And the Award for Awesome Goes to NPH

What's nice about the Tonys is how little the actual awards matter to the show. Sure, the winners are likely to get a big boost at the box office, so it certainly matters to them. But when a good portion of the awards weren't even broadcast (including real awards like best book of a musical), you know that's not the main focus.

No, like host Neil Patrick Harris said in his off-prompter opening, the Tonys are all about getting a taste of what's out there on Broadway, and figuring out what of the year's offerings is worth ponying up the cash to go see. I admit to not having too much of a vested interest in who won this year, having only seen Hair and Guys and Dolls, but I still feel like this was kind of a weak year. I mean, if Billy Elliot's doing that well, there can't be anything too great out there, right?

So the performances had some good and some bad. On the good side, I now definitely want to see Next to Normal, as the number they performed proved they earned that win for best score. And Hair had probably the most fun number of the night, as they danced and thrust all over audience members just like in the real show.

But too many shows seemed so determined to pick a big production number that they didn't pick a good song. Sure, watching Christopher Sieber dance on his knees was cool, but was that song really the best Shrek could do? And if West Side Story's main selling point is the bilingual nature of this production, why pick a song where the only word is "Mambo?" Billy Elliot's number was admittedly pretty cool, but it did nothing to convince me there's anything beyond dancing in it.

Of course, the reason I actually watched the Tonys this year wasn't for the singing, the dancing, and the Bret Michaels, but for host NPH. While he did an excellent job keeping things moving and tossing in a joke from time to time, I still wanted more. I get that non-Oscar awards shows try not to waste time, so the host isn't supposed to get long moments to himself, but why couldn't they just spend less time on the straight plays (I probably should care about them, but I don't)? I mean, why get NPH if they don't let him sing!

Well, it turns out I was wrong on that last point. Since my DVR cut off right before Billy Elliot was called best musical (like that was any surprise), I missed the single best part of the entire show: NPH's closing number. So for anyone in a similar situation (or the 99.999% of America who didn't watch), enjoy: