Time Sq., New York, April 8, 2016, Occasions Sq. is a serious landmark of New York, brightly adorned with billboards and ads.William Rodrigues dos
Time Sq., New York, April 8, 2016, Occasions Sq. is a serious landmark of New York, brightly adorned with billboards and ads.
William Rodrigues dos Santos
Had this been a traditional yr, the Tony Awards would have occurred in June and Broadway can be gearing up for its profitable vacation season. As a substitute, the Nice White Means is predicted to stay shuttered till not less than Might 30, 2021, and its annual award ceremony is being hosted this Sunday night time.
The coronavirus pandemic prematurely ended the 2019-2020 Broadway season, limiting the variety of eligible nominees and eliminating the 2020-2021 season totally. This led classes like finest revival and finest unique rating to don’t have any nominations for Sunday’s Tonys and the very best actor in a number one function class to solely have one nominee.
“If the pandemic had come two weeks later, we would have seen a completely completely different Tonys,” stated Derek Miller, a theater professor at Harvard College.
Setting the stage
The Tonys aren’t only a time for Broadway handy out awards and have a good time the earlier season of reveals. The ceremony has turn into an enormous a part of the business’s promoting and has influenced how and when producers launch their reveals.
“The Tonys have turn into so essential that reveals at the moment are frontloaded in a season so that they open proper earlier than the awards,” stated Miller. “So an enormous variety of Broadway reveals open in late March and early April.”
Producers need their reveals to debut proper earlier than the Tonys in order that performances are recent in voters’ minds and to make sure that much less of their cash is in danger. With this technique, a present that debuts in March is just open for round two months earlier than discovering out if it’s going to get a lift from a Tony nomination.
However this yr, the pandemic prompted closures proper as issues have been gearing up. Initially, reveals wanted to open by April 23 to be nominated for the 2020 awards. Nevertheless, after closures have been introduced, the date was amened to Feb. 19.
“This timing turned out to be horrible with the onset of the pandemic in the USA as a result of it meant that theaters shut down proper on the level the place the final surge of reveals set to open,” stated Miller.
“Six,” “Hangmen,” “Firm,” “The Lehman Trilogy,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “Sing Road” and “How I Discovered to Drive” have been gearing up for his or her debut, however by no means did.
Had the pandemic hit later within the spring, these reveals would have opened and there would have been a bigger slate of performs and musicals for the annual award present.
After all, there are exceptions to this technique. “Moulin Rouge,” which was nominated for a handful of Tony Awards this yr — together with the only nominee for finest actor in a musical — opened in July 2019, almost a full yr earlier than the 2020 awards have been set to happen.
“Tina,” additionally up for finest musical, opened in November and “Jagged Little Tablet” debuted in December.
“Our Broadway neighborhood has been extremely resilient throughout this tough time, and we look ahead to paying tribute to the performers and artists,” stated Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, and Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, in a joint assertion in October.
The facility of a Tony
Simply being nominated for a Tony Award brings consideration to a present and may also help enhance ticket gross sales. Successful, nevertheless, is the place the true advertising and marketing energy lies.
In June 2018, “The Band’s Go to” swept the highest classes on the Tonys, taking house prizes for finest musical, finest e book, finest rating, finest actor in a musical, finest actress in a musical and finest path of a musical.
Within the week following these wins, the present hauled in $1.1 million in ticket gross sales. The final time the musical hit the $1 million gross sales mark for one week of gross sales was the primary week of January 2018.
The 2019 finest musical winner “Hadestown” had been enjoying to offered out crowds even earlier than hitting it large on the Tonys. In whole, the present took house eight prizes and continued to promote out tickets till it was compelled to shutter in March of this yr. At the moment, “Hadestown” was averaging $1.2 million in ticket gross sales every week.
For Tony winners this yr, the award shall be about status and the opportunity of monetary acquire for particular person performers, administrators and writers. People who take house the prize may use it as a method to leverage future pay raises or greater value tags for future tasks. However, the wins are unlikely to do something for the reveals themselves.
Miller would not anticipate Broadway’s technique to vary as soon as the pandemic is beneath management. He foresees producers returning to this components due to how profitable it may be.
“Folks will, and admittedly rightfully, see this as an especially uncommon occasion to have hit at precisely that proper second,” stated Miller.