Tony Awards (Theater Awards)

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      Broadway’s Pop Era

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      The Tonys are tonight. Many of the shows have a new sound.Tonight is the one night of the year when millions of Americans are focused on Broadway. That’s because it’s the annual Tony Awards, which, by virtue of being televised, are often the first way that many people learn about what’s new onstage.I write full time about theater, so I’m always thinking about what’s changing in that world, and this year I’ve been struck by the notion that the source of Broadway’s sound is shifting. More and more musicals are being written by artists who built their careers in pop music, and fewer by people trained in theater.I did the math, and here’s what I found: Just over half of the 15 new musicals that opened on Broadway during the 2023-24 season featured scores credited to artists whose primary credentials are in the music business. They include Alicia Keys, Barry Manilow and Britney Spears; Huey Lewis, Sufjan Stevens and David Byrne; Jamestown Revival and Ingrid Michaelson (whose song “My Days,” from “The Notebook,” is taking off on social media).Pop musicians are even helping to make plays. The leading contender for best play tonight is “Stereophonic,” a behind-the-music drama with bespoke song fragments by Will Butler, a former member of Arcade Fire, and this fall a Broadway production of “Romeo and Juliet” will feature music by Jack Antonoff, a frequent collaborator of Taylor Swift.“Stereophonic,” features songs by a former member of Arcade Fire.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“We haven’t had this since Tin Pan Alley — folks who are trained at creating an entire world in four minutes, now creating pieces that are two and a half hours long,” said Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton.” “I find it exciting,” he added. “I always think musical theater is more interesting when it’s in conversation with the world.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Listen to the Best Songs From 8 Tony-Nominated Shows

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      “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Stereophonic” and others are up for top prizes at Sunday’s ceremony. Our critic takes stock of their cast albums, all available now.Cast albums are both keepsakes and fantasies, preserving a show for those who have seen it and implying it for those who have not. At their best, they are also stand-alone works of musical-theater art. Listening to the recordings of the eight shows nominated for Tony Awards in the best musical and best score categories — all of which are now available — I was impressed by how often and how variously they reached that standard. Below, in chronological order by opening date on Broadway, a guide to the latest batch of future treasures.‘Here Lies Love’The first of the season’s best score nominees, this sung-through biography of Imelda Marcos was the only one not to release a cast recording. That’s a shame, but die-hards can seek out the 2014 Off Broadway version or the 2010 concept album, with its whacka-whacka disco-beat ditties by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. Remastered in 2023, and with a very different collection of songs from the Broadway show, the concept album is naturally less theatrical; with each track featuring a different singer in a totally distinctive style — Tori Amos, Florence Welch, Natalie Merchant, Sia — character development is impossible. Instead, it offers hypnotic dance-floor euphoria, as in Cyndi Lauper’s take on Imelda’s “Eleven Days” of courtship.“Eleven Days”“Here Lies Love,” featuring Cyndi Lauper, from the 2010 concept album (Nonesuch)‘Days of Wine and Roses’A story of husband-and-wife alcoholics on diverging paths toward recovery and disaster is bound to be harrowing, but Adam Guettel’s score carefully balances the inevitable lows with the sometimes wild highs. The cast album brilliantly captures that full-spectrum range, especially in the edge-of-danger singing by Kelli O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James at their finest. Their quasi-operatic cries for relief and forgiveness effectively contrast (but do not contradict) the jazzy mania of songs like “Evanesce,” in which the snockered characters sound like xylophones and leap like dolphins, making you ache if not for drink then for these desperate drinkers.“Evanesce”“Days of Wine and Roses” (Nonesuch)‘Water for Elephants’Jessica Stone’s thrilling staging is a real eye-catcher in this circus-based musical at the Imperial Theater. But the cast album demonstrates how the songs, by PigPen Theater Co., a seven-man indie folk collective, can grab you by the ears. Avoiding the rut of some Americana scores, PigPen, along with its arrangers and orchestrators, offers a wide variety of sounds and formats that suit the milieu and the action: bravura showstoppers for the ringmaster, soaring anthems for the hero, haunting ballads for the woman caught between them. One of those ballads is “Easy,” a heartbreaker even if you have no idea that it’s sung to a dying horse.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Christopher Durang, Playwright Who Mixed High Art and Low Humor, Dies at 75

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      In a career spanning more than 40 years, he established himself as a hyperliterate jester and an anarchic clown.Christopher Durang, a Tony Award-winning playwright and a master satirist, died Tuesday night at his home in Pipersville, Pa., in Bucks County. He was 75.His agent, Patrick Herold, said the cause was complications of aphasia. In 2016, Mr. Durang was found to have a rare form of dementia, logopenic primary progressive aphasia. The diagnosis was made public in 2022.An acid, impish writer, Mr. Durang never met a classic (“The Brothers Karamazov,” “The Glass Menagerie,” “Snow White”) that he couldn’t skewer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he established himself as a hyperliterate jester and an anarchic clown. Regarding subject and theme, he pogoed from sex to metaphysics to serial killers to psychology, and he had a way of collapsing high art and jokes that aimed much lower.“He’s so scaldingly funny,” the actress Sigourney Weaver, a friend and collaborator since she met Mr. Durang at the Yale School of Drama, said in an interview. “You laugh with horror at what’s going on and your sheer inability to do anything about it.”But even in his most uproarious work — like his early play, the sex and psychoanalysis farce “Beyond Therapy,” or his late hit “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” a delirious homage to Chekhov — there was often a strong undertow of melancholy.Mark Alhadeff and Cynthia Darlow in a 2014 production of Mr. Durang’s “Beyond Therapy” at the Actors Company Theater in New York.Marielle SolanWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Primary Day in N.Y.C.: Where the Races Stand

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      [Want to get New York Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.]It’s Wednesday. Weather: Sunny and dry, with a high in the mid-70s. Alternate-side parking: In effect until July 4 (Independence Day). Desiree Rios for The New York TimesEven as gloomy weather descended on New York, hundreds of thousands of voters cast their ballots on Primary Day.The election offered the first major test of a new voting system and capped off months of campaigning in several city races. But winners will not immediately be called in many major contests, including the Democratic primary for mayor and the city comptroller race, with no single candidate getting more than 50 percent of the vote and ranked-choice selections yet to be processed.Here’s a look at where the races stand (and you can follow all the results here):Eric Adams is ahead. But results are far from final.In initial tallies after Tuesday’s voting, Mr. Adams was in front among the Democratic candidates for mayor with nearly 32 percent of first-choice votes. He was trailed by Maya Wiley, with about 22 percent, and Kathryn Garcia, with more than 19 percent.The three remained firmly optimistic on Tuesday night. But Andrew Yang, who was in fourth place at less than 12 percent, conceded. “We still believe we can help, but not as mayor and first lady,” he said with his wife, Evelyn, at his side.As ranked-choice votes are tabulated, those standings could change, and absentee ballots also must be counted. It may be weeks before an official winner is named.The eventual victor will face off in the Nov. 2 general election against Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, who handily won the Republican primary over Fernando Mateo.[Read about the major takeaways from Primary Day, and check out neighborhood-level results.]Alvin Bragg leads the Democratic race for Manhattan district attorney.Mr. Bragg, a former federal prosecutor and deputy attorney general, was ahead in the Democratic primary for Manhattan district attorney, leading Tali Farhadian Weinstein by about three and a half percentage points. His platform was focused on police accountability and racial justice.If his lead holds, Mr. Bragg would become the first Black person to lead the office. If Ms. Farhadian Weinstein pulled ahead, she would become the first woman.The Manhattan district attorney’s race, which did not use the ranked-choice system, included eight candidates total.[Looking for more information on the race? Here’s our full story.]Other races were headed to ranked-choice tabulation.In the contest for comptroller, a position that will play a significant role in the city’s economic recovery, Brad Lander, who was endorsed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was ahead in first-choice votes. He was leading Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, by about nine percentage points.The winners of many City Council races were also still undeclared. Several incumbents coasted to easy victories, but in most districts the current officeholder was not running, guaranteeing at least 32 different faces.From The TimesUnanimous Vote Is Final Step Toward Removing Roosevelt StatueConnecticut Legalizes Recreational Marijuana, With Sales Set for May 2022With Mass Vaccination Sites Winding Down, It’s All About the ‘Ground Game’Morgan Stanley says no vaccine, no entry.Sylvia Deutsch, a Force in New York City Land Use, Dies at 96Want more news? Check out our full coverage.The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.What we’re readingSeveral mayoral candidates showed support for renaming streets named for slaveholders. What would the effort take to accomplish? [Curbed]Lagging vaccination rates among workers at group homes for disabled New Yorkers are sparking concerns. [Gothamist]At the Newkirk Plaza subway station in Brooklyn, residents say, officials have not addressed a growing rat infestation problem. [The City]And finally: Who got Special Tony Awards?The Times’s Julia Jacobs writes:The Tony Awards, long delayed by the pandemic, announced on Tuesday the first recipients, including the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, an organization started five years ago by a group of actors and others as a tool to work toward dismantling racism through theater and storytelling.The other recipients were “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” an intricately choreographed concert by the former Talking Heads singer, and “Freestyle Love Supreme,” a mostly improvised hip-hop musical that was created, in part, by Lin-Manuel Miranda.These honors, called Special Tony Awards, were presented to three recipients that the Tony administration committee thought deserving of recognition even though they did not fall into any of the competition categories, according to a news release.The recipients were announced more than one year after the ceremony had originally been scheduled to take place. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony was put on hold.The awards show — a starry broadcast that will celebrate Broadway’s comeback — is now scheduled to air on CBS in September, when Broadway shows are scheduled to return to theaters in almost full force. Most of the awards, however, will be given out just beforehand, during a ceremony that will be shown only on Paramount+, the ViacomCBS subscription streaming service.It’s Wednesday — show your appreciation.Metropolitan Diary: Familiar sightDear Diary:I was on an uptown No. 1 train. Across the aisle was a young man who looked to be in his early 20s. He had long, thick, curly red hair. There was a guitar case on the floor next to him.We looked at each other and smiled. I got off at the next stop.Around two months later, I got on another uptown 1. I sat down, looked up and saw the young red-haired man with his guitar case across the aisle and two seats away.We looked at each other. His eyes widened in surprise and his face broke into a grin.I’m sure I looked surprised, too, and I grinned, too.In two stops, he got off the train. We were both smiling.— Deametrice EysterNew York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com. More