No gimmicks. No devices. No trippin’ down a flight of stairs. After getting some recommendation from Oprah, Tony host Cynthia Erivo defied gravity and opened the 78th Tony Awards by merely being herself.
The Depraved: For Good star tapped her GRAMMY, Tony, Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated vocals to have a good time what Broadway does greatest: carry us emotionally nearer with phrases and music.
The evening belonged to Goal and its star Kara Younger, who earned her second consecutive Tony win. On the finish of her impassioned speech, which lasted longer than Cynthia Erivo singing her off, she declared, “Theater is a sacred area.”
Goal gained Greatest Play, giving EBONY Energy 100 awardee Branden Jacob Jenkins his second consecutive win. Like Younger, he gave flowers to the director of the political household drama, Phylicia Rashad. Noting how Goal had began on stage in Chicago, Jacob Jenkins urged viewers to “help your native theater.”
First-time nominee Natalie Venetia Belcon grew to become the first-time winner, who took house the evening’s award for Greatest Efficiency by an Actress in a Featured Function in a Musical for her work in Buena Vista Social Membership.
Oscar winner Paul Tazewell made historical past once more tonight, turning into the primary particular person to win this 12 months’s Oscar for Depraved and this 12 months’s Tony for Loss of life Turns into Her. It’s his second Tony; Tazewell gained for Greatest Costume Design in 2016 for Hamilton.
Alvin Ailey legend Judith Jamison, Oscar-winning actor James Earl Jones and celebrated producer Quincy Jones have been only a few of the names acknowledged within the “In Memoriam.”
After which Ervio took us house with an unique wrap-up of the present sung to the music of Dreamgirls‘ “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” Yup, it’s time for a revival of that one.