The Terribly Truncated Tonys

The Tonys, once the classiest awards show televised, is now a long commercial with a few awards thrown in (“Mostly ‘Modern Millie,’ ” by Paul Lieberman and Patrick Pacheco, June 3). One commercial break was six minutes long. Lopping off the extraordinary Elaine Stritch is unforgivable, as well as PBS doing the same to Blythe Danner in the “First Ten Awards” hour.

And speaking of extraordinary talents, Julie Harris was shown on tape for about 40 seconds with a voice-over explaining she was given a lifetime award “earlier.” A lifetime award but we, the paying theatergoers, can’t even see the presentation.

This treatment of wonderful New York people, not to mention the audience rebuff, is criminal.

NAN WILLIAMS

West Hollywood

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Cutting off Elaine Stritch’s Tony acceptance speech was just the most obvious of the embarrassing slights. There was no time to show Julie Harris receiving a life achievement award; people were constantly panicked as the orchestra came in during their speeches.

I suggest the Tony committee consider not doing their show on network television, as CBS obviously doesn’t respect the American Theatre Wing’s awards and would rather show their regular fare in that time. I suggest they take the awards elsewhere: Have the whole show on PBS or on one of the cable channels like A&E; or Bravo, where they will get more respect.

DANIEL McVEY

Los Angeles

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Am I the only person having trouble with the now constant movement of cameras during musical performances on television? I was just beginning to enjoy Bernadette Peters on the Tonys, then suddenly the camera took off for the back of the house, leaving me to only guess what was going on up on the stage.

Every single number in the show was covered this way--zapping any buildup of energy from the performers and essentially taking us on a roller-coaster ride throughout the auditorium.

While I understand the need to keep a show lively through movement, I also think a musical performer should have the opportunity to communicate one-on-one with the audience without the camera swooping back and forth across the room like a housefly.

DAN WINGATE

Cerritos