What's on Broadway
This year's Tony Awards show was the most technically ambitious I've seen, and I've been watching them every year for a long time. The opening number ran over eleven minutes, and included music from all four Best Musical nominees (Billy Elliot, Next to Normal, Rock of Ages, and Shrek), all four Best Revival of a Musical nominees (Guys and Dolls, Hair, Pal Joey, and West Side Story), the only nominee for Best Score of a Musical that wasn't also a Best Musical nominee (9 to 5), and the one musical nominee for Best Special Theatrical Event (Liza's at The Palace). That's an insanely difficult thing to pull off, and they did it beautifully. I could nitpick that there were a couple of sound glitches, and that I didn't think the songs from Pal Joey and Next to Normal went together well at all, but that really is just nitpicking.

(If you're wondering, yes, Elton John wrote the music for Billy Elliot, and Dolly Parton wrote all the songs, music and lyrics, for 9 to 5.)

Here's part 1:




And here's part 2: