WASHINGTON — Fasten your seat belts and get ready for your closeup.
Sixty-five years after those quips in “All About Eve” and “Sunset Blvd.,” the line between Broadway and Hollywood has never been more blurred — and that’s great for show business.
Not only did the Broadway-themed “Birdman” win this year’s Oscar for Best Picture, a number of movie stars are nominated for Tonys on Broadway’s biggest night Sunday at Radio City Music Hall.
Bradley Cooper, Helen Mirren, Bill Nighy, Carey Mulligan, Ken Watanabe and Elisabeth Moss are all nominated for stage performances this year, while the nominated plays evoke fond movie memories: “An American in Paris,” “The King and I,” “On the Town” and “The Elephant Man.”
This symbiotic relationship is nothing new. Broadway has long provided Hollywood backdrops, from Busby Berkeley’s kaleidoscopes in “42nd Street” (1933) to Bob Fosse’s pill-popping addictions in “All That Jazz” (1979) to Charlie Kaufman’s surreal obsessions in “Synecdoche, New York” (2008).
Perhaps the most famous crossover happened in 1964, when Hollywood refused to cast Broadway’s Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle in the film version of “My Fair Lady,” opting for Audrey Hepburn. Andrews got the last laugh by taking the lead in “Mary Poppins” and beating Hepburn for the Oscar.
The Andrews-Hepburn dilemma taught us a valuable showbiz lesson: that Hollywood and Broadway can be mutually beneficial. Just ask Anna Kendrick, who is currently riding a stage-to-screen wave with “The Last Five Years” and “Into the Woods,” or Idina Menzel, whose “Wicked” popularity reached new heights after John Travolta’s “Adele Dazeem” botch at the Oscars.
No one knows this phenomenon better than nine-time Tony-winner Tommy Tune, who joined WTOP to discuss Sunday’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tonys.
“We did not have theater in Houston where I grew up … so my inspiration came from the movies,” Tune tells WTOP. “Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, they were the guys for me.”
Tune says his favorite Kelly film is “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) and his favorite Astaire film is “Swing Time” (1936), though he also enjoys “Top Hat” (1935) and “A Damsel and Distress” (1937).
“I was a really skinny kid and everybody made fun of me ’cause I was so skinny,” Tune says. “(Fred Astaire) looked really skinny to me, and he wore these great clothes, and I knew that he was a swell, elegant guy and I went, well, that’s for me.”
Tune will never forget the time he got to meet his idol.
“He came backstage after seeing a show I was in, and these are the first words he said to me: ‘You are a tall son of a b****.’ He said it! And then he laughed. He couldn’t believe he said it.”
The 6-foot-6 Tune also got the chance to dance with Astaire’s legendary co-star Ginger Rogers, performing a fox trot at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.
Such are the perks when you’re a nine-time Tony winner about to earn a Life Achievement Award.
“It’s sort of a completion of a life,” Tune says. “They tell you that from the time you say your name, you have 90 seconds to make it to the stage and say your ‘thank yous’ before they start to get the hook and pull you off. So I’m trying to distill 55 years of show business into a 60-second speech.”
While Tune is guaranteed his tenth award Sunday, Victoria Clark is seeking her second Tony with “Gigi,” which had its pre-Broadway debut at the Kennedy Center with Vanessa Hudgens.
Clark joined WTOP back in February before she even knew she would be nominated for a Tony:
Clark’s “Gigi” cast is just one of the many to perform live on Sunday. The cast of “The King and I” will perform a Rodgers and Hammerstein medley, from “Shall We Dance?” to “Getting to Know You,” while the cast of “On the Town” will perform classics from their Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green score, including “New York, New York.”
Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming will take over the hosting reins from Hugh Jackman, who hosted last year’s Tonys just weeks after his summer blockbuster “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014). The three previous years were hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, who won a Tony last year for “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” the same year he seared the silver screen in “Gone Girl” (2014).
This increase in Hollywood starpower may be responsible for Broadway doing record business. Last week, The Broadway League announced that revenue and attendance both hit record highs for the third straight season, grossing $1.36 billion with attendance up 7.3 percent to 13.1 million visitors.
So if you’re still somehow on the fence about whether to watch the Tonys on Sunday, it’s time to do what so many movie stars have already discovered — it’s time to go back to Broadway.
The 69th annual Tony Awards air Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS. See below for the full slate of nominees:
Here are the 2015 Tony nominees …
Best Play
Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar
Hand to God by Robert Askins
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens
Wolf Hall Parts One & Two by Hilary Mantel and Mike Poulton
Best Musical
An American in Paris
Fun Home
Something Rotten!
