Hippies, small children and unstable couples were probably not tuning into the Tony Awards last night, so why reward them? But this year's top Broadway honors managed to draw a decent television audience, give people still angry about Prop 8 something to cheer and piss off theatre connoisseurs as tales of economic woe and marital dysfunction took home major laurels.
Chipper '80s strike story "Billy Elliot" with songs by Sir Elton John (who appeared) was named best new musical, with its three teenage stars sharing the Best Actor statuette. (No, actually, they each got their own.) Best revival went to the '60s free-love musical "Hair," also known as the show at which baby-boomer parents are most likely to accidentally expose their children to nudity of both sexes.
Both host Neil Patrick Harris and presenter Will Ferrell made jokes about how high everyone in the cast was, but it was Public Theater director Oskar Eustis who got cheers for accepting with the words "Peace now, freedom now, equality now, and justice forever," pointing at his own wedding band (although he is straight). ]]>
