64th Tony Awards

64th Tony Awards
64th Tony Awards poster
DateJune 13, 2010[1]
LocationRadio City Music Hall
Hosted bySean Hayes[2]
Most awardsRed (6)
Most nominationsLa Cage aux Folles and Fela! (11)
Websitetonyawards.com
Television/radio coverage
NetworkCBS
Viewership7.0 million[3]
Produced byRicky Kirshner
Glenn Weiss
Directed byGlenn Weiss
← 63rd · Tony Awards · 65th →

The 64th Annual Tony Awards took place on Sunday, June 13, 2010,[1] held again at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The host was Sean Hayes.[2] These awards paid tribute to Broadway productions during the 2009–2010 season. The cut off-date for Tony eligibility was April 29, 2010, and the nominations were announced on May 4.[4]

The play Red won 6 awards, including Best Play, most of the night.

The musical Memphis won four awards, including Best Musical.

Fences won three awards, including Best Revival of a Play.

La Cage aux Folles also won three awards, including Best Revival of a Musical.

The CBS television network broadcast the event, which was also simulcast live to the Clear Channel Spectacolor HD Screen in Times Square as well as on the official Tony Awards website.[5]

The director of the telecast, Glenn Weiss, won the Directors Guild of America award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety.[6]

Among the highlights was presenter Kristin Chenoweth and Hayes poking fun at a recent Newsweek article questioning the openly gay Hayes' believability at playing heterosexual by passionately kissing.

Eligibility

[edit]

Shows that opened on Broadway during the 2009–10 season before April 30, 2010 are eligible.

Ceremony

[edit]

Presenters

[edit]

Presenters included:[7][8][9]

† = 2010 nominee
‡ = 2010 Isabelle Stevenson Award winner

Performances

[edit]

The show opened with a medley from most of the musicals that opened during the season, and included, as described by The New York Times, punk music, Frank Sinatra songs, Afrobeat rhythms, and early rock ’n’ roll.[10]

There were performances by the casts of the musicals nominated for both Best Musical and Revival: American Idiot, Fela!, Memphis, Million Dollar Quartet, La Cage aux Folles, A Little Night Music, Everyday Rapture and Ragtime. Other performers were Lea Michele, who sang "Don't Rain On My Parade" and Matthew Morrison, who sang "All I Need Is the Girl", and punk rock band Green Day who performed "Know Your Enemy/Holiday". The casts of Come Fly Away and Promises, Promises were included in a presentation of choreography. Additionally, the nominees for Best Play and Best Play Revival were presented by the performers from their respective plays.[11][12]

Creative Arts Tony Awards

[edit]

Some of the Tony Awards, dubbed "The Creative Arts Tony Awards" were awarded prior to the CBS telecast. The presentation was shown on a live webcast.[13] Hosts for this portion of the ceremony were Karen Olivo and Gregory Jbara. Awards presented at this special ceremony included Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations, Special Tony Awards and the eight design prizes.[14][15]

Ineligibility rulings

[edit]

The Tony Administration Committee decided on April 30, 2010 that the scores of American Idiot and Fela! were ineligible for Tony Award nominations because fewer than 50% of their scores were written for the stage productions.[16]

On May 14, 2010, the Tony Award committee announced a disqualification of a nomination in the "Best Costume Design in a Musical" category for Ragtime, stating that "...Santo Loquasto's designs for the revival of Ragtime are predominantly those from the original 1998 production, and therefore do not meet the Tony rule which states, work that 'substantially duplicate(s)' work from a prior production is ineligible."[17]

Competitive awards

[edit]

Source: Tony Awards[18]

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

Best Play Best Musical
Best Revival of a Play Best Revival of a Musical
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Best Direction of a Play Best Direction of a Musical
Best Book of a Musical Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Best Choreography Best Orchestrations
Best Scenic Design of a Play Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Best Costume Design of a Play Best Costume Design of a Musical
Best Lighting Design of a Play Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Best Sound Design of a Play Best Sound Design of a Musical

In Memoriam

[edit]

Non-competitive awards

[edit]

Most of the non-competitive awards were announced on April 21, 2010. They are:

Summary of awards

[edit]

The musical Fela! and the revival of La Cage aux Folles, each received eleven nominations, the most of any production, with each winning three awards. The musical Memphis won four awards, including Best Musical. The revival of Fences earned ten nominations, the most nominations ever received by a play revival, and won three awards.[22] The new play Red received seven nominations and won six awards, the most of any play or musical this season.

