Mickey Jo (0:00)

I'm about to ask you something that I have been asking my often exasperated friends and family for years now, nay, decades. Can we please talk about the Tony Awards? Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre and by extension, I am particularly obsessed with the Tony Awards. Long before I paid attention to the Olivier Awards, even though I am from the uk, the Tony Awards are something I was always fascinated by and I would sometimes stay up to try and watch really late in the UK or I would like download them on the Internet and try and spend the whole school day not finding out who won so I could race home and watch them afterwards. This weekend, for the very first time in my life, I got to watch them live on TV in New York City, which was so exciting and you know, it was a really fantastic celebration of a really triumphant season. The Tony Awards are the biggest night in Broadway theatre. It's the culmination of an entire season of increasingly more and more plays and musicals. And the work that this year was so exciting, so innovative, so original, so diverse, so brilliant that it was hard to begrudge any of the winners from any category. That being said, there is still plenty for us to discuss. We're going to talk through the performances, the highlights of the night, the surprises. Were any of the wins shocking to me. I'm going to share with you some of my reactions to the ceremony and we're also going to talk about who the real winners were, both from the actual winners of the awards as well as other people involved in the ceremony. And of course, host Cynthia Erivo. Did she do a great job? We're going to talk about it today. Now, as always, this would be a conversation about the Tony Awards if I was just talking to you tiny people in my camera. I would love to know what you thought as well. Which was your favorite performance? Which award win meant the most to you? Who was the best dressed? Who gave the best speech? Which award win surprised you the most? Let us know all of your Tony Awards related thoughts in the comments section down below. And finally, if you were One of the 1500 people who was watching my Tony Awards livestream when we got struck down from the Internet for reasons that were absolutely legitimate and that I honestly should have seen coming, then I apologize that I was not able to bring you a live stream throughout the Tony Awards. That's on me. We live streamed a little bit too close to the sun last night and it's fair enough, but after that happened. I did start filming some of my reactions to the major categories so that I could show you afterwards. And the rest of my Tonys experience, including whether or not we got into any after parties, will be viewable on my New York vlog over the next couple of weekends. So stay tuned for that. Make sure you're subscribed. In the meantime, let's talk about the Tonys. So to begin with, then, my overall reactions and there were no really huge surprises. Purpose won for Best Play when I'd kind of been predicting that O Mary was going to because, you know, it's been so talked about and it's had so much momentum and it's done so well. But Purpose, you know, it's not a total surprise because it just won the Pulitzer Prize and there's some sort of a statistic. It's been many, many years since a play lost the Tony for Best new play if it won the Pulitzer in the same year specifically for plays and specifically Pulitzer's in the same year because English also nominated in that category of was a Pulitzer winner, but not this year. Open the envelope, Benjamin. Oh my God. And I'm really happy for Brandon Jacobs Jenkins. I think he's a really exciting new voice in theatre. It was also a terrific category. I would have loved English to win. I would have loved Omari to win. I would have really loved John Proctor as the villain to win. I think, you know, it was an embarrassment of riches in Best New Play and Best New Musical this year. So like I said before, it was impossible to begrudge any of the winners. And yet there is an alternative statistic that I found really interesting because Phylicia Rashad, and whether this was for political reasons or not, there is some possibility there she was as the director of Purpose, not nominated for Best Director of a play. And it's been many years since a play won Best New play and its director wasn't nominated, especially if the directors of other new plays were nominated. And while I wasn't necessarily surprised by it, I was still shook nonetheless by the winner of Best Leading Actress in a musical. And the Tony Award goes to. Who's it going to be for Best Performance Leading Role in the musical Insane. So this is the category that everyone has been talking about for months and I am more thrilled than anything else that this has finally been laid to rest and we don't have to keep speculating and forming teams. This was sort of alluded to on the broadcast as well. It was acknowledged that this has been talked about to death and Cola Scola, right after winning for Best Leading Actor in a play, nodded to this in the, the press room and, you know, there was this relief that it was all finally done. But even though she had had some bad PR earlier in the season, even though Audra McDonald was perceived to have had a little bit of a boost to her campaign by good timing, by recent comments and the whole Patti LuPone thing, Nicole Scherzinger won out in the end and she won the Tony Award for playing Norma Desmond in the revival of Sunset Boulevard, beating out Audra McDonald in Gypsy, as well as the other fantastic leading