Unity takes the spotlight
The Tony Awards saw a heart-wrenching performance by the drama department from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
The most powerful presence onstage on Sunday at the 72nd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City was absence. A performance of Seasons
of Love by the drama department from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left the star-studded audience drenched in tears and the viewing public silently wondering about the lost potential of the 14 students shot dead on Valentine’s Day at the school in Parkland, Florida.
Despite the aching wound the performance opened, its underlying message was one of unity and humanism, both themes that provided the foundation for a night in which winners made bold, heartfelt statements in support of LGBTQ rights, diversity, feminism, immigration, the perils of depression and the healing merit of art itself.
Anticipating some heavy and emotional moments, hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles leavened the evening with well-measured comedy, beginning with a self-effacing opening number devoted to the night’s losers.
“We are your hosts, and we’re perfectly suited to be because — did you know — neither one of us has ever won anything,” the pair quipped in a duet, which was capped by the boisterous arrival of ensemble dancers from all the nominated shows, including the evening’s biggest winner, The Band’s Visit, which nabbed its 10th Tony, for best musical.
Andrew Garfield set the inclusive, at times defiant, tone. Upon winning the night’s first award, for lead actor in a play for his work in the revival of Tony Kushner’s 1991 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about gay life in the late 20th century,
Angels in America, he dedicated his Tony to the LGBTQ community.
“We are all sacred and we all belong... So let’s just bake a cake for everyone who wants a cake to be baked,” an emotional Garfield said during his acceptance speech, referring to the high-profile Supreme Court case of a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding.
The Tonys are the only awards show that must introduce much of the TV audience to the material being celebrated. This presents the telecast with both a handicap and an opportunity, the latter of which was easily seized this year by the wealth of material culled from wildly popular television and film franchises, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Frozen, Harry Potter and Mean Girls.
Along with the politics and pathos, threads of whimsy, humour and hope wove through the proceedings on the heels of the hashtag #TonyDreaming.