You will want to watch tonight’s Tony Aawards (8 P.M., CBS).
This will be the second time Neil Patrick Harris is hosting. He won an Emmy for the last time (and another for a guest appearance on Glee). He’s also hosted Spike’s Video Game Awards, the TV Land Awards and the Emmys. And he showed up in the opening number of the Oscars. On June 23, he will host at the LGBT Leadership Gala with President Obama. That event will be the first time a sitting president has done an LGBT fundraiser for his own campaign.
The guy’s got talent!
Here’s his take on why you should watch the Tony’s tonight:
These days, it’s so easy for us to just watch Netflix movies in Hi Def, so for a national audience, it should be a special occasion to see live people doing things in front of you. The theater gives you dramatic acting, song and dance. And with the Tonys, you get ALL of that energy. They are not pre-taped. The singers are really singing. And the speeches are better than other awards shows, because theater actors are used to talking in front of a live audience. At the Oscars, you see actors’ hands shaking, they don’t know what to say. And they’re movie stars! I think the Tonys really have a lot to offer.
And on The Book of Mormon:
Well, it got the most nominations, and every single musical number in that show is a problem for the Tony censors – whether it’s dialogue, or even the idea of a song – like, religion. They’re struggling right now to see what number they CAN put in the show. If it doesn’t get by the censors in the end, I can see myself announcing, ‘Please stand by for two minutes while we black out.’ It should be the edgiest Tonys for a while. And that’s a good thing. Let’s shake it up!
I was in the audience for the second performance of The Book of Mormon. The false start, personal apology from the director and Trey Parker and Matt Stone sitting sixth row center all only added to the wild enthusiasm of the audience. We knew the show would be a hit. I wondered what number they’d do at the Tony’s.
My assumption is that it will be the most benign of the show. “Hello,” the opening number, is set at a mission training center in Salt Lake City where young Mormons are learning to missionize door-to-door. Scott Brown agrees:
I can dream that the the Tonycast will include The Book of Mormon‘s “Hasa Diga Eebowai,” the category favorite’s most talked-about number, which contains a helpful suggestion for the Supreme Being that might be anatomically impossible, even for Him. But considering the extreme de-crass-ification of past broadcasts, it seems unlikely that CBS will allow tuneful, good-natured blasphemy on its Tiffany air (yes, the same crystalline ether that, until recently, transmitted Charlie Sheen). Full-contact God-cursing just isn’t easily bleepable. The show’s medley will most likely open with Mormon’s doorbell-ringing opening number, “Hello!” Later, we’re told there’ll be a number anchored by Best Actor in a Musical nom Andrew Rannells. (I believe it’ll be “I Believe,” but don’t make me swear on the Bible.)
An excellent CBS Sunday Morning report on the Book of Mormon includes discussion of that most talked-about number, “Hasa Diga Eebowai”:
The Tony’s will be live-blogged here. FiveThirtyEight looks at just how much a Tony is worth. Fresh Air did an interview with Parker and Stone on the show. Kevin Fallon says watch even if you’ve never been to a Broadway show.