The Tony Awards And The Writers Strike: What Happens If Broadway’s Big Night Has No Words?
05.05.2023 - 23:35
/ deadline.com
For Tony Award nominees, the next 37 days will be the usual long slog of interviews, parties, nerves and anticipation. But for producers of the ceremony’s June 11 broadcast on CBS, the date carries a new cause for insomnia: Who will write the thing?
With the Writers Guild of America strike showing no signs of an immediate resolution, the organizations behind the Tonys – The American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League and exec producers White Cherry Entertainment – will have some decisions to make.
This year’s Tony nominations were announced Tuesday, the very same day the WGA went on strikeagainst the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The latter organization includes, among its members, Paramount Global, owner of CBS and Paramount+, broadcast and streaming homes of the Tonys.
As of today, the Tonys are set to take place at the United Palace in New York City’s Washington Heights on Sunday, June 11, airing live on CBS and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+ from 8-11 PM ET/5-8 PM PT).
Without WGA members writing the introductions, the jokes and the seemingly off-the-cuff patter that fills space between performances, host Ariana DeBose and all of the as-yet-unnamed presenters would be left to their own devices and improv skills.
That’s assuming, of course, that they’d be willing to cross any potential picket lines, or that the League and the Wing decide to go through with the ceremony as planned. Neither organization has yet commented on the strike’s potential impact, and a Tony spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Though the organizers, including CBS, have not disclosed contingency plans, sources tell Deadline that the strike is top of mind.
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