These Were the 7 Best Moments From the 2018 Tony Awards

It was a big night at Radio City Music Hall for the 72nd annual Tony Awards—and a particularly big night for, as Vogue editor Chloe Schama wrote earlier this month, “revivals, screen-to-stage adaptations, and . . . sponges.” (Though we’d have to say it was Squidward that stole the show.) Forgot to tune in? Or maybe you watched, but you’re not quite sure what to make of it all? Here, without further ado, are the takeaways that everyone will be talking about, on what ended up being, as many have said, the best Tony Awards in years. (And not just for cohosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles’s matching gold outfits; their take on the unrelenting Broadway schedule, set to the tune of Sia’s “Chandelier”; or their charm-incarnate-theater-kid realness, though that all definitely ranks up there.)

1. Andrew Garfield dedicated his award for best leading actor in a play, in Angels in America, to “those in the LGBT community who fought and died.” Garfield went on to hit the nail on the head with his speech. “At a moment in time where maybe the most important thing that we remember right now is the sanctity of the human spirit, it is the profound privilege of my life to play Prior Walter in Angels in America, because he represents the purest spirit of humanity and especially that of the LGBTQ community,” he began. “It is a spirit that says no to oppression. It is a spirit that says no to bigotry. No to shame. No to exclusion. It is a spirit that says we are all made perfectly and we all belong. So I dedicate this award to the countless LGBTQ people who have fought and died to protect that spirit. To protect that message. For the right to live and love as we are created to.”

Garfield also referenced the recent Supreme Court decision that ruled narrowly for a Colorado baker who wouldn’t make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple: “We are all sacred and we all belong. So let’s just bake a cake for everyone who wants a cake to be baked.”

2. Amy Schumer gave a feminist read of My Fair Lady, a beloved classic with a plot that hasn’t quite stood the test of time. She called it “a comedy about class and sexism” featuring a “mansplaining expert.” (She’s not wrong.)

3. The evening’s overwhelming focus on inclusivity.
In her acceptance speech for best featured actress in a musical, in Carousel, Lindsay Mendez touched on one aspect of Broadway’s “come as you are” magic. “When I moved to New York, I was told to change my last name from Mendez to Matthews or I wouldn’t work,” she said, “and I just want to say how proud I am to be a part of a community that celebrates diversity and individuality, and to all of you artists out there, just be your true self and the world will take note.”

Ari’el Stachel, accepting his award for best featured actor in a musical, in The Band’s Visit, hit many of the same notes, directing his speech to his parents, who blotted their tears in the audience. “I have avoided so many events with [my parents] because for so many years of my life I pretended I was not a Middle Eastern person, and after 9/11 it was very, very difficult for me. And so I concealed, and I missed so many special events with them. And they’re looking at me right now, I can’t believe it,” Stachel said. He went on to thank the play’s producers “for being courageous, for telling a small story about Arabs and Israelis getting along at a time when we need that more than ever. I am part of a cast of actors who never believed that they’d be able to portray their own races, and we are doing that. And not only that, we’re getting messages from kids all over the Middle East thanking us, and telling us how transformative our representation is for them.”

Glenda Jackson’s acceptance speech began by nodding to her advanced stature—she took a 30-year hiatus from the stage, in which she served as a member of British Parliament, for one thing—though that wasn’t really the inclusivity she was getting at: “I’m one of the oldest people, I think, ever to have stood on this platform receiving this award, but what a thrill to be in the same house as those amazing children; weren’t they marvelous?” Jackson began (referencing the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Drama Club, which had just performed). Jackson went on to thank her cast and crew, and “most of all I would like to thank you—because I was just looking at the list and there are people in this audience, in this country, in this city, from every other country in the world. And you, as always, are welcoming and kind and generous. And America has never needed that more. But then, America is always great.”

And if that weren’t enough from the inimitable Jackson, we can certainly relate to the kid seated behind her:

4. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Drama Club was invited onstage, where it performed “Seasons of Love” from Rent. As if you weren’t already crying.

And if that didn’t leave you feeling moved (come on), Melody Herzfeld, a drama teacher who sheltered her students in a classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the shooting there in February, accepted the excellence in theater education prize before the taped portion of the evening, telling the audience: “We all have a common energy. We all want the same thing. To be heard. To tell our truth. To make a difference. And to be respected. We teach this every day in every arts class.”

5. In his speech accepting the award for best direction of a musical, for The Band’s Visit, David Cromer artfully aligned the power and the mission of theater with a more humanitarian one. He delicately referenced the rash of recent high-profile suicides. “One of the things The Band’s Visit concerns itself with is people who, due to loneliness [or] isolation, may have started to lose hope, and I wish that I had the words or the wisdom to say to the people out there whose despair is overwhelming their hope; I wish I had a way to convince them to continue looking, to have the patience and the courage to keep trying to find hope. If you are suffering: Please, please call out. And for those of us who are fortunate enough not to be suffering so deeply, let’s make sure that we answer them.”

6. Tony Kushner reminded the audience about the approaching midterms. “Twenty-one weeks to save our democracy”—and that was before he wished Judy Garland a happy birthday. (“What kind of a homosexual would I be if I didn’t say—it’s June 10: Happy birthday, Judy Garland!”)

7. Robert De Niro made an entrance—though if you weren’t in the audience at Radio City, you’d have to be pretty good at lipreading to catch it. “I’m gonna say one thing,” De Niro said, though he was muted by CBS, “fuck Trump.”

And while not bearing the emotional heft or topical urgency necessary to designate it one of the show’s very best moments, let’s not forget that the evening included Tony winner Nathan Lane rejecting a goat.

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