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The
56th Annual Tony Awards
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JUNE
6, 2004 --
LPR joined several
hundred people on 51st Street to watch the celebrities arrive for "The
58th Annual Tony Awards hosted by Hugh Jackman" – as
the Radio City Music Hall marquee announced. When that part of
the June 6 proceedings were completed, LPR caught part of Lonnie
Rathie's Bitter End performance and left (liking what was heard)
to join several hundred people to watch the Tony winners rush across
50th Street to meet the media in the Rainbow Room.
LPR began by
photographing a group of knowledgeable theatregoers, on 50th Street,
who were at the head of the line to attend the Tony awards. They
thought that Hugh Jackman would get the Tony for his role as Peter
Allen in "The Boy from Oz," and mentioned that they saw
Peter Allen perform at the Music Hall (which is one of the scenes
in the musical.) LPR then went to 51st Street and got photos of
Broadway theatergoers who did not have tickets for the Tonys. This
group included people from Houston, Texas and Kansas City, Missouri.
LPR also met people from Virginia, Colorado, New Jersey, Kentucky,
and Montana on 51st and 50th Streets, viewing outside this event.
The view on 51st
Street was not completely blocked by cameras and women in strapless
gowns, but it was not a clear view for the people penned-in across
the street. (A pen was also set aside for press people without
Tony credentials. This pen prevented press without Tony credentials
from meeting people who were not pressed against the press pen.
(Try saying that ten times, fast.) And, of course, plain press
IDs could not yield clear opportunities to photograph the arriving
celebrities, including Nicole Kidman, Sean Combs, Sarah Jessica
Parker, among others. LPR did get Frank Langella, standing the
other side of a strapless gown, and Kristin Chinoweth, starring
in "Wicked," lifted up by Mr. Langella to see the people
across 51st Street.
LPR also caught
a steel-helmted policeman on 51st Street, with automatic weapon
that, thankfully, was not waved. (What was THAT all about?)
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What
was THAT all about?
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The second half
of Viewing Outside The Event takes place on 50th Street and the entrance
to the GE Building, leading to the Rainbow Room. On this side of the
Music Hall there was no area set aside for press IDs without Tony credentials.
The kind intervention of officers representing the Police Department's
Deputy Commissioner, Public Information made it possible for LPR to
stand on the sidewalk, outside the pens for viewers, and take pictures
of winners and celebrities
striding to the GE Building and the media in the Rainbow Room above.
Chita Rivera
was caught waving to the people. Helen Mirren stopped to sign autographs
for people in two pens flanking this GE Building entrance.
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Helen
Mirren.
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John Rubinstein
stopped to sign autographs below the Rainbow Room NBC Studios canopy,
as did
Jerry Stiller and Joel Gray (starring in Wicked, not here shown). Carol
Channing was caught waving to the people. While Stiller was signing
autographs, his wife Anne Meara was waiting across the street at the
side entrance to the Music Hall. Some people shouted at Anne to come
back over. She stayed at the entrance, but expressed sympathy for the
people standing outside on a chilly evening.
There was no
contact between Tony show staffers and the viewers outside the
event. A member of the cast of "Assassins" was kind to
tell us that her show had won (to that point) four Tonys.
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4
Tonys.
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Close to 11 P.M.,
perhaps, two young women, (not shown) each holding what appeared
to be very thick looseleaf binders, emerged from the Music Hall,
and, dressed in gowns and wearing high heels, scurried east on
50th Street, shouting that Avenue Q got the Tony for best musical.
Very shortly after, people began leaving the Music Hall, also to
head east on 50th, perhaps for the after-Tony parties.
LPR headed to
the LPRmobile on Sixth Avenue and suddenly saw that Martin Short
was standing close by. Mr. Short stopped for this photo and took
LPR's card. Others LPR photographed, heading to Sixth, included
Gerald Schoenfeld, head of the Shubert Organization and Rocco Landesman,
president of Jujamcyn (no typos), and also pitcher on "The
Producers" softball team. LPR spotted noted director George
Wolfe (not shown) among those heading east on 50th and itself was
spotted by Carol Fineman, theatrical publicist. Ms. Fineman was
kind to ask about Shana, who likes to view outside the Delacorte
Theater in Central Park during the summer Shakespeare season. (The
Delacorte is at the southern rim of the Great Lawn, incidentally.)
It was reported
that Broadway had its best money-making season ever, this season
of 2003-2004. From the people LPR could meet viewing outside this
event, Broadway is very popular.
It was also reported
that the TV ratings for the Tonys reached a record low, and notwithstanding
the fact that Hugh Jackman was host. He was also host last year,
but was not mentioned on the 2003 Tony marquee. He was, as the
accompanying photo indicates, prominently mentioned this time,
with the League of American Theatres and Producers removed from
the marquee, perhaps in response to controversy set off when Daniel
Okrent, in the New York Times, wrote some harsh things about the
Tony awards. Jed Bernstein, president of the league, is a graduate
of the Fieldston School. Mr. Okrent is, LPR believes a Fieldston
parent. This writer graduated Fieldston 15 years before Mr. Bernstein,
but does not know him, other than to take his picture.
If LPR were acquainted
with Mr. Bernstein, it would have pressed him to reach out to the
theater-going public that travels to New York City from across
the land, and stands outside the Music Hall for a glimpse of favorite
actors and actresses. Is it, for example, not possible to put up
TV monitors for those viewing outside the event? At the very least,
can't the Tony people keep the people in the pens informed who
won the Tonys.
And can't the
celebrities, moving down the line of TV interviews on 51st Street
wave at the people across the street? Some did, but not that many.
Who pays to see these talented actors and actresses-- the interviewers,
or all those people across the street.
LPR concludes
that the Tony people aren't concerned whether people are watching
on television -- or standing across the streets. (Whether CBS,
which televises the Tonys, is similarly unconcerned is another
matter.) The Tony people seem to look no higher than the box office
bottom line. At risk of eventually alienating those theater-goers
who will stand on 50th Street to be in the presence of ... actors
and an awards show who ignore them.
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Straining
to see from inside the pen.
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