| 73rd Tony Awards | |
|---|---|
 Official poster | |
| Date | June 9, 2019 |
| Location | Radio City Music Hall,Midtown Manhattan,New York City |
| Hosted by | James Corden |
| Most wins | Hadestown (8) |
| Most nominations | Hadestown (14) |
| Website | tonyawards |
| Television/radio coverage | |
| Network | CBS |
| Viewership | 5.4 million[1] |
| Produced by | James Corden Ricky Kirshner Glenn Weiss Ben Winston |
| Directed by | Glenn Weiss |
The73rd Annual Tony Awards were held on June 9, 2019, to recognize achievement inBroadway productions during the 2018–19 season. The ceremony was held atRadio City Music Hall in New York City and was broadcast live byCBS.[2]James Corden served as host.[3]
Hadestown was the most awarded show of the season, with eight includingBest Musical.The Ferryman won four awards, includingBest Play. MusicalsThe Cher Show andTootsie, the revival ofRodgers and Hammerstein'sOklahoma!, and the new playInk each won two awards.
The ceremony received mixed reviews, with many criticizing the performance of Corden as host. At the72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, it was nominated for three awards:Outstanding Variety Special (Live),Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, andOutstanding Lighting Design / Lighting Direction for a Variety Special.[4]
The official eligibility cut-off date for Broadway productions opening in the 2018–2019 season was April 25, 2019.[2][5][6] 34 shows were eligible.
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The Tony Award nominations were announced on April 30, 2019 byBebe Neuwirth andBrandon Victor Dixon and broadcast onCBS.[7]
Hadestown received 14 nominations, the most of any production of the season.Ain't Too Proud followed, with 12 nominations. The playsThe Ferryman andTo Kill a Mockingbird each received nine nominations.[8]
The annual Meet the Nominees Press Reception took place on May 1, 2019 at theSofitel New York Hotel.[9] The annual Nominees Luncheon took place on May 21, 2019 at theRainbow 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]
The Creative Arts Tony Awards ceremony was presented prior to the televised award ceremony. The ceremony was hosted byDanny Burstein,Karen Olivo andAaron Tveit. The awards presented include honorary awards and technical categories.[12]
The ceremony's presenters included:[13][14]
The following shows and performers performed on the ceremony's telecast:[15][16]
The playwrights of the nominated plays spoke of their work. As noted byThe 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]
During the broadcast's commercial breaks, Corden startedBroadway Karaoke, whereby Broadway performers in the audience wouldkaraoke ashow 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, whoseown late-night show has a successful and similar ongoing segment,Carpool Karaoke, which led to television'sCarpool Karaoke: The Series, revealed the scheme on his show the following night of the Tonys.[19]
The first of three karaokes wasDear Evan Hansen'sBen Platt who sang "Tomorrow" fromAnnie.[21] During the next karaoke break was a performance of "96,000" fromIn the Heights by the upcoming film'sAnthony Ramos who plays Usnavi, who was soon duetting withChristopher Jackson, who originated the role of Benny.[22] The third performance was a "showstopper" shared by Corden on his show the next night, weaving online videos as well as from his own crew.[20] Toward the end of the show he approachedPose'sBilly Porter, who garnered media attention for his red and pinkhaute couture gownupcycled fromKinky Boots' curtains, to deliver what Corden said was an incredible performance of "Everything's Coming up Roses" fromGypsy,[20] which received astanding ovation from the roughly 6,000 attendees.[23]
The non-competitive Special Tony Award was presented toRosemary Harris,Terrence McNally andHarold Wheeler forLifetime Achievement in the Theatre.[24]
TheIsabelle Stevenson Award was awarded toJudith Light for her work to end HIV/AIDS and support for LGBTQ+ and human rights.[25]
The Excellence In Theatre Education Award recipient was Madeleine Michel of Monticello High School in Charlottesville, Virginia.
TheRegional Theatre Tony Award winner wasTheatreWorks (Silicon Valley),Palo Alto, California.[26]
TheTony 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 lateMarin Mazzie, music director Jason Michael Webb, andSonny Tilders and Creature Technology Company, creator of the gorilla inKing Kong among others.[28]
‡ The award is presented to the producer(s) of the musical or play.
| Individual | Nominations | Awards |
|---|---|---|
| Rob Howell | 2 | 2 |
| Anaïs Mitchell | 1 | |
| Chad Beguelin | 0 | |
| Peter Hylenski | ||
| William Ivey Long | ||
| Peter Mumford | ||
| Peter Nigrini | ||
| Jeremy Pope | ||
| Ann Roth | ||
| Heidi Schreck | ||
| Jan Versweyveld |
The show received a mixed reception from many media publications. OnMetacritic, 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 fromVariety 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 fromThe 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 criticMichael 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 theLos 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]
Of the ten nominated musicals,Be More Chill was the only one to not have a performance or segment on the telecast. Host Corden, withJosh Groban andSara Bareilles, performed aparody 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 notedBroadway 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 andBe More Chill as the parody's source.
The ceremony averaged aNielsen 4.3 ratings/8 share,[41] and was watched by 5.4 million viewers.[42] The ratings was a 10 percent decrease fromprevious ceremony's viewership of 6.3 million, becoming the lowest in its entire history.[43]
Broadway actorCynthia Erivo performed "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" fromThe Lion King as images of theatre personalities who died in the past year were shown in the following order.[44]