<\/p>\n
NEW YORK<\/strong> \u2013 The most infectiously joyous of awards shows, the Tonys often feel like a summer camp reunion \u2014 make that a theater camp reunion \u2014 except with tuxedoes and gowns replacing the shorts and tees.<\/p>\n That was certainly the vibe on Sunday night, where the crowd delighted in familiar Broadway heroes finally winning their Tonys, and where the biggest award went to a Broadway musical that celebrates, well, Broadway musicals<\/a>: \u201cSchmigadoon!\u201d<\/p>\n There were reunions within the reunion, too. For example, the original cast of \u201cThe Book of Mormon,\u201d including Josh Gad, Nikki M. James and Andrew Rannells, was on hand to perform a number marking the show\u2019s 15th anniversary \u2014 a definite highlight of the night, especially seeing Gad move to the song \u201cMan Up.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the acceptance speeches, many moms and dads and spouses and kids were thanked, of course. But one winner refreshingly thanked all the babysitters that made their career possible. <\/p>\n Some highlights of the night:<\/p>\n Pink sure got that party started<\/p>\n In the show’s first bit, new host Pink, who has not performed on Broadway, pretended she didn’t know what she was doing, and dangled uncomfortably from a wire, trying to be Peter Pan. Then Neil Patrick Harris, who’s hosted multiple times, came out and told her she just needed to be herself: \u201cYou\u2019re Pink! You can do anything,\u201d<\/p>\n Of course he was right. The consensus was that Pink killed it, starting with the opening number, where she led an enormous ensemble of some 170 Broadway performers in a version of \u201cLady Marmalade\u201d that was a love letter to this season’s shows, with current casts performing onstage and lots of actors name-checked in the audience, too. As in: \u201cGitchie Gitchie Lesley Manville, Gitchie Gitchie Carrie Coon.”<\/p>\n The number was written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (the duo behind \u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d and \u201cThe Greatest Showman\u201d) and Mark Sonnenblick (who co-wrote \u201cGolden\u201d in \u201cKpop Demon Hunters\u201d), and the reaction in the theater was ecstatic.<\/p>\n Thank you for \u2026 canceling us?<\/p>\n This was a new kind of thank-you. When \u201cSchmigadoon!\u201d won best musical, producer (and \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d creator) Lorne Michaels spoke first, saying \u201cSometimes singing, dancing, jokes and a happy ending are all you need.\u201d<\/p>\n Then producer Christine Schwarzman spoke and thanked Apple TV for canceling the third season of the TV show<\/a> it was adapted from.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout them dropping it, we couldn\u2019t have picked it up and ran with it. So, thanks Apple TV,\u201d she said, to laughs.<\/p>\n A voice teacher gets a deserved thank-you<\/p>\n There was no award that had the audience cheering louder and longer than when Joshua Henry finally won a Tony, after four nominations during a stellar Broadway career.<\/p>\n Henry won best actor in a musical for his career-topping turn as Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Black pianist who suffers the horrors of racism in the current revival of \u201cRagtime,\u201d an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow\u2019s novel<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to his wife and kids, Henry thanked his first voice teacher, which got huge applause from the crowd. He also thanked Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell, legendary Broadway actors who preceded him in the 1998 run of \u201cRagtime.\u201d<\/p>\n Babysitters deserve gratitude, too<\/p>\n Henry\u2019s \u201cRagtime\u201d co-star, Caissie Levy, was waiting for him for a long hug backstage. Levy, who was the original Elsa in the Broadway version of \u201cFrozen,\u201d had just won her own first Tony, for leading actress in a musical. In her own speech, Levy thanked a lot of people, but one unusual shoutout was to her family’s babysitters: \u201cThank you to \u2026 every babysitter who\u2019s made it possible for me to be both a Broadway actor and a mother.\u201d <\/p>\n Levy, a mother of two, plays the character called Mother.<\/p>\n A play about history makes some of its own<\/p>\n The winner for best play, \u201cLiberation\u201d by Bess Wohl<\/a>, toggles between the present time and the \u201970s, exploring the roots of second-wave feminism through a consciousness-raising group that meets in an Ohio gym.<\/p>\n But it was a different kind of history that playwright Wohl addressed in her acceptance speech \u2014 the fact that she was the first American woman to win the category since Wendy Wasserstein won for \u201cThe Heidi Chronicles\u201d in 1989.<\/p>\n She told women and girls who were listening; \u201cMay you speak your truth and may the world be wise enough to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLiberation\u201d also won the Pulitzer Prize<\/a> this year. <\/p>\n If anyone can make ‘Oedipus’ funny, it\u2019s Cole Escola<\/p>\n There is literally not one single thing that is funny about the story of Oedipus, the Sophocles classic tragedy with a shocking ending.<\/p>\n But Cole Escola, the mastermind behind the hit comedy \u201cOh Mary,\u201d found a way. Presenting along with Maya Rudolph, who is now playing Mary Todd Lincoln in Escola\u2019s play, the writer-actor noted of Oedipus:<\/p>\n \u201c(It\u2019s) a play that asks the question: Can women really have it all?\u201d<\/p>\n If you don’t get the reference, ask Manville. The veteran British actor won for leading actress in a play for her devastating turn as Jocasta in Robert Icke’s modern retelling of the tragedy \u2014 her Broadway debut. As she noted in her own speech, she plays Oedipus\u2019 wife and, also, it turns out, his mother.<\/p>\n To which someone in the audience called out: \u201cSpoiler!\u201d<\/p>\n This is New York. They support the Knicks<\/p>\n When actor John Leguizamo introduced a segment on the show, he couldn\u2019t resist ending his remarks with \u201cKnicks in four!\u201d<\/p>\n The crowd at Radio City Music Hall gave a huge cheer. You thought they were going to root for the other guys?<\/p>\n The Knicks lead the San Antonio Spurs by 2-0 in the NBA Finals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Learning some moves during commercial breaks<\/p>\n The audience at Radio City Music Hall doesn’t just sit there in silence when the Tony telecast goes to commercials. There’s usually something happening, and this time, there were opportunities to learn some moves. <\/p>\n