Hilariously long run-on speeches. Truthful and violent bragging. Outdated references elongating award shows. Referencing other award show failures. And of course, musical numbers on musical numbers.
The Tony Awards this Sunday delivered an extraordinary medley of laughs, awkward moments, and memorable speeches that will be made into gifs and memes for all of our social media delight. With the multi-talented Kevin Spacey hosting, there was little the audience was left asking for– and perhaps a bit too much the audience could have been fine without.
What do you mean? He dances. He sings. He can do a pretty good Bill Clinton and Johnny Carson. But, he was at an awards show, and usually, award shows are meant to award… well, shows, not time for the host to delve into some self-gratifying three-hour long reference to his myriad of talents. Kevin Spacey poked fun at himself for being the 14th choice to host this year’s show, but maybe there’s a reason behind it– and it’s again a whole allotment of time devoted to Spacey’s hosting as opposed to the contenders in theater.
The people attending the IBM Watch Party had similar responses. Sure, we’re all of a younger generation that knows who Johnny Carson is, but do we expect to see him at the 71st Annual Tony Awards? Aren’t we all theater loving people who voted for Clinton and already got better political laughs from Stephen Colbert? Did everyone else– save for my The Usual Suspects trivia and a select others– think the Chazz Palminteri went on too long?
Hosting aside, the show was sure to delight. Great musical numbers combined with hilarious speeches will surely make this year one that gets put in the highlights reel. Speaking of highlights, it would be a sin to not mention the ever talented Bette Midler literally shutting down the orchestra in her speech that was more than just thanking producers.
https://youtu.be/hmpARAYzbWA
Or Ben Platt’s cute but aggressive love for his parents.
https://youtu.be/IOKdirRUHN0
And we can’t leave without showing you Colbert’s YUGE jabs at the president.
Alas, the awards show was great– but obviously it could have been better. As far as the party, it was stellar! Not only did IBM have an amazing photo booth to get your fancy outfits on snap, but also had Tony Broadcast Bingo, and let me just say, the “House of Cards” joke square and the “Winner in shock when name is called” came in quite handy. Besides that, the IBM watch party was made to invoke great American outdoor parties with classy, theater awards show atmosphere. Sliders were paired with shrimp-filled risotto; delicately placed mini desserts were given along teriyaki meatball skewers. A classic melon cocktail was the choice of the night as the entire room at The Skylark was filled with laughs, cries of joy, and awws of sympathy. Not only was I one of the few people laughing at the extremely long Palminteri/Spacey banter, but I was shocked to see Ana Villafane (who stars as Gloria Estefan in the hit Broadway show On Your Feet) laughing along in unison to the “Verbal” jokes.
Hey, sometimes a bad joke carried on too long makes its way back around to being funny.
