When Rosie O'Donnell ended her successful daytime TV show recently, watchers felt sad at the loss of an entertaining program. More particularly, theater-lovers bemoaned the loss of a showcase for Broadway performers. What I will miss most about Rosie is the irreverence she brought to the Tony Awards during her three stints as host of that telecast, two of which I attended.
The last one, where she shared the podium with Nathan Lane, was relatively restrained. And on her first appearance, in 1997, O'Donnell was careful not to offend. But the award ceremony of June 7, 1998, was outrageous. O'Donnell came out and talked to the live audience before the 8 PM start of the PBS segment:
--> "Last year I didn't crack any jokes because I wanted to endear myself to everyone and show my respect for the theater," she told us. "But now, there are things that need to be said."
--> "If you win an award and come up here, don't read a list of names from a piece of paper, because that's what they do at the Oscars, and it looks like shit."
--> "If a winner isn't here, and it's someone you worked with and you want to come up and accept the award for them, forget about it! If they couldn't come tonight, that's tough. Screw 'em."
Rosie came back to the podium at the end of the PBS segment, just before the CBS commercial telecast began, telling us how to behave when the cameras went on:
--> "If you want to stand and cheer, do it. The more enthusiasm the better."
"There'll be no music this year to tell you your time is up, because it's rude. It doesn't sound nice. So watch for the blinking light and wrap it up. Don't go on and on because that will fuck it up for everyone, and we'll run out of time."
During each commercial break between 9 and 11 PM, Rosie regaled those in the house. Commenting on the casting of Hollywood names and pop stars in Broadway shows, she proposed some ideas: "June Allyson in The Wiz. Tommy Lee in Big. RuPaul in Dragtime. Charlton Heston starring in a revival of Irving Berlin's Everybody Get Your Gun!"
She found a link between a famous musical and the marriage of a popular aging actor: "1776. That's the story of Mr. and Mrs. Tony Randall."
With no particular relevance to the world of theater, O'Donnell threw in her own style of political commentary: "Did you ever notice how Nancy Reagan looks like a human pez dispenser?"
Because one of the nominated shows was the history-based Ragtime, Rosie said she'd like to provide "some period humor -- so here's a joke about tampons..."
As the evening wore on, during each commercial break, Rosie gave us updates on how far behind schedule we were and told the nominees: "We have to move faster or else they're going to cut one of the performances, so when your name is called, move your ass and get the hell up here! This isn't the Academy Awards, and they're not going to let us run over, because they don't give a shit about live theater." As it turned out, the names of the nominees for Best Musical weren't read out loud, and just the name of the winner was called out hurriedly: The Lion King.
Telling it like it is, bluntly, Rosie didn't endear herself to some folks in the hall. But she made the show a load of fun -- an experience unlike what viewers will ever see on their home screens. That's what I'll miss.
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