In spite of being hindered by the coronavirus pandemic, the shortened Broadway season will nonetheless have a Tony Awards.
Tony Award Productions said Friday that the celebration of live theatre will be digital but offered no date or streaming platform. Final eligibility determinations will be made by the Tony Awards Administration Committee “in the coming days.”
Broadway theatres unexpectedly shut on March 12, taking out all shows — including 16 that were as yet planned to open. Makers, referring to wellbeing and city authorities, have multiple times broadened the Broadway shutdown, at present until at least early January.
Only shows that formally opened are qualified for Tonys so the supposition that will be that shows that were still in sneak peeks when the shutdown request came won’t be getting looked at.
Some spring shows — like a musical about Michael Jackson and a revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker — pushed their production to next year. But others abandoned their plans, including Hangmen and a revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
“Though unprecedented events cut the Broadway season short, it was a year full of extraordinary work that deserves to be recognized,” said a statement from the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, which present the annual Tonys.
“We are thrilled not only to have found a way to properly celebrate our artists’ incredible achievements this season but also to be able to uplift the entire theatre community and show the world what makes our Broadway family so special at this difficult time.”
Photo credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
News source: The Associated Press
