Leslie Odom Jr. and Katharine McPhee onstage during the 2018 Tony Awards nominations announcement
The Show Must Go On…Eventually How the theater industry’s tumultuous year has affected its awards By Jack Smart DEAR BACKSTAGE READERS, AWARDS ENTHUSIASTS, AND THESPIANS: It’s been a while since I’ve posted a dispatch from the frontlines of theater. In my neck of the Backstage woods, there’s been very little to cover since March 12, 2020, the day Broadway’s lights went out. Where do the theatrical arts stand now, a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic as the entertainment biz is still figuring out how to innovate and recover?
BACKSTAGE 09.09.21
Theatre Wing and the Broadway League named contenders in October 2020…without any indication of when they would be honored, except “in coordination with the reopening of Broadway.” Finally, the 74th Tony Awards will be airing on Paramount+ Sept. 26—titled, by the way, “The Tony Awards® Present: Broadway’s Back! A Multi-Platform Celebration of the Best of Broadway.” They are indeed timed with reopening—albeit a gradual, uncertain, and still fearful
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Sincerely,
Jack
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As usual, I look to awards to answer such questions. First, let’s break down the status of the 2020 Tony Awards—namely, that they’re in 2021. The timing of New York City’s shutdown meant that many of the productions hoping for recognition on theater’s biggest stage arrived too late or not at all, leaving a thinner than usual, but still viable, list of 2019– 20 Broadway season contenders. Instead of the usual nominations announcement in May and ceremony in June, the American
reopening. From my standpoint, producing a celebration of live theater pegged to its return sounds logical, even wonderful. But I can’t recall another example of an awards show announcing nominations without a plan for its awards. Instead of canceling altogether or delaying slightly and producing a remote ceremony (as the 2020 Emmy Awards did, for example), the Tonys waited half a year for nods, then another year for a ceremony, all tied to hopes of theater’s return. Every theater insider I’ve spoken to in the past year is similarly befuddled. Is there any point in trying to assign blame in an unprecedented situation like this, when the biggest, most obvious culprit is an infectious virus? Looking at other NYC awards’ various plans, how else should
such an impossible situation be approached? Off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards aired pre-taped YouTube events, while the Drama Desk Awards managed a virtual ceremony without delaying dates. The Drama League rejiggered its 2020 nominations into a one-timeonly digital fundraiser dubbed the Gratitude Awards, and this year honored digital and socially distanced productions. Across the pond, the Oliviers aired a special presentation of past ceremony highlights before honoring winners remotely last fall. Though my inner cynic has thrived in the last 18 months, I’m keeping an eye on silver linings outside of the awards circuit: The return of theater in NYC offers several reasons to hope that this community, like Hollywood and others, has indeed taken advantage of the opportunity to reevaluate and rebuild stronger. Among the encouraging news is that Jujamcyn Theaters is upgrading its facilities in accordance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, joining Broadway’s other landlords, the Shubert Theatres and Nederlander Theatres, in creating more accessibility (albeit due to lawsuits). The Broadway League and Actors’ Equity Association have signed Black Theatre United’s pact, called “A New Deal for Broadway,” committing to inclusive creative teams, renaming theaters for Black artists, and apparently establishing diversity requirements for future Tonys eligibility. And in a commonsense move, all Broadway venues are requiring masks and proof of vaccination against COVID-19, while unvaccinated artists are being fired for putting others at risk. I hold onto the hope that such safety measures will keep this virus at bay enough that we can all revel in live theater’s magic again. This upcoming “Broadway’s Back!” Tonys celebration will have to walk the line between promising that return to normal and honoring the theater community’s vision for its talent, its resilience, and most of all, its future.