ladies in that category. God, if we could have had a five way tie. They were all so deserving and I was not in the room. I did hear from people who were that there was a gasp in the room. I think there probably would have been in any case because there were such strong feelings on both sides and both performances were masterfully put together and were powerful and extraordinary in their own ways. I, I kind of was still anticipating that Nicole, in spite of everything, was going to win this category. But like I said, shook nonetheless. What I wasn't surprised for was all of the love for maybe happy ending. I am thrilled for that show. My favourite musical on Broadway right now, my favorite show on Broadway right now. I am delighted that it got to where it now is from where it started. You know, it had a very precarious start. Its first few weeks, it was not selling well whatsoever. It was struggling to really assert its place on Broadway. And then the word of mouth kicked in and they did great things with marketing, with social media and I personally tried to send hundreds of people to go and see the thing and they got really great reviews and everything started to move in the direction that it was supposed to and all of that stuff worked. And now it's become this wonderful, original, delightful little show that could, I wouldn't say it necessarily swept. It did very well. Michael Arden beat out Jamie Lloyd for Best Director. It also won in both of the material categories, that is Best Original Score and best Book for Will Aronson and Hugh park, kind of signposting the fact that it was going to win Best Musical at the end of the night, although that doesn't always happen as a foregone conclusion because Shayna Taub won for Material in Suffs, but the Outsiders still won Best Musical. And although they also picked up, I believe, best Set Design, they didn't sweep all of the technical awards or the orchestrations either because Buena Vista Social Club was also quite well represented. The two shows were tied with 10 nominations. Death Becomes her also getting 10 nominations and picking up one win for costume design. But Buena Vista, very deservedly so, I thought. Won for best featured actress in a musical for Natalie Venetia Belcon for choreography, for Sound Design, for orchestrations. Both are really terrific shows. And in a season where you have multiple great pieces of theatre, I will always be in favour of shows getting the win that they deserve and not just something sweeping because of its momentum. In the same way, it was nice to see more of a balance between Purpose and Omari and also Sunset Boulevard getting best Revival, best Leading Action Musical and best Sound Design as well. As well as a couple of awards for the Picture of Dorian Gray and Stranger Things. The First Shadow doing predictably well in technical categories. Speaking of predictions, Aaron and I both did pretty well on our predictions. He beat me just like he did for the Oliviers with a couple of more astute predictions from here. Him and I was thrilled that he was correct about Francis Jew winning. I don't think either of us had predicted Darren Criss winning, but we were both delighted about that. I just don't know. I just don't know. Oh my God. And in general, it was really nice to see a hugely diverse pool of nominees. We had multiple records broken in terms of historic wins for AA and HPI actors. That's Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, as well as Cola Scola becoming the first non binary actor to win in the best leading actor in a play category. Meaning that non binary actors have now won in almost all of the available categories. And kind of furthering to the idea that maybe it's just time to introduce genderless acting categories at the Tonys. And I know every time I say this on social media the comment section fills with people saying no, you can't do that because then fewer people would win. And guess what? That isn't the case because the drama desks very successfully have implemented genderless acting categories. The Watson Stage Awards in the UK have done the same thing. In fact, every major theatre awards, I believe in New York, other than the Tony Awards now have genderless acting categories. And it doesn't mean that fewer people win the drama desks award. Two leading actors in a musical and two featured actors. In fact, this year there was a three way tie. Three featured actors in a musical. So Audra McDonald and Jasmine Amy Rogers both won for leading performance in a musical. They do the same thing in plays and it meant that Sarah Snook and Laura Donnelly, who had been competing at the Tonys with Sarah Snook winning out and at the Oliviers with Sarah Snook winning out there as well. Finally got to win alongside each other. And there's something great about that. And some years, you know, the best performances are given by men. Some years the best performances are given by women. This year was a really strong year for women in terms of leading roles in musicals and featured roles in plays in particular. Particular. And some years the best performances are given by non binary individuals who shouldn't have to pick a side just to fit into an acting category. It's pointless. Someone's gender identity doesn't define their acting performance. But you know what does, Whether they are creating a role for a new production or recreating one for a revival, that would be a much better way to split it. Anyway, allow me to get off of my soapbox and finish by telling you that my favorite award win, I think the one that moved me the most was seeing