Hey, the Tonys Are On!

Another day, another awards ceremony. In the opening sequence of tonight's Tony Awards, the drag queens of "La Cage," gave way to the afrobeat of "Fela!" followed by the punk rockers of "Green Day." There was a little Sinatra and a little rock and roll to give the show some musical continuity with the past, but this isn't your mama's Broadway anymore.

I love the Tonys for all the reasons that other people seem to dislike them – the lighter emphasis on major stars, the older skewing tastes, and the close-knit community that can seem unwelcoming to outsiders. And the performances. The Tonys are almost wall to wall performances, and people whose eyes glaze over at the thought of the song numbers and dance breaks at the Oscars must go catatonic with fright at the thought of three solid hours of them. But unlike the Oscars, the performers have been doing these shows nightly for months and months and are well versed in how to play their numbers to the live audience for maximum effect. And they get away with so much more spontaneity - such as when Douglas Hodge came into the audience to coochie-coo Matthew Morrison.

But despite all the big numbers, the proceedings feel smaller and more intimate than most of the other big award shows. The stars look more relaxed, there's way more energy from the performers, and we get just as many of the big emotional moments that the Oscars and the Emmys have served up over the years. The Tonys may not be of particular cultural significance to the majority of the country anymore, but you can tell they're important to the people in that room. It comes across how tight-knit and well-regarded the New York theater community is, and how it has its own way of doing things. The In Memoriam segment named theater founders and press agents alongside the actors and directors. And nobody makes much of an effort to hide alternative lifestyles anymore, the way they still automatically do over on the West Coast.

Host Sean Hayes, who I haven't seen since "Will and Grace," effortlessly accompanied the opening performers on piano, kept his introductory appearances brief and fun, and did an all-around great job. There were appearances by many actors who have been absent from Hollywood lately - Lucy Liu, Antonio Banderas, and even Angela Lansbury. There were bigger names as well – Beyonce, Jay-Z, Will Smith, Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren, Michael Douglas, and Green Day. Denzel Washington and Catherine Zeta-Jones picked up awards. And of course there were the stars usually associated with Broadway like Nathan Lane, Kristin Chenoweth, Bebe Neuwirth, and the ever-present Bernadette Peters. But it was especially gratifying to see Morrison and Lea Michele from "Glee" dropping by to pay tribute.

As usual I didn't know most of the nominated plays and musicals aside from the reviews I'd read in the New York Times, but that didn't bother me. I don't know most of the film nominated for the Oscars when they're up for awards either. A major function of these award shows is to give the public a glimpse of work being honored so we'll go and seek them out. The problem is that I rarely get to see the Tony winners, being so far from New York. Sure, I'll see the touring versions of "Avenue Q" and "Wicked" when they make it out to my end of the country, but it's not the same. I'm still kicking myself for not getting up to Berkeley in time to catch the Berkeley Rep tryout of "American Idiot."

Tomorrow there will be the usual gripers who come out every year and make the case for CBS to stop broadcasting the Tonys, or at least to truncate them more than they already are. This is a mistake, because though the awards don't matter to a lot of people, they matter an awful lot to those few people who do still watch and enjoy. I still watch every year and I will continue to watch no matter how out of style they become.

I mean, how wonderful was Catherine Zeta Jones's acceptance speech? Or Nathan Lane, who was such a memorable Albert in "The Birdcage," presenting the Tony to Douglas Hodge for Albin in "La Cage"? "Glee" has proven that we have much to thank Broadway for, so let their kudocast endure. With so many others crowding the airwaves, surely one more in the middle of June can't hurt anything.