TVSquad

The Tony Awards are given for excellence on Broadway, which for many years now has been an oxymoron.

speak for yourself, my friend. for those of us lucky enough to have attended Broadway shows and/or been a part of any theater community we look forward to the Tonys every year for a sneak preview of the newest musicals and plays and actors to watch for (b/c, as I am sure you will agree, we all know most of the best actors and actresses in Hollywood got their start on the stage). Just because there are no movie stars in a show does not mean it is not wonderful.
TV people get the Emmys, golden Globes and even the awful People's choice awards, let us theater geeks have 2 hours once a year.

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We live in California and therefore Broadway shows are absolutely unaccessible to us, so I've never understood why it's on network. All we know about the plays are what we read in EW once or twice a month. So....I think people watch it to see the celebrities.

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Seems to me that the solution is one of access to the shows not dropping coverage of whats great. the Oscars increase attendance and make people aware of movies, why shouldn't the Tonys work the same way. Its distribution your complaining about. Recently the Met started broadcasting operas to movie theaters. Its a big hit with 60000 people paying @ 20 dollars to see live opera from New York.

Why doesn't Broadway do the same?

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The Tonys are the best awards show on network TV. They actually let the winners finish their acceptance speeches!

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Once upon a time, television production was localized in New York City and drew upon theater actors. The TV-watching public across the country was exposed to them in myriad ways. Seeing them get awards for stage work wasn't such a stretch.

Once upon a time, CBS was 'the Tiffany network.' It is still considered prestigious for them to carry the Tony show. The show's producers are abused every year by the network, the theater community complains, and nothing changes. Maybe someday.

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What an idiot. You're clearly talking out of your butt here, since you think an entire genre – strike that, an entire MEDIUM – is useless because of the absence of Martin Short. Broadway should crumble because the ratings for the Tonys aren't high? Seriously?

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"Personally, I have never read one of Paul Goebel's posts, nor do I know anyone who does. It just seems fairly obvious to me that it's time for him to find a blog where he lives out the rest of his days and then quietly fades away."

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I watch the Oscars every year and yet rarely have I seen more than one or two of the major movies nominated prior to the awards ceremony. Just because I don't have the opportunity to fly to New York to see every new show on Broadway doesn't mean I don't care what goes on there. Watching the Tonys is a great way to support the theatre community and get a feel for where we’re headed theatrically. Thanks to the fellow theatre geek who pointed out that the most talented people in Hollywood have significant stage experience. And as Christine Ebersole pointed out in her acceptance speech, Broadway and the Tonys honor actors and actresses that Hollywood has deemed over the hill. I hope the Tonys stay on network TV so that those viewers that aren’t as familiar with theatre may become so.

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You have to be an actual actor to work on Broadway, whereas any schlub (apparently) can fill out an entire resume with such dubious character names as "The Camera Guy," "Gas Station Attendant," and "Fat Short Order Cook." And then he can write a blog and name-drop all the stars he's "worked with." Yeah, you're clearly the next Brando.

I wonder why I continue to read this site. It seems to be staffed completely by dyspeptic TV-without-pity wannabes who don't even really like TV and are woefully misinformed (or mired in cognitive dissonance) about anything else about which they choose to write.

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I don't think I've ever read such an ignorant posting from a TV Squad writer. Just because you and your friends don't watch the Tonys doesn't mean they're unworthy of air time. Broadway revenues hit record levels this year, and it's certainly not just New Yorkers who attend.

And far from producing "little of note," it's consistently more innovative than anything the silver screen has to offer ... unless *Saw III* has some flash of brilliance I haven't heard about.

Why do you assume people who watch know nothing about the performers or the productions? Do, for example, U.S. soccer fans know how Manchester United is faring even if they don't see the games televised? Broadway fans read reviews, watch interviews and talk-show performances, and view clips on YouTube.

Personally, I thought the best arrangement had the technical awards from 8-9 p.m. on PBS, then the major categories on CBS from 9-11 p.m. The PBS portion was filled with interview clips so the viewers got real insight into the lighting or set design of a particular show. While I wouldn't mind seeing NBC take over the awards and move them to Bravo or whatever, CBS obviously considers the cachet worth the once-per-year ratings hit.

I'll also mention that at least the Tonys end on time, unlike the bloated Oscars, and the production numbers are a damn sight better. If you want to skewer an albatross, why not go after the lowest-common-denominator *People's Choice Awards*?

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If your idea of noteworthy is Martin Short and The Producers, you need to get a little culture. Those represent the crap end of Broadway. There really is actual art there for anybody with enough sense to try it.

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for those who think his main point was "broadway is crap"... well it wasn't. his point was that the TONYs are a waste of network airtime and money. Paul intends it as a plea to the networks saying 'you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here' to the broadcast.

stop being so dramatic ^_^ sry couldn't help myself.

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Add me to the list of people who like to watch the Tony awards. I do not get to many Broadway shows, but they do tour after the Tonys, and this gives me a chance to see which shows are well received by theater people.

I'm glad that CBS wants to keep showing it. The awards are during the summer, when the great majority of shows are on hiatus anyway, so if it's a choice between reruns of Cold Case and Without A Trace, for one night the Tonys are fine.

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I'm neither an offended theater buff nor a "TV Squad sucks" poster. I see maybe one show a year, and I've never watched an entire Tony Awards. But should they be on CBS, during the summer? Absolutely!

Broadway is where the shows that tour the country usually start, or at least reach their pinnacle. So everyone who lives near a major city, which has a theater, may get a chance to see a few of the more successful shows that go on to form touring companies. And it's the Tonys that can keep a show alive long enough to make enough money to HAVE a touring company. So they're not just a New York event.

