Ariana Debose ended his third turn as Tony’s host with a mic drop. Otherwise, last night’s ceremony offered for the first time to everything and almost everyone. All eight winners in the acting categories took home their first trophies. (How is it possible that this is Jonathan Groff’s first victory?) Playwright David Adjmi, during his Broadway debut, won for “Stereophonic” as did its director Daniel Aukin, also a Tony-winning first-timer. Danya Taymor won best musical achievement for “The Outsiders,” her first win. (“The Outsiders” also won for best musical.) On a smooth and fair evening, the other awards were spread among many nominated shows, with “Stereophonic,” “The Outsiders,” “Appropriate” and an ingeniously reinvented “Joy, we are riding again” bringing home the top prizes. Here are the highs and lows – and wait, is that Jay-Z on the stairs? – of the ceremony.
Now it’s a show
The producers and director were the same, but this year’s broadcast was a big improvement over previous years. The pace was faster: the main broadcast ended on time and the pre-broadcast ended early. The dialogue was more dignified: no stupid chatter or cutesy introductions. The transitions were smoother: the sets were changed live on camera, saving us time and showing us how the theater actually works. And the investors who crowded the stage when their shows won awards – not a good look, more of a traffic problem – were sequestered in an alternate universe and teleported by video. All this allowed the show to offer better entertainment while leaving room for reflection and dizziness, and both together. For the first time in a long time, the Broadway on television looked like the one I know. JESSE GREEN
THE Neil Patrick Harris years set a towering bar for Tony show opening numbers, and this year’s attempt, a strained knockoff of a variety show that prematurely promised “this party is for you,” didn’t end it. Drought. The Tonys would have had a better opening with “Empire State of Mind” from “Hell’s Kitchen” – the highest power of the evening (if partially canned) performance, with Alicia Keys and Jay-Z. Or, better if not more daring: “Willkommen” from “Cabaret,” which was expertly staged for the camera and infused with the zany charisma of Eddie Redmayne. SCOTT HELLER
Third time is the charm
Kara Young, a petite performer with outsized talent, is the first Black performer to be nominated for a Tony for three consecutive years — for “Clyde’s” in 2022, “Cost of Living” in 2023 and “Purlie Victorious” this year. She won a featured actress award for the latter, with her irrepressible performance as Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, a schemer with a heart that stays gold. In his acceptance speech, Young celebrated Lutiebelle as a character who takes a chance on life and wins. “She deserved it,” Young said. “And we all do.” ALEXIS SOLOSKI
Offbeat fashion
Brooke Shields set the bar high when she hit the red carpet outside Lincoln Center in a sunny dress and a matching pair of rubber duck-yellow Crocs. (“Foot pics are about to get better…Double foot surgery,” she posted on Instagram the day before.) Then there was playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, winner of “Appropriate “, who wore a cicada brooch tie, a nod to one of the production’s spooky motifs. And we can’t forget Hillary Clinton, who wore… a purple pantsuit? No: for her appearance in the introduction to a performance by the cast of “Suffs” (Clinton is one of the producers of the series), she opted for a white and gold caftan. SARAH BAHR
Know the room, show the room
Put theater people in front of a live audience and they will play in the room. That’s how they’re built. But the Tonys’ cameras seemed strangely unprepared for this. Perfectly able to spot movie stars in the crowd if someone on stage mentioned them, they seemed to ignore other important artists who were receiving acknowledgments. When Jeremy Strong, nominated for best actor for “An Enemy of the People,” addressed the series’ director, Sam Gold, and adapter, Amy Herzog, in his acceptance speech, it took a while for ‘a camera doesn’t show them. When actor Will Brill asked his six “Stereophonic” castmates to stand in the audience, we only saw four of them. And when choreographer Justin Peck thanked playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury, his collaborator on “Illinoise,” no reflex camera footage was directed to him. This turned out to be clumsy. Worse, it felt like an ignorance of theater itself, which is about so many people together in a room — and, as an insider’s game, which the Tonys absolutely are, about who’s all there. LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES
Preach!
Entertainment award shows aren’t usually the occasion for well-written speeches. But during the pre-broadcast portion of the show, three wise-cracking showmen spoke meaningfully and movingly about their calling. First, director George C. Wolfe presented a vision of art free from the constraints of identity, saying he learned from his parents that honoring one’s native culture did not mean lacking connection with others. Afterward, director Jack O’Brien told his fellow theater makers that making art is a difficult path but a choice: “Has it ever occurred to you that no one has ever asked us to do this? And Billy Porter concluded like a preacher, finding in a favorite Bible verse the perfect words to describe the power of theater as a means of change: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear,” he said, “but a spirit of power and love and sane. JESSE GREEN
A “Joyful” revival that will be remembered forever
In a season filled with onslaughts of openers, it was a challenge to catch everything even once. But sometimes a show touches you so deeply that you find a way to see it, well… five times. (And, let’s be honest, counting.) That show for me this year was “Merrily We Roll Along,” and the emotional performance of the cast of “Old Friends” during the show offered me a nice reminder of what I brought back: the unmistakable adoration of Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, and the rich score of Stephen Sondheim, resurrected with such care. NANCY COLEMAN
From downtown to the toast of the city
By honoring Broadway’s best, the Tonys championed playwrights and directors who came of age off-Broadway. “Stereophonic” award-winning playwright David Adjmi has spent decades making brave, fearless inner-city works, exactly the kind of plays that “Stereophonic” director Daniel Aukin has embraced as director art by Soho rep Branden Jacobs. Jenkins, the author of “Appropriate,” which won the best revival award, made her debut in the Public Theater’s emerging writers group, while Danya Taymor, winner of “The Outsiders,” made her arms as director at Flea. There is beauty in seeing these local heroes take to bigger stages and such pride in seeing them honored. ALEXIS SOLOSKI
Paper trail
Nothing scares an observer of an awards show like a winner rummaging through their purse or breast pocket for a half-crumpled, hand-scribbled speech. It seemed to happen again and again last night, but instead of leading to mumbled location searches and awkward stares, it gave honorees like Jonathan Groff, Sarah Paulson and Maleah Joi Moon the chance to read with aplomb candid and beautifully crafted remarks. (Footnote: Smartphone players like Billy Porter and Kecia Lewis also killed it.) SCOTT HELLER
Never too late to be seen
When Kecia Lewis took the stage after winning Best Featured Actress in a Musical, she beamed: Her win caps a 40-year career that began with her Broadway debut (at age 18) in the musical “Dreamgirls.” Lewis won for playing an inspiring piano teacher in Alicia Keys’ musical, “Hell’s Kitchen,” in which she sings the Act I closer, “Perfect Way to Die,” a breathtaking ballad about police brutality and racism against black people in America. On Sunday night, deleting an avalanche of congratulatory messages on her phone (“People, stop texting me!” she said), she used her speech to offer poignant advice: “I say to all who can hear my voice, I will not give up. SARAH BAHR
