Hands off the Tony Awards

Screenwriters are striking at the heart of Broadway

Shalom!

The Broadway Maven’s classes are on hiatus.

This Weekly Blast contains:

A) an ESSAY criticizing the Writers Guild of America for demanding changes to the Tonys;

B) PETER FILICHIA on The Lion King: Peter talks about the show’s opening number and literary influences;

C) a REVIEW of Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, a documentary about Stephen Sondheim’s ill-fated Merrily We Roll Along;

D) a SURVEY in which you’re invited to help The Weekly Blast get better;

E) a Broadway Maven YouTube GEM that’s a 10-minute version of Fiddler on the Roof; and

F) a LAST BLAST about Oklahoma! and Carousel.

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The Tony Awards broadcast is Broadway’s annual opportunity to shine well beyond New York City. Tourists buy tickets to see shows that won — or had great musical performances. Theatergoers who never visit New York learn from the Tonys which shows to see on tour. And the entire Broadway world has one night to celebrate what makes the art form special.

But at this year’s broadcast on CBS June 11, the talented Tonys team won’t be able to do its best work.

That’s because the Writers Guild of America (whose members pen much of the witty banter in awards shows) is on strike and twice refused to grant the Tonys a waiver. It was openly prepared to demonstrate in front of the Tonys, knowing that the heavily unionized Broadway community would not cross a picket line.

Please note that the WGA isn’t a Broadway union. Its members write for screens, not stages. To be fair, screenwriters have good reason to be upset, with streaming and other rapid changes in the industry making the life of the scribe ever harder – all while the threat of AI displacement looms. But that is not a Broadway controversy. The WGA is a Hollywood-oriented union that chose to make a splash in its labor struggle by essentially holding Broadway hostage.

Now, several leading Broadway playwrights including Tony Kushner and Jeremy O. Harris have been celebrated for “saving” the Tonys with a “compromise” between the award show and the WGA (which includes many playwrights who also write for screens):

• There will be no picket line;

• Most Broadway people will be able to participate in the Tonys, which will be televised;

• WGA members will stay home, instead accepting their awards via pre-taped video or by proxy;

• Lin-Manuel Miranda will not write his planned opening number;

• The previously written script has been scrapped; and

• Instead, expect unadorned award announcements, improvisation, and plenty of shoutouts to the WGA.

Such a solution undercuts the professionalism – and the fun – of the Tonys and benefits only the relatively small number of Broadway people who also belong to the film and TV writers union (including Kushner and Harris and company).

Truly saving the Tonys would have involved securing the rejected — but vitally needed — waiver from the strike.

Why should Broadway have anything less than a full celebration of its season of recovery and triumph? Shouldn’t Broadway’s best get the usual “Tonys Bump” from any victory? Right now, even leading Best Play contender Leopoldstadt is filling fewer than 60 percent of its seats — and according to BroadwayNews.com, the Best Musical nominees are struggling, too. This season in particular, allowing outsiders to “rain on our parade” is a mistake Broadway just can’t afford.

Given the tremendous influence of Broadway unions, it seems the only way the Tonys can be saved now is if the writers’ strike ends before the broadcast. I hope it does, because otherwise, Broadway risks a blow to ticket sales, the longevity of nominated shows, and enthusiasm for the theater in general.

And for what?

What do you think about the controversy over this year’s Tonys? Comment below.

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Peter Filichia’s Broadway: In this video, Peter discusses The Lion King:

• the significance of the “Circle of Life” opening number;

• the literary references in the show; and

• why Walt Disney would have objected to part of the show

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REVIEW: Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened

It’s a love letter to a flop.

In 2016’s Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, Merrily We Roll Along original cast member Lonny Price directs a film that explores the memories of the people who created the 1981 Stephen Sondheim-Harold Prince musical that closed on Broadway after 16 performances.

The documentary was released theatrically seven years ago, receiving rave reviews. It’s now streaming on Amazon Prime and is worth seeing, even if you’re not a Sondheim devotee.

And if you are? Wow. The documentary traces the thoughts of composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim and director Hal Prince about their greatest professional failure. It’s hard to look away, especially since they both passed in the years since the documentary was made.

(Another voice to watch for is that of the best-known Merrily performer by far, Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fame.)

The failure of the show has been attributed to its storytelling conceit, which traces the friendship of three people backwards in time. Prince also made some regrettable decisions like casting performers who were too young to play older versions of themselves, and having cast members wear T-shirts saying things like “Producer” and “Best Friend” — ostensibly to make the show less confusing, but practically making it look less professional.

However, the music was and remains brilliant, and some of the lyrics are ironically among Sondheim’s most hopeful:

It's our time, breathe it in:
Worlds to change and worlds to win.
Our turn coming through,
Me and you, man,
Me and you.

Price has done an admirable job gathering archival footage and conducting contemporary interviews to explore not only what went wrong, but also how the participants’ lives were affected by the show. He’s less interested in the chronology of the show and more interested in its heart, and why it’s so fondly remembered.

A revival of Merrily is coming to Broadway, with performances starting in September. If you plan to see the show then, see this documentary now.

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SURVEY: The Broadway Maven’s Reader Survey is still accepting responses through the end of the day tomorrow (Friday). I’d be much obliged if you filled out just a few questions to let me know which parts of The Weekly Blast you like best, and what changes you’d like to see.

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BROADWAY MAVEN YouTube GEM: Are you a fan of Fiddler on the Roof? Return to Anatevka with this 10-minute version. (Or, if you don’t know the show, here’s a great way to start.)

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NOTE OF THE WEEK: Substack Notes are short-form content (like a Tweet) that I’m using several times a week to provide commentary on musical theater in the news. Here’s a Note from last week as an example:

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LAST BLAST: In Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, malevolent farmhand Jud Fry talks about the “Little Wonder,” a weapon that looks like a toy: “It's a thing you hold up to your eyes to see pitchers, only that ain't all they is to it … not quite. Y'see it's got a little jigger onto it, and you tetch it and out springs a sharp blade.“ The choice of the word “jigger” to describe a lethal device is an interesting choice given that in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s next show, Carousel, character Jigger Craigin sparks the violent robbery that ends protagonist Billy Bigelow’s life.

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The Broadway Maven, David Benkof, helps students further their appreciation of musical theater through his classes, his YouTube channel, and his Weekly Blast. Contact him at DavidBenkof@gmail.com.