Postscripts to the Tonys : TV Broadcast of Awards the Class of the Field

“This is rather unexpected,” said Andrew Lloyd Webber, accepting “Phantom of the Opera’s” award for best musical on Sunday night’s Tony broadcast.

It certainly was, considering that “Into the Woods” had just received awards for having the Broadway season’s best score (by Stephen Sondheim) and best book (by James Lapine).

The reasoning seemed to be: Yeah, but “Phantom” is a better show . Fudge.

However, as colleague Robert Hilburn might say, it’s only rock ‘n’ roll. The way to take all awards shows--Tonys, Oscars, Grammys--is lightly. And Sunday night’s Tony broadcast was again the class of the field.

As usual, it ran overtime, probably causing CBS to tear its hair. But, come on--at 11 on a Sunday night, what’s the difference? The Tonys are a live event, and deserve the respect that sports events get. If the broadcast absolutely has to fit within two hours, cut the “Kate & Allie” promos.

When Don Mischer replaced Alexander Cohen as the show’s producer last year, he managed to refocus on theater values without losing track of the need to amuse home viewers. Sunday night he did it again.

For example, we saw excerpts from the four plays nominated for Tonys, as well as the four musicals--a practice discarded during the Cohen years on the grounds that it was “bad TV.”

Fudge, again. None of the dramatic segments took more than three or four minutes to perform Sunday night, and they gave the show muscle--especially the powerful excerpt from August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”

It was also nice to see the headliner spot go to best play (won by David Henry Hwang’s “M. Butterfly”) rather than best musical. As presenter Lily Tomlin observed, quoting a very reliable source: “In the beginning was the word.”

Running up on stage to get his first Tony, playwright Hwang vaulted into producer David Geffen’s arms. That was very good TV. Whether or not one agrees with the award, Tony winners always seem more alive up there than Oscar winners--more ready to make fools of themselves.

The Lord wasn’t acknowledged as often as usual in this year’s acceptance speeches, but people’s families seemed to come in for rather more appreciation, not just one’s mom and dad back home in San Francisco, but one’s kids.

Ron Silver (voted best actor in a play, for David Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow”) thanked his kids in advance for “letting me sleep late tomorrow morning.” Somehow you can’t see Robert Redford doing that.

Movie stars are myths. Stage actors are working people. As presenter Bernadette Peters noted, it’s great to win a Tony, but you still gotta do your show the next night.

Peters provided the classiest note of the evening--the little kiss she blew to Joanna Gleason when Gleason won the Tony for best actress in a musical, for “Into the Woods.”

It was a category that Peters could have won, but wasn’t even nominated for--one of those anomalies that remind us how capricious the procedure of shoehorning an entire Broadway season into a rigid set of categories can be.

Let’s hope that Patti Lupone of “Anything Goes” didn’t take her defeat in this category to heart. She was terrific in her tap number with the U.S. Navy.

“Anything Goes,” “Speed-the Plow” and “Sarafina” (the crackling South African musical, also nicely excerpted) all started at Lincoln Center, one of several nonprofit venues without which the Broadway season would not have taken place.

Several people reminded us of this. Madonna, for instance, noted that she wouldn’t have qualified for Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow” if she hadn’t first done a Lincoln Center workshop production of David Rabe’s “Goose and Tomtom.”

That segued into her presentation of the resident theater Tony to South Coast Repertory’s David Emmes and Martin Benson, who, she noted, had started South Coast Rep in 1964 when they were young men. “Now they’re old men.”

To be kidded by Madonna! This is fame in America. No wonder Emmes momentarily forgot why he had come to the theater.

The Brits went home laughing up their sleeves. Well, what’s done is done, and “Phantom” did look impressive on the tube--the scene where Michael Crawford rows Sarah Brightman into his underground grotto, all candles and dry ice.

Stephen Sondheim will simply have to write another show.

The complete list of Tony winners for the 1987-88 Broadway season:

Play: “M. Butterfly,” David Henry Hwang.

Musical: ‘The Phantom of the Opera.”

Revival: “Anything Goes.”

Actor, Play: Ron Silver, “Speed-the-Plow.”

Actress, Play: Joan Allen, “Burn This.”

Actor, Musical: Michael Crawford, “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Actress, Musical: Joanna Gleason, “Into the Woods.”

Book, Musical: James Lapine, “Into the Woods.”

Score, Musical: Stephen Sondheim, “Into the Woods.”

Director, Play: John Dexter, “M. Butterfly.”

Director, Musical: Harold Prince, “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Featured Actor, Play: B. D. Wong, “M. Butterfly.”

Featured Actress, Play: L. Scott Caldwell, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”

Featured Actor, Musical: Bill McCutcheon, “Anything Goes.”

Featured Actress, Musical: Judy Kaye, “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Scenic Design: Maria Bjornson, “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Costume Design: Maria Bjornson, “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Lighting Design: Andrew Bridge, “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Choreography: Michael Smuin, “Anything Goes.”

A special Tony award for continued excellence by a regional theater was given to South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa. Another special Tony award, for innovative theatrical presentations, was given to Brooklyn Academy of Music.