Law Dork was glued to the Tony Awards all evening (as those who follow me on Twitter are all too well aware), thrilled at the great awards won by Next to Normal and Billy Elliot and the fantastic hosting by the ever-so-wonderful Neil Patrick Harris. In addition to Billy Elliot winning the award for Best Musical, the three Billys — David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish — won for Best Actor in a Musical and Stephen Daldry won for directing the show. Alice Ripley (thankfully) won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her leading role in Next to Normal, which also won the award for Best Original Score. (A full list of nominees and winners can be found here.)
By far the best moment, for me, was the portion of the opening number where, (about 4:50 in the clip below) in a fantastic back-and-forth piece, Stockard Channing (who I adore) sang parts of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” (which is one my favorite songs of all time) and Aaron Tveit (who I quickly am learning to adore) sang parts of “I’m Alive” (which is my favorite song from Next to Normal).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cr6h5fFEjI]
Could it get any better than when she throws her wrap over his shoulder as she sings about being unable to sleep “until I could sleep where I shouldn’t sleep”?
The second best moment, which apparently was cut off in some markets because the show went about 5 minutes over, was a “closing number” song, as Neil Patrick Harris called it, in which he sang about the winners — and got the line of the night: “This show could not be gayer if Liza were named mayor and Elton John took flight!”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjSwbte3G4]
My favorite of the “Best Musical nominee” performances was the performance of “You Don’t Know” and “I Am the One” from Next to Normal, featuring the talented Ms. Ripley and Mr. Tveit, playing her son Gabe (as well as her husband Dan, played by J. Robert Spencer):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYo-dflx4Gk]
Watch for Tviet in the new musical, Catch Me If You Can, where he is to originate the role played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2002 movie version of the story.
Finally, a great dance number from Billy Elliot, with an introduction from Elton John:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg57KOrg3mw]
With that, have a great Monday!
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found