“My mouth is so dry my lips are literally sticking to my teeth!” Hough said, stretching her bright-red lips into a pained smile, after their opening number, a schmaltzy ditty written by Criss.Īs DeBose observed early on, the night reflected a more inclusive Broadway. The hour, both brisk and sedate, was hosted by Darren Criss and Julianne Hough, whose cheerleader pep seemed to grate even on themselves. But Lansbury wasn’t in attendance, so fine. It also included a lifetime-achievement prize for Angela Lansbury, over whose relegation to the warmup hour I was ready to open up a LuPone-size can of rage. A first hour, euphemized as “Act One,” streamed on Paramount+ and covered the categories deemed less eye-catching. Like last year, the broadcast was split in two. (The camera cut to them in the balcony-masked, unlike the A-list crowd below.) The “ER” actor Anthony Edwards, introducing a number from the Bob Dylan jukebox musical “ Girl from the North Country”-which stars his wife, Mare Winningham-recalled the night he went on, script in hand, during a cast shortage.
Marcia Gay Harden, before presenting an award to Phylicia Rashad (“ Skeleton Crew”), announced that some hundred and fifty of Broadway’s COVID safety managers were present. Many winners thanked understudies and swings, who kept shows alive when actors fell out with COVID. Whereas last year’s ceremony captured a Broadway limping back from oblivion, with nominated shows that had been wiped out by the pandemic shutdown, last night’s edition, like the theatrical season it honored, was high-spirited and fun, though not without bruises. The moment captured something essential about this year’s Tonys. Hours into the seventy-fifth annual Tony Awards, the world finally met Chris Harper, the lead producer of “Company.” Accepting the award for Best Revival of a Musical, Harper, a genial, bald British fellow, turned to LuPone-who had won a featured-actress prize earlier in the evening and given an emphatic speech during which no audience members were harmed-and said, “Patti, it’s an honor to be the person who pays your salary.” To those playing along with vodka Stingers at home: drink to that.
“Chris Harper pays my salary.” A recording of the exchange made it to Twitter, and a meme was born. “I pay your salary,” the spectator objected. Last month, at a post-show talk back at the revival of “ Company,” the indomitable Patti LuPone dressed down an audience member for not following mask protocol. To those in the know, it was Broadway’s favorite new in-joke. Who is Chris Harper, and why is he paying everybody’s salaries? The question may have crossed your mind watching last night’s Tony Awards, where enough winners thanked “Chris Harper, who pays my salary” (or, as one British winner translated it, “who pays my wages”) to warrant a drinking game.