June 2011 |
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| TONY | ||
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Broadway's stellar Tony Awards on Sunday night was hardly Anything Goes as it danced around a season of sometimes foul-mouthed but audience friendly shows. Many lyrics couldn’t even be broadcast on our national television system, they being so afraid of “wardrobe malfunctions”. The title for one of the nominees for Best Play was bowdlerized into the nonsensical The Mother with the Hat instead of the The Mother F*cker with the Hat. Producers even strategically placed a lamppost outside of that theatre’s marquee to hide the offending vowel. When the effervescent host, Neil Patrick Harris, tried to include Brooke Shields in his very funny opening song “Broadway is not for Gays Anymore!” shewent up on her lines and CBS |
bleeped her offending ad lib, while later on in a double-standard censorious choice, Chris Rock was not. The Book of Mormon, because of its adult lyrics, was forced, in their four-minute spot, to offer up a bland anthem to faith, perhaps trying to trick audiences into thinking this is a family show and not the vulgar frat boy, Hasty Pudding Theatrical it aspires to be. I am surprised they didn’t try to geld the The War Horse. Or did they? I forgot to look. AIDS Activist, Larry Kramer, who one would expect to rant, rave and give the censors pause as he took the stage, instead gave the most soul stirring plea of the evening, winning the Tony for Best Dramatic Revival of his iconic diatribe, The Normal Heart – “To gay people everywhere, whom I love so dearly, The Normal Heart is our history. I could not have written it had not so many needlessly died. Learn from it and carry on the fight.” All in all, the Tonys is always a glittering awards show bringing Broadway and even Hugh Jackman into your living room and hopefully inspiring you to come see the real thing in New York City.
To see a list of all the winners, click here. |
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