Cynthia Erivo is funny – and other dishes to remember Tony Awards 2025: NPR

The 78th Tony Awards returned to Radio City Music Hall this year, with Cynthia Erivo Hosting. Some years, a musical is crowned the best of the season, sweeping almost all prizes (think Hamilton). This did not happen this time, for a good reason – Broadway had a record year, with a huge diversity of shows. There were a lot of tight races (and a lot of surprise dressing in the media room on the other side of the street, where I was parked).

The favorite, Maybe a happy endingAn original musical on two solitary robots that meet, have won the most prize: six, including the best musical.

AimWho won the pulitzer this year, was named Best Play (one of the surprises – many theater observers predicted that he would go to the buzzing queer farce Oh, mary). But the show won only another prize, the best star actress (Kara Young).

The rest of the awards, however, were really distributed over the programs. Buena Vista Social Club won four competitive prizes, plus a special prize for their musicians, while Sunset boulevard won three, including the best revival and lead actress in a musical. Stranger Things: The First Shadow also won three competitive prizes, all techniques, as well as a special price for illusions and technical effects.

But this year, it seemed appropriate that there was no scanning. It was a season of very diverse shows, and he deserved various winners.

Here are my best take -out dishes of a happy Tony Awards.

1. Cynthia Erivo is funny. The producers used the comic timing of this year’s host (and its miracle in a voice). In a song, she asked her friend Oprah Winfrey to look under her seat … where she found a red toy car. “You get a car!” Erivo sang, to have laughter from the public. The show ended with her by picking up a microphone and singing: “And I tell you that I am not going” Dreamgirls.

2. Celebrities are not everything, but they certainly help marketing. At the start of the season, there were a lot of discussions on how the New York scenes were flooded with celebrities, from Kit Connor to Denzel Washington to George Clooney in … Well, it seemed that the entire distribution of the distribution of Succession.

Celebrities have raised the price of titles tickets, but they also brought a kind of excitement that you could feel in the streets before and after the shows. They helped make Broadway feels culturally relevant again, with appearances on late evening and podcasts. And many of them were presenters, which made the show feel a bit like the Oscars (Keanu Reeves, Samuel L. Jackson, Bryan Cranston and Ben Stiller among them).

But what they did not do was dominate the prices. There are eight actor prizes and only three were won by celebrities: Nicole Scherzinger won for the best leading actress in a renewal for Sunset BLVD., Beating Audra McDonald, Darren Criss won the top actor of the leading in a musical for Maybe a happy endingand Sarah Snook for the best leading actress in a room for The image of Dorian Gray.

3 and 3 Hamilton can still cause a standing ovation. It’s been 10 years for Hamilton made his debut on Broadway and to celebrate, the original casting made a “mixtape” performance. There were no corsets in sight; Instead, they wore all black and highlighted some of the greatest successes of the musical, ending with Christopher Jackson singing “History has your eyes on you.”

4. Diversity has been rewarded. Not only in the sense of it (although there have been a lot of prizes that have been to actors and productions in racial diversity, as Buena Vista Social ClubLocated in an ethnically specific environment), but also in the types of productions presented this season. There was something for everyone: Foreign things is based on the successful science fiction horror series of Netflix; Mancemeat operation is a disjointed musical on the Second World War from England; Dead outlaw Used Country Rock to tell a story on a corpse.

Again and again, the people of the red carpet told me that it was a season that organized a show for all types of people, and that they hope that producers see that new risky productions are viable money manufacturers – and belong to Broadway.

5. Gavin Creel is deeply missed. Tony’s winning actor died in September at 48 years of rare cancer. Erivo and Sara Bareilles sang a slow and charming version of “Tomorrow” Annie During the in Memoriam segment, honoring those of the boards and behind the scenes that died this season. The last photo was from Creel and afterwards, Erivo and Bareilles shared a long hug.

The American Theater Wing joins a group of friends from Creel to build an endowment of $ 3 million to support young theater manufacturers in his honor.

Edited by Cie Crawford