The Tonys Happened

So, the Tonys happened last night. I pretty much said what I wanted to say about them in my live tweets, but in case you haven't had enough Tony coverage yet, here are my short and sweet overall thoughts on the evening.

This was one of my favorite Tony telecasts in a long time. Although there were some definite favorites going in, nothing was a sure thing. And that made it all the more exciting when people like Steve Kazee (Once), who gave the most moving speech in a night of moving speeches, Christian Borle (Peter and the Starcatcher), Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur), and Judith Light (Other Desert Cities) won. I wanted them to win, I thought they probably would win, but there were no guarantees. And there were some genuine surprises like the adorable James Corden (One Man, Two Guvnors) winning lead actor in a play over Philip Seymour Hoffman (Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman). I also loved that the awards were spread out between eleven shows so that most of the play and musical nominees got something. So you could have Clybourne Park deservedly win best play, and then have Peter and the Starcatcher win mostly technical awards for its beautiful production values.

The rest of the award show was entertaining, getting off to a solid start with The Book of Mormon opening and Neil Patrick Harris's number answering the question what if life were like theater (because who doesn't want that). Most of the musical numbers sold their shows well, especially Newsies, Once, and Peter and the Starcatcher--a play (shocking!). I'm going to guess that Peter and the Starcatcher will benefit the most from the telecast based on a totally unscientific survey. A co-worker who was interested in Peter before the Tony performance told me she bought a ticket to the show today. My sister has a list of shows she wants to see when she comes to New York. Peter was towards the bottom. After last night, it rose to almost the top of that list.

In case you missed the show, or you just want to relive your favorite moments, the complete telecast is online at CBS.com.