Random Tony Thoughts: Appendix

Because Monday morning quarterbacking is never enough...

- Matthew Warchus deservedly won for Best Direction of a Play for his work on God of Carnage. While that was an immense achievement, his work on The Norman Conquests was more ambitious and much more deserving of the prize. That being said, I will see anything this man directs.

- Bret Michaels had an accident with a piece of scenery. People magazine reports that he took it with good humor, He's quoted as saying, "All I remember is Shrek and the donkey helping me up, and Liza [Minnelli] giving me a towel." The funniest line I heard was on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien saying, "Michaels was there to accept the coveted 'Why are you here?' award." Though I'm usually not thrilled about seeing performers who aren't Broadway related onstage, at least Poison was performing with the cast of Rock of Ages, in a spot that was very much in-line with the show's feel and sensibility. Michaels is okay; he required three stitches on his lip and requested a cat scan because of the pain he felt in his head and neck. However, his representative denies that the rocker missed his mark...Hmm...

- For the first time in my memory, the telecast actually exceeded the 11:00 hour. In recent years we've seen the Tony Award folk keep things stringent but there was more of a relaxed pace to the proceedings this time around. Hopefully they will never cut off a legendary performer again like they did with Elaine Stritch in 2002. But if the Oscars can go on for another hour or so, no biggie to let the Tonys get an extra five minutes. And those were arguably the best five minutes of the entire four hours.

- Anne Hathaway, you win this year's coveted Patti LuPone Award for Most Awkward Clapping Along During a Musical Number.

- Stockard Channing seemed a bit, how shall I put this...? Loopy. Her "Bewitched" is better sung as the intimate soft afterglow romp that it was in context, not when she tries in vain to power belt it. Not to mention pairing her with the very young Aaron Tveit was just plain weird. She came off as a cradle-robber rather than a cougar. They should have found a way to work Martha Plimpton's "Zip" into the telecast. Or just worked Martha Plimpton into the telecast period.

- The ratings were up 19% to last year. Now, hire a good director, take the show OUT of Radio City Music Hall and back into a Broadway house (where it belongs folks, Radio City ain't Broadway and I can never be convinced otherwise) and kill the sound man. Then we can build on it from there.

I think that about covers everything I wanted to say about Sunday's telecast. For a brilliant BRILLIANT take on the Tony awards, check out Broadway Abridged, where Gil and his friends have certainly come up with a dynamite winner for funniest recap.