Tony Awards Tonight

[vagansmom]

I'm rooting for Billy Elliot.

[ami1436]

Those three young Billys were fabulous!

[Mel Johnson]

As an awards show, the whole thing was quite splendid and unusually engaging for a TV presentation. It had real movement and continuity and a "press on" that I don't see in movie or TV awards shows. Billy, with fifteen nominations had to do well, and some categories had two nominations for the same award, so a clean sweep was impossible, or at least, highly unlikely. The show still walked with ten awards. It had a lot of impressive dancing throughout, too. The "Three Billys" were letter-perfect in their performances and in their thank-yous. Kiril's "capper" was a great segue to the next segment, and a terrific encouragement to dance students. All those kids have show business graven on their bones, and were unstagey and natural. Good show, guys!

[abatt]

David Alvarez (one of the 3 Billys) thanked Kevin McKenzie and ABT during his acceptance speech. Each of the Billys thanked their dance instructors/schools. By the way, in the Guys and Dolls number "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat", ABT Alum John Selya was seated in the first row of thugs on the far left. Also, I believe that NYCB alum Stephen Hanna was onstage during the Billy is flying moment when Billy is hooked up by ropes and ascends to the ceiling.

I agreed with the results of the Tony awards, except for the best revival of a play. I thought Joe Turner's Come and Gone was stunning, and deserved to win. I know people rave about the Norman Conquests. I saw one of the three parts (Table Manners). It was enjoyable, but for me it was not on the same level of brilliance as Joe Turner.

[Mel Johnson]

That's right; Stephen Hanna did do the flying sequence, which is a knockout! I had the great joy to discover this morning that one of the young women who runs my doctor's business office is Trent Kowalik's cousin, so I could go on all over again about the show. What a boost to start the day!

[Rosa]

Those three young Billys were fabulous!

I loved their acceptance speech. They were so sincere and adorable.

[vagansmom]

I think their acceptance speech was one of the highlights of the evening! They were so overwhelmed and shy when they got up on that stage to accept their award. I also love that we got to see so much dancing in this year's award show. And I was so happy to see that the re-released Folger's commercial with Irish dancers featuring Cara Butler, sister of Jean Butler (first female star of Riverdance), was used. The Butlers trained with NYC teacher, Donny Golden. Nice tie-in with Trent Kowalik, one of the Billys, who also trained with a NY area Irish dance teacher, Sean Reagan, at his school, Inishfree. Trent also starred as Billy in the London production.

Irish dancers are well represented in "Billy Elliot". David Bologna, who plays Michael, is also an Irish dancer from Inishfree, Sean Reagan's school. Heather Burns, one of the dance class girls, is also an Irish dance from Petri School.

Oh, one more (non-Irish dance) tidbit: The newest Billy, Tommy Batchelor, was recruited for "Billy Elliot" when he performed in the finals of the Youth American Grand Prix in NYC.

[abatt]

David Bologna, who plays Michael, is also an Irish dancer from Inishfree,.

David Bologna is a VERY good actor. His performance in BE was quite memorable. Also, I saw him in a one night only performance of The Who's Tommy on Broadway in the fall of 2008. He played young Tommy. He was wonderful. This kid is going to go far, I think.

[dirac]

As an awards show, the whole thing was quite splendid and unusually engaging for a TV presentation.

Historically the Tonys have usually offered more consistent and genuine entertainment value than the other high profile awards shows. I didn’t think this year’s presentation, which I watched intermittently, was one of the best I’ve seen but it was good enough, and the ratings were a big improvement over last year, which is good news.

I was not a big fan of the ‘Billy Elliot’ movie so if the stage version is an improvement I’m pleased to hear it. As a matter of general principle I don’t think very young actors should be pitted in competition against their elders and a special award for the three Billys would have been more appropriate recognition. They were perfectly charming, though.

There was a tie in the Best Orchestrations category, which was one of the awards deemed too trivial for television viewers.

Thanks for starting the topic, vagansmom.

[Dale]

I enjoyed this year's presentation (although I was going from room to room cleaning and straightening while I had it on). I think the presence of several popular revivals this year helped - how could you lose with songs/dances from Hair, West Side Story, and Guys and Dolls. The show had good pace, for the most part. And the cringe-inducing jokes forced upon the presenters were kept to a minimum. I wish there could have been a little more scene outtakes from the plays up for awards, but then the show would have run too long, I guess.