Up Front at the Tony's
Kid Reporter attends Broadway's annual awards show.
For some families it was a struggle to decide what the watch on TV Sunday night: an NBA championship game or the Tony Awards, the Academy Awards for Broadway. In my family, it’s a no-brainer.
My mom is a Broadway producer, so my family is always 1000 percent focused on all things theater this time of year (though we also love basketball). Usually, I’m glued to the TV on Tony night with my ballot by my side. This year, however, was special. I was invited to join my parents at the Tony Awards.
One thing you probably don’t know, is that during those long commercial breaks you see on TV, the people in the audience are watching something totally different. We were shown some hysterical videos that showed Broadway inside out. For example, during one particularly memorable break, a video was shown where the cast of “Shrek,” was pretending to audition for various Broadway shows. In the video, the three pigs hopelessly tried to sing “Electricity” from the show “Billy Elliot.”
During another break, the host, Neil Patrick Harris, performed a card trick. And during another, two $30,000 watches were raffled off to random people in the
audience!
The awards were great, too. “Billy Elliot,” took home the gold this year, winning 10 awards, including “Best Musical.” The award for Best Actor, was given to the three boys who share the role of Billy—a Broadway first. They are the youngest ever to have won the award, at 14 and 15 years old.
Every Broadway musical presented elaborate production numbers, wowing the crowd, in addition to the outstanding opening number, which was an compilation of performances from the nominated musicals and revivals.
All in all, it really was an incredible experience. There’s no place like Broadway!
Wow you are so lucky to go there!Was this the first time you went to the awards?
Posted by: Scholastic Reporter Shelby | 06/18/2009 at 11:10 AM