Updated: Tuesday May 16.
Welcome to today’s edition of ShentonSTAGE Daily, which comes to you from the Algarve in Portugal, where I’ve escaped for a few days in the sun (I hope!) Here’s the view from the villa where I’m writing this now!
THE TONY AWARDS: WILL (AND HOW) WILL THEY GO AHEAD THIS YEAR?
The current strike by the Writers Guild of America by television and film writers has cast an immediate shadow over this year’s Tony Awards, due to be presented on June 11 and broadcast live. the utter dependence Broadway has on an event that more than any other regulates the market.
Over the weekend, the Writers Guild denied a request from the Tony Awards Management Committee for a waiver to allow it to air on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
(UPDATED MAY 16: The Writers’ Guild issued a statement late Monday May 15, “As they have stood by us, we stand with our fellow workers on Broadway who are impacted by our strike. Tony Awards Productions (a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing) has communicated with us that they are altering this year’s show to conform with specific requests from the W.G.A., and therefore the W.G.A. will not be picketing the show. Responsibility for having to make changes to the format of the 2023 Tony Awards rests squarely on the shoulders of Paramount/CBS and their allies. They continue to refuse to negotiate a fair contract for the writers represented by the W.G.A.”
In their application, they noted “how much financially struggling Broadway shows depend on exposure from the Tonys telecast for a box office bump”, according to a story in the Hollywood Reporter.
The committee will meet today to decide how to proceed: the options being reported are “(a) stick with the date of June 11 and hold a non-televised presentation of the awards, perhaps in the form of an intimate dinner or press conference with nominees and media in attendance; or (b) postpone the ceremony until the strike comes to an end and the show can be televised.”
The situation reveals the utter dependence Broadway has on an event that more than any other regulates the market and defines the annual Broadway season. Even though viewing figures are comparatively low — the New York TImes reports that last year’s ceremony was watched by 3.9m people, against 18.7m viewing the Oscars and 12.5m the Grammys — the ceremony is still the biggest nationally televised opportunity to promote Broadway, and of course the broadcast isn’t the only way it reaches people.
The Awards make the news; clips from the awards become part of the historical record of Broadway on YouTube; and the winners will use their victories in their promotional material for years to come.
The importance that Broadway puts in the awards is its own vicious circle: every year there is an unseemly rush to the late April finishing line of when productions have to open by in order to be eligible for consideration for the awards (this year saw a very late entry, a transfer from BAM for Lorraine Hansberry’s THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW holding a formal opening night just two nights after beginning performances at the James Earl Jones Theatre, but delaying any review coverage till nearly two weeks later).
And in the immediate aftermath of the nominations being announced earlier this month, two shows that failed to get any nominations — Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s BAD CINDERELLA — immediately posted closing notices. The former closed yesterday (after a run of 17 preview performances and 65 regular performances at the Music Box Theatre), while the latter will close on June 4 (after 33 previews and 85 performances at the Imperial Theatre). Also unnominated, but soldiering on, for now, is BEAUTIFUL NOISE, the Neil Diamond bio-musical.
As Abba once sang, the winner takes it all — and a raft of shows clinging on for Tony approval will likely close if they fail to get it.
But what if there are no winners, at least not yet, if the ceremony is postponed? Shows that have struggled to make their mark yet may not be able to hang on much longer.
Mike Bosnar, lead producer of SHUCKED — in contention for the Best New Musical prize — told the New York Times, “The Tony Awards is the biggest commercial for the industry at large, and for a show like mine, which is unbranded and just at the stage where we are finally starting to see some lifeblood, it would be devastating to not be able to be part of this,”
And Eva Price, lead producer of & JULIET, has commented, ““Particularly this season, when we’re still recovering from the Covid shutdown, it would be especially devastating to not have that opportunity — to not be able to showcase how many great and diverse plays and musicals are on Broadway right now,”
SHOWS AHEAD IN LONDON, SELECTED REGIONAL THEATRES AND ON BROADWAY
My regularly updated feature on shows in London, selected regional theatres and on Broadway is here: https://shentonstage.com/theatre-openings-from-w-c-may-15-2023/
As I’m in Portugal, this week I’m sadly missing some openings in London, including a new production of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING at Southwark Playhouse (on Tuesday May 16), ONCE ON THIS ISLAND at the Open Air Theatre (on Wednesday May 17) and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN at @sohoplace (on Thursday May 18).
But I will catch them after I return home.
See you here next Monday
I will be skipping my usual Week in Review(s) column this Friday, but I will be back here next Monday. If you can’t wait that long, I may also be found on Twitter (for the moment) here: https://twitter.com/ShentonStage/ (though not as regularly on weekends)