The tony awards: the year the oscars met the grammys

“Hollywood stars and British imports” ruled this year’s Tony Awards, said Ellen Gamerman in _The Wall Street Journal. Red,_ a high-minded work about abstract expressionist painter Mark

Rothko that transferred to Broadway from London’s Donmar Warehouse, won six Tonys, including Best Play. _La Cage aux Folles,_ another import from London’s West End, won for Best Revival of a

Musical. The winners in this year’s acting categories, meanwhile, might easily have been mistaken for Academy Award winners. Holly­wood heavy hitters Denzel Washington, Catherine

Zeta-Jones, and Scarlett Johansson all took home acting awards. The ceremony itself made clear that, these days, Broadway imports its musical sensibility as well as its stars, said David

Hinckley in the New York _Daily News._ A surprisingly diverse set of performances celebrated not traditional Tin Pan Alley songwriting but “time-tested pop hits.” Imaginative music-and-dance

numbers drew on the sounds of Green Day, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and ’70s Afrobeat superstar Fela Kuti—all of whom had inspired “feel-good musicals” this year. Even Best Musical

winner _Memphis,_ an interracial love story set in the segregation-era South, featured original tunes inspired by 1950s R&B chart-toppers. For much of the evening, it seemed as if the

Tony Awards had become “the TV show the Grammys have always wanted to be.” Forgive me if I wasn’t having a great time, said Charles McNulty in the _Los Angeles Times._ This year’s Tonys

showed, more clearly than ever, that in today’s theater, “box office potential and Hollywood celebrity trump quality and innovation.” Stage veterans barely had a chance in categories where

stars like Zeta-Jones and Jude Law were nominated for merely average work. Awards should validate “excellence and originality”—not just serve as advertisements meant to drum up business. For

the sake of Broadway’s own continued vitality, I can only hope that in the future, the industry as a whole might be daring enough to “bite the hand that feeds it” by challenging its

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News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. THE WINNERS Best Play__ Red Best Revival of a Play A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day –

and the best features from TheWeek.com _Fences_ Leading Actor in a Play Denzel Washington, _Fences_ Leading Actress in a Play Viola Davis, _Fences_ Featured Actor in a Play Eddie Redmayne,

_Red_ Featured Actress in a Play Scarlett Johansson, _A View From the Bridge_ Best Musical _Memphis_ Best Revival of a Musical _La Cage aux Folles_ Best Original Score _Memphis_ Leading

Actor in a Musical Douglas Hodge, _La Cage aux Folles_ Leading Actress in a Musical Catherine Zeta-Jones, _A Little Night Music_ Featured Actor in a Musical Levi Kreis, _Million Dollar

Quartet_ Featured Actress in a Musical Katie Finneran, _Promises, Promises_ Explore More Stage