Juice with Junior

Alright everyone, welcome to our day after coverage of last night's Tony Awards, honoring the best in American theater for whatever period of eligibility the American Theatre Wing decides upon today. I'm your host, Junior. Let me start off by apologizing to anyone who tried to join me via Live Twitter. Things were going smoothly until around 10 PM Eastern Standard Time, when the folks at Twitter decided that they had heard enough from me and with no vague uncertainties told me to shut the f#ck up. Thus, I was out of commission for the last hour of the show. Lovely.

Don't worry, I still watched the whole thing and we're about to break it down in a second. If you did want to reread my Tweets from the first half or so of the show, I think you can still do that by visiting my Twitter page but who knows? Let's just leave the whole thing alone before I hurt someone. What's next on my cue card? Oh... Black people! Give it up for black people! My people did very well at the Awards last night I must say and for the first time not only in the musical categories, which we are most known for due to our natural rhythm and athletic prowess (Editor's Note: People who are not black, do not repeat these jokes to your friends. No, just don't.)

"Memphis," a new musical about a white DJ in the, I think 60s but I'd have to look it up to be sure and I don't feel like it, who falls in love with a black singer in... Sheboygan! OK, not Sheboygan, you got me, in Memphis won Best Musical, which was kinda a surprise because most people thought it would be either "Fela!," the story of apartheid set to music and dancing, or "Green Day's American Idiot," which I call "Rent" With AC Adapters. I believe the Academy gave it to "Memphis" solely because the songs were (mostly) original because I can't imagine it was the story. Enough with the racial divide "Our love is so dangerous!" stories. We get it, but there were a lot of black people in the cast so go them. Oh, can I just say one thing about "American Idiot." Green Day rocks and I would have been happy if they turned the whole telecast into one long Green Day concert, except, see I have a type of epilepsy where I can't look at flashing lights for too long or I develop an intense migraine that feels like a saw is splitting down the length of my head, so that number from "American Idiot"... Yeah, thanks for that Green Day. Anyway, the black and gay Bill T. Jones won for Choreographing "Fela!" and Katie Finneran, who is not black, won Featured Actress in a Musical and gave one of the best speeches about following your dreams I have ever heard.

I can't find it online yet, but if you can find it watch. She was great. Returning to black people for just a moment, both Denzel Washington and Viola Davis won Leading Actor and Actress in a Play respectively for the revival of August Wilson's "Fences" (above), which also won Best Revival of a Play. I am especially happy for Davis who is one of those great gifted actors like CCH Pounder or Celia Weston who you always see do good work but who never win anything. I have a history with "Fences," which is why I'm happy for it to win. My mother and father went to see the original production with James Earl Jones in 1983 during their livin' for the city days, prolly leaving the then 1-year-old me with some stranger sitter for the first time, and love loved it.

My mother especially wanted to see the revival but because they live two states away and complain about everything, they didn't see it, which is why if we could have even tried to show some of the actual production instead of a goofy music video montage that would have been nice, show producers. Also, show producers, the telecast of the Tonys was crazy sloppy. Missed cues, camera glitches, sound problems, get it together! Also, I forgot to add that I thought Catherine Zeta Jones was great in her number from "A Little Night Music." I just forgot to say that. The microphone in the wig thing threw me off a bit, but she was good. And she was famous already in Hollywood which is what you needed to win a Tony this year. Anyway, back to play news, "Red," the play about artist Mark Rothko that I never heard about until today... I have been slacking in my "Theater Talk" viewing, I must admit... won Best Play and it's cute cast member Eddie Redmayne (above with Alfred Molina) won Featured Actor in a Play, and beat a whole bunch of black men to do it. They're everywhere! Sorry, that was a really bad joke. Anyway, he was adorbs so good for him! Now of course, I want to see "Red" but will never be able to get a ticket for anything reasonable for the rest of the show's run. Damn you, Tony Awards! Let me see if there was anything else awards-wise I wanted to discuss...

No, I think that just about covers it. For the complete list of winners, go here.

As for the show itself, as I said, I thought it was kind of a hot mess. Very unprofessional at times. I thought Sean Hayes went a long way toward making people like him after all his annoying comments to the press about his career and sexuality. That Newsweek kerfuffle certainly helped make him more likeable, and I liked how they didn't refer to it once. It was beneath them all. While I liked Sean Hayes, I don't think it was fair to call him the host when The Mighty Diminutive Diva Herself, Kristin Chenoweth, did much of the heavy lifting!

Every single one of her bits worked, killed, and sent a message. Love that little lady! What else did I like? I loved Addams Family stars Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane's intro to the best musical acting categories. Love love loved Angela Lansbury's passive aggressive verbal smackdown on ingenues thinking they don't have to work to succeed on Broadway. Go Angela! Loved the fact that Raquel Welch forgot to keep her pair of Foster Grants (commercial at left) in that ginormous wig of hers. Seriously, honey, you need them to read so even when you're on TV, put them on your face!

My negatives: I still don't like this idea that the producers have that they can't do performance pieces from the Best Play nominees or at least show taped clips from the plays. Plays need promotion on the telecast too and wouldn't you be interesting in seeing a short segment of what "Red" was all about? Or what about "In the Next Room, or the vibrator play"? That would have been nice. Also, for as much as the show depended on singing and dancing, some of it was not very good. The number from "Memphis" was tone deaf and flat and while Lea Michele from "Glee" will be Patti LuPone in 20 years, I still didn't need to see her yelling at Beyoncé's face. Plus, singing ladies, the whole sitting in an attractive man's lap during your song is played.

Time to end it. Okay, so what did we learn this Tony Awards? We learned Twitter has site limits. We learned that you can win a Tony if you're already a movie star. Black people are also permitted to win Tonys. And that Raquel Welch needs to always remember her Foster Grants! Until next year, this is Junior signing off and signing on to get some "Shakespeare in the Park" tickets! I need a theater fix!

Now, what did you like about the Tonys? What bugged you? And were you too busy watching either basketball or "True Blood" to notice?