\n<\/p>\n
\u201cBaby,\u201d Ariana DeBose confided, \u201cyou are always on.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeBose, an Oscar winner<\/a> and a longtime Broadway phenom, was speaking of herself, in the second person, last Saturday evening. Dressed in a beige ribbed tank, athletic shorts and chunky heeled boots, she was still glistening from a rehearsal for Sunday\u2019s Tony Awards broadcast. \u201cOn\u201d is an understatement: This will be her third time hosting the ceremony, and her first time producing and choreographing.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy I did that, I\u2019ll never know,\u201d she said. \u201cDear lord, the Tonys is just one giant learning experience. You have to be humble.\u201d<\/p>\n Humble. And very busy. DeBose is 33 but still very much a theater kid. Her speech was fast, excitable, and when not vaping from a hot pink pen, she had a tendency to reach out to pat my arm or leg, an intimate form of emphasis. Soon, she would take herself out for a hurried plate of pasta before racing to an evening show. For the past two weeks, DeBose has been on a mission, however implausible, to see all of the nominated plays and musicals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Until the end of May, DeBose had been in Winnipeg, Manitoba, shooting an action film, \u201cWith Love.\u201d She arrived in New York City the Saturday before Memorial Day and saw her first show that Sunday. On the day we spoke, a week before the broadcast, she had just three shows remaining. (One, \u201cWater for Elephants,\u201d<\/a> she would see that night.) And this was in addition to arduous rehearsal days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThese are opposite processes,\u201d she said of hosting and spectating. \u201cThey\u2019re very different disciplines, but you can\u2019t host if you don\u2019t know who\u2019s involved. So to me, it\u2019s a requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n That schedule seemed grueling. DeBose chose a different word: inspiring. \u201cI\u2019m not exhausted by Broadway,\u201d she said, flashing her 100-watt smile. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Y\u2019all are doing it. Y\u2019all are doing the moves.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n This Broadway season struck her as unusually varied. Still she recognized overarching themes. Many shows were about the indomitability of the human spirit. \u201cWhich is so beautiful,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the function of art, a reminder that there is hope in the world.\u201d Others asked the audience to consider difficult topics \u2014 prejudice, aggression, acceptance. As a dancer, she also had enthusiastic words for some of the choreography, especially the fight scene in \u201cThe Outsiders.\u201d<\/a> She described Justin Peck\u2019s \u201cIllinoise\u201d<\/a> as \u201ca new generation\u2019s \u2018Movin\u2019 Out,\u2019 or the original Bob Fosse\u2019s \u2018Dancin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Occasionally she has felt jealous, though mostly in a joyful way, dreaming of what it might have been like to feature in this season\u2019s \u201cCabaret\u201d revival or to have played Gussie in \u201cMerrily We Roll Along.\u201d And she has admired this season\u2019s mix of Hollywood names and newly minted talent. \u201cFor every \u2018Mother Play,\u2019<\/a> there\u2019s a \u2018Hell\u2019s Kitchen,\u2019\u201d<\/a> she said, referring to star turns from the veteran performer Jessica Lange (\u201cMother Play\u201d) and the Broadway newcomer Maleah Joi Moon (\u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When the Tonys approached her<\/a> about hosting its 2022 show<\/a>, she was fresh off an Oscar win and wasn\u2019t a household name. (She is more recognizable now, though in bathroom lines at shows, she most commonly hears: \u201cHas anyone ever told you that you look just like Ariana DeBose?\u201d) She figures that the producers were attracted to her story, an ensemble member made good. \u201cBeyond that, I don\u2019t know what they were smoking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n On the other side of the pandemic, her exuberance was most likely a draw, as was her sunniness. \u201cI have a personal rule of positive vibes only,\u201d she said. For the past two broadcasts, she has delivered celebration without snark, even in the midst of last year\u2019s writers\u2019 strike, when she had to work without a script<\/a>.<\/p>\n But underlying this exuberance is what she described as \u201ccrippling anxiety,\u201d because she wants to be the best host possible and because she feels that as a queer woman of color, she doesn\u2019t have much margin for error.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I get it wrong, then it could lessen somebody else\u2019s chances,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I go out there and blow it, I don\u2019t know when they\u2019re going to hire a woman of color or a queer person, just because I got it wrong once.\u201d<\/p>\n DeBose has announced that this will be her last year as Tonys host, at least for a while, in large part because she hopes to return to Broadway. When she left, she was an ing\u00e9nue, now she\u2019s in her leading era. And she wants to lead a show that is \u201chumane and doable, because I have worked in productions that are not,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I come back, I just want to try and get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the meantime, she had these last shows to see and one giant awards ceremony to prepare for. There would be dazzling outfits, a showstopping opener and a chilled bottle of ros\u00e9 once she had pulled it all off. Which she would.<\/p>\n \u201cI am an entertainer,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is about pleasure and enjoyment and celebration. Those were my mandates. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n