• Tony Awards 2018

6/12/18 (Tues)

In one corner of the world, the Broadway glitterati pats itself on the back and loudly proclaims its tolerance even as it rises and cheers Robert De Niro’s clarion call, “F**k Trump and all his supporters” (I paraphrase).

In another corner at exactly that same moment, President Trump is in Singapore preparing for an historic meeting that could lead to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and peace in a highly unstable part of the world.

And that juxtaposition clearly doesn’t strike anyone on Broadway as odd. The Tony Awards is a party on its own self-obsessed planet. I’m a big Broadway fan and have probably seen more of the play nominees than a lot of Tony voters, but I have to wonder about an industry that clearly despises the people it feeds off of. Diversity and such should speak for themselves without the theatrical community congratulating itself every step of the way for its own broad-mindedness and inclusiveness, which they evidently assume you don’t share. The very fact that Angels in America is nominated or that blacks and Hispanics are playing traditionally white roles in successful, mainstream Broadway productions should be enough without Andrew Garfield blathering on about gay acceptance or the Latina actress bragging about keeping her ethnic name (so last century – Sinatra did the same many decades ago without saying a word about it). That’s particularly so given that the vast majority of the audience for those shows remains snow white – some of these shows viewed from the stage look like a KKK meeting. The theatrical community is in a tiresome saggy bubble.

Aside from the dreariness of this preaching to the choir, the awards people don’t seem to understand that they’re undermining a perfect opportunity for producers to pitch their product, especially the musicals. Even big theater buffs like me tune out when the politics start. And it began even before the show, when a performer from Harry Potter, which is charging $1,200 (not a typo) for the two-part series, said on the red carpet that Trump would not be welcome in her theater. Really? He can’t even watch a play? I doubt he would go anyway given the upbraiding of Mike Pence by the cast of Hamilton when he came to enjoy the show, and that’s even before he took office as Vice President. But this is from a woman who, as a black performer, benefited herself from the open-mindedness of the theatrical community. You’d think she would have learned.

I want entertainers to entertain. I wonder what went through the heads of the producers of SpongeBob SquarePants, a shaky show that could have used the exposure, when their colleagues were doing everything they could to drive viewers away. After turning off, I missed nearly all of the performances and can’t be bothered to find them online. Television ratings were up slightly, but that’s hardly an accomplishment given last year’s disastrous showing. Even the presence of Bruce Springsteen, Tina Fey and other big draws failed to bring viewers in.

It was especially disheartening to hear De Niro rail against Trump precisely when the president has put everything on the line for a resolution of the dangerous Korean situation in a daring meeting with the North Korean leader. Would it have been too much for the ranting De Niro and all those among the starry crowd who gave him a standing ovation to wish Trump well in his efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, bring stability to East Asia and give a life to struggling North Koreans, among other benefits? Opinion may vary on the effectiveness or appropriateness of the meeting, but a huge majority of Americans (nearly three-quarters in a recent poll) believe Trump deserves the benefit of the doubt. The glamorous Broadway elite needs a healthy dose of reality. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised after reports of similar virtue-prancing at the Oscars, Grammies and such, but I had assumed that the commercial instincts of producers eager to show off their musicals would tame their desire to show off their glowing political halos. Silly me.

Some advice to the Tony people: Just get on with the show. You’re not helping your cause in the least.