Tony Awards telecast of 1969

[SisterGeorge]

Posted: 6/13/19 at 11:37am

Having just seen the  broadcast last Sunday, decided to check out the show from 50 years ago on Youtube just to see how times have changed. Boy have they ever. Just a few observations:

Several Special Tonys given on air to Laurence Olivier, Leonard Bernstein, Carol Burnett among others

No Book or Score awards given. Does anyone know why? It couldn't have been lack of quality with "Hair" "Promises Promises," "1776," "Dear World," "Zorba," among others as possible nominees

Biggest ovation of the night for Angela Lansbury's win for "DW"

For those who yearn for including excerpts of nominated plays, be careful what you wish for.

Michael Bennett's choreography for  "Promises" did not win. What??!?!

Everyone in the audience looked so, shall we say, mature.

Patty Duke presented an award as if she were still playing Neely O'Hara.

Al Pacino (winner) and Dustin Hoffman (presenter) were adorable half a century ago and Vanessa Redgrave was very tall (specially standing next to Dustin Hoffman).

Updated On: 6/13/19 at 11:37 AM

[EdEval]

Posted: 6/13/19 at 12:29pm

Sad but true but nearly half of all the presenters and winners including audience members are now DEAD!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/13/19 at 3:31pm

And with all due respect, the original 1968 Broadway production of PROMISES, PROMISES wasn’t a dance show and “Turkey Lurkey Time” was the only dance number in the show. The show did have musical staging with the dancers/ensemble bringing on set pieces during transitions but that’s it. There were no dance numbers except that one.

Also, Patty Duke’s peculiar behavior foreshadowed the fact that years later she was diagnosed as bipolar which validated her public behavior during the late 60s/70s, most notably on award shows.

[SFFrontRow]

Posted: 6/13/19 at 4:33pm

Bizarre that I cannot find any mention of no Score award (music and lyrics) for the 68-69 and 69-70 seasons. Is it possible there were not 4 good enough for nominations, so the category was scrapped for those years. If that was the case, you would think something like Wikipedia would have that, or the American Musical Theater book (author Gerald Bordman).

That book actually notes that the 68-69 season, the musical musical theater "seemed to be sinking deeper into the preceeding season's mire." And about 69-70 season he notes half of the 14 musicals closed within a week of opening and the only song from the whole season with any chance of becoming a standard was "Applause."

So, totally possible there was a rule to require 4 nominees or no award. Now we have as low as 2 nominees (and not just 2019 with Musical Revival - it has happened in others in the last 25 years).

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/13/19 at 9:51pm

The "rules" seem to be ever fluid. Remember in 1995 when Sunset Boulevard won Score and Book by default? And Glenn Close's only competition was Rebecca Luker for Show Boat?

(Edited to correct the year, I originally put 96)

Updated On: 6/13/19 at 09:51 PM

[evic]

Posted: 6/13/19 at 10:26pm

BrodyFosse said correct. Besides Turkey, the only other "dance"number is Grapes Of Roth which was choreographed as a  series of poses by the ensemble. Promises is a very boring show for the chorus members. Ashford tried to amp up the choreography in the revival with no success. His Turkey Lurkey was a snooze. The athletic overture dance was ridiculous as was Basketball for the male chorus. 

[jkstheatrescene]

Posted: 6/14/19 at 4:41pm

Looks like in 1969 (and possibly other years, I didn't check), the winner of Best Musical -1776 - also included the Book writer, Peter Stone, who is listed as having a Tony Award for that show, as did the Music & Lyrics by Sherman Edwards, who is also listed as the Tony winner in those categories.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/14/19 at 5:50pm

Yes, I believe it was one of the years where the Best Musical award automatically incorporated the awards to the book writer and score composer.