The Tony Awards Were So Good: 6 of the Most Memorable Moments from Broadway’s Biggest Night

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater EditorBroadway celebrated its first full season after the COVID lockdown with the 75th annual Tony Awards, hosted by a newly minted Oscar winner and spotlighting stage work that included a media-darling frontrunner (“A Strange Loop”), a historical pop confection (“Six”), a King of Pop bio-musical (“MJ”) and an epic look at the roots of American capitalism (“The Lehman Trilogy”).

Much of the ceremony played out as expected, but as ably hosted by “Hamilton” alum Ariana DeBose, the night still provided plenty of moments for theater fans to remember.(1) Early wins for “Six and “MJ” prepped the audience for a night of surprises — which didn’t quite materialize.A number of Tony predictions (including ours) suggested “Six” had a shot at the award for Best Score, so that win, in itself, wasn’t much of a surprise.

But by the end of the ceremony’s first hour (which aired on Paramount Plus), “Six” had won two awards and “MJ” had scored three, suggested there might be more big losses in store for the expected frontrunner “A Strange Loop.” That’s not ultimately how it played out, but that first hour still held enough surprises to keep everyone guessing throughout the night. (2) Did Ariana DeBose’s opening number make the Tony Awards… cool? OK, maybe it’s impossible to make the Tonys actually cool, but the opening number of the main show on CBS (after the first hour of awards dispensed on Paramount Plus) started out sounding more like pop than classic musical theater, and then morphed into a mash-up of familiar showtunes that was clever enough to delight purists.

DeBose, in a white sequined body suit and tails, led it all with the confidence of, well, a Broadway regular. It was hip and queer and sexy, and it.