Perspective: The 75th anniversary Tony Awards marks a crucial step back to health for a stricken industry
A glance at statistics published by the Broadway League — the trade group that runs the Tonys with the American Theatre Wing — reveals the slow progress. For the week ending June 2, 2019, for example, Broadway shows collected a total of $37 million; for the week ending June 5 of this year, the take dropped to $29 million. In 2019, 11 shows were sold out; for the comparable week this year, it was two.
“Christmas and January in New York felt like chaos,” said one veteran Broadway producer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the industry more freely. For some mainstay Broadway shows, the producer added, “all the profits were made before the shutdown. They did not come back well.” The pandemic roller coaster has also wreaked havoc on theater reliability. Few things raise consumer anxiety more forcefully than a well-planned visit to New York scuttled by performance cancellations. Broadway menace, thy name was omicron: The coronavirus variant raced through acting ensembles and stage crews regularly throughout the holiday season. So a mad rush to open delayed productions in April, right up to the deadline for Tony Award eligibility, created an unprecedented traffic jam.
In such an environment, the need to acquire the publicity-enhancing luster of a Tony Award takes on a more urgent dimension. The traditional Tony broadcast — which on Sunday begins with an hour of awards in design and other categories on Paramount Plus and continues with a three-hour event on CBS — draws a nationwide audience in the 5½ million-viewer range. That may be minuscule by network TV standards.
A total of 29 shows earned nominations in the 26 eligible categories this year. Nineteen of those shows are still running, including all six vying for best musical. (These also include
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