my friend Jack Malone winning a Tony Award. I wasn't at all surprised by this, but I was still delighted nonetheless. Jack is so talented. I was thrilled when I was in the room when he got the Olivier. I was thrilled that he won the Tony. I got to speak to him last night after all of this and I'm just so, so proud of him and the wonderful speech that, that he gave up there with the best speeches of the night. Military precision of that speech, to be like, thank all of the relevant people, personal thanks, professional thanks, and then delivering a really powerful message that was not labored, that was not heavy handed, but was just really brilliantly done, speaking, you know, to the world and to the US at a really divisive time, and saying something important and meaningful from the theatre community to the rest of the world and expressing a very understood queer and trans solidarity, which I so appreciated. And it so speaks to the person that Jack is delighted for. Jack, just a wonderful moment. And since we've started talking about it, let's move on and consider who the real winners of the night were. Now, I have to talk about Cole Escola here because I thought Cole had a great night. Didn't win as playwright for O Mary, but won for Best Leading Actor in a play with some tough competition. Competition was maybe the best dressed of the night as well. Recreating Bernadette Peters, 1990s Annie, get your gun. Tony Awards. Look, the reference and the execution are just looking gorgeous all at the same time. Wonderful. But then as well as giving a hilarious speech that it wasn't, you know, saying any more than it needed to, I think just with Cole's success and with them representing everything that they do implicitly without having to again labor the public point. Cole has been all over my social media today, in the press room, on the carpet beforehand with these winning answers to sometimes smart, sometimes not so much questions, but in each instance doing a great job of answering them with such wit and hilarity. Cora Scola is such a treasure and is, I think one of the big winners of the Tony Awards this year and so is Cynthia Erivo. Let's talk about Cynthia hosting. I thought she did a great job. She is so, so poised, she is so eloquent and well spoken that she is a great host. She had some really fantastic dry comedy moments. Whoever wrote that whole section about Jonathan Groff when she was up there with the audience in the mezzanine and she said this is the best and safest place to watch a Jonathan Groff performance and then described him as the man who makes us all wet. That was sensational. She was really funny. Of course she sang the house down. She wore about 12 different outfits. The dress that she had to hike up and shuffle over to do the In Memoriam was something of a choice, but I would love to see her host the Tony Awards again. I thought she did a brilliant job. Darren Criss was also a great winner of the night, gave a fantastic speech, paid tribute to his wife, said all of the things that he needed to and really expressed his love for theatre people and for the community. A love that's really mutual. I mean he was one of the co hosts of the first part of the the Tony Awards last night with Rene Lee's Goldsberry. Even though his show was nominated for a bunch of them, which was only slightly peculiar, but it speaks to, you know, how embedded he is in the theater community. And he became a two time Tony Award winner in about 15 minutes last night because he is not only a winner for best leading actor in a musical, but he's also a producer on maybe Happy Ending as well. So he got two Tonys and he's surprisingly close to an EGOT actually, which is not something that I had considered. Yay for Darren Crisscross. Very well deserved. I'd also love to talk about Paul Tazewell who is having a fantastic year. He not too many months ago became the first African American man to win the Academy Award for best costume design for his work on the Wicked movie. That may have been his first Oscar but he has been long celebrated by the theatre community and he did the costume design for Hamilton, which is why when Rene Elise Goldsberry presented it to him, she got emotional seeing his name and saying his name. He's worked on several Broadway shows. He won this year for Death Becomes her stunning costume design. Obvious that he was going to win for that impeccable work. But then with Cynthia hosting as well, and the moment that he had recently at the Met gala helping to bring together one of the most talked about outfits on that carpet as well for Janelle Monae. And then with the second Wicked film coming out, he's having such a great year and he so deserves to Yay for Paul Taz for well, and yay for the theatre community where, you know, he really began celebrating him amidst all of this. Who else were our winners of the night? Oh, Kara Young picking up her second Tony Award. So Kara Young has some brilliant stats here because she has been on Broadway in so many consecutive seasons and has got Tony nominations in so many consecutive seasons. She finally won her first Tony on her third consecutive nomination, I believe, last year for Pearly, victorious for best featured actor in a play. She won the in same category this year, best featured actress, I should say, in a play. She won again this year for her role in Purpose. I got to meet her at the drama desks. She is lovely. She is beloved of the Broadway community. And there's something to be said for an actor who has this kind of success and then gets right back on stage in another show. She did