When a Broadway musical like "Fela!" — dynamic, inventive, ambitious — loses to a Broadway musical like "Memphis" — infantile, predictable, tedious — you know the Tony Awards no longer have anything re motely to do with "excellence in the theater."
Last night, the ground-breaking musical about Fela Kuti, the Nigerian song writer and polit ical activist who created Afro-Beat and defied oil com panies and to talitarian govern ments, lost the Tony to a feel-good show about an oppressively cute white disc jockey who likes black people and promotes their music. If the year were 1955, I'd say bravo to "Memphis." But, 60 years past the civil-rights movement, Broadway and its 700 mummified Tony voters still think a musical about integrating the high-school dance is cutting edge.
Jun 14, 2010
Article Dopeness: Tony Baloney
Hey! I was reading a New York Post article today that discusses the Tony's and how they slighted one of the biggest productions of the year, "Fela!" This article says what so many people who watched the Tony's was thinking- How could a production like "Fela!" loose to "Memphis"? It's all very suspicious. Read what Michael Riedel had to say below.
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