The Tony Awards have snob appeal

The Tony Awards have snob appeal

By Vernon Scott

HOLLYWOOD (UPI): There exists a cultural distinction between America's East and West coasts, particularly apparent in show business.

The differentiation will be evident at the Tony Awards June 2 at the Majestic Theatre in New York.

Coming as they do, a couple of months after the Oscars, the Tonys crystallize the contrast between New York's reverence for the arts with the crass commercialism of Hollywood -- at least in the eyes of New Yorkers.

Major critics -- most of whom are East Coasters -- commonly agree the Tony awards are a superior ceremonies conducted by erudite ladies and gentlemen for extraordinary achievement in theatre.

Many New Yorkers, in fact, continue to pronounce it "theatuh."

For a century now blue-stocking Broadway has looked down its majestic nose at money-grubbing Hollywood, sure in the knowledge of the theater's superiority over motion pictures.

Often plays are seen in buildings whose signs label them as "theaters," while movies are screened in "theaters."

The contention between stage and screen began in the teens and '20s when Broadway supplied Hollywood with many of its silent film actors, usually lesser lights on their financial uppers, willing to prostitute their art for filthy lucre.

These frayed-cuff knaves were deservedly snubbed or pitied on returning to The Great White Way, having fallen from grace for blemishing the arcane art of treading the boards.

Eventually Broadway found itself willing to pick up a fast buck selling plays and musicals to squalid, untutored movie moguls.

Forgetting, of course, that striptease, burlesque and vaudeville were New York products, not Hollywood's.

Still, theater folk maintained a moral superiority. They looked down on Western yokels grinding out tripe for the great unwashed.

But by the '30s movies were seen by hundreds of millions of Americans while Broadway attracted only tens of thousands.

Movies grew bigger, richer, more influential with the hoi polloi while New York's legitimate theaters folded one after another.

In 1931 Hollywood invented an "academy" to promote movies, then Academy Awards, damned by Broadway as despicable exploitation.

By 1950 Hollywood had become a super colossal titan as the number of auditoriums for live theatre continued to shrivel.

Worse, in 1950 television came into its own, an even lower form of life than movies.

In self-defense Broadway in 1946 first bestowed Antoinette Perry Awards on theatrical elite.

Tonys, to be sure, were not cheap Oscar-like exploitation. Tonys solemnly anointed outstanding artistic achievement. Yeah, right.

Today there are awards right and left, including Emmys for TV and, horror of horrors, Grammys for, sigh, the recording industry.

It is a perplexing year for the Tonys, which are in danger of becoming embarrassingly political, what with Julie Andrews refusing her nomination for best actress.

And there are accusations, not altogether without merit, that her show Victor/Victoria was snubbed by Tony voters because it was originally a movie.

A man conversant with these special events is production designer Roy Christopher who designed three Tony shows, nine Oscars, six Emmys and two Grammys.

He mentions the Tonys preferentially, representing the high end of this quartet of awards. The Grammys, significantly, represent the tail end.

Christopher has no trouble making fine distinctions.

He has won Emmy Awards for designing all four awards shows, and says, categorically and without malice, that the Tonys are tops for prestige. A Hollywoodian might say "class."

"There is a different mind-set for each of the four," he said. "When I think of the Tonys, I am in the theatre, I am in New York with a specialized audience."

"Things are done with great skill and craftsmanship and artistry. It has more to do with emotion and intellect and refinement. So I get into that frame of mind."

"When I'm doing the Grammys I'm thinking of something big and splashy coming from the cavernous Shrine Auditorium with raucous pop culture excitement. That takes over what I do."

"For the Oscars it's world-class glamour, the biggest thing in the universe. The Oscars are between the Tonys and the Grammys."

And the Emmys?

He said, "I think electronic, exciting, current, contemporary, of the moment. After all it's about TV and that is the medium we're dealing with on the show. That gets you going in a certain way."

"The Tonys involve much less flash with emphasis on quality and tone and a certain reverence for the art."

Christopher paused, then continued, "Even though much of Broadway is fun and commercial, there is a feeling these people are the very best in the world at doing what they do in entertaining the public in a theatre. You want to respect that."

"Unfortunately, the Tony show doesn't get the audience the others do, so our budget is a fraction of theirs."

"Everybody watches 100 hours of TV a week, sees dozens of movies and plays CD's endlessly. So the Tonys are special."

"Everyone who works on the show recognizes and appreciates that."