The 73rd Annual Tony Awards were held on June 9, 2019, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2018–19 season. The ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and was broadcast live by CBS.[2]James Corden served as host.[3]
The annual Meet the Nominees Press Reception took place on May 1, 2019 at the Sofitel New York Hotel.[9] The annual Nominees Luncheon took place on May 21, 2019 at the Rainbow Room. A cocktail party was held on June 3, 2019 at the Sofitel New York Hotel to celebrate the season's Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre and Special Award recipients.[10][11]
Creative Arts Awards
The Creative Arts Tony Awards ceremony was presented prior to the televised award ceremony. The ceremony was hosted by Danny Burstein, Karen Olivo and Aaron Tveit. The awards presented include honorary awards and technical categories.[12]
The playwrights of the nominated plays spoke of their work. As noted by The Hollywood Reporter "Presenting the play nominees has always been the telecast's biggest challenge, and having the writers themselves take the stage to discuss the genesis and themes of their work felt particularly appropriate in such an uncommonly strong season for new plays. It helped that they were so entertaining."[17] The playwrights included James Graham (Ink), Jez Butterworth (The Ferryman), Tarell Alvin McCraney (Choir Boy), Taylor Mac (Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus) and Heidi Schreck (What the Constitution Means to Me).[18]
Broadway Karaoke
During the broadcast's commercial breaks, Corden started Broadway Karaoke, whereby Broadway performers in the audience would karaoke a show tune without preplanning or rehearsal.[19] Equipped with a songbook, microphone, and with a pianist to accompany, Corden would pick various stars to sing during three of the telecast commercials.[19] Although the performances weren't broadcast, audience members and Corden's own film crew recorded the proceedings with some videos being posted online.[20] Corden, whose own late-night show has a successful and similar ongoing segment, Carpool Karaoke, which led to television's Carpool Karaoke: The Series, revealed the scheme on his show the following night of the Tonys.[19]
The Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre was awarded to Broadway Inspirational Voices; Peter Entin, retired vice president of Theatre Operations for the Shubert Organization; Joseph Blakely Forbes, founder and president of Scenic Art Studios, Inc.; and FDNY Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9 (firehouse, New York City).[27]
Special Tony Awards were presented to the late Marin Mazzie, music director Jason Michael Webb, and Sonny Tilders and Creature Technology Company, creator of the gorilla in King Kong among others.[28]
The show received a mixed reception from many media publications. On Metacritic, the ceremony has a weighted average score of 46 out of 100, based 6 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[29]The Hollywood Reporter columnist David Rooney remarked, "The host started strong and had one sharp musical interlude mid-show, but elsewhere delivered strained comedy bits that felt familiar, safe and thematically generic."[17]The New York Times theatre critic Mike Hale commented, "But after his verbal dexterity enlivened an overcrowded and bland opening number that did little to showcase the season's musicals, the material continually failed him, whether it was a tortured audience-participation gag about putting on a loser's face for the cameras, or a tortured audience-participation gag about generating some rap-style beefs between Broadway stars."[30] Daniel D'Addario from Variety wrote, "The quality of showmanship — the simple sense of taking joy in a production having been brought across well — seemed painfully absent from a broadcast that has little other reason to exist. Many, many people who watch the Tonys never have seen and never will see a nominated show in Manhattan; for that audience, a production brought off well before the cameras is the ceremony's point vastly more than is a list of winners."[31]
In addition, Caroline Siede from The A.V. Club gave the show a B−, expanding in her review, "All in all, this was a mostly satisfying, if not completely exhilarating year for the Tonys. I'll remember the winners and I'll remember some of the musical performances, but I doubt I'll remember James Corden's opening number in the way I still do with Neil Patrick Harris' "Bigger" or last year's Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban's tribute to losers."[32]New York Post critic Michael Riedel wrote, "As for Corden, this was not his finest hour. The opening number, written especially for the telecast, was a dud, and he seemed a bit tired throughout the evening. There was a skit where he had Broadway actors dissing each other, and I can only hope he did not have script approval on that one."[33] Theatre critic Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times remarked, "James Corden sprinkled in crowd-pleasing pokes at annoying audience members' phones ringing during shows, how expensive Broadway tickets have become and how low the industry's paychecks and the CBS telecast's ratings tend to be."[34]
Be More Chill parody controversy
Of the ten nominated musicals, Be More Chill was the only one to not have a performance or segment on the telecast. Host Corden, with Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles, performed a parody of "Michael in the Bathroom", a song from the show.[35]Joe Iconis, the show's composer and sole Tony nominee, praised the parody for giving the show exposure on a large scale, but the award ceremony was nevertheless criticized by fans for not crediting the source material.[36][37]New York Post's Riedel noted Broadway League chief Charlotte St. Martin talked about the importance of getting young people to the theater, while the ceremony almost entirely ignored a show about teenagers whose target audience was mostly teenagers.[38] The day after the ceremony, both Corden and Groban credited the show.[39] St. Martin said, "We are doing everything we can to rectify [the situation]."[40] CBS's Facebook post of the number was later revised to credit Iconis and Be More Chill as the parody's source.
Ratings
The ceremony averaged a Nielsen 4.3 ratings/8 share,[41] and was watched by 5.4 million viewers.[42] The ratings was a 10 percent decrease from previous ceremony's viewership of 6.3 million, becoming the lowest in its entire history.[43]
