Eleven Things That Made the Tonys Fun: Sean Hayes, the Gays and More!

While it’s true that the Tony Awards may be an annual religious experience for countless gay men and theater lovers alike, it also can’t be denied that they are the bastard step-child of televised award shows. Can you recall was the last the Tony Awards were featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly?

There is no red carpet pre-show where a Mary Hart wannabe quizzes Patti LuPone or Kristin Chenoweth on who they’re wearing. And there aren’t enough Hollywood A-listers on hand to warrant any wrap-up coverage by Ryan Seacrest.

Thank God for that.

But the 64th Tony Awards still managed to pull off plenty of entertaining moments that left the audience laughing, moved or even inspired. Here are eleven of the best moments that made this award show watchable.

#1 I would love to say that the entire opening montage was great.

Except that it wasn’t.

Besides the awful sound problems that occurred within the first five minutes, I’m tired of Tony producers just throwing snippets of musical performances together and calling that an opening. How about some transitions? Some imagination? And then ending with a performance by Green Day (a band I enjoy) as the audience awkwardly clapped along? It was almost painful to watch.

But I’m supposed to be writing about what made the Tonys fun to watch. And they were actually pretty good this year.

Sean Hayes pleasantly surprised me. Not only did he show off his piano-playing skills, but his monologue proved he could follow in Neil Patrick Harris’ shoes.

In fact, Hayes was funny. Damn funny, mixing the right amount of barbed wit with self-deprecation. And how brilliant was the way he started with that heavy, convincing kiss with Kristin Chenoweth (take that Newsweek!). Then all night Hayes totally brought the laughs:

The Tonys are the world cup of show tunes. At the World Cup, when somebody