It’s the Moulin Rouge! This year’s Tony Awards were held on Sunday night, concluding a show that had been postponed for months and was packed with performances, showing that “Broadway’s Back!” was a suitable title for a show that had been postponed for months and was jam-packed with performances. As the night shown, it is, at long last, a foregone conclusion.
A total of 10 awards were given to the flashy jukebox musical “Moulin Rouge!” However, none of the three nominated musicals left empty-handed: Adrienne Warren won best leading actress for her energetic eponymous performance in “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical,” and Lauren Patten won best book and best featured actress for “Jagged Little Pill,” which was also nominated for best book.
“The Inheritance,” a long drama set in the aftermath of the AIDS pandemic, won four major prizes, including best play and best directing of a play, as well as best leading actor for Andrew Burnap. The piece was nominated for four Tony Awards, including best play and best direction of a play. In addition, “A Soldier’s Play” was named best play revival, a category that did not have a musical counterpart this year due to a lack of qualifying choices.
“A Christmas Carol” was the most elaborately adorned performance of the evening, despite the fact that no one was present to receive the award. It won five awards, all of which were in technical categories, and it was also named best original score, making it the only play to do so in a year in which no original musicals were nominated for the award.
The awards lasted four hours, which was divided between two broadcasts. The first two hours, presented by Audra McDonald, were broadcast exclusively on Paramount+ and accounted for the majority of the awards. Three major prizes were presented during the second part of the event, which was hosted by Leslie Odom Jr. and was mainly comprised of a star-studded roster of acts to help boost the reopened area.
It was an evening that was equal parts eulogy for previous performances and encouragement for programmes that were just getting back on their feet in the midst of an awards season marked by time lost and productions that had to be cancelled. Several duets marked the conclusion of the evening, including reunions for Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel from “Wicked” and Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal from the Broadway production of “Rent.” The first episode included Jennifer Holliday, who was a member of the original “Dreamgirls” ensemble, who delivered a performance that seemed Tony-worthy in and of itself.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical, adapted from Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film, premiered on Broadway in July 2019, months before the first rumours about Covid-19 emerged, and ran for more than seven months until it was forced to close.
