It’s a good night to be a Broadway fan. Airing on CBS, the 77th Tony Awards featured nearly a dozen performances from some of the greatest talents in the business — no ridiculously expensive ticket required!
Musicals featured on the stage during this year’s ceremony included Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club; Hell’s Kitchen, a jukebox musical of Alicia Keys songs; Illinoise, a dance revue with music and lyrics by Sufjan Stevens; the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along; a new musical adaptation of the coming-of-age novel The Outsiders; Suffs, an original work about the women’s suffrage movement; a musical retelling of Water for Elephants; and the revival of The Who’s Tommy.
Stereophonic, a play that features music by indie rock band Arcade Fire, was not originally granted a performance slot at the Tonys, but it was later added to the evening’s lineup — potentially due to fan outcry over its initial exclusion.
Ariana DeBose returned as the host of this year’s Tony Awards, marking her third time emceeing Broadway’s biggest night, which was held at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater in New York City.
Scroll down to watch footage of this year’s Tony performances, which we’ll add as official videos become available. In the meantime, drop a comment with your thoughts below. Which musical number(s) made you want to book a flight to the Big Apple?
Following Ariana DeBose‘s opening number, the first Broadway musical to take the stage this year was Hell’s Kitchen, treating fans to a medley of songs from the Alicia Keys production, ranging from “Fallin'” to “Empire State of Mind.” (Watch above.)
To sweeten the pot, Keys and Jay-Z even joined the cast to close things out. Watch:
The cast of The Who’s Tommy was up next with a performance of “Pinball Wizard,” joined by the band’s co-founder Pete Townshend on guitar.
The critically acclaimed cast of Merrily We Roll Along — led by Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez — performed third, making everyone in the audience feel like “Old Friends.”
Be still our Flash-loving hearts. Grant Gustin led the cast of Water for Elephants in a high-flying performance of several songs from the new circus-set musical.
Introduced by Julianne Hough, the cast of this dance-centric musical (set to songs by Sufjan Stevens) left audiences deep in their feelings.
After grooving along with this performance from Stereophonic, it’s hard to believe that the cast almost didn’t get to take the Tonys stage.
Were we prepared for Eddie Redmayne’s performance as Cabaret‘s eccentric Emcee? Absolutely not, and neither are you.
If you aren’t marching, marching, marching by the end of this song, we don’t know what will get you up out of your seat.
Introduced by producer Angelina Jolie, the cast of The Outsiders took the stage for a performance so hot, they needed to bring in some rain just to cool everybody off.
Very happy about the wins for Merrily We Roll Along, especially for Daniel Radcliffe & Jonathan Groff. I saw the show and they were wonderful! I was actually surprised how good The Outsiders looked. They were smart with the number they picked to perform.
The show was just ok, I’m getting a little bored with Ariana as host, I think they need to change it up next year. She is talented but it is time for something new.
Also, can the biz stop trying to make Nicole Scherzinger into some star. She is mediocre at best. I don’t care if she is going to be in Sunset Blvd or any other show. There are just so many other talented women that blow her away vocally!
well Ariana did say she wanted a break from hosting the Tony’s
The segment from “Stereophonic” still seemed shorter than many of the others. And it almost entirely consisted of the cast performing a song, which was weird because it was nominated (and won) as a play, not a musical.
Well, Stereophonic was the only play that got promoted with a live performance. I thought that was unfair. So, the short time they got was more than any other play got.
Why did Hell’s Kitchen get three times the airtime for their performance over the other shows? This wasn’t the MTV Awards.
I think Hell’s Kitchen and possibly The Outsiders have the best chance of being hits with visiting tourists, who make up 60% of Broadway audiences in summer. The HK performance was very energetic and should have opened the show, rather than the generic performance that did (no knock to Ariana but the material was subpar to her abilities.)
Ariana choreographed, wrote and created all her own material. It was her love feat for herself.
She bombed. Her arrogance was her downfall.
With that reasoning then, the Outsiders should have gotten a 15 minute performance also. Also, Hell’s Kitchen probably doesn’t appeal to many tourists unless they’re fans of Alicia Keys, because it’s mainly a show of her greatest hits, a jukebox musical. It will probably play well with her huge fan base though.
One of the WORST Tony’s ever!
Ariana had an “I love ME, adore ME, worship ME!,” feast from beginning to end.
I didn’t see a single show that entices me for a week in NYC. Is Grant Gustin even the star of his show or a featured player?
This, more than ever before, appeared as Broadway thinking America must come to it than understanding it needs America to want to come to NYC and, while there, take in shows.
Was pleasantly surprised Geoff didn’t have his typical spittle (he was slobbery even when they performed Old Friends on Colbert)
It was hard to hear Gustin during his short bit for Water for Elephants when I watched live
The Chita Rivera Tribute was the best entertainment at this year’s Tonys.