At last, a bit of good news: There will be a Tonycast

With TV mired in its summer-and-strike slump, viewers need a shred of good news.
Now they have one: There will be a Tony telecast, after all. It will be June 11, Ariana DeBose (shown here) will again host and – if the past is any indication – it will be great fun.
CBS had already been promoting the show, but others had doubts. If writers were picketing, performers might have stayed away in support.
This could have been like one awful Golden Globes show, when two clueless hosts simply read a list. Or like the Emmys time when Steve Allen quipped something to the effect that there was “a star-studded” audience of maybe four stars and seven studs.
Or it could have been postponed (as the daytime Emmys have been this year) or canceled. That would have been disappointing to viewers … and disastrous to Broadway, which is still mending from its Covid shutdown.
The show did appear to be doomed, when the Writers Guild refused to give it a waiver. Then playwrights – many of them also screenwriters in the Guild – got a compromise: The Tonycast can go on … as long as there’s no script.
That’s no problem. Yes, the Tonys have had some great pieces of writing – James Corden’s opening numbers, Neil Patrick Harris’ closing ones, Harris’ musical proclamation that Broadway “isn’t just for gays any more.”
But those are just a bonus. For viewers, the real treats are the music numbers. There’s usually one from each nominee for best musical and for best musical revival. Sometimes there are even ones from a not-nominated show … or from a previous one now going on tour … or from the host … or as a special tribute, such as the one after Stephen Sondheim’s death.
This year, there’s lots of potential:
— The host has immense music talent. DeBose — who did a great job last year (shown here) — is an Oscar-winner for “West Side Story.”
— Sondheim’s shows make up half the best-revival list. There’s Sweeney Todd (with Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford) and “Into the Woods” (with Sara Bareilles and Brian d’Arcy James). The others are “Parade” (with Ben Platt) and “Camelot” (reworked by “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin).
— The new musicals include a couple that will seem familiar to viewers – “Some Like It Hot” and “New York, New York” – and others with fresh approaches. There’s “& Juliet,” “Shucked” and the much-praised “Kimberly Akimbo.”
The plays don’t have that same ability to grab a TV viewer, but at least many of the nominees will be familiar. They include Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Chastain, Sean Hayes, Audra McDonald, Wendell Pierce, Jodie Comer and more.
Besides, we have to give those shows their due. It was the playwrights of dramas, in particular, who pushed the Writers Guild to allow a compromise. They succeeded … and TV will have a night of fun.