Tony Baloney
Monday, June 16th by scott malia
If you are a fan of really obscure poetic references, then last night’s Tony Awards must have been a hoot for you. On the heels of Lauren Hutton’s psychotic break during the meaningless A-List Awards, actor Mark Rylance chose to recite poetry rather than issue any kind of formal thanks for the Best Actor in a Play Tony he won yesterday. The moment elicited both chuckles and head scratches from the audience in an evening when most of the expected victors claimed their prizes.
Rylance’s win also came at a high price to Shakespeare fans. Patrick Stewart’s highly regarded interpretation of the title role in Macbeth was bested by the performance of quirky poet Rylance. In addition, Stewart’s nefarious leading lady also walked away awardless. In fact, the entire production was shut out, not claiming a single victory.
Whether kooky or just cheeky, Rylance is a fine actor, so it is hard to begrudge him. Furthermore, he has also racked up a ginormous resume of Shakespearean work himself. Still, his win for a revival of a little-known farce seems like a bit of a letdown. At the very least, it might have been nice for the Tony audience to have been treated to a performance of a scene between Stewart’s Macbeth and Lady M. I know it would have been challenging because it would have cut into the valuable time they spent staging musical numbers every five seconds, including those from plays that have been around for OVER A DECADE! Sorry, I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but the Bard got robbed.