Film actors won an unusual number of awards this season, with Denzel Washington, Scarlett Johansson, Viola Davis, Eddie Redmayne and Catherine Zeta-Jones among the winners.[10] So many film actors appeared on Broadway last year that theatre actor Hunter Foster created a Facebook page called "Give the Tonys Back to Broadway". The New York Times critic Charles Isherwood wrote, "I share to a certain extent Mr. Foster’s dismay at this year’s star-glutted Tony awards. ... It’s possible that if the Tony administrators had not kicked the journalists out of the voting pool, there might have been a few more worthy winners."[23] Isherwood called the proliferation of Hollywood stars on Broadway "ominous", claiming that projects from last season featuring film actors such as Jude Law's Hamlet and A Steady Rain monopolized the box office, causing "superior" plays to fail. On the other hand, Isherwood felt, it is possible that "welcoming [film] stars on Broadway – the talented ones, anyway – [could help] New York theater to reassert its importance to the culture, and maybe even to tilt the balance of the entertainment business at least a little back toward the East Coast".[23]

Multiple nominations and awards

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "The American Theatre Wing's 64th Annual Tony Awards to Be Broadcast Sunday, June 13, 2010". TonyAwards.com. September 8, 2009. Archived from the original on November 20, 2009. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  2. ^ a b Gans, Andrew."Sean Hayes to Host Tony Awards" Archived 2010-05-27 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, May 24, 2010
  3. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (June 14, 2010). "RATINGS RAT RACE: NBA Finals Continue To Rule While Tony Awards Slip A Notch". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
  4. ^ Gans, Andrew.2010 "Tony Award Nominations Will Be Announced May 4" Archived 2010-03-01 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, February 26, 2010
  5. ^ Gans, Andrew."Paula Abdul Will Be Tony Presenter; Awards Will Be Simulcast in Times Square" Archived 2010-06-12 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, June 7, 2010
  6. ^ Peter, Thomas. "Glenn Weiss Wins DGA Award for 64th Annual Tony Awards Broadcast" playbill.com, January 31, 2011
  7. ^ "Meet the Presenters and Performers". The Tony Awards. May 25, 2010. Archived from the original on August 19, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  8. ^ Propst, Andy (May 25, 2010). "Cate Blanchett, Michael Douglas, Lea Michele, Denzel Washington, Raquel Welch, et al. to Be Tony Award Presenters". TheaterMania.com.
  9. ^ Gans, Andrew."Holmes, Lansbury, Radcliffe and More Will Be Tony Presenters" Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, June 9, 2010
  10. ^ a b Healy, Patrick. "Red and Memphis Win Top Tony Awards". The New York Times, June 13, 2010
  11. ^ Gans, Andrew. "Green Day, Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison and More to Perform on Tony Telecast" Archived 2010-06-05 at the Wayback Machine. Playbill.com, June 2, 2010
  12. ^ "Press Release:The 2010 Tony Awards Promises Unforgettable Evening of Performances" Archived 2010-06-06 at the Wayback Machine. Tonyawards.com, June 2, 2010
  13. ^ Gans, Andrew. "Creative Arts Tony Awards Will Be Presented Prior to CBS Broadcast" Archived 2010-06-05 at the Wayback Machine. Playbill.com, June 1, 2010
  14. ^ Gans, Andrew. "Olivo and Jbara to Host Creative Arts Tony Awards" Archived 2010-06-12 at the Wayback Machine. Playbill.com, June 10, 2010
  15. ^ Hetrick, Adam.Playbill.com Tony Blog: The Tony Awards Press Room" Archived 2010-06-15 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, June 13, 2010
  16. ^ Gans, Andrew."Tony Rulings: Enron, Fences, Royal Family Eligible for Best Score; American Idiot, Fela! Are Not" Archived 2010-05-03 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, April 30, 2010
  17. ^ Jones, Kenneth."Drama Desk Withdraws Nominations of Ragtime's Orchestration and Costume Design" Archived 2010-05-17 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, May 14, 2010
  18. ^ a b "Tony Award nominees, 2009–2010". Archived from the original on 7 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-13.
  19. ^ a b c d Pesner, Ben."Tonys Announce Special Awards and Honors" Archived 2010-04-26 at the Wayback Machine tonyawards.com, April 21, 2010
  20. ^ Gans, Andrew.David Hyde Pierce, Marian Seldes, Tom Viola, Alan Ayckbourn Win Special Tony Awards" Archived April 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, April 21, 2010
  21. ^ Gans, Andrew."Midtown North and South New York City Police Precincts To Receive Special Tony Award" playbill.com, May 17, 2010
  22. ^ Gans, Andrew and Jones, Kenneth."2010 Tony Nominations Announced; Fela! and La Cage Top List" Archived 2010-05-06 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, May 4, 2010
  23. ^ a b Isherwood, Charles."Theater Talkback: When Stars Take Over the Tonys". The New York Times, June 24, 2010
[edit]