Must everything on television become homogenized mush to appeal to the mass audience? Maybe CBS should get rid of those Kennedy Center awards if they don't start putting people like Adam Sandler and Bruce Willis and Clay Aiken in there. Jeesh.

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its nice that everyone is a fan of the tonys and broadway...but thats not the point

the ratings represent that very few people watch the presentations so Paul's point is completly valid

is it me or have commenters been extra angry lately?

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I've been a loyal visitor of this site for at least a year now (probably closer to 2) and this may be one of the worst articles ever printed here, not so much for its lack of knowledge about Broadway but for its overall snarky tone about a subject its author seems to know so little about.

Broadway's done very little of note? Actually, the Broadway and Off-Broadway theatre industry is thriving. Sure, there are the Disney productions, and yes, there are star-driven productions such as the current run of The Color Purple, but there are also shows like Spring Awakening that become hits only on the strength of their performances and not due to pre-show buzz because someone famous is in it. The fact is Broadway remains a destination not just for those in the tri-state area but also for the millions of tourists who come to New York City each year.

Overpriced tickets? Not if you're smart enough to visit the tkts booth in Times Square, or take advantage of the different pricing schemes that let you pick up an earlier show or a show on a weekday for less money. Smart shoppers know.

Lack of name recognition? Ask how many people who watch the Emmys have seen or even heard of every show that's nominated, especially with more attention being given to shows on cable networks. And with so many art-house films nominated for Oscars nowadays, large swaths of the nation may not be able to see an Oscar-nominated film until it hits DVD.

Why don't you ask why the People's Choice awards, TV Guide awards, SAG awards and all sorts of other bull$#@! awards are produced every year instead.

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Sorry, but I'm gonna step in for Paul here. Let's face it, the Tony's are the bronze medal of major acting awards, after the Oscars and Emmys. I could go around saying that I'd won Best Featured Performer in a musical in 2003 and 99.87% percent of the world's population a)wouldn't know if that were true or not, and b) wouldn't really care all that much. "...it's consistently more innovative than anything the silver screen has to offer..." Really? Really? Then why are half the shows Disney products, movie or TV show remakes, or based on songs by freakin' Abba? It lends a certain weight and legitimacy to a screen actor's resume, but only because of the residual New York snobbery that refuses to recognize that motion picture acting long ago supplanted stage performance as the ultimate benchmark of an actor. Name an internationally known (based on instant name recognition, and heck, I'll limit it to just the English speaking world) stage actor from the last 40 years. Anyone... anyone? Okay, name a stage actor from the last 40 years with instant name recognition in NYC itself, anywhere north of 125th St.

And I actually see a few plays a year. For the people in most of the country, Broadway is a concept more than an actual, functional artform. It's a matinee of the Lion King and then back on the tour bus. The tickets are ridiculously expensive, for something that if it truly is popular, will eventually be turned into a crappy movie that I can see for 8 bucks. The Tonys chewing up network primetime is like a Bucks County Little League game being broadcast during sweeps; sure, it's really meaningful for a tiny handful of people, but most of the people who are getting it couldn't care less.

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"Personally, I have never watched the Tonys, nor do I know anyone who does."

This comment is up there with people who picket a movie theatre showing an objectionable film and when asked what they are offended by can list no specifics because they haven't seen the movie. If TV Squad wishes to post a critical review of the Tony Awards it would benefit them to have someone do so who is at least familiar with Broadway and is willing to make an effort to watch the show. I live outside the state of New York and have seen both shows there as well as touring productions in my own city. Additionally I enjoy seeing what is currently in production via the performances on the Tony's to see if there is something I wish to travel to see. And as much as I adore TV and film, there is nothing quite like live theatre.

By the way, had Mr Goebel bothered to tune into the show for even a short period of time he would have caught one of the numerous promos for the new fall series 'Viva Laughlin', produced by and guest starring Hugh Jackman. Mr Jackman is a two time Tony host and Tony award winner for his portrayal of Peter Allen in 'The Boy from Oz'. He's considered a Broadway star, though Mr Goebel probably only knows him as Wolverine. My point is CBS used the Tony's to help launch one of it's new fall series by focusing on someone familiar to the Tony viewing audience. The broadcast was also loaded with many current TV stars, many on CBS shows. It's all part of a little thing called marketing. The show isn't a dinosaur, it's a launching pad.

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Junyo, you're confusing audience and ability. Yes, movies and TV have a larger audience. But the size of the audience doesn't measure an actor's ability or talent. The reason you've seen so many TV and movie stars on Broadway is not only because they put the butts in the seats, but also because it's good for the actor's career.

Why would an actor who could make a few million dollars on a film try to do Broadway, where he or she will earn so much less? Because REAL actors can do theatre and "movie stars" can't. TV and film actors want the "street cred" that goes along with being on Broadway.

When you're acting on film, you have to be good just ONCE, and you have endless takes to get there. On stage, on BROADWAY, you've got to be good for 3 hours 8 times a week. You can't stop and laugh when you forget a line; there are no blooper reels on Broadway. Film is like a sprint, and theatre is like a marathon, and they require completely different muscles.

As a once-and-future actor myself, I can tell you: I'd far rather win a Tony than an Oscar. Not that I'd turn any of them down. But when you hear about a Tony-award-winning actor, you know that means ACTOR, and not a flavor-of-the-moment, perfectly coiffed, perfectly sculpted Barbie or Ken who happened to luck into a good director and/or film editor.

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I just don't think its fair to comment on shows you don't even watch -- much less criticize it.

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