TONY AWARDS 2005- A LOOK BACK.

-I had an entire two minutes of rapture as soon as The Great William Crystal rose up from the stage, supposedly assuming the role of host. When he played his Frogs cell phone gag, I heard (distinctly) Nathan sneer in sheer disgust. When Hugh Jackman answered on the other end, I realized that God was cruel, vicious, and only toying with my petty emotions.
-Nathan's little "buzz-cut" is annoying and disarmingly attractive, all at the same time. No, maybe that's still just Nathan. Hmm.
-None of the performances were "top-notch," excluding from that list the enchanting Light In The Piazza, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (as if that show could pull off anything but pure genius), and even Lithgow and Butz's adorable off-stage chemistry that was only defeated by Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' atrociously ordinary libretto. Oh, and of course, La Cage looked as stunning as it always has. Thank you, Jerry Mitchell.
-I found Sara Ramirez rather ho-hum in her acceptance speech, but was absolutely amazed that she managed to pull through "Find Your Grail" despite her nearly debilitating illness at the time of performance (Over-exaggeration, you say? Have you ever tried to be a gorgeous, belting, bonafide Broadway Diva, Comic Actress, AND Tony Winner In Her Debut Tony Awards Ceremony Performance, not to mention ill? No. She wins serious Scene Points.).
-Most Poised Acceptance Speech Of The Evening: No contest: Doug Hughes (who, after seeing him at fifteen-billion ceremonies, I am beginning to fall head-over-heels in love with). Just take a look:
"Thank you. I've done a very great honor by this award, none greater than to have my name spoken in the same sentence of those masters: Joe Mantello, John Crowley and Scott Ellis. I'd like to thank my beautiful wife, Lynn, for the boundless supply of love, patience and belief she's lavished on her director/husband. I'd love to thank you, my mother and father, great actors, great parents. I know it must seem like a wild act of Oedipal revenge for the son of two actors to become a director, but I assure you that's not the case. What happened with Doubt is very, very simple. John Patrick Shanley wrote a play for our time and I was given the opportunity to work on it everyday in the company of geniuses. So if you will indulge me, I would like to live a fantasy and simply say, I love working in the world of the theater. Safe and dangerous, small and infinite, I am overjoyed to have a place in it. Thank you so very, very much."
(Believe me, it sounded much better live.)
IN CONCLUSION
-Hugh Jackman needs to get a life- one that does not involve hosting the Tony Awards. And, hopefully, the Wing has finally begun to understand that. As a performer, he's thoroughly enjoyable. But that stops very rapidly when he starts ruining classic showtunes. I love Hugh, but in the sense that he's just a little too gay to be a straight man. He played The Peter Allen, for Christ's sake.
Any questions?