Tony Award Countdown: 30 Years In 30 Days, GLEE's Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele Infuse a Pop-Dominated Telecast With Classic Showtunes, 2010

Welcome to BroadwayWorld's Tony Award Countdown: 30 Years In 30 Days, a look at some of the Tony Awards' most memorable moments from the past three decades.

The opening medley of the 2010 Tony Awards pushed the selling point that Broadway was now full of songs that you already know and love from the would of pop music. Only one of that season's Best Musical nominees, MEMPHIS, boasted a new score. The others received their scores from the recordings of Green Day (AMERICAN IDIOT), Fela Kuti (FELA!) and the early hits of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis (MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET).

Also opening that season was Twyla Tharp's dance revue, COME FLY AWAY, featuring songs recorded by Frank Sinatra, and Sherie Rene Scott's EVERYDAY RAPTURE, which did include some new songs, but was represented on the telecast with The Supremes' hit "Up The Ladder To The Roof."

So it was up to a hit television show to infuse the Tony ceremony with a pair of classic showtunes. Fox's new series "Glee," about the Broadway-loving members of the William McKinley High School Glee Club, was enjoying tremendous popularity and was not only introducing television audiences to musical theatre songs, but to new Broadway stars like Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele.

The American Theatre Wing's 70th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by Tony Award winner James Corden, will air on the CBS Television Network on Sunday, June 12, 2016 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET/delayed PT) live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City.