Blind Prophecy

With only 4 weeks until the Tony Awards (the night before my LSAT – meaning I’ll be in Utah), I thought I’d devote the next couple Music Monday blogs to some of my favorite moments from the Tony Awards. It’s totally subjective, of course, and pretty much limited to the last 13 years, but if you want a survey of great moments at the Tonys from the 60s, 70s and 80s, I suggest you support your local PBS station.

To begin, we’re going to travel all the way back to 1995, which is the first time I remember watching the Tony Awards. If I’d watched them before, I don’t recall, but in the weeks right after my graduation from high school, I remember having a rare Sunday night off from a rather intense summer job schedule (saving money for college). I think I only half-heartedly watched the broadcast. One number stood out, though…

Glenn Close and the cast of Sunset Boulevard – “With One Look”

What can I say, I was young, not yet aware that I would study theater in college, and infatuated with Andrew Lloyd Webber. I would learn. Even having outgrown the Lloyd Webber spell, I still have to admit that Glenn Close owns this song.

In 1996, I’d been bitten by the theatre bug. After appearing in The Normal Heart and helping out in a few backstage roles, I was volunteering for a summer production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, coming out of the closet, starting to date a boy for the first time, and generally discovering myself. So I recall fairly vividly the 1996 Tony Awards and the first Tony Awards party I was ever invited to.

But, of course, in 1996, there was really only one show worth mentioning*. Redefining and reinventing not just Broadway, but fashion and politics, and following the untimely death of the show’s creator, this show enjoyed enormous buzz – far beyond that of most Broadway shows. 1996 was the year every bisexual, trisexual, homo sapien bohemian said “Act Up, Fight AIDS!” and “We’re not gonna pay…” Rent.

The cast of Rent – “Seasons of Love” and “La Vie Bohème”

* There were other shows worth mentioning – Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk, several notable revivals, and the scandal when Julie Andrews declined her Tony nomination for Victor/Victoria because the rest of the cast was overlooked. But in the long run, only Rent has had such lasting impact on me personally or the Great White Way.

Next week… the year I was most emotionally invested in the Tony’s.

Filed under: music, theatregeekery by Jere Keys