A backstage pass to the 2014 Tony Awards
With just hours to go before the Tony Awards tonight here on CBS, Mo Rocca has headed to Broadway, where he's sharing his backstage pass:
Last year, when Neil Patrick Harris took center stage as host of the Tony Awards, he sang, he danced, he even jumped through a hoop -- leading a cavalcade of Broadway's best in an opening number that stopped the show.
If there's anyone who can follow that act, it's the man who hasn't just won a Tony, but has hosted the awards show three times before: Hugh Jackman.
Rocca asked, "Are you a good host off-camera, like when people come to your home for dinner?"
"No, I'm terrible!" Jackman laughed. "No, that's a very good question. The secret is out. I am the worst host. I have been known, actually, to escape my own parties because I'm just a bit tired."
"So if people come to your house for dinner, there's no opening number?"
"No, I'm good at the opening! And I will cook. But I will expect you to clean up. Is that wrong? And I'll start switching the lights on and off 'round about 9:30. 'Feel free to stay and clean up, or you can go now!'"
Jackman isn't just a song-and-dance man; he's also "X-Men"'s Wolverine. So he's used to flying into action. And that's what he and all the other actors and crew have to do to put on this live extravaganza.
James Monroe Iglehart, nominated for "Aladdin: The Musical," is one of those actors.
"All right, let's talk about awards shows," said Rocca, "because there's the obsession with the Oscars, year in and year out, and sometimes it's a decent show. The Tonys is always the better show."
"The Tonys are always the better show, because regular, flat-footed film actors don't do anything but smile and clap," said Iglehart. "Broadway people, we sing, we dance, we act!"
Think of the Tonys as 20 different Broadway shows packed into one, a Great White Way smorgasbord, if you will.
In charge of this Broadway buffet: Executive producers Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, who have to throw the show together pretty fast.
"The hardest part of this show is the timetable," said Weiss, "because from nominations to show is one of the shortest period of times of any awards show. So it really is kind of a dash to the finish line."
It all starts with Kirshner and Weiss going from theater, to theater, to theater, figuring out how to restage hit numbers to play at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
Kirshner says more than 200 actors will perform on the show. "It's probably the largest cast on any TV show."
But Broadway doesn't take a break for the Tonys. Most of the shows performing on the telecast regularly play eight times a week in their own theaters; this week is no exception. So, duplicate sets are built for this one-night-only show.
For "Rocky: The Musical"'s big number, a brand new boxing ring had to be built outside the city and shipped into Manhattan.
Quite an investment, says "Rocky" director Alex Timbers, who sees it as a big advertisement: "Oh yeah, absolutely. For all the shows on the telecast you always hear about sales bumps the next day and all that, so our hope is to keep getting the word out about the really great work these actors are doing on stage."
At this point you might be asking, "Who exactly is Tony?"
Named for actress and director Antoinette Perry, The Tony Awards are given out by the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League. Heather Hitchens heads the Wing; Charlotte St. Martin is in charge of the League.
The first awards were handed out in 1947. Winning actresses were originally given silver compacts; actors got gold money clips.
The medallion was created in 1949.
"This looks very much like the award that we have today, only in 1967 we put it on a pedestal," said Hitchens.
And you can spin it!
"I think that 1967 is an important reason to talk about," said St. Martin, "because that was the first year we were televised, so it was something to hold when you were accepting your award on TV."
And it's on TV that the Tonys have become a spectacle featuring names big beyond Broadway, like Sting, who'll be singing from a musical he wrote for next season.
Neil Patrick Harris is another big name. He's not hosting, of course; he's nominated this year for his gender-bending performance in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."
"Well, the opening number last year was fantastic," said Harris, "and let's see what Hugh Jackman can do to beat that one."
Jackman responded to Harris' throwing down of the gauntlet: "Yeah, Neil, I always felt he kind of went understated on the opening, if you go back to last year.
"I gotta tell you, I'm so tempted in a jokey way to throw down gauntlets, except I just know I will lose, actually in every way! So it could be career suicide following on from Neil, and yet, it's a great honor, honestly."
"No, but a host smackdown, I smell a reality show hit," said Rocca.
"That's good. I could do that. Can I bring the claws?"
"Can you bring what?"
"The claws?"
"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."
"You haven't seen 'X-Men,' have you, man?" said Jackman.
"I haven't."
"I'm outta here," said Jackman. "I don't care, Mo!"
But Hugh Jackman doesn't have time to school me on superheroes. He's got a show to do.
Curtain up!
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