Is This Any Way to Treat the Theater?

At the start of the 9 p.m. Tony Award telecast on Sunday, Nathan Lane noted it had been an exciting year on Broadway but he didn’t really have time to tell us about it, as the show had to be off the air by 11 on the dot. In very quick succession, he landed good jokes on subjects as diverse as Julie Andrews’ ruffled feathers, the proposed same-sex marriage legislation and the introduction of taped acceptance speeches for major awards into the Tony telecast.

Lane set a breathless pace, and he, at least, pulled it off. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but it certainly is the heart of the CBS Tony telecast, which packed as many awards, slices of shows and snippets of Tony history as is technologically possible on the awards’ 50th anniversary (it has been televised nationally since 1967).

If a Tony winner, God forbid, took longer than 30 seconds (by my watch) to thank people, he or she was drowned out by music played by what was once described by playwright Tony Kushner as “the scary orchestra.” Like one of those graduated alarm clocks, the orchestra starts softly and grows fearfully louder by the nanosecond. This caused some of the most powerful people in the theater to quake in its anticipation.

Accepting the Tony for best revival of a play (“A Delicate Balance”), producers Andre Bishop and Bernard Gersten of Lincoln Center Theater took turns shooting off rapid thank-yous, getting faster and faster, as if they were in a game of musical chairs that neither wanted to lose.

Zoe Caldwell, taking the Tony for leading actress (“Master Class”), was visibly shaking as she rattled off a list of names lickety-split. Donna Murphy, an upset-winner over the absent Julie Andrews for leading actress in a musical (“The King and I”), cupped her mouth with her hand and shouted over the music. The already high-strung George C. Wolfe, winning for director of a musical (“Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk”), looked as if his blood had been replaced by pure adrenaline.

Soon it was possible to get into the spirit of the rush-rush-rush Tony telecast. When presenter Uta Hagen took a minute to talk about what winning a Tony had meant to her and she stumbled over a word or two, I kept thinking, “For God’s sake, woman, hurry up!”

At first the taped and edited awards were smoothly inserted into the show so that an average viewer could only tell which segments were taped by the absence of the scary orchestra. But very soon the editing got sloppy, and we watched winners sitting in the audience, not responding as their names were called out, for a surreal eternity. Some taped acceptance speeches were unceremoniously cut off mid-word.

As for the numbers presented from musicals, to my eyes “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk” alone looked spectacular, as it does onstage. “Rent” looked more immature and less appealing than it actually is, and “Big” looked what it is--grating. Lane joked that there would not be time for both of the two nominated musicals that have already closed, “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” and “Swinging on a Star.” “So,” he said excitedly, “here is . . . ‘Swinging on a Death Foretold!’ ”

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CBS is so strict with the Tonys because, in ratings terms, it hasn’t earned the right to go a second over two hours. It usually draws about 7 million viewers while the Oscars draw 75 million, and 1 billion worldwide. Still, this two-hour national commercial is as highly valued by the League of American Theatres and Producers as interest is to a loan shark, and the league will do everything in its considerable power to either renew its contract with the network when it expires next year or go to another network.

But as the network makes its time demands on the Tony telecast, the theater comes off looking marginalized, as if it were a tolerated guest being ushered out of the main party at the earliest possible moment. It is disheartening to see the art form’s biggest stars tremble in front of a scary orchestra. And the frenzied appearance of most of the presented musicals in recent years--which have a “This is our one chance to reach mid-America!” desperation written all over them--is not good for the theater in the long run.

Perhaps one day the league will see that the nature of broadcasting has changed sufficiently that it should consider a three-hour broadcast on Showtime or even Arts & Entertainment. More breathing room, and dignity, might be worth a dip in the ratings, which might not dip down all that much lower anyway.

One ironic addendum: After all the fuss about the nominating committee overlooking “Victor/Victoria” and “Big” for best musical, this turned out to be a very sound and fair round of Tony Awards. True, August Wilson (“Seven Guitars”) had cause to look none too pleased when Terrence McNally won the best play Tony for “Master Class,” but all in all it was a just evening, if just a little too rushed for anyone’s good.

A complete list of 1996 Tony Award winners, presented by the League of American Theatres and Producers and the American Theatre Wing:

Best musical: “Rent.” Producer: Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum, Allan S. Gordon, New York Theatre Workshop.

Best play: “Master Class.” Author: Terrence McNally. Producer: Robert Whitehead, Lewis Allen, Spring Sirkin.

Best revival of a musical: “The King and I.” Producer: Dodger Productions, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, James M. Nederlander, Perseus Productions, John Frost, the Adelaide Festival Centre, the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization.

Best revival of a play: “A Delicate Balance.” Producer: Lincoln Center Theatre, Andre Bishop, Bernard Gersten.

Leading actor in a play: George Grizzard, “A Delicate Balance.”

Leading actress in a play: Zoe Caldwell, “Master Class.”

Leading actor in a musical: Nathan Lane, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

Leading actress in a musical: Donna Murphy, “The King and I.”

Featured actor in a play: Ruben Santiago-Hudson, “Seven Guitars.”

Featured actress in a play: Audra McDonald, “Master Class.”

Featured actor in a musical: Wilson Jermaine Heredia, “Rent.”

Featured actress in a musical: Ann Duquesnay, “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk.”

Best book of a musical: Jonathan Larson, “Rent.”

Best original score: “Rent,” music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson.

Best direction of a musical: George C. Wolfe, “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk.”

Best direction of a play: Gerald Gutierrez, “A Delicate Balance.”

Best choreography: Savion Glover, “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk.”

Best scenic design: Brian Thomson, “The King and I.”

Best costume design: Roger Kirk, “The King and I.”

Best lighting design: Jules Fisher, Peggy Eisenhauer, “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk.”

Regional theater award: Presented to the Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas. Accepted by Paul Tetrault and Gregory Boyd.