Pride, passion flows in wake of tragedy – Broadway best honor Orlando victims at Tony Awards

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Leslie Odom Jr and the cast of ‘Hamilton’ at the Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre on June 12 in New York. (AP)
Leslie Odom Jr and the cast of ‘Hamilton’ at the Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre on June 12 in New York. (AP)

The Tony ceremony also stood in stark contrast to this year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy by setting a new landmark in diversity, with all four musical acting trophies going to African-American performers — three from “Hamilton” (Leslie Odom, Jr, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Daveed Diggs) and one from “The Color Purple” (Cynthia Erivo).

The live Broadcast on CBS opened with host James Corden making an impassioned speech about the tragic events in Florida, which had occurred less than 24 hours before the telecast. He pre-recorded his introduction in the half hour before the show went live, in order to make sure he got the important acknowledgment right.

“Your tragedy is our tragedy,” he told Orlando from the stage of the Beacon Theater, the Upper West Side venue where the ceremony took place. “Theater is a place where every race, creed, sexuality and gender is equal, is embraced and is loved,” he said. “Hate will never win. Tonight’s show stands as a symbol and a celebration of that principle.”

“Hamilton” creator-star Lin-Manuel Miranda also acknowledged the shootings in his first speech at the podium, accepting the award for best score. “I’m not freestyling. I’m too old,” he joked, in reference to his tendency to rap, and proceeded to read a sonnet. “When senseless acts of tragedy remind us nothing here is promised, not one day, this show is proof that history remembers,” he said, later adding: “Hope and love last longer. … Love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.”

The telecast was bound to have a political overtone even before the Florida shootings cast a shadow over the proceedings. “Hamilton,” the founding-father saga retold with hip-hop and a diverse cast, had such cultural pull that it warranted an introduction by President Obama and the First Lady, with the president, in a videotaped sequence, praising the show as “a civics lesson kids can’t get enough of.”

The upcoming presidential election also provided fodder for the ceremony. One skit touted upcoming musicals “The Book of Moron” featuring “Book of Mormon” original star Andrew Rannells in a bad blonde wig as Trump, and “A Clinton Line” starring Glenn Close as Hillary Clinton quoting “A Chorus Line.” (“I really need this job,” she sang.)

Immigration got a handful of shout-outs, too. Emilio Estefan introduced Gloria Estefan and the cast of their bio-musical “On Your Feet!” with a gag about the show’s largely Latino cast being entirely legal. “We all have our papers,” he said. Later, one of the producers of “View from the Bridge” called the Arthur Miller play “a great play about immigrants,” making it especially relevant today, while the song from “Hamilton” included the line, “Immigrants. We get the job done.”

Diversity had long been poised to be a hot topic at the ceremony, following a 2015-16 season widely celebrated for an inclusive slate that encompassed not only “Hamilton” but also “Shuffle Along”, “The Color Purple”, “Spring Awakening”, “Allegiance”, “Eclipsed” and “On Your Feet!”. “Think of this as the Oscars, but with diversity,” Corden cracked early in the ceremony.

On the heels of a national tragedy, the crowd inside the Beacon Theater on Sunday night was pulsating with pride and passion for the achievements of the Broadway community in the season of “Hamilton.”

Andrew Lloyd Webber came to cheer on his kid rock band at the Tony Awards — and also to give out some money to encourage more musical kids.

The legendary composer, whose “School of Rock” competed for the top musical prize Sunday, announced that he is funding $1.3 million to buy musical theater equipment in US public schools and subsidize study.

The three-year grant operated by The American Theatre Wing will include buying instruments and equipment for school theater programs, funding summer study and after-school training, and college scholarships.

Arts education “makes a vital contribution to children’s well-being and their understanding of other disciplines,” Lloyd Webber said. “If you start learning music, you immediately get a grasp for math.”

“If you’re lucky, like I am, to make a living through the one thing that you really love doing, I think it’s extremely important that you try to give it back and bring other people into it.”

The stage version of “School of Rock” stays close to the plot of the Jack Black-led 2003 film, in which a wannabe rocker enlists his fifth-graders to form a rock group and conquer the Battle of the Bands.

A highlight of the show is listening to a group of 10-year-olds jamming and Lloyd Webber wants the Tony performance slot to motive others. “One hopes it’s a little inspiring to other kids when they see that these kids really play. That’s the fantastic thing.”

The US grant is an extension of a program Lloyd Webber has implemented in Britain, introducing violins in schools before pupils go on to make their own music choices. “It’s a beginning. Let’s put it this way: It’s a beginning.”

For all his goofiness, Corden delivered requisite opening statement of the show with heart. He pre-taped a cold open to acknowledge to viewers across the country that Broadway’s elite were not oblivious to the national tragedy that unfolded earlier in the day. Corden took two takes on the segment, urging the crowd to be patient because “we want to get it right.”

“Theater is a place where every race creed, sexuality, gender is equal, is embraced and is loved,” Corden said. “Hate will never win.”

Meanwhile, winner after winner made a point of addressing their dedication to theater and the legit community.

“What we’ve seen this season is that there are stories to be told and people who want to hear them,” Thomas Kail, who won directing in a musical for “Hamilton,” “I’m so proud to work in theater.”

The wins by “The Humans” stars Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell offered prime examples of the unpredictability of working in theater, where accolades can come for journeyman actors with the right property and a little luck.

Birney noted that he’s been working as an actor “almost 42 years — 35 of them were pretty bad.” To his fellow actors and the extended Broadway community, he added: “I am so grateful for all of you. I love sharing the planet with you.”

The youthfulness of many the “Hamilton” winners including Daveed Diggs and Renee Elise Goldsberry also added exuberance to the evening. Diggs thanked no less than “all of Oakland, California” for his success in the show.

When Frank Langella won his fourth career Tony for “The Father,” the crowd sat up straight as the revered actor took to the stage. When he veered from the usual litany of thank-yous to address the events of the day, a literal hush fell over the theater.

“When something bad happens we have three choices. We can let it define us. we can let it destroy us or we can let it strengthen us,” Langella said. “Today in Orlando we had a hideous dose of reality. I urge you Orlando to be strong. I’m standing in a room full of the most generous human beings on earth and we will be with you every step of the way.”

Perhaps the crowning moment of solidarity for theater people came just after the telecast ended with a final number from the “Hamilton” troupe.

After the cameras stopped rolling cast members stayed on stage for more than five minutes, taking selfies and group photos, hugging one another and breaking out into bits of rhyme from the blockbuster show. A few audience members in the front row seats then walked on stage to shake some hands and join in the pictures. Security guards were scattered around the stage, but none of them tried to stop the exchange of hands and high-fives. This, after all, was a family affair.

 

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