SOUND OFF: 2011 Tony Awards With MORMON(s), SPIDER-MAN & More

A BOOK OF MORMON sweep - Best Musical, Best Direction, Best Score and Best Featured Actress included - with a few unexpected moments along the routine ride was the 2011 Tony Awards in a nutshell - and, if we're putting best things first: it was Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman that took the prize as Best Actor and Best Featured Actor of the night - no question about that. Not only was Harris an assured and energizing presence and great all-around host, he proved that he can roll with the punches no matter what happens - flubs, flop sweat or otherwise. Speaking of which: while Brooke Shields may not be taking home the top prize for her performance this time, certainly the ladies delivered in a big way thanks to the performance of Patina Miller and company from SISTER ACT and Sutton Foster's simply sensational "Anything Goes". Additionally, Daniel Radcliffe and newly-minted Tony-winner John Larroquette with the cast of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING generated quite a white hot heat, as did Norbert Leo Butz and Aaron Tveit leading the medley from CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. While MORMON and THE NORMAL HEART gathered the king's ransom of the big awards - with WAR HORSE winning Best Play, Direction and more - some upsets occurred to spice things up and the specialty material for Neil Patrick Harris brought back memories of the Alexander Cohen broadcasts that mark the finest era of the Tony Awards presentation on television (Lin-Manuel Miranda and Michael John Lachiusa/Patick Vaccariello deserve high praise for their material, especially) . It could have been better overall, for sure, but it could - and has been, in years gone by - much, much worse. 6.5/10 - to use the SPIDER-MAN joke scale and match NPH's score, blow-by-blow.

Neil, Hugh & MORMON Musical Comedy; Or, MORMON, COMPANY & Co.

Neil Patrick Harris is the best Tony Awards host since, well, Hugh Jackman, and this year - once again - they exhibited many of the multitude of reasons why they are among the most entertaining and engaging performers on Broadway, in Hollywood or any other place in the entertainment sphere. They are Grade A leading men - and last night they towered above all others insofar as performances go. The opening number was smooth and funny, which was no small feat given the tentative - and, in one glaring example in particular: severely under-rehearsed - nature of the first musical number of the night (and, the last, which was even better). The Beacon does not allow room for an orchestra on stage or in the pit as set up for this year's Tony telecast, so they were in a studio elsewhere. Bad move. The live orchestra adds style and flair to a show that can already seem lugubrious with its three-hour running time - and COMPANY on film is a perfect example of the indescribable atmosphere a live orchestra can afford. There is a clear-cut reason live orchestras are traditionally used on awards shows - including the Oscars - so one would think that an awards show ostensibly about live theatre would respect that aspect of the enterprise. Not so. That being the case, it worked out about as well as everything else - good, but nowhere near great. Although, there were a few quite memorable and cherishable moments - Butz's "Don't Break The Rules", as well as Jackman and Harris's aforementioned numbers all are modern Tony Awards classics now. "So, there is that" - as Harris said when he opened the show; and, so it goes. Indeed, Harris is all that - and very definition of "it". The NPH/Jackman duet set the night afire in a fun and seemingly spontaneous way which was generally in short supply on last night's Tony telecast, to be perfectly frank. Whew and wow - this really has been NPH's year with the film of COMPANY opening in movie theaters on Wednesday following this umpteenth notch on his decadently decorated belt.

Now, for what didn't work too well: MEMPHIS is just not a score that represents the great Broadway tradition - and, if we're being perfectly honest, compared to a score like COMPANY, even BOOK OF MORMON seems a little musically mundane and lazy, easy in its targets and transparently button-pushing. Many wished JERUSALEM would take the Best Play prize, but WAR HORSE managed to win not only Best Director, but also the Best Play prize, though Mark Rylance took home his well-earned second Tony for his lead role in JERUSALEM. Speaking of the Best Play category - and moving beyond the less appreciable aspects of the hit-and-miss broadcast - this was one of the most enjoyable and revealing ways of attacking the presentation of a tricky category, so the producers are to be commended for that. Clips never work and rarely do live performance snippets, so taking a lead actor from the drama or comedy on hand and letting them describe the experience of the play in the theatre is an excellent way to include the viewer who may not have had the chance to see the show into the spirit of the festivities. Changing THE MOTHERF*CKER IN THE HAT to THE MOTHER IN THE HAT was a tasteful choice, given the options, but the censoring of "Screw somebody's wife," in the song from CATCH ME IF YOU CAN - which took away more than a line and a half of the verse of the endlessly entertaining Marc Shaiman/Scott Wittman song - seemed to seriously jump the gun, as it were. It was a standout song, otherwise. Good for Norbert, as well. CATCH ME does not get the praise it is due.