an Off Broadway and a Broadway play in this last season. She's already scheduled to do another Off Broadway play in the next season as part of the new season at Lincoln Center. She never stops working. She loves theatre and she keeps doing it and she keeps being fantastic. And so, you know, it was a great night for her. Also a great night, I will say, for Sarah Snook for the Picture of Dorian Gray, who I also got to meet at the Drama Desk Awards last weekend. And I asked her there whether she had any idle fantasies about what her next role was going to be, whether it would be a considerably more laid back and relaxed one than her, you know, intense multi character playing marathon performance in the Picture of Dorian Gray. And she described her ideal next role with no cameras, just lying down on a beach somewhere and taking a long rest, which would be very well deserved. So she is a winner for picking up yet another award for that performance. She already had the Drama Desk and the Olivier and she's a winner because she doesn't have to do the play anymore after this run finishes and she can take a break. On the other hand, you have someone like Natalie Venetia Belcon, who I thought looked fantastic, gave a wonderful speech and is back on Broadway for the first time in a really long time. She was an original company member of Avenue Q. She played Gary Coleman. She's having this brilliant return to Broadway in Buena Vista Social Club. She won for Best Featured Actress in a musical. And she is the one out of all the winners last night who I'm hoping gets right back on stage after she presumably continues for a long time in Buena Vista, which I think is going to run for a decent amount of time and will probably, probably run beyond her staying in the show even. I hope that she gets a lot of offers to do a lot of other vehicles and projects because I think she is so talented. I'd love to see her take over. If they recast the current revival of gypsy starring Audra McDonald. I think she'd be great in that. I think there's a bunch of roles that she would be great for as well. I would love to see Natalie Venetia Belcon in more projects and soon. You also have Michael Arden winning his second Tony Award in just a few years. He won previously for directing a revival, now he's one for directing a new musical. And he's got multiple projects coming up in the next season that he's already attached to as director, just really helping to legitimize his name as one of the great musical directors working right now. And finally, Jen Simard. Now, she may not have picked up an award for her performance in Death Becomes Her. She was nominated alongside her co star, Megan Hill Hilty for Best Leading Actress in a musical. But she gave us so many memes, sat there in those little sunglasses. And then one of the best moments when they show all of their faces in this, the most intensely discussed category, Best Leading Actress in a musical. And she holds up the little sign alluding to her social media viral moment. One of her lines from the show, when she sings, that was rude. That was pretty effing rude. And she holds up a little piece of paper and she's written that with rude on it. And I think what was really happening there, I don't know if this was her intention, but I like to assume that it was, is it was just diffusing all of the tension of that category. And, you know, a lot of people had said they would love to see Jen Samard win because she's another one who is adored by the community and has paid her dues. And has really waited to come into this moment of her career. She's always been a character actress in Waiting waiting to age into those roles. And now I think she's going to have a really exceptional time in her career. But the conversation had always been, is it Audra or is it Nicole, or could Jasmine sneak through? And so, you know, with less pressure on her possibly being the winner of this category and with there being so much stress around it, I think her holding up the little sign just allowed everyone to laugh and just pierce the tension of that moment. And I think that was really, really smart of her to do that. Now let's talk about the performances. If you haven't already, comment down below with which performance was your favorite. There are a few I would like to discuss. First of all, let's talk about the opening number. I thought it was well written. You could tell it was Shaman and Whitman and Pasek and Paul because you could hear that sort of smash, esque, quintessential Broadway sound that Shaman and Whitman do. And then you could hear in the big gospel, gospel repeating chorus, the Pasek and Paul of it all. It's nice to hear them coming together and writing for the Tony Awards. I thought it was a well written opening. I liked that they were alluding to the Sunset Boulevard Walk in the beginning. I know some people were disappointed they didn't do the Sunset Boulevard title number Walk Around Radio City for Tom Francis as the Sunset performance like they did for the Oliviers. But I also think it would have been misrepresentative of the nature of this revival, which was principally about Nicole. I know the Sunset Walk has always been a moment, but it's also Nicole's show. As Jo says to Norma at the top of the second act, it's your show. So I think to have Nicole not perform would have been a strange choice as well. But I liked that Cynthia alluded to the backstage walk. I wish they had showed it in greyscale, which they did during the dress rehearsal. I have a friend who was at the dress rehearsal performance and they showed it in black