Tony Awards BS

[freckles and boo]

I have a couple of degrees in theatre and am an artistic associate (company member) at a smaller professional theatre in Chicago. I am also a very busy parent with absolutely no inclination to work in New York, so my chances of designing on Broadway are slim. However, I have friends that do. Actors look really bland with no lights on them, no scenery around them, and in their street clothes. And while I love a good musical, they aren't the end-all be-all of theatre. If the Tony's stopped claiming to award excellence in theatre then there would be no need to call them on this garbage.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06032009/entertainment/theater/tony_squeezes_out_drama_172343.htm

TONY SQUEEZES OUT DRAMA
TV EXECS AX PLAYS TO FEATURE MUSICALS

Last updated: 2:04 pm
June 3, 2009
Posted: 2:58 am
June 3, 2009

AFTER years of pretending to "honor excellence in the theater," Tony officials are finally coming clean about their true calling: making money for the backers of big musicals -- and trying, however ineptly, to jack up ratings for CBS.

How else to interpret the decision to eliminate from Sunday's Tony telecast a bunch of what are patronizingly called "creative awards" and put in their place musical numbers from touring productions of "Jersey Boys," "Mamma Mia!" and -- here's a good reason to switch channels -- "Legally Blonde"?

Tony officials announced this week that the awards for things such as lighting, sets and costumes -- all insignificant components of a Broadway show, as anyone who works in the theater can attest -- will not make the broadcast.

And that's not all.

Also banned from prime time are the awards for choreography, book of a musical and revival of a play.

Why call attention to the work of minor writers such as August Wilson ("Joe Turner's Come and Gone"), Alan Ayckbourn ("The Norman Conquests"), Lee Hall ("Billy Elliot") and Samuel Beckett ("Waiting for Godot")?

Far better to showcase the work of a major artist like Elle Woods.

Of course, not everyone agrees.

Kevin Spacey, the head of the Old Vic, lead producer of "The Norman Conquests," which is up for Best Revival, has this to say:

"This is boneheaded, outrageous, infuriating and insulting not just to everyone who has worked so hard on these productions, but to the entire theater community.

"It is another example of the systematic chipping away, for financial gain, of what the Tonys are supposed to be about.

"Plays make up something like 43 or 44 percent of the box office on Broadway -- and they would make up even more if more people heard about them from the Tony Awards."

The decision to ditch creative awards in favor of more musical numbers comes right from the top -- CBS chief Les Moonves, who, I'm told, decreed that the Tonys should mainly be about singing and dancing.

"Les wants more entertainment and fewer speeches," one source says.

A veteran theater executive puts it bluntly: "Who gives a s - - t about an old costume designer getting an award? It makes for lousy television. Acceptance speeches are not entertainment unless they're from a celebrity or a screaming queen."

But even this cynical exec admits it's "schizophrenic" for the Tonys to champion "excellence in the theater" when a good portion of the telecast will be devoted to flatulence jokes from "Shrek."

Spacey has a solution worth thinking about, especially if the ratings continue to plummet:

"The Tonys should be produced by theater people. Mike Nichols should be the director. The show should be on PBS and everyone should get their award, and then we don't have to give a f - - k about ratings."

continued at the link

 

[akhenaten]

I think that stinks!!
The tech design awards should be given out with the others!!

I love a good musical ,but it would be nice to see more of the other broadway productions...

 

[Jennasis]

The Emmy's and OScar's have snubbed the scientific/tech awards for YEARS. Looks like Tony is gettin' a taste of reality. Definitely not right, not fair and a darn shame.

 

[NotUrsula]

Just to play devil's advocate here (and I really am, because I have been a costumer in another life): who pays for the broadcast?

If the broadcast is sponsored, then it makes sense that the sponsors will have influence on what parts of the ceremony end up telecast -- and by extension, what entertainment components the ceremony will have in order to ensure that someone is willing to buy enough airtime to GET it telecast.

There is really nothing stopping the awards committee from making the broadcast cover only part of the evening; the part that sells ad time. If the technical awards went first, the television audience could join the show in progress. They could just broadcast the major categories that the sponsors determine are of interest to the greatest portion of the viewing audience.

Both the Tonys and the Oscars used to be closed events for the industry only; look at the old photos and you can see they were dinners. Someone got the idea that it would be good to televise the presentation of the awards, but that wasn't free, so changes had to be made to please the sponsors (which is true even of scripted programming).

Take them off the air as live broadcasts and move them to Internet streaming only, and you can give every winner a chance to fully bask in the admiration of peers, but the trade off will be not being able to tell elderly Aunt Edna in Podunk to tune in to see me win. Cousin Noel with the high-speed connection will be able to watch, though.

 

[freckles and boo]

I would rather see it streaming than to have them cut the heart out of what makes theatre different from film and television. Besides, production numbers that look great live on stage often just look ridiculous on live television.

 

[wowsmom]

It's a shame, but I'm not surprised...when my uncle got his first two Tonys, it was shown as "awarded previously" and was a little tiny box in the corner of the screen. It wasn't until The Producers that it was shown live - and yes, I was jumping up and down on my couch screaming for him.

 

[Linzybrooke]

As a scenic designer, married to a lighting designer, this is infuriating. Even the Oscars made a small production of the set decoration and costuming catagories this year. However, as we are always on vacation during the Tony's, I won't be watching them either way.

 

[Stacerita]

What a slap in the face.

 

[DisneyWalker44]

I used to live in a New Jersey neighborhood that was very popular with Broadway folks. I had a number of friends who worked both on stage and behind the scenes.

This is a very small sample, but the lighting/sound/prop guys I knew were all OK with this sort of thing (back then they tended to get bumped to PBS). The purpose of putting the Tonys on national network TV is to drum up interest in Broadway. The goal is to get people excited and put fannies in seats. They understood that cheesy musicals draw an audience; technical awards and speeches don't.

While they want to get honored, it doesn't do any good to put it on TV if nobody watches. These were very practical people. Ultimately, what they *really* cared about was keeping shows open and keeping a steady flow of new shows to replace those that closed. If putting more musical numbers on the CBS telecast helps do that, great.

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

How sad. I love broadway (including Legally Blonde although the writer of the article doesn't) and it's sad to see those awards eliminated from the broadcast. Sigh....