Alone and Unobserved

Before yesterday, I had only tried watching one televised awards show–this year’s Oscars, with Jon Stewart–and it was awful: long, drawn-out and boring. (Except for Stewart; he delivered his usual comedic gold.) So I was very surprised when I when I stumbled into the Tony broadcast on CBS and was almost immediately sucked in. It was already fifteen minutes into the show, but fortunately my DVR had been making an automatic temporary recording of Channel Two for the last hour, and I only had to push a button to make the recording official and begin watching from the beginning.

The main thing I’ve taken away from watching the Tony broadcast is that, once again, I wish I lived in New York, and could actually go see these shows on Broadway. What I loved:

• The live “clip show” performance of the new, pared-down production of Sweeney Todd, which stars Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett, Michael Cervaris as Sweeney Todd, and Manoel Feliciano as Toby.
• The crazy-but-fantastic choreography from the Wedding Singer.
• The scene from The Drowsy Chaperone, featuring the song “I Don’t Wanna Show Off No More.”
• Rod, the gay, Republican, Alan-Cumming-obsessed puppet from Avenue Q who harrassed Christine Ebersole as they co-presented the results of the Best Actress category (or whatever the Tony equivalent is).

What I wasn’t too keen on:

• Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper mumbling their lines, in leather.
• Jersey Boys winning Best Musical after having an extraordinarily boring and unconvincing clip-show.
• Harry Connick Jr.’s hair, as usual.
• The Oreo Choco Stix commercial full of singing and dancing, all by people who could neither sing nor dance.

Basically, I need to hustle on up to New York, pronto, and spend a few months just watching Broadway shows. Of course, after that, I probably wouldn’t be able to handle normal life again.