In 2022, I was lucky enough to attend the Tony Awards ceremony through a friend in the Broadway community, and I blogged about it the next year (here). This year I was able to attend the Tony Award dress rehearsal (through the same – very good! – friend) and thought I would compare the experiences.
First, a comparison of the tickets. When I attended the ceremony, my ticket specified “black tie only” while that is not a requirement for the dress rehearsal. The ticket for the ceremony was thick and more elaborate – embossed, not printed. And I was fortunate enough to be in the orchestra for the 75th Tony Awards, but no ticket holder sits in the orchestra for the dress rehearsal.
The dress rehearsal is held early on the same morning as the Tony Awards, which makes for a very long day for those also performing that day! As I was preparing to enter at 7:50, I saw the bus for The Lost Boys show up and the cast, already in full costume and makeup, enter Radio City (see below). They then performed at about 11:30 that morning in the dress rehearsal, had a 1PM matinee, and of course were back for the ceremony that evening. And then there are after-parties! Luckily there are generally no performances on Monday.
We were let in, under the usual tight security, at about 8am. There were concessions for sale, as well as merchandise. I was happy to see that, as I still enjoy the shirt and sweatpants I got at the 75th Tonys, and for this one I picked up a keychain and a magnet.
This dress rehearsal never has tickets for sale, they are freely distributed to the Broadway community and is an insider event. They have had tech rehearsals with no audience in the days leading up to Tony day, but this is a chance to do a run through in real time with an audience.
We were held in the lobby for longer than expected, and could faintly hear them rehearsing the opening number several times while waiting. We were finally let in a little after 9, with the dress rehearsal starting shortly after that. I had enough time to take a few pictures inside, of the set and of myself to compare with last time, before putting my phone away – no photos or videos allowed during the dress rehearsal.
One of the things you can see from looking behind me in the pictures from the dress rehearsal is how the orchestra is really a work zone. There were large signs on certain chairs where nominees or celebrities would be sitting, with a photo of them as well. For camera work during the dress rehearsal where they intend to show someone in the audience, you could see who they planned on showing because they would show the seat with the name and photo. During the Cats: The Jellicle Ball number I saw Rum Tum Tugger interacting with the chair for Paul Rudd, and in fact it did happen during the live show.
The show was a full run through of the main three hour ceremony aired on CBS that night. When there were commercial breaks, the time was used to set up for the next segment just as when you attend the award ceremony, and you hear the countdown in the same way (“back live in 15 seconds . . . . 10, 9, 8 . . .” etc). I don’t need to run through all the numbers since at this point anyone who cares has watched or could watch the awards show. But what was interesting was that they do go through giving out all the awards just as they would that evening. But each time the presenter would read out the “winner,” they would say, “And the Tony Award, for this rehearsal only, goes to . . .” and a seat filler would come up and accept the award. They really could say anything and had been encouraged to keep it brief. At least three of the “acceptances” contained some version of “Go Knicks!” as we are two wins away from the NBA Championship, which was kind of charming. I thought at first they were selecting the least likely to win in each category but realized toward the end, when the winner of Best Actor in A Musical was announced as Joshua Henry (one of the least surprising wins) that they were likely just trying to give the orchestra practice playing all of the snippets of music that would be played as a winner came up to accept an award. It also gave the announcer a chance to realize which names he needed to practice (as he mangled Lear DeBessonet’s name during the dress rehearsal).
Speaking of presenters, not all were at the dress rehearsal, so I was even more impressed with those who were: Sting, Annette Bening, Sarah Paulson, Patrick Wilson, Billy Crystal, Megan Thee Stallion, and even Bernadette Peters were there in person to run through their presentation. Even Stone, Parker, and Lopez were there to introduce the Book of Mormon 15th anniversary number. Others weren’t there for the rehearsal, like Paul Rudd and Nicole Scherzinger. Presenters just wore casual clothes as well, although Pink was in full attire including all her costume changes, and of course all the musical numbers had performers in full makeup and costume. But when Rachel Ziegler sang “What I did for Love,” or Neil Patrick Harris and Ariana DeBose showed up to give Pink tips on hosting, they were just in casual clothes.
Before two of the musical numbers, during the commercial breaks, the show’s choreographer came out to give us tips on how to participate. So on the award show, if you thought the audience magically knew how to clack their fans for Jellicle Ball or do the Time Warp during the Rocky Horror number, you can now realize they had been coached!
Occasionally, a cue was called out, and there was a small technical issue at the beginning of The Lost Boys number, but overall things went very smoothly. Pink fumbled lines once and said “I promise I will learn to speak by tonight!” And when she was trying to get out of her flying apparatus at the very beginning, Neil Patrick Harris had to help her – they handled it so well I thought it might have been scripted, but didn’t happen at the televised ceremony. We didn’t get a program, which is also what I have experienced when attending an invited dress rehearsal the night before a first preview of a new show on Broadway. Like those invited dress rehearsals, the one for the Tony Awards allowed the show to do a complete run through with an audience, and also serves as a way to thank all of the people in the Broadway community who are a part of each show’s success but are not routinely given tickets to the award ceremony.
We got out about 12:15, and they were still setting up for the ceremony as we left, installing a huge Tony Award in front of Radio City and getting the red carpet ready. I really enjoyed experiencing the dress rehearsal, and of course hearing the musical numbers live is always a different experience that when hearing music broadcast. Leslie Odom Jr.’s “Without You” during In Memoriam, and Rachel Ziegler’s “What I did for love” were far more powerful in person than when I heard them on the live broadcast at night. I hope this wasn’t my last time to attend the Tony Awards dress – and if I am lucky perhaps attending both the dress and the ceremony in one day could be in the future as well!
Julie Brannan, NYC residential real estate 