Critic’s Notebook: Neil Patrick Harris Hosted the Tonys for Fourth Time

Mr. Harris was hosting his fourth Tony Awards. Even the best hosts of the marquee awards shows have sometimes found that after a few return engagements, the glow dims, often through no fault of their own; the writers or the viewers, or both, just need a change, and the show never catches fire.

Mr. Harris, though, would have none of that. He dazzled the house at Radio City Music Hall with an opening number that had him leaping acrobatically through a hoop, avoiding an effort by Mike Tyson to chomp his ear and pulling a vanishing act that was as impressive on television as it must have been in the theater. (He disappeared from a box onstage, only to reappear moments later at the back of the hall.)

The Tony broadcast always tries for a splashy opening, and this one translated particularly well to television. As often happens, the subsequent show rose to those heights only a few times. One of them came just minutes after Mr. Harris left the stage and the cast of “Matilda the Musical” took it over. If that show’s number didn’t produce an instant spike in ticket sales, there’s no hope for the theater.

In his opening Mr. Harris made the familiar reference to young theater lovers who sit out in the heartland watching the broadcast and dreaming that they will someday be on Broadway. Many of them probably watched this show and realized they had better pack their bags for New York before they grow too old to be cast. There may have been more young children on the Radio City stage than there were grown-ups, what with the musical selections from “Annie,” “A Christmas Story, the Musical” and other kid-heavy shows. Certainly the broadcast made the case, if it needed making, that New York can be a family friendly destination for those who can afford it.

Presumably many of those heartlanders are fans of the television series “Glee,” and the song from “Annie” certainly caught their attention. It featured Jane Lynch, a star of “Glee” and a recent addition to “Annie” in the role of Miss Hannigan. A theater wonk’s dream.

Another TV show that you might have thought would be referenced all night, the recently canceled backstage drama “Smash,” wasn’t much of a presence, perhaps because it was an NBC series and the Tony broadcast was on CBS. But one of its stars, Megan Hilty, did turn up in a comic number featuring stage actors who have tried television and been canceled (with Mr. Harris, star of the very successful CBS series “How I Met Your Mother,” providing the counterpoint). The number wasn’t great, but these days the connection between Broadway and Hollywood has to be acknowledged.

Instead of the expected running gag about “Smash,” viewers were served a running gag about Mr. Tyson, the former boxer, who had a one-man show on Broadway last summer. Mr. Harris tossed in Tyson jokes as he went along, in addition to bringing him onstage during that opening number for a gag referencing the time that Mr. Tyson bit an opponent’s ear. You almost expected Mr. Tyson to walk out when Ms. Lynch, singing the song “Little Girls” from “Annie,” delivered the lyric, “I’d like a man to nibble on my ear, but I’ll admit no man has bit.”

Sandy, the dog from “Annie,” gave the show one of its better moments during a two-shot with Mr. Harris, licking the host’s face enthusiastically and giving Mr. Harris some choice ad-lib opportunities. But things grew sluggish after that.

Remember all those heartland youngsters who are even now bound for New York? The first thing that should be required of them when they hit town is enrollment in a class where they are taught how to give an acceptance speech in 30 seconds or less. Because should they eventually realize their dreams and wind up onstage holding a Tony, what they actually have in their hands is the power to kill the momentum of the broadcast with an overly long acceptance speech.

Though the show ran long, Mr. Harris still got to close again with an insta-song, written during the program and making reference to what happened during the broadcast. It wasn’t as funny as last year’s, though. Maybe that Host Fatigue Syndrome was showing itself after all.

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‘Kinky Boots’ and ‘Vanya’ Win Top Tonys

The unusually fierce head-to-head competition in 11 categories between the sunny “Kinky Boots,” about a drag queen who helps save a struggling shoe factory, and the darker “Matilda,” about a young girl battling against cruel adults, dominated the night — though the musical revival of “Pippin” also proved to be a major force. That show earned four Tonys — including best revival of a musical and two prizes for its actresses — as did the critically acclaimed “Matilda.” “Kinky Boots” ended up with six.

The Tonys for plays were spread relatively widely among six comedies and dramas, with the bittersweet family satire “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” winning for best play — the first Tony in the playwright Christopher Durang’s decades-long career. The Tom Hanks vehicle “Lucky Guy,” however, one of the season’s biggest hits, was denied the biggest prizes.

It was a history-making night for female artists, and a huge one for African-American actors. Ms. Lauper became the first woman to win the Tony for music and lyrics solo; in the past other women have shared the award with male writing partners. And it was only the second time that two women won in both best-director categories: Diane Paulus for “Pippin” and Pam MacKinnon for the revival of Edward Albee’s drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” which also won for best play revival.

Meanwhile, at a time when only 15 to 20 percent of actors on Broadway are black, half of the major acting awards went to African-Americans. Cicely Tyson, at age 88, won her first Tony for best actress in a play as a neglected mother in “The Trip to Bountiful”; Patina Miller, best actress in a musical as the Leading Player in “Pippin;” Mr. Porter, best actor in a musical as the drag queen Lola in “Kinky Boots”; and Courtney B. Vance, best featured actor in a play as a newspaper editor in “Lucky Guy.”

In Ms. Miller’s case, it was also the first time that a woman and a man have won a Tony for playing the same role, according to a spokesman for “Pippin.” Ben Vereen won the Tony in 1973 as the Leading Player in Bob Fosse’s original production of the musical.

The longest standing ovation of the night went to Ms. Tyson, the oldest person to ever win a Tony, as she stepped gingerly to the Radio City Music Hall stage in a striking, shoulder-to-foot ruffled purple dress.

“It’s been 30 years since I stood onstage, and I really didn’t think it would happen again in my lifetime,” Ms. Tyson said of her role in “Bountiful,” a mixed-race production in which she plays a character conceived for white actresses. “Except I had this burning desire to do just one more — one more great role. I didn’t want to be greedy. I just wanted one more.”

Mr. Porter, whose two-decade career in New York theater has sputtered at times, credited the “Kinky Boots” director, Jerry Mitchell, for “reaching back and lifting up an old friend.” And Mr. Vance thanked his wife, the actress Angela Bassett, for urging him to return to the stage in “Lucky Guy” to appear opposite Mr. Hanks’s tabloid columnist character.

The biggest surprise of the night was the loss by Mr. Hanks, a two-time Academy Award winner making his Broadway debut in “Lucky Guy,” for best actor in the play. That honor went to Tracy Letts for his acclaimed performance as George in “Virginia Woolf” — a win that seemed to surprise even Mr. Letts, who looked stunned at first.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Mr. Letts, who is also the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of “August: Osage County.” He went on to thank his confederates in his hometown — “all the actors in Chicago and in storefront theaters.”

Steven McElroy contributed reporting.

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