2018 awards ceremony
The 72nd Annual Tony Awards were held on June 10, 2018, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2017–18 season. The ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and was broadcast live by CBS. Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban served as hosts.[2]
The Band's Visit was the most winning production of the season, with 10 awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Tony Shalhoub, Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for Katrina Lenk, and Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for Ari'el Stachel. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child won six awards, including Best Play, while Angels in America won three, including Best Revival of a Play.
The ceremony received positive reviews, with many highlighting the performances of Bareilles and Groban as hosts. At the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, it was nominated for four awards Outstanding Variety Special (Live), Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special, Outstanding Lighting Design / Lighting Direction for a Variety Special and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.[3]
Eligibility
The official eligibility cut-off date for Broadway productions opening in the 2017–2018 season was April 26, 2018.[4][5][6][7][8]
- Original plays
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- Original musicals
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- Play revivals
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- Musical revivals
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Notes
- In November 2017, the Broadway production of 1984, which ran from May 18 through October 8, 2017 at the Hudson Theatre, was deemed ineligible for competition at the 72nd Tony Awards.[9] In April 2018, the Tony Awards Administration Committee reversed its decision and allowed 1984 to be considered for nominations.[6]
Awards events
Nominations
The Tony Award nominations were announced on May 1, 2018 by Hamilton alum Leslie Odom Jr. and Katharine McPhee, who was starring in Waitress on Broadway at the time.[10]
Mean Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants each received 12 nominations, tying as the most-nominated shows of the season. The Band's Visit received 11 nominations, as did the revivals of Angels in America and Carousel. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the Lincoln Center Theater revival of My Fair Lady each received ten nominations.[11]
Angels in America broke the record for most nominations for a play in Tony Awards history with 11 nominations, beating the record previously held by 2007's The Coast of Utopia and the 2010 revival of Fences.
Other events
The annual Meet the Nominees Press Reception took place on May 2, 2018, at the InterContinental New York Hotel.[12] The annual Nominees Luncheon took place on May 22, 2018, at the Rainbow Room. A cocktail party was held on June 4, 2018, at the Sofitel New York Hotel to celebrate the season's Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre and Special Award recipients.
Creative Arts Awards
The Creative Arts Tony Awards were presented prior to the televised ceremony. The hosts are Brandon Victor Dixon and Marissa Jaret Winokur. This ceremony presents awards in technical categories and several previously announced special awards.[13]
Non-competitive awards
The Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre was presented to Chita Rivera and Andrew Lloyd Webber.[19]
The Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre was awarded to photographer Sara Krulwich, costume beader Bessie Nelson, and Broadway dry cleaning service Ernest Winzer Cleaners.[20]
The Excellence in Theatre Education Award was presented to Melody Herzfeld of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.[21]
The Isabelle Stevenson Award was presented to Nick Scandalios, who is the Executive Vice President of the Nederlander Organization.[20]
The Regional Theatre Tony Award was awarded to La MaMa E.T.C. (Experimental Theatre Club) of New York City, which has a monetary grant of $25,000.[22]
The Special Tony Award was given to John Leguizamo and Bruce Springsteen.[23]
Reception
The show received a positive reception from many media publications. On Metacritic, the ceremony has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based 5 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[26] The Hollywood Reporter columnist David Rooney remarked, "Bareilles and Groban aced their duties on their own terms, displaying terrific chemistry and making it less about themselves than their infectious enthusiasm as out-and-proud theater geeks."[27] The New York Times theatre critic Mike Hale commented, "The just-happy-to-be-here, can't-we-all-get-along vibe was set by the opening song, a celebration of the ceremony's also-rans — 'This one's for the loser inside of you' — sung by the hosts, Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban, and a chorus made up of ensemble members from every Broadway musical. It was a charming, if not particularly memorable, number. That could also describe the performances of Ms. Bareilles and Mr. Groban, who were a likable and entertaining pair. The show as a whole ran like clockwork, without any significant gaffes but also no particularly memorable outbreaks of emotion or eccentricity."[28] Daniel D'Addario from Variety wrote, "Throughout, Groban and Bareilles kept up this happily effervescent, optimistic but never cloying energy — up until the show's end, when they reprised their opening number as a call to arms for all who work in the theater, or hope to. It was a sweet debut performance by hosts who may well be back at Radio City next June, should the Tonys be so lucky."[29]
In addition, Kristen Baldwin from Entertainment Weekly gave the show a B+, expanding in her review, "Hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles kicked off the 72nd annual Tony Awards with the mix of showmanship, self-deprecating humor, and good-natured egalitarianism that would continue throughout the night."[30] Deadline Hollywood critic Dino-Ray Ramos commented, "Bareilles and Groban live on the border of radio-friendly music and the Broadway stage, and they served as delightful cruise directors, devoid of forced jokes and corny antics. Instead, they leaned into their musical theater geekiness, which was infectious. As a hosting duo, they did their job effortlessly and well, staying in their lane by not doing too much or too little. They were pitch perfect — pun intended."[31] Television critic Jessica Gelt of the Los Angeles Times remarked, "hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles leavened the evening with well-measured comedy."[32]
Ratings
The ceremony averaged a Nielsen 4.8 ratings/11 share,[33] and was watched by 6.3 million viewers.[34] The ratings was a 5 percent increase from previous ceremony's viewership of 6 million, becoming the highest since 2016.[35]