and white, but for various reasons, they ended up not doing that for the broadcast. And there's been many other years where they've started with the host backstage. They did this with Neil Patrick Harris and the Book of Mormon. They've done it with a couple others. Hugh Jackman did a thing where he started outside and he bounced his way into the Tony Awards auditorium. Remember that one? But it didn't necessarily read as the Sunset Walk without the black and White of it all or with some of the quintessential moments. And like her singing to a camera. I like that Hwabun appeared. I was kind of sad no one took Hwaboon on stage when they won. I thought for sure Darren Criss or Michael Arden would and they both won and no one took the plant on stage. Honestly, remember your plants, people. But yeah, I thought Cynthia did a great job and I liked the opening number. Before I forget, we also have to talk about the In Memoriam, which I thought was beautifully sung by Sara Bareilles and Cynthia Erivo. I love that they chose Tomorrow in honor of Charles Strauss, the composer of Annie who recently passed away. The one gripe that I had with it is I thought it felt almost a little bit exploitative to keep the camera fixed on Sara Bareilles reacting to the acknowledgment of her close friend Gavin Creel's passing on the screen. It was lovely to see Cynthia visibly supporting and comforting her. But to stay on Sara Bareilles tearful reaction to that for so long, it just felt exploitative when, you know, they could have showed any number of other things or a more tasteful wide shot, perhaps. In general, I had a few cinematography issues, actually. Jeremy Jordan's Floyd Collins performance, It felt like I was playing him in a video game, just sort of lingering over his shoulder. I was waiting to press X to jump over something and grab a swinging rope like I was Tomb Raider. Now was the best number of the night. The medley from Hamilton. I mean, probably, who can compete with Hamilton? This is the thing. Not only do we already know the music, but you had the returning original Broadway cast members performing this together on TV for the first time in a really long time. Ten years since Hamilton opened on Broadway. Celebrating the show's legacy and that milestone, they did a medley of songs from which Anthony Ramos, original John Laurens slash Philip was conspicuously omitted. Now he was there. There was a moment after Chris Jackson appeared as George Washington in one of the best transition moments when they cut to him that was so, so good. When Chris grabbed Anthony's arm as he went past. But the cinematography kind of seemed to exclude him from that moment, which I was surprised by. Now there's been a lot of stuff that's gone down. He used to be romantically linked to Jasmine Cephas Jones, and then there was a breakup there. I don't know if he has become Persona non grata with the Hamilton cast or what it is, but they did feature solo moments from every single one of the original Broadway principal cast, except for him, including Jonathan Groff, a Tony nominee last night who got to recreate his performance as King George iii. I thought the Hamilton section was really well put together. It was so cool to see them all doing it again, especially ahead of Leslie Odom Jr. Going back into the show later this year. If you didn't know the that was happening, now you do. He's going back as Burr for a limited run to celebrate the 10th anniversary. A lot of people have said, why did Hamilton get a slot when there are other new musicals that didn't get to perform, like Boop. And like Smash. And the thing is, Hamilton performing on the Tonys is great for everyone. A lot of people tuned into the Tonys to watch Hamilton perform. Hamilton remains this cross cultural breakthrough phenomenon that reached far more people than a lot of Broadway shows could ever hope to. And when Hamilton opened on Broadway, it was great for Broadway because people came into town to see Hamilton. If they couldn't get tickets, they went to see other shows, or if they could get tickets, they also saw other shows. Hamilton boosted Broadway's box offices very widely and the 10th anniversary hopefully is going to do the same thing. And the Tonys, by featuring them, will have helped to platform all of these other shows alongside. Now, the other thing about the two Tony Awards is it does basically become an ad for Broadway because, you know you're giving out all of these awards and it's about recognition. But also these performance moments from the shows are their opportunity to sell themselves to everyone who's watching the broadcast. Right. And a show like maybe Happy Ending didn't have as much labor of storytelling because they won a bunch of awards. They won best new Musical, which is a big deal. Like tourists will come to New York and they'll want to go and see, well, what's the best show? What's the best musical? Oh, that just won the award for best musical. That must be the best musical. And that's how that works. And because they won so many awards last night, if people watched that and didn't know what maybe Happy Ending was about, that created enough intrigue and all they needed to do was to seem lovely and artistic, which they did. I think it was actually a good choice. I was skeptical when I found out what they would be performing, but I liked it. I thought it was romantic and sweet and enchanting. I think they also would have charmed people by doing like the Rainy Day We Met or Hitting the Road, but it was a decent choice. I enjoyed maybe Happy Endings performance and they didn't have