My Favorite Tony Awards

Part of loving Broadway is loving bad taste, loving tacky things.

There are many intelligent and well-crafted moments in the history of the Tony Awards: Patti LuPone as Rose, in "Gypsy," Sutton Foster bringing down the Act One curtain in "Anything Goes," the little Bechdel from "Fun Home," doing "Ring of Keys."

My all-time favorite Tony moment is not intelligent or tasteful. It is tacky, and it's devastating.

I don't know the plot of "Side Show"; I've never seen "Side Show." Apparently, at the end of Act Two, two conjoined twins "lose their men." They feel frightened. They comfort each other: "I will never leave you."

Yes, the (adult) conjoined twins somberly remind each other: "I will never leave you."

This is problematic for any number of reasons, but I can't, can't, can't stop watching Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley. I admire their commitment; both seem to say, "I will never admit that what I am doing here is absurd." Their voices blend perfectly. (They were nominated, together, for one Tony Award, and this doesn't happen often, though the children from "Sound of Music" were nominated for a shared Tony, and a twist on this also occurred with "Billy Elliot.")

The moment when you gasp--if you're a gay man--is around 2:20. That's Emily Skinner, introducing the key change. Note, also, her final riff: "One though we're two!" (I'm also obsessed with Alice Ripley's soprano belt; Ripley's voice was not notably damaged, at this stage in her career.)

Emily Skinner is not a flashy diva, but she is hugely talented, she does reliable work in unworthy projects ("The Cher Show," "The Full Monty"), she is funny and deeply sane, and she deserves her own Tony.

Listen--now--in these troubled times. You (probably?) won't regret it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tStUnyvr8gQ

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