\n<\/p>\n
Ariana DeBose<\/a> ended her third turn as Tonys host with a mic drop. Otherwise, last night\u2019s ceremony<\/a> offered a first time for everything and very nearly everyone. All eight winners in the acting categories took home their first trophies. (How is it possible that this is Jonathan Groff\u2019s inaugural win<\/a>?) The playwright David Adjmi, in his Broadway debut, won for \u201cStereophonic,\u201d<\/a> as did its director Daniel Aukin, also a Tony-winning newbie. Danya Taymor took home the prize for best direction of a musical for \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d her initial win. (\u201cThe Outsiders\u201d also won for best musical<\/a>.) In a mellow, equitable night, the other awards were spread among many of the nominated shows, with \u201cStereophonic,\u201d \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d \u201cAppropriate\u201d<\/a> and an ingeniously reimagined \u201cMerrily We Roll Again\u201d<\/a> carrying home the top prizes. Here are the highs and lows \u2014 and wait, is that Jay-Z on the stairs? \u2014 of the ceremony.<\/p>\n The producers and director were the same, but so much about this year\u2019s telecast was a vast improvement on that of previous years. The pacing was swifter: The main broadcast ended on time and the pre-broadcast ended early. The dialogue was more dignified: no brainless chatter or mawkish introductions. The transitions were smoother: Sets were changed live on camera, saving time and showing us how theater actually works. And the investors who used to throng the stage when their shows won awards \u2014 not a good look, plus a traffic problem \u2014 were sequestered in some alternative universe and beamed in by video. All this allowed the show to deliver better entertainment while leaving room for thoughtfulness and giddiness, and both together. For the first time in a long time, the Broadway on TV felt like the one I know. JESSE GREEN<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Neil Patrick Harris years<\/a> set an imposing bar for Tony broadcast opening numbers, and this year\u2019s attempt, a strained variety-show knockoff that prematurely promised \u201cthis party\u2019s for you,\u201d didn\u2019t end the drought. The Tonys would have done better opening with \u201cEmpire State of Mind\u201d from \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d \u2014 the night\u2019s highest-wattage performance, featuring Alicia Keys and Jay-Z<\/a>. Or, better if not bolder: \u201cWillkommen\u201d from \u201cCabaret,\u201d which was expertly staged for the camera and drenched in Eddie Redmayne\u2019s kooky charisma. SCOTT HELLER<\/em><\/p>\n Kara Young, a diminutive performer of supersized talent, is the first Black performer to have been nominated for a Tony in three consecutive years \u2014 for \u201cClyde\u2019s\u201d in 2022, \u201cCost of Living\u201d in 2023 and \u201cPurlie Victorious\u201d this year. She won a featured actress award for that last one, with her irrepressible turn as Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, a schemer with a heart that stays gold. In her acceptance speech, Young celebrated Lutiebelle as a character who takes a chance on life and wins. \u201cShe deserved it,\u201d Young said. \u201cAnd we all do.\u201d ALEXIS SOLOSKI<\/em><\/p>\n Brooke Shields set the bar high when she rolled up to the red carpet outside Lincoln Center in a sunny dress and a matching pair of rubber duck-yellow Crocs. (\u201cThe feet pics are about to level up \u2026 Double foot toe surgery,\u201d she posted on Instagram the day before.) Then there was the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a winner for \u201cAppropriate,\u201d rocking a cicada brooch tie, a nod to one of the production\u2019s creepy-crawly motifs. And one can\u2019t forget Hillary Clinton, who wore \u2014 a purple pantsuit? Nope: For her appearance to introduce a performance by the \u201cSuffs\u201d cast (Clinton is among the show\u2019s producers), she opted for a white-and-gold caftan. SARAH BAHR<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Put theater people in front of a live audience and they will<\/em> play to the room. That\u2019s just how they\u2019re built. But the cameras at the Tonys appeared oddly unprepared for that. Perfectly able to pick out screen stars in the crowd if someone onstage mentioned them, they seemed oblivious of other important artists who got shout-outs. When Jeremy Strong, named best actor for \u201cAn Enemy of the People,\u201d addressed the show\u2019s director, Sam Gold, and adapter, Amy Herzog, in his acceptance speech, it took ages for a camera to show them. When the actor Will Brill asked his six \u201cStereophonic\u201d castmates to stand in the audience, we somehow saw just four. And when the choreographer Justin Peck thanked the playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury, his collaborator on \u201cIllinoise,\u201d there was no reflexive camera flick to her. It came off as clumsy. Worse, it seemed like ignorance of theater itself, which is so much about people together in a room \u2014 and, as an insiders\u2019 game, which the Tonys absolutely are, about knowing who all is there. LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES<\/em><\/p>\n Entertainment awards ceremonies are not usually the occasion for well-written speeches. But during the pre-broadcast part of the show, three savvy showmen spoke meaningfully and movingly about their calling. First, the director George C. Wolfe outlined a vision of art unconstrained by identity politics, saying he learned from his parents that honoring his birth culture didn\u2019t mean failing to connect with others. Then, the director Jack O\u2019Brien told his fellow theater makers that making art is a hard road but a choice: \u201cDid it ever occur to you that no one ever asked us to do this?\u201d And Billy Porter closed out like a preacher, finding in a favorite Bible verse the perfect words for the power of theater to make change: \u201cFor God hath not given us the spirit of fear,\u201d he said, \u201cbut of power, and of love and of a sound mind.\u201d JESSE GREEN<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In a season that was packed with an onslaught of openings, it was a challenge to catch everything even once. But sometimes a show resonates with you so deeply that you find a way to see it, well \u2026 five times. (And, let\u2019s be honest, counting.) That show for me this year was \u201cMerrily We Roll Along,\u201d and the cast\u2019s emotional performance of \u201cOld Friends\u201d during the broadcast offered a lovely reminder of what kept me coming back: the unmistakable adoration among Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, and Stephen Sondheim\u2019s rich score, resurrected with such care. NANCY COLEMAN<\/em><\/p>\n In honoring Broadway\u2019s best, the Tonys championed playwrights and directors who came of age Off Broadway. The playwright David Adjmi, a winner for \u201cStereophonic,\u201d has spent decades making gutsy, intrepid work downtown, just the kinds of plays that Daniel Aukin, the director of \u201cStereophonic,\u201d espoused as the artistic director of Soho Rep. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the author of \u201cAppropriate,\u201d which won for best revival, got his start in the Public Theater\u2019s emerging writers group, while Danya Taymor, a winner for \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d cut her directorial teeth at the Flea. There\u2019s beauty in watching these local heroes move to bigger stages and such pride in seeing them honored. ALEXIS SOLOSKI<\/em><\/p>\n Nothing strikes fear in an awards-show watcher like a winner fumbling in a purse or a breast pocket for a half-crumpled, hand-scrawled speech. It seemed to happen again and again last night, but instead of leading to mumbled place-finding and awkward squinting, it provided awardees like Jonathan Groff, Sarah Paulson and Maleah Joi Moon the chance to read beautifully crafted, heartfelt remarks with aplomb. (Footnote: Smartphone readers like Billy Porter and Kecia Lewis killed it, too.) SCOTT HELLER<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When Kecia Lewis took the stage after winning for best featured actress in a musical, she was beaming: Her win caps a 40-year career that began with her Broadway debut (at age 18) in the musical \u201cDreamgirls.\u201d Lewis won for playing an inspiring piano teacher in the Alicia Keys musical, \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen,\u201d in which she sings the Act I closer, \u201cPerfect Way to Die,\u201d a showstopping ballad about police brutality and racism against Black people in America. On Sunday night, swatting away a barrage of congratulatory texts on her phone (\u201cPeople, stop texting me!\u201d she said), she used her speech to offer some poignant advice: \u201cI say to everyone who can hear my voice, don\u2019t give up.\u201d SARAH BAHR<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNow that\u2019s putting on a show<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Third time\u2019s the charm<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Quirky fashion<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Know the room, show the room<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Preach!<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
A \u2018Merrily\u2019 revival to remember, forever<\/h2>\n
From downtown to toast of the town<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Paper trail<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Never too late to be seen<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n