The Tony Awards are enmeshed in a high-stakes dispute over who gets stage time on Broadway’s big night.
Some co-producers — whose primary role is to invest or raise money for shows — have been informed by Tony Award staffers that they aren’t welcome onstage at the David H. Koch Theater on June 16. In recent years as production budgets swelled, swarms of co-producers have taken the stage when awards were handed out for the categories of best musical, play, musical revival and play revival.
People involved in the Tonys, which is presented by the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, have cited concerns about the size of the theater, safety and maintaining the pace of the CBS telecast. Lincoln Center’s Koch Theater has less than half the seating capacity of Tony mainstay Radio City Music Hall.
Spokespeople for the Tonys and the League — the trade association of theater owners and producers — declined to comment. The Tonys’ argument for denying access appears to be that with insufficient seats in the orchestra — 883 — for all co-producers of nominated shows, there isn’t time for those sitting upstairs to safely make it onstage after a winner is announced. Weeks earlier, the League had said that only co-producers in the orchestra would be permitted to take the stage, which created a temporary scramble for those seats.
Barring co-producers from the stage may prevent a twisted ankle or two and restore some exclusivity to the ceremony, first held in 1947 in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. But the change is alienating a key industry constituency.
As above-the-title bundlers and investors, co-producers finance Broadway at a time when it’s riskier than ever, particularly large musicals that cost $20 million and up. To secure billing, co-producers typically raise at least six figures, with the threshold varying from show to show. Whether co-producers tap their own wealth or solicit funds from others, they make money only when a show’s a hit.
Many of them prize Broadway’s non-financial perks — prominent listing in Playbills, opening night tickets and a few seconds of primetime exposure during the telecast. As a consolation, the League has promised to record a “group video pan” of each show’s co-producers gathered outside on Lincoln Center’s plaza before the ceremony. The plan is for CBS to broadcast the appropriate group video during each winning show’s acceptance speech.
Co-producers say they detect a pattern of disrespect. In 2016-17, Tony Award Productions and then-League President Charlotte St. Martin announced that starting that season, a total of just six producers and co-producers would be permitted onstage to accept awards in major categories. That would’ve aligned the Tonys more or less with the Oscars, which had faced a similar issue of billing inflation.
In June 2017, producer Scott Rudin defied the Broadway dictate and encouraged his co-producers to join him onstage when he accepted a Tony for his revival of Hello, Dolly! with Bette Midler. “This is how Broadway shows get financed,” an irked Rudin told Jeremy Gerard at Deadline before the 2017 ceremony. “People are with you when it’s easy and when it’s hard, and they deserve to be up there.”
Since the Rudin-led rebellion, co-producers have continued going onstage in subsequent ceremonies. A person familiar with decision-making at the Tonys said there’ve been discussions about punishing co-producers who break the new rule and go onstage.
Amid the ongoing backstage drama, some co-producers have decided not to buy tickets to the ceremony, which top out at $2300 for an orchestra seat. Instead, they’ll watch it at viewing parties hosted by nominated shows.
This season’s tally of co-producers is longer than ever. Should the Tony-nominated Water for Elephants win for Best Musical and all the roughly 70 people above the title storm the stage, they could cause quite a stampede.
Tony purists argue that the spectacle of dozens of financiers running up the aisles is an embarrassment for Broadway. Co-producers counter that it’s a small price to pay to sustain an industry hampered by bloated costs and dwindling returns.
