Today we continue the 2014 edition of our annual BroadwayWorld feature series spotlighting the very best Tony Awards-related moments of all time with a special spotlight on a particularly guffaw-inducing musical moment from last year's Tony Awards highlighted by four of Broadway's best.
You Gotta Get A Gimmick Without a doubt, the absolute funniest moment by far in the generally strong 2013 Tony Awards telecast belonged to genial, convivial host Neil Patrick Harris alongside a quartet of fellow crossover star compatriots - Andrew Rannells, Megan Hilty and Laura Benanti, namely. One may ask: what precisely do they share in common in exactly? Ahem - well, to put it bluntly: cancelled TV shows (THE NEW NORMAL, SMASH and GO ON, respectively, to cite the recent victims; and, as we all know, Harris's super-successful long-running hit How I Met Your Mother has also now come to a close nearly a year later, thereby freeing up Harris to take on raucous rock musical mega-hit HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH and nab himself a Best Actor In A Musical Tony Award nomination in just a year's time). Subsequently, so goes the masterful medley's theme, with more than merely just a touch of unmistakable brilliance in composer/lyricist Michael John LaChiusa's wonderful, lovably winking re-working of three Sondheim gems and a Marvin Hamlisch tune - "America" from Leonard Bernstein/Sondheim's WEST SIDE STORY with a catchy new set of lyrics for Rannells to wring out all the wit they're worth; "You Gotta Get A Gimmick" from Jule Styne/Sondheim's GYPSY for Hilty to belt like the blazing bombshell she is; and, "The Ladies Who Lunch" from COMPANY providing guffaw-inducing fodder for a bawdy, beautiful and hilarious Benanti; plus, "What I Did For Love" from Hamlisch/Ed Kleban's A CHORUS LINE to give it all a tad of a wistful twist and also magnify the main point of the musical melange at the same time. Dazzling, indeed.
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