to climb the whole mountain of telling everyone what the whole show is. Dead Outlaw did have to do that and I thought they did a good job of balancing all of the elements of that show. I haven't spoken about Dead Outlaw here yet. Stay tuned for a review coming soon from me. But it's a really wild show and so to convey the whole idea of what it's about is a challenge. And I thought they actually did a really good job. I liked Dead Outlaw's performance with all the people planted in the audience. I thought it felt chaotic in a way that is indicative of the show and it created intrigue. Operation Minceme. I still do kind of wish that they would put together a cut of a number like Making a Man that would tell more the story of what the show is actually about, rather. Rather than just this semi satirical opening number about these privileged spies working at MI5. But it's witty and the lyrics came across, which is important for that song. And it was great to see Spitlet performing on the Tonys. I was very proud of them. I do wonder if at any point there had been consideration of just letting Jack do Deer Bill, because that's been such a moment this season. And it is, as Jack said in the speech, one of the best friends written songs for musical theatre of the last few years. And sure we don't often get slow like solo ballads on the Tony Awards, but sometimes we do. Think about Katrina Lenk for the band's visit Real Women have Curves, which sadly is not performing sensationally at the box office at the moment, despite being a lovely and heartwarming and uplifting show that deserves an audience and is just a real feel good musical talking about very important and topical themes. They had the challenging job of trying to really sell themselves on the broadcast and I think they did a decent job of that as well. There are other numbers from the show that are really impactful that they wouldn't have been able to do on tv. Nor I think, did the cast necessarily want to do those numbers on tv. You'll have to go and see it at the theater to find out what that moment is, but it does usually get a mid show standing ovation. That's how good it is. One of the best performances I thought was given by Buena Vista Social Club and how could it not be? The Choreo is great, the performance is great, the band is sensational and that music is just so good. Like they were always going to do something brilliant on the Tony Awards and you know, they must have had a really good after party as well. Like they'd have had a great band or the band themselves might have just got up there and jammed. Like Buena Vista is just a party of a show and just basking in all of that music is always a great place to live. Then we have the dueling Audra McDonald and Nicole Scherzinger performances, both of which I think, for the record, may have been a little bit broad for television and for those camera close ups. I've seen a lot of people resharing them saying this is amazing and this is acting in musical theatre at its finest. And I think it's just like a taste level thing as to whether you love to see those extreme emotional ranges and those big, big choices on a high definition camera. Other people will feel like maybe it was a little bit too much and it's possible that, you know, for people beyond the theatre community, it might have seen seemed a little bit broad. That being said, they were both undeniably intense, powerful performances. I thought they both did a great job. But again, Sunset Boulevard is concluding its limited run next month. Gypsy is running a little longer into the year, but hasn't been running as long as Sunset has. Which brings us pretty nicely to a conversation about the impact of the Tony Awards. What do we think is going to happen next based on on last night's wins? Well, I think it's going to be harder to get tickets to maybe Happy Ending. They're going to get a big old box office boost for Darren's win, for the best new musical win and for everything else that they picked up. Maybe Happy Ending had been really on the rise in terms of its grosses and I think that's only going to continue. Sunset, which is limited and has just extended by one week, slightly later into July, is going to, I think, be hard to get tickets to now between now and the end of its run. For everyone who hadn't yet seen Nicole Scherzinger and the show, I think they are going to try to over the coming weeks. Are we going to get a maybe Happy ending West End transfer because of this? I don't know. It hasn't yet been confirmed. Usually West End transfers, especially of bigger shows and especially right now with so few theaters available in the West End, usually it would take a little bit longer to put something like that together. But we get most, if not all of the best new musical winners. We still never got like Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. We haven't had the Outsiders. We did get A strange loop. I'm hopeful that we will get maybe happy ending in some form in the uk. That is is the UK return of Sunset Boulevard, which has been rumored to be believed. The reason it might be going back to the UK allegedly is so that it can be filmed and professional recording could be made. I was very intrigued after watching Goodnight and Good Luck and watching how they captured the use of video on stage and sort of cut between that and the video feed itself. I was curious about how the Sunset Pro shot would work and watching it again last week at the St. James I do just want it to be captured. I think it's been such an incredible production that it deserves to be captured