Selling Broadway to the masses

CBS extended its broadcast of the Tony Awards this year from two hours to three. PBS had presented the first hour of the show since 1997, but this year that hour came complete with commercials.

How fitting. The Tony Awards telecast is in fact one long commercial -- primarily for Broadway, secondarily for New York. A few more commercials didn’t make much difference.

Of course, plenty of award shows function as commercials. But the hucksterism was especially glaring at the Tonys on Sunday night, because the proportion of the TV viewing audience that has actually seen the nominees in action is tiny. People who watch the Emmys presumably watch other TV shows regularly, but people who watch the Tonys need a harder sell to spend the money required to enter a Broadway theater.

And so we got a parade of personalities with only a marginal connection to Broadway. The idea seemed to be that these familiar faces would make Broadway less intimidating.

This year, the host was Hugh Jackman, an actor known mostly for his movies who will make his Broadway debut in the fall. At least he acknowledged his lack of Broadway credentials with a few self-deprecating wisecracks and snippets of song that revealed a graceful voice.

More out of place was presenter Joey Fatone of ‘N Sync (OK -- he was briefly in “Rent”). Mike Wallace’s and Barbara Walters’ turns as presenters underscored the fact that this show was as much about TV as it was about Broadway.

It was also about New York. The show opened with Billy Joel live in Times Square singing “New York State of Mind.” Presenter Rosie Perez prattled about having won other awards but “when you’re a New Yorker, you haven’t made it till you hit Broadway.”

The geographical myopia was briefly interrupted near the end, as the best musical award was presented by Jason Alexander and Martin Short, speaking from the stage of L.A.’s “Producers.” The segment, however, was accompanied by a joke that sarcastically tagged Hollywood as “the mecca, the epicenter of the theater world.”

Apparently assuming that most viewers wouldn’t care who won, CBS tried to create a little audience participation with an online vote for the best Tony-winning play ever. “Death of a Salesman” won.

I wonder why Arthur Miller wasn’t on hand to accept.

Some of the Tony production numbers also tried to draw the TV masses by looking as much as possible like TV. The opening “Movin’ Out” dance could have been on MTV. A routine by the cast of “The Play What I Wrote” looked like a limp “Saturday Night Live” opening segment.

At least this Tony Awards included one moment that probably wouldn’t turn up on most commercial TV shows -- a kiss between two men.