The Tony Awards were handed out earlier today. What a great telecast it was on Foxtel’s Arena (via ABC America). It was hosted by Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother (or some of us will remember him as Doogie Howser). The difference with the Tonys and why they are so much more entertaining than other award shows is they concentrate more on showcasing current Broadway shows rather than the boring announcing of nominees and acceptance speeches. In fact a lot of the awards were given out prior to the telecast leaving the show to give us a taste of current Broadway shows.
For those that haven’t watched the Tonys before, they are a peer awards for shows (musicals and plays) on New York’s Broadway. They’re replayed tonight on Arena if you have a spare couple of hours. But if you don’t have time, watch the opening number, it really was amazing and worth watching.
Whilst some musicals are released on Musicals DVD unfortunately most of them aren’t which is a real tragedy seeing how very few Broadway musicals we get here in Aus. After seeing a few numbers from Matilda and Best Musical winner Kinky Boots I’d really like to watch them on a Music DVD which would be far cheaper than a 24 hour plane journey to New York.
Talking of Matilda, wasn’t their numbers that was shown on the Tonys awesome. The music and lyrics of Matilda were composed by Australia’s own Tim Minchin. He’s an incredibly talented entertainer originally from Perth but now resides in London. You may know him as an hilarious musical comedian who sells out his one man shows. I’ve had the absolute pleasure to seeing all his shows. He’s got to be one the most talented entertainers this country has ever produced, seriously. He’s currently touring Australia as the lead in the new Jesus Christ Superstar. Anyway, Minchin didn’t win for his nominated work on Matilda, but in my biased opinion, he was robbed 🙂 But Matilda did pick up a few awards. We can only hope this will be released on a Musical DVD like Jesus Christ Superstar which is now available on DVD and Blu Ray.
He was beat out by, get this, by Cyndi Lauper. Yes, that Cyndi Lauper. She did music and lyrics for Kinky Boots which looks great. If nothing else Lauper should have won an award for best hair (or should that be worst hair) but hay, it’s Cyndi Lauper, it would have been disappointing to have seen her in a regular hair cut.
It was Neil Patrick Harris’ 4th time hosting the Tony Awards and quite frankly they should give the hosting role every year. I saw him in Cabaret on Broadway quite a few years ago, when we only knew him as Doogie and was blown away by his talent. Check out the replay of the 2013 Tony Awards tonight, it’s not going to be released on a Music DVD so it’ll be your last chance to watch the official telecast.
