Tony Awards go for extra pizzazz tonight
By Michael Kuchwara
Associated Press
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| Twyla Tharp is a nominee for directing "Movin' Out," based on the music of Billy Joel, right, nominated for best orchestration.
Advertiser library photo 2003 Tony Awards 7 p.m. CBS, KGMB (channel 9; 7 on cable) |
Think "Hairspray," "Take Me Out" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night," and you could be more than halfway there.
Still, hopes are high for the entertainment portion of the telecast, particularly with Hugh Jackman as host and the decision by CBS to devote three hours of network time to the show, after several years of letting PBS broadcast the first hour. The Tonys may be perennially low-rated but the ceremony attracts those upper-income viewers certain advertisers love.
So 44 minutes of each hour — the rest is commercials — will be devoted to celebrating Broadway, according to Gary Smith, executive producer of the show. And Smith plans to hook middle America right from the start.
He will have Billy Joel singing "New York State of Mind" in Times Square before cutting to Radio City Music Hall and a scene from "Movin' Out," the Tony-nominated dance musical infused with Joel's tunes.
"It could be argued that the Tony Awards are only as good as Broadway is in any given year," Smith says. "And this has been a great year because it is so diverse."
Smith is determined to keep viewers watching. That's why he brought in the charismatic Australian actor, popular with the highly prized 18-49 age bracket, to serve as master of ceremonies.
Jackman, currently on screen in "X2: X-Men United," is not exactly a Broadway regular but has sturdy theatrical credentials, including Curly in the 1998 London revival of "Oklahoma!"
"They just asked me, and I said, 'Yeah — no problem,' " the actor says with a laugh in an interview from Los Angeles where he is filming a vampire movie, "Van Helsing." He doesn't make his Broadway debut until October, when he stars as entertainer Peter Allen in the big-budget musical "The Boy From Oz."
The Tony show will be a quick trip for Jackman: He flies to New York Saturday, has tickets for "Nine" Saturday night, rehearses Sunday morning, does the telecast, then heads to the airport around midnight.
"I wouldn't call myself a stand-up comedian," Jackman says, but he has been conferring with the show's writers about material. "They will be giving me ideas, but you have to make it your own in some way, give it your own flavor."
The main focus of the show will be entertainment, with production numbers from seven musicals: the four nominated musical revivals, "Gypsy," "Nine," "La Boheme" and "Man of La Mancha"; and the three nominated new musicals, "Hairspray," "Movin' Out" and "A Year With Frog and Toad."
There also will be taped excerpts from the four best-play nominees: "Take Me Out," "Enchanted April," "Say Goodnight Gracie" and "Vincent in Brixton."
"Hairspray," based on John Waters' campy film about integration in 1960s Baltimore, would seem to have a lock on the best-musical prize; and "Take Me Out," Richard Greenberg's drama about a gay baseball player, is considered a shoo-in for best play. "Long Day's Journey Into Night" appears to have the revival-play prize locked up.
The acting awards are more contentious.
No one is quite sure whether Tony voters will prefer Harvey Fierstein's full-figured frump of a housewife in "Hairspray" or Antonio Banderas' sexy women-obsessed film director in "Nine." The two performers tied for the Drama Desk actor-musical prize, and while ties are not unheard of in Tony history, they are rare.
The award for an actress in a musical is equally unpredictable. Bernadette Peters, the fierce stage mother in "Gypsy," and Marissa Jaret Winokur, the chubby, irrepressible teenager in "Hairspray," are the leading contenders.
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