2018 Tony Recap: Tony Got His Tony

I started watching the Tony's about 3 years ago, so this year was my fourth Tony Awards, but I have never been as excited or invested in these awards as this year. As I have made very clear in my last post, I saw The Band's Visit, and I loved it. I was so excited when I saw that they got 11 Tony nominations (though I think they should have had 12, and the other three new musicals had around 12 too many, but no shade here...). Anyways, I was invested. I wanted to watch the Tony's anyways, but now I needed to watch the Tony's.

Leading up to this much awaited Sunday, I was actually beginning to get worried, as if I was nominated, which given my lack of talent, I am clearly not. I kept having this nagging fear that somehow, through some twisted joke, a musical about Spo
ngebob would actually beat this well-reviewed, beautiful, essential musical about human connection triumphing over hate. About three days before, another fear set in. What if my hero, the man who autographed a Playbill for me, who made my childhood great, the Tony Shalhoub, lost his much deserved Tony to a sponge! I just wanted Tony for the Tony.


But I did find a few ways to distract myself. I made a Tony themed dinner for my big night. And
by Tony themed, I mean mostly The Band's Visit themed. Dinner was an odd assortment of corndogs (for Carousel), scones (Harry Potter and the Cursed Scone), fish and chips (My Fair Lady), falafels (The Band's Visit, specifically a reference to Papi Hears the Sea), calamari (Spongebob), pink sparkling rose lemonade (Mean Girls--on Tony night, we drink pink). And my big showstopper--a three layer cake decorated for, you guessed it, The Band's Visit. This cake was specifically inspired by my favorite line "honey in my ears, spice in my mouth." So naturally, I made a spice cake with honeyed cream cheese frosting. I then decorated the cake with silhouettes of important scenes from the show. The cake, in my opinion, doesn't look that great, but I guess it's ok. I mean, Etai Benson, who plays Papi in the show, liked my pictures of the cake and my falafels, so I guess it is pretty amazing in that regard...





You could say I was pretty excited for the Tony's. I had my ballot all filled out, and I made my family do it, too. We all hoped The Band's Visit won big. Now, I love the show and it is the only one I saw live, but I have seen clips and heard songs from all the shows nominated, so I have an opinion. My eagerness for The Band's Visit to win and the others to lose does not mean that those shows are bad in any way, but I do think that The Band's Visit is the best. Sorry but such profound lyrics as "revenge party, a party with revenge is what it's like" (Mean Girls) cannot beat "don't break the ice, you melt the ice...and soon you're all one puddle."

Watching the awards actually start was somewhat surreal. It felt almost as if I were nominated, as I had been telling people for months, really, that this show was going to be the winner. I'm not one to say that I'm right, but I wanted to say that I was right (and, spoiler, I was). Each award they won made me feel elated, even for things like lighting design and sound design, because I saw them all come together to make such a profound show. Everything was deserved. I almost started crying when Ari'el Stachel won best actor in a featured role in a musical. He was so excited and is so young; his career just started, and he is already a Tony winner. Then Tony Shalhoub won best actor, and he was so humble and excited. He was stumbling, trying to get out all that he wanted to say in a way that was genuine, not like the great Bette Midler debacle of 2017. Then Katrina Lenk won best actress, and she was as composed and graceful as ever. And finally, the entire show that I've fallen so in love with won best musical! Everything I had been hoping for came together. Friends starting texting me, congratulating me for my musical selection. So, yeah, I basically won 10 Tony's last night.

Just to reiterate how grand of a success The Band's Visit's night at the Tony's was, the record for most Tony's is 12, held by The Producers. And for those Hamilton fans, Hamilton won 11 Tony's. So 10 is incredibly high. They won 10/11, and some places they weren't nominated because they weren't huge focal points of the show (such as costumes or choreography), as it is an anti-musical, not a glamorous, vaudeville style.

I understand the disappointment if your favorite musical lost, but like Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles made clear, losers are still great musicals, just look at The Phantom of the Opera or Chicago. Don't become angry or boycott an excellent show (it is not elitist, thank you). Instead, celebrate the success of this seemingly simply but powerful musical. We need the message, now more than ever, that people who are different than us or think differently, are still humans that we can connect with.

These Tony wins "made my stupid, little heart so happy"--Katrina Lenk

Thanks for the Tony's,
Christina

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