This year's Tony Awards saw a lot of great moments historically, comically and just in general. The 70th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by James Corden, was packed full of everything from comedic jokes regarding current events (like presidential nominations) to stellar performances (both inside and outside of the theater) to history being made regarding winners. There were so many beloved moments that it was difficult to narrow it down to Top five. Though, if I had to choose, these were the top five moments of the 2016 Tony's.
5. Political Plays: Book of Moron vs. A Clinton Line
Cracking jokes at politics has never been shy to TV award shows. The Tony's have never been an exception to that. Last Sunday night, The Tony's decided to take a turn at poking fun at both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the prospective party nominees for the 2016 election. When James Corden came out in the middle of the show he informed the audience of "new plays" that would be coming to Broadway soon. The first entitled "Book of Moron" (Obvious spoof of the musical "Book of Mormon") featured Andrew Rannells (who played the original main character Elder Price in the original Broadway Cast of "Book of Mormon") who came out on stage sporting a blonde toupee wig and white dress shirt with a red tie. Rannells sang a verse from the show's opening number Hello, but parodied the song by changing the lyrics from the original line to "Hello, my name is Donald Trump, and I'd like to build a wall that goes right through your house." However, if you wanted to see a quip focused on the probable Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, the Tony's did not disappoint as Cordon introduced the next "new musical," entitled "A Clinton Line," a spoof of the Broadway show "A Chorus Line" and featured Glenn Close on stage, blue dress and all, singing one of the line to the opening song of the show "I Hope I Get It." "I really need this job. Oh God, I need this job. I've got to get this job," Close belted out to the audience and viewers at home watching. Political jokes and parodies have are nothing new and are usually quite funny and entertaining. The "Book of Moron" and "A Clinton Line" are no exceptions.
4. Opening Number: Hamilton/James Cordon Childhood and Broadway Medley
Through the years, the Tony's have always opened up with a fun opening number, usually as a way to introduce the host as well as preview a few different shows that will be featured in that night's award ceremony. This year featured not just one but two numbers. The first was at the very start of the show with the cast of the hit Broadway show "Hamilton, singing a parodied version of the opening number of "Hamilton" entitled "Alexander Hamilton". Instead of singing about the first secretary of treasury of the US however, this version featured lyrics regarding the Tony Award's host James Corden. After talking for a bit about that night's award ceremony, Cordon started to sing another song. Corden mainly sung this song, and it started off with him singing about how he got inspired to be on the Broadway stage and in the spotlight. The song quickly changed to Cordon spoofing various hit broadway shows such as "Lion King," "Guys and Dolls," "Phantom of the Opera," "Les Miserables," etc. singing about all the various roles he dreamed of playing as a young kid. The opening number was a fun, toe-tapping tribute to various hit musicals.
3. Ham4Ham: Tony Edition
During "Hamilton"'s run on Broadway, creator Lin Manuel Miranda has been having a free mini concert outside of the Richard Roger's Theater. These concerts include songs usually sung by Lin and cast members of the show singing covers or songs that got cut from the show. This year's Tony Awards wanted to honor the Ham4Ham show as well as give people standing outside the theatre who could not be inside a little treat. Throughout the Tony Awards (usually before commercials), audiences were treated with different cast members singing various classic broadway tunes. From the "School of Rock" cast singing "Phantom of The Opera" to the "Fiddler on The Roof" cast singing "There's No Business Like Show Business" to even Lin Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles, Steve Martin, and Andrew Llyod Webber singing "Annie'"s "Tomorrow." This was not only a treat for audiences outside the theater and watching at home, but a preview of the cast performance that would be coming up after the commercial break.
2. Lin Manuel Miranda Acceptance Speech
When Lin Manuel Miranda won his first award of the night, his speech like many others, wanted to try to honor the victims who lost their lives that day due to gun violence that occurred at Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando, Florida. In his speech (which he wrote in the form of sonnet) he not only discussed the love for his wife, but what we can learn from history and how we should love each other and not try to take today for granted, as we may not get a tomorrow. The quote that I as well as many people love and remember from his speech is "And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside." In times of tragedy and sadness we need to remember love and how it can help us to move on from the bad times, but learn from our past. Lin's speech helped remind us of that, and this was just one of many great speeches at this year's Tonys.
1. Hamilton Wins Best Musical
When Barbra Streisand went up to announce the best musical award, many people already had figured what it would be. However, the second Barbra announced the name "Hamilton" everyone in the world who was watching the award show at the time must have been smiling. Hamilton had already won 10 other awards, and to win Best Musical was something that, as it was highly predicted, was not a huge shock. To see the cast come up on stage (well, at least those who were not getting ready back stage to perform the closing number), so happy and excited that all the hard work and effort that was put into the show earned it the Best Musical Tony Award for 2016 must have been amazing. Hamilton is one of the best shows on Broadway currently, and with the title of 2016 Best Musical as well as the various other awards it received, I see the show doing even better than before (if that is even possible).
