The Tony Awards

The Tony Award show is the weirdest award shows I watch, because I never care about the winners. How can I, when I have never seen any of the shows? Legally Blonde and Spring Awakening remain the only two shows I have seen with the original cast, so every year when I sit down to watch the award show, I don't really know anything about anyone nominated or the shows that are nominated. I read reviews and everything, but I cannot make my own decisions. This goes in direct contrast with The Oscars, The Grammys, The Golden Globes and The Emmys. With those shows, I have seen or heard almost everything nominated in the categories that interest me. I know what the performances looked like because I have watched the movies. So, why watch the Tony Awards? If the actual winners do not matter to me, what is the point?

This year, Neil Patrick opened his hosting duties by saying that as a kid watching the Tony Awards was the only way he could see what Broadway was up to. I know it sounds silly now, with the Internet and everything, but I feel this same way. I am something of a Broadway novice. Even though I have spent 11 years performing in musicals, I am kind of stupid when it comes to musicals. I just started buying Cast Recordings like 6 years ago, and I am kind of particular as to what I buy. I do not spend a lot of time on Broadway websites or blogs and I do not watch a lot of videos from shows. I love musicals and I love plays and have immensely enjoyed the 5 Broadway shows I have seen and I love live theater, but for whatever reason, I do not use my Internet time on Broadway. Some of it is because I think being introduced to a show via a shaky video taped Youtube video will never do a show justice.

For the longest time, I was introduced to shows through friends. I was introduced to Rent and Batboy through a friend from a show, and then living with Erik and Jason introduced me to all kinds of shows, but for the last four years, I have really relied on the Tony Award performances. It is the chance for shows to get my 12-17 dollars on a cast recording based solely on the performance of the cast in 5 minutes on the Radio City Musical Hall stage. This is why I watch the Tony Awards.

Before I go further, I have to explain what I am looking for in an album from a musical. I need something that is fun to sing. I love pop and rock scores. I need something I can sing at the top of my lungs and have fun doing it. I am not against classical Broadway shows, but they are not as much fun to sing. I am not a traditionalist, in fact, when it comes to Broadway, I am more of that "General Public" Broadway snobs hate. I love jukebox musicals and pop operas and pop voices. But, I will not buy something just because it is a jukebox musical. I have to watch the award show to make sure it is something worth purchasing.

This makes the preferences monumentally important for me. I am prone to impulse purchases and I will have my computer open, with my iTunes open and I will buy something as soon as a good performance happens. I am probably more easily impressed than a majority of people watching the Tony Awards because I just really like to watch people sing and dance and harbor the misguided belief that anyone who actually made it to Broadway deserved it. Call me naive, I guess. However, I am rarely truly impressed by the performances on the Tonys. I need something extra from the cast. I know they perform 8 shows a week and they are probably tired, but I need a show. I need to be able to imagine what a whole show looks like. I think the people who decide on what to perform understand this, because often people go for medleys, but that does not always work (Hello, Spring Awakening).

My method is not full proof. Jersey Boys had an awesome performance at the Tonys in 2006 and I was so excited to buy the album and I have not listened to it in years because I hate it. So many of the great songs from The Four Seasons are part of medleys on the album. I am sure I could sing to it, but the good songs are too short and their is entirely too much music on their, which means they had to use some bad Four Seasons' songs. Call the Mamma Mia syndrome. Also, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels ended up performing the one song I actually ended up liking when I bought that album.

However, because of the Tony Awards I have the cast recordings for The Wedding Singer, Spamalot, Rock of Ages (Which is going to be an amazing addition for Road Trip music) and one of the best albums I have heard in the last few years: In The Heights. I had never even heard of In the Heights until the performance last year. Now, I am obsessed. Proving the power of a Tony Performance, the cast of In the Heights won me over so much, I have watched basically every video on Youtube. Now, the album makes the whole thing totally incredible, but if the Tony Award performance had been weak, I may never have bought it.

One last by-product of watching the Tony Award performances is I can skip buying shows, I thought I would like if the performances suck. I figured Cry Baby would be a show I would like, but the number they performed was awful in every way and I opted not to buy the album. The same went for Passing Strange and my curiosity to see Shrek was definitely put to rest by their number. Then there are a few performances that did not make me want to buy the album but got me interested in wanting to see the shows: Billy Elliot, Curtains and The Color Purple.

The Tonys offer an audience a unique look at something they will most likely never see, at least not on Broadway. Now, I do not know anyone who watches the show that is not a big Broadway nut, but I imagine there are people out there, people who dream of being able to spend the money to go to New York and see a Broadway show. For those people, the Tonys are important for different reasons than just who wins and loses. Most people can shell out 10 bucks to go see a movie that has been nominated for an Oscar, but the performances of the Tonys have the opportunity to shape an opinion on what one show people will see if they get to Broadway that year. That is what makes the show important. That is why I love the Tonys so much.

However, having Neil Patrick Harris hosting, doesn't hurt!