for posterity. We mentioned Buena Vista Social Club picked up a couple of awards, gave a great performance. I think that's going to get a box office boost as well. Although it was already doing quite well. I think that's going to run a considerable amount of time on Broadway. We've seen seen a phenomenon over the past couple years which had started to get better last season where very few shows from each season are still open by the next Tony Awards. Things seem to have very short lives at the moment, especially in the world of musicals which are meant to be open ended as opposed to always limited plays. But Hell's Kitchen and the Outsiders from last season managed to stay open. I think Buena Vista, I think maybe Happy Ending definitely will endure through next year's Tony Awards or at least I hope so anyway. And though it may not necessarily need it, I think Hamilton is going to get a little bit of a boost at the box office. I think people are once again really excited about Hamilton. It was a great ad for the fact that Leslie Odom Jr. Is going back into the show. Are any other original cast members going to return? Would they have announced them already by now? I don't know, but it's exciting. It's Hamilton's 10 year anniversary on Broadway. They have an awful lot planned. That's what I'm hearing. So you know it's a time to get excited excited about Hamilton again. I also think Omari is going to continue to be a hot ticket. Cola Scola currently back in the show with Titus Burgess returning once again. I saw Cole and I saw Titus. Both are hilarious. And I hear there are some other exciting names set to replace as Mary Todd Lincoln. I also hear that this is making plans to come to London, presumably with Cola Scola leading. You would have thought so. And finally one that needed a little bit of a boost at the box office. It wasn't doing terribly but purpose at the Hayes Theater. I hear that there might be a little bit of recasting coming for this show as well and a little bit of an extension. That's something that I would like to see. I would like to see a play like this doing really well on Broadway. You know, you hope that shows of quality can all succeed, which is why it's always sad to consider the other side of the coin and the shows that might struggle or even share closing notices in the days or weeks after the Tony Award Awards. Now Dead Outlaw didn't pick up anything. It didn't get a huge amount of focus in this ceremony. They did, like I say, give a great performance. I hope that word of mouth and previous award wins for the Off Broadway run, which did very well, help this show. It deserves to run on Broadway at the Longacre. Go and see it if you haven't already. It's quirky and it's strange and it's bizarre, but I really liked it. You also have Real Women have curves, which as I mentioned, deserves to find an audience but has been really struggling 2 since pretty much the start of its run at the James Earl Jones. But the ones that I think we may need to be even more concerned for are Smash and Boop. Now Boop has been struggling with grosses. Jasmine Amy Rogers gives a sensational performance and she won a couple of awards for playing Betty Boop, but she didn't win the Tony Award. They didn't win choreography either for director choreographer Jerry Mitchell. And it's been a little curious to see Boop try and stay open through the Tony Awards Awards. Because would either of those wins necessarily have invigorated the box office in a way that would have kept the show open? I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if in the coming days we see a closing notice from Boop. Sadly. And like I said, the other one is Smash. Now it seems crazy to live in a timeline where Smash is finally a musical on Broadway and didn't perform at the Tonys and none of us were really surprised by this. That's the nature of this slightly disappointing stage adaptation of the beloved but short lived and perhaps niche NBC TV series. They had only one nomination for Brooks Ashmanskas for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Again, I'm not sure that it was worth staying open through the Tonys just for that, but their grosses haven't been as challenged as some other shows. That being said, they have started to dip and you have to assume that Smash is slightly more expensive to run and that the salaries of many of those veteran performer cast members are going to be a little bit higher than some of the newcomers in boop. And potentially the cast of Real Women have curves as well. That being said, like I mentioned, I hope for nothing but success for all of these shows. You know you hate to speculate about something closing about people losing employment. So I hope that everything after the Tony Awards does really well and I would love for people from around the country to have fallen in love with theatre and of book tickets to see all of these shows. And if you're holding out, if you're waiting to book tickets to go and see any of the ones that I just mentioned, please do so now. They need your support. In the meantime, those have been my thoughts about the Tony Awards. If you watched then I hope you enjoyed. And if you haven't already, share with me everything you thought about last night's ceremony in the comments down below. Stay tuned for more theatre themed content from me coming very soon. That is everything that I have to say about the Tonys. I know for the last few days it's just been Tony, Tony, Tony from me it's over now until next year. We can all breathe for a little bit. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.