More than many shows in Tony Awards history, this broadcast was tailor-made to TV and that fact was on full display in numbers such as BOOK OF MORMON's "I Believe", as well as the showstoppers from the aforementioned ANYTHING GOES, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, SISTER ACT, and, surely, the piece de resistance besides the specialty songs - Harris, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Christina Hendricks, Patti LuPone and company with COMPANY's "Side By Side". Lonny Price's feature film version of COMPANY opens in more than five hundred movie theaters nationwide this Wednesday and that alone makes it worthy of celebration for Broadway babies - if only for bringing Stephen Sondheim's seminal concept musical comedy to the masses in a new, revolutionary and exciting way. Just you wait until you see it (SOUND OFF review coming Tuesday)! Harris was the Prince of the prize night and COMPANY is further evidence of his talents - as was his skill full rap throwdown. Hopefully, Harris and Hugh Jackman can reconvene for a performance in a future musical film live performance capture like COMPANY - INTO THE WOODS perhaps? How about FOLLIES? Sadly, none of the musicals on display last night really drew any excitement in the same way that the classic songs from COMPANY and the classic song medleys provided - the HOW TO SUCEED and ANYTHING GOES revival performances included - and the MORMON and SPIDER-MAN musical performances failed to catch fire (and what was with that awkward and interminable mumble session with Bono and The Edge?). Also, did MORMON really deserve everything under the sun? Then again, did THE PRODUCERS?

But, back again to the best parts: last night's performance was an ideal introduction to the show for the uninitiated as well as for the film version COMPANY. COMPANY on film is ten times better than even the performance from the cast of COMPANY last night - a number surely among the Top 2 or 3 of the entire broadcast. This wasn't a game-changer of a Tony Awards like COMPANY is on film, but Neil Patrick Harris provided the perfect advertisement for what may very well be the most important and significant presentation of a piece of musical theatre in the 21st century insofar as an international audience is concerned. It is a big, big, big deal - bigger than MORMON, believe it or not. Wait and see. And, anyway: potential promises fulfilled on Wednesday or not, COMPANY's representation on the Tony Awards is a sensational showstopper to remember and treasure over the gaffs and un-pleasantries that tended to crop up through no fault of anyone in particular. The Beacon was not an ideal location, but Neil Patrick Harris as host more than made up for that fact. COMPANY added another point to the middling night's tally - though MEMPHIS and MORMON fail to represent the best of what Broadway can afford and take away from the experience of it all in some ways. Also, SCOTTSBORO walked away empty-handed despite having been nominated for twelve awards and that is a STEEL PIER-level slap in the face to Kander & Ebb's final show, which featured inventive and distinct direction and choreography by Susan Stroman and innovative design by Beowulf Boritt. No sour grapes, but nothing is so good to take everything - even COMPANY did not take it all when it first arrived on the Great White Way. You can't win them all, I suppose. Nonetheless, NPH imbued the evening's affairs with an air of elegance and grace and when classy acts take the stage - Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones' well-deserved standing ovation the prime example - an idiosyncratic dimension of a gilded age long gone pervade the atmosphere and for a mere moment the Tony Awards ascend to the heights of the most distinguished and exceptional of awards shows. No, last night's broadcast did not have any moments that quite matched the highs of many shows of year's passed - even those in the last couple of years, such as 2009's jaw-dropping over-the-top-hat-ness - yet, there was enough to keep the audience entertained (especially, those at home) - whether acclimated with the season or otherwise (after all, how many people can get into - or even afford tickets to - BOOK OF MORMON; plus, not everyone has seen COMPANY yet since it does not premiere until Wednesday). Even for those who don't know COMPANY, the Michael Bennett moment made sense - and stunned me (and, I imagine, many others). Smashing. The rest? Good, not great.

Whatever the case, to quote the finale: "Go see a motherf*cking Broadway show!" Preferably, one of the underdogs of this rich, highly-lucrative season full of hits and misses.