I have faithfully watched the Tony Awards for as long as I can remember. Like most viewers (I’m guessing), my experience with seeing Broadway shows in the flesh is quite limited. My dad, who was living in the Big Apple in the 70s, once treated me to a glorious weekend of seeing two Broadway and two off-Broadway shows.
But I love the Tonys because, for one night, they transport me to The Great White Way (just got curious about the derivation of that term. Wikipedia says: “a mile of Broadway was illuminated in 1880 by Brush arc lamps, making it among the first electrically-lighted streets in the United States”). One doesn’t need to have seen any of the plays or shows to get the flavor of the just-past Broadway season from the Tonys.
In honor of tonight’s Tonys, I’m posting a video of six-word stories from Tony nominees, a collaboration with SMITH magazine. I know some of my readers feel that SMITH’s six-word memoirs are gimmicky and disrespectful of the concept of story. So this is for those who aren’t offended by the concept: