The long-awaited ceremony for the 2020 Tony Awards not only celebrated the 2019-20 Broadway season but also the return of live stage performances after 18 months of pandemic lockdown. In a bifurcated broadcast, the majority of awards were presented during a 7pm-9pm Paramount+ livestream, which featured a reunion of the original Hairspray cast in “You Can’t Stop the Beat” and original Dreamgirls Tony winner Jennifer Holliday in “And I Am Telling You.” The 9pm-11pm segment that aired on CBS was dubbed “Broadway’s Back” and was hosted by Hamilton Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr. Below is Odom in the opening title song by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman with Amber Ruffin.
The CBS broadcast also included clips from the three nominated musicals plus performances by David Byrne in “Burning Down the House” from special Tony winner American Utopia, John Legend in a medley with the cast of Ain’t Too Proud, Daniel J. Watts and Jared Grimes with Broadway Advocacy Coalition, and an extended in memoriam section featuring Kelli O’Hara and Norm Lewis in “Somewhere” (West Side Story) and Brian Stokes Mitchell in “Impossible Dream” (Man of La Mancha).
The award for best musical went to Moulin Rouge!, one of its 10 wins among 14 nominations. Its other trophies went to Aaron Tveit (actor) and Danny Burstein (featured actor) — ending his record as the most nominated performer without a win — as well as to Alex Timbers (direction), Sonya Tayeh (choreography), and Derek McLane (sets), Catherine Zuber (costumes), Justin Townsend (lights), Peter Hylenski (sound), and the team of Kate Kresek, Charlie Rosen, Matt Stine and Justin Levine (orchestrations) in a sweep of the musical design prizes. [You can read my interview with Justin Levine in Dramatics magazine.] Below is the official video of Tveit in “Come What May.”
The bio-musical Tina took home one award among its 12 nominations for title star Adrienne Warren (actress). Below is Warren in a medley from the broadcast. The jukebox musical Jagged Little Pill, which went into the ceremony with 15 nominations, took home two prizes: Diablo Cody (book) and Lauren Patten (featured actress), who sings the showstopper “You Oughta Know.”
For the first time in Tony history the award for best score went to a play. Christopher Nightingale won for his work on Jack Thorne’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which also swept the play design prizes, converting all five of its overall nominations into gold. Rob Howell won for sets and for costumes, Hugh Vanstone for lights, and Simon Baker for sound. Below is the show’s official trailer, featuring Nightingale’s music.
The CBS presentation offered numerous duets, including Odom and Josh Groban in “Beautiful City” (Godspell), Odom and wife Nicolette Robinson in “You Matter to Me” (Waitress), Ben Platt and Anika Noni Rose in “Move On” (Sunday in the Park with George), and Titus Burgess and Andrew Rannells in “It Takes Two” (Into the Woods), plus the original Broadway duos of Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in “For Good” (Wicked), Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp in “What You Own” (Rent), and Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell in “Wheels of a Dream” (Ragtime). Below is that classic duos section.
The news among nonmusical shows was the shutout of Slave Play, which made history with its 12 nominations in 10 categories. The prize for best play went to The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez, the first Latino playwright to win. His show’s other three wins were for Stephen Daldry (director), Andrew Burnap (actor), and 90-year-old Lois Smith (featured actress), who became the oldest actor ever to win, replacing the late Cicely Tyson, who won in 2013 at age 89 for Trip to Bountiful. The remaining Tonys went to Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play as best revival, its star David Alan Grier as featured actor, and Mary-Louise Parker as actress for the play The Sound Inside.
The evening ended with a wrap-up of the night’s events in an improv performance from Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of special Tony winner Freestyle Love Supreme, which you can watch below.