ALADDIN, MAMMA MIA, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, and BRING IT ON—the last added since it’s where DuBose made her debut. Those four shows have a combined three Tony wins, none for Best Musical. I know I’m an old fart, but they’re not what come to my mind if I’m planning to honor the rich history of Broadway. The mashups themselves also struck me as odd. But maybe I’m missing the point. Maybe you’re just supposed to throw musicals in a blender so you get things like “A Lot of Livin’ To Do” (BYE BYE BIRDIE) paired with “Buenos Aires” (EVITA) or “You Can’t Stop the Beat” (HAIRSPRAY) with underscoring from WICKED. I do think ALADDIN’s “Friend Like Me” did work well with PIPPIN’s “Magic to Do,” with a kind of logic behind the pairing. But again, I don’t think ALADDIN belongs here, not when so many genuinely great (and more original to the stage) shows were ignored. I had hopes, when the number began, that the mashup of Kander and Ebb’s CHICAGO and CABARET meant we’d bounce around the decades, pairing songs of great songwriters. But no. Frankly, “It’s a Musical” from SOMETHING ROTTEN was a better example of honoring various classics in a single number than what we got last night. It was well performed, kind of cute, but not worthy of the ceremony’s Diamond Jubilee, given that there was no other kind of wide historical perspective to the evening. Laura in LA |
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