Blind Prophecy

You know what’s nice about the Tony Awards? We know for sure that it will be over on June 15. No superdelegates to consider, no disqualified states, no 24-hour news punditry examining every angle and every conceivable racial/sexual/class breakdown of voters.

As we continue Jere’s guide to his favorite moments in the Tonys, we’ve come to 1997. There’s not much to say about this year’s show. I didn’t care much for the offerings in general and I think the most exciting part was Rosie O’Donnell’s amazing tour de force opening sequence. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say it’s the best opening the show has ever had. In 14 minutes, Rosie managed to sum up everything that was relevent to late 1990s Broadway. Innovative musicals redefining the genre like Rent and Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk, long-running holdovers of the 80s like Cats, jukebox musicals Smokey Joe’s Cafe, revivals with stunt casting like Grease, and the Disneyfication of Broadway Beauty and the Beast. It’s almost prophetic about the future of Broadway theatre. On top of it all, you can tell Rosie O’Donnell is living the dream – singing alongside some of the most celebrated performers of the decade and inserting herself into nearly everything playing on the Great White Way. Show me a showtune queen who wouldn’t kill to do exactly what she did.

1997 Tony Opener with Rosie O’Donnell, part 1

1997 Tony Opener with Rosie O’Donnell, part 2

And now, gentle reader, travel with me 12 calendar months into the future to the year 1998.

I don’t know what it was about that year, but never before or since have I cared quite so much about the results of the annual awards show. Perhaps it was because I was coming into my own as a full-fledged drama geek who had worked up the courage to sing onstage with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Perhaps because there was just a lot of good quality musical theatre that year. I don’t know. I just cared. A lot.

That’s me on the far right – I was skinny and had hair. Oh to be 19 and a virgin again. Wait, nevermind.

I’ll say this, going into the Tony’s I wanted Ragtime to win. To this day, I can’t think of a musical that has more songs that still feel like personal anthems in my life: “New Music” “Wheels of a Dream” “Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square” “He Wanted to Say” “Back to Before” “Make Them Hear You” and especially “Till We Reach That Day.” I thought the musical was pure, heart-tugging genius.

1998 Tony Performance – Cast of Ragtime

Although the show would lose the best musical statue, it did get best book (Terrence McNally), best original score (Music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens), and best featured actress in a musical (the stunning Audra McDonald). I think Marin Mazzie was robbed of Best Actress, but I liked Natasha Richardson well enough.

Speaking of Richardson, the revival of Cabaretliterally stunned people. In a work that has always vacillated back and forth between shocking audiences and playing it safe (controversial elements like bisexuality, abortion, pro-Nazi sentiment, and more have come and gone since the original stories published by Christopher Isherwood in the 1930s). In the 1998 revival (which more or less dropped the boldering Bob Fosse stuff), the emcee went from being a disconnected clown (see Joel Grey in the movie version), to an emotional and highly sexual character as created by Alan Cummings, who took home a statue for his troubles (I just hope that someday I can look at him without thinking of Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion). Even in this censored-for-broadcast-television version of the show openner “Wilkommen” you can see the unique style and approach to a musical that had been revived a couple of times since it’s 1960s debut.

1998 Tony Performance – Alan Cummings and the cast of Cabaret

There were many other shows that year deserving of mention. 1776, The Scarlett Pimpernell, Side Show – not to mention plays like Art, Freak, Golden Child and The Beauty Queen of Leenane. But there’s no way around it. 1998 was dominated by one show (which is saying a lot considering everything else going on that year). It was favored by more people who bothered predicting such things, and despite my cheering for Ragtime, after seeing this performance, it became obvious why this show, helmed by Julie Taymor and backed by Disney, would take home numerous awards including Best Musical.

Ladies, Gentlemen, others, and prefer not to disclosers; I give you, The Lion King…

1998 Tony Performance – the cast of The Lion King

I mean, listen to it. Not the music – you can hear it in better quality on the CD. Listen to this crowd of presumably jaded long-time theatregeeks and professionals go crazy and applaud like children at the effects and the music. These aren’t polite end-of-number applause, there’s a light change near the end that gets applause! I mean, that alone should tell you something.

Anyway, for the purposes of my journey down memory lane vis a vis the Tony Awards, we’ve reached the end of the 90s.

“But wait, Jere, what happened to 1999?”

Excellent question, friend. In 1999, I was living in Alaska and the only television I had access to was in the employee housing rec room, which usually smelled like someone had farted and was always taken over in the evenings by dumb kitchen guys watching the sports through poor reception. Instead of watching the Tonys that year, I served old people salmon and ran the light board for the worst dinner theatre musical ever.

Next week, though, we’ll jump ahead into the 21st century and marvel at the Broadway of the future, where a gay adamantium-clawed mutant lights of the stage and everyone asks “hey, wasn’t that a movie before it was a musical?”

Filed under: music, theatregeekery by Jere Keys