The Visit
Best Revival of a Play
Skylight
The Elephant Man
This Is Our Youth
You Can’t Take It With You
Best Revival of a Musical
On the Town
On the Twentieth Century
The King and I
Best Book of a Musical
Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, Something Rotten!
Lisa Kron, Fun Home
Craig Lucas, An American in Paris
Terrence McNally, The Visit
Best Score
John Kander and Fred Ebb, The Visit
Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick, Something Rotten!
Sting, The Last Ship
Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron, Fun Home
Best Leading Actor in a Play
Steven Boyer, Hand to God
Bradley Cooper, The Elephant Man
Ben Miles, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Bill Nighy, Skylight
Alex Sharp, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Best Leading Actress in a Play
Geneva Carr, Hand to God
Helen Mirren, The Audience
Elisabeth Moss, The Heidi Chronicles
Carey Mulligan, Skylight
Ruth Wilson, Constellations
Best Leading Actor in a Musical
Michael Cerveris, Fun Home
Robert Fairchild, An American in Paris
Brian d’Arcy James, Something Rotten!
Ken Watanabe, The King and I
Tony Yazbeck, On the Town
Best Leading Actress in a Musical
Kristin Chenoweth, On the Twentieth Century
Leanne Cope, An American in Paris
Beth Malone, Fun Home
Kelli O’Hara, The King and I
Chita Rivera, The Visit
Best Featured Actor in a Play
Matthew Beard, Skylight
K. Todd Freeman, Airline Highway
Richard McCabe, The Audience
Alessandro Nivola, The Elephant Man
Nathaniel Parker, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Micah Stock, It’s Only a Play
Best Featured Actress in a Play
Annaleigh Ashford, You Can’t Take It With You
Patricia Clarkson, The Elephant Man
Lydia Leonard, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Sarah Stiles, Hand to God
Julie White, Airline Highway
Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Christian Borle, Something Rotten!
Andy Karl, On the Twentieth Century
Brad Oscar, Something Rotten!
Brandon Uranowitz, An American in Paris
Max von Essen, An American in Paris
Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Victoria Clark, Gigi
Judy Kuhn, Fun Home
Sydney Lucas, Fun Home
Ruthie Ann Miles, The King and I
Emily Skeggs, Fun Home
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Bunny Christie & Finn Ross, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Bob Crowley, Skylight
Christopher Oram, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
David Rockwell, You Can’t Take It With You
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Bob Crowley and 59 Productions, An American in Paris
David Rockwell, On the Twentieth Century
Michael Yeargan, The King and I
David Zinn, Fun Home
Best Costume Design of a Play
Bob Crowley, The Audience
Jane Greenwood, You Can’t Take It With You
Christopher Oram, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
David Zinn, Airline Highway
Best Costume Design of a Musical
Gregg Barnes, Something Rotten!
Bob Crowley, An American in Paris
William Ivey Long, On the Twentieth Century
Catherine Zuber, The King and I
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Paule Constable, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Paule Constable and David Plater, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Natasha Katz, Skylight
Japhy Weideman, Airline Highway
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Donald Holder, The King and I
Natasha Katz, An American in Paris
Ben Stanton, Fun Home
Japhy Weideman, The Visit
Best Director of a Play
Stephen Daldry, Skylight
Marianne Elliott, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Scott Ellis, You Can’t Take It With You
Jeremy Herrin, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Moritz von Stuelpnagel, Hand to God
Best Director of a Musical
Sam Gold, Fun Home
Casey Nicholaw, Something Rotten!
John Rando, On the Town
Bartlett Sher, The King and I
Christopher Wheeldon, An American in Paris
Best Choreography
Joshua Bergasse, On the Town
Christopher Gattelli, The King and I
Scott Graham & Steven Hoggett, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Casey Nicholaw, Something Rotten!
Christopher Wheeldon, An American in Paris
Best Orchestrations
Christopher Austin, Don Sebesky and Bill Elliott, An American in Paris
John Clancy, Fun Home
Larry Hochman, Something Rotten!
Rob Mathes, The Last Ship
Tony Nominations by Production
An American in Paris — 12
Fun Home — 12
Something Rotten! — 10
The King and I — 9
Wolf Hall Parts One & Two — 8
Skylight — 7
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time — 6
Hand to God — 5
On the Twentieth Century — 5
The Visit — 5
You Can’t Take It with You — 5
Airline Highway — 4
The Elephant Man — 4
On the Town — 4
The Audience — 3
The Last Ship — 2
Constellations — 1
Disgraced — 1
Gigi — 1
The Heidi Chronicles — 1
It’s Only a Play — 1
This Is Our Youth — 1
