CMU School of Drama


Friday, April 17, 2020

Tony Awards postponement is a first, historians say

Broadway News: The postponement of the 2020 Tony Awards is a first in the 73 years of the ceremony, according to theater historians.

This year’s Tony Awards ceremony has been postponed indefinitely as Broadway theaters remain shuttered through at least June 7, the original date of the Tony Awards, due to the impact of COVID-19. Its fate was threatened by a dispute in 1965 and its subsequent fallout in 1966, as well as labor disputes through the years, but theater experts said none of the events that have closed Broadway theaters in the past have affected the ceremony.

3 comments:

Annika Evens said...

I did not know that the Tony Awards have never been postponed before. So this was interesting to read. As sad I am about not being able to see the Tony awards when I thought I was going to be able to, I still do believe that they will happen. If the award show can’t go on I am sure that they will find a way to honor the winners remotely. If the performances don’t happen now, I am at least hoping they will happen eventually. I am scared to see how long it takes theatres and live performances of that scale to resume because I just strongly feel that any sort of event with a live audience will be one of the last things to get back to normal. I thought this article was really interesting is laying out some of the history of the Tony Awards because I really didn’t know anything about their history besides what I have seen from watching them, and I feel like no one really ever teaches you the history of the Tony’s.

Cecilia S said...

I did not know the Tony Awards have run everything single year before this year. I have been hearing that a lot of these big and long-running awards and festivals have been canceled/postponed and it's their first time doing so. The most recent one I heard was burning man. Although I’m sad that I don’t get to watch them this year, I think it is okay as long as we keep the spirit of appreciating the art and work that artists have put out. Not just in theater but for all awards across industries. Theater has been hit very hard, more so than TV and film because it relies on live audiences, and I wonder how it will affect the awards in the future. I am glad they're not canceling the Tonys but just postponing it for now, because people need to be recognized for the work they do.

Dean Thordarson said...

This pandemic has spurred quite a number of firsts, including the cancellation of the Tony’s for the first time in its 73-year history. In addition, other events such as ComiCon have been cancelled for the first time ever. Some of these events bring in hundreds of thousands of attendees, so these cancellations must not be taken lightly. The fact that Broadway itself is closed was the biggest for me. Broadway was one of the first major things to shut down that I was aware of, and shortly thereafter I began hearing the news of many more places shutting down. It has been interesting to watch as events farther and farther in the future are cancelled; at first, only events in the next week were cancelled. Then it was events next month. Now, we are seeing some events getting cancelled months in advance, such as the Tony’s or ComiCon. I am anxiously awaiting the day that the graphs and the slopes begin to flatten out so the world can begin to come back to normal.