Monday, June 11, 2007

Numbers, Numbers...

We know not how many people tuned in last night to watch The Sopranos have a lovely dinner out...but The 61st Annual Tony Awards telecast did a little better than 200-300 viewers. They had 6.24 million of 'em, down a bit from the previous year's 7.79 million and even a bit below the 2005 show, which was seen by 6.5 million. Given how no particular play or musical this year created much buzz out there, I'm guessing some are surprised/relieved that the totals weren't a lot lower.

It's interesting how the dynamic has changed. Not so long ago, each year's Tonyfest was surrounded by press speculations and rumors that CBS would dump what was then a two-hour annual broadcast. Some even voiced the view that the whole show was so cramped in two hours that it should up and move over to PBS, and there were those compromise years when the first hour of it was on PBS, and then the "real show" was the two hours on CBS. At some point, perhaps because overall network shares had fallen and the Tony numbers didn't seem quite as bad, CBS decided to just take the whole thing at three hours as an open-ended commitment...and since then, there's been no talk of the Tonys being moved to The Weather Channel or anything of the sort. But really, the ratings haven't substantially improved. It's the sets that got smaller.

Once upon a time in comic books, a good-selling comic sold over 200,000 copies. A book I wrote was once considered an embarrassing flop for All Concerned because it came in around 170,000. Then came a day when anything over 100,000 was great...and now, if you can move 20,000 copies of a comic, some publishers turn cartwheels. Same with TV. I did shows that were considered disasters because they were "only" watched by an audience that today would put you near the top of the Top Ten.

Moral of the story? If you have a failure and you can wait long enough, eventually expectations will catch up with you. Or down with you, I suppose.

• Posted at 11:31 AM · LINK

Talkin' Tonys

Actually, the Tony Awards ceremony wasn't quite as unspectacular as I'd expected, though I still can't imagine much of America was interested...and not just because they were wagering on who'd get whacked over on HBO. The opening number was terrific...which, of course, it would be. It was the beginning and end of A Chorus Line. Can't do much better than that.

I find these "hostless" shows a bit impersonal and I'm really losing my patience with "presenter banter," where two people come out and talk about what the award means. There were some nice moments, such as the tribute to John Kander, and a few actual surprises in the awards. If you scan theatrical websites, you'll find every last expert fearlessly forecasting that Raul Esparza would win Best Actor in a Musical for his work in the revival of Company. But it went instead to David Hyde Pierce for Curtains. (Here's a link to nineteen predictors' predictions. Everyone got most of them right but no one got 'em all and no one had Pierce.)

Mostly though, it comes down to the samplings of the current fare on Broadway, and I always find myself wondering, "Does this make me want to see the show?" I don't think any of them did, and the Mary Poppins number — gratuitously fiddling with the songs from the movie and darkening the whole tone — made me want to stay far, far away. I'm curious about Spring Awakening but not because of the number presented on the telecast. I'd also like to see Frost/Nixon because of the subject matter and word of mouth about it. Raul Esparza's performance of "Being Alive" from Company was thrilling, and I'll probably go if that show's still running next time I'm in New York...but Company is a show where I usually enjoy the parts but not the whole.

What else should I mention? The award telecast seemed a little less gay than usual to me. That's neither good nor bad as far as I'm concerned but it might matter to somebody. There were too many thanks to agents and lawyers and I guess I should just get used to that. The show seemed to cry out for a truly funny presenter. Eddie Izzard was pretty good but where was Nathan Lane? Mel Brooks? Eric Idle? And I can't be the only person who noticed that the band played people on and off with dozens of songs from great musicals of the past...but the repertoire of such tunes only seems to include one song from the last thirty or so years — "Always Look on the Bright Side" from Spamalot. (And yes, I know it's really from a movie. I just wonder if anything from the last few decades will ever be regarded as a standard.)

I think that's everything. I'll report on the ratings later today. I'm guessing between two and three hundred viewers...and that's including Canada.

• Posted at 3:35 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Penn and Teller explain the seven basic moves of Sleight of Hand magic...

• Posted at 12:12 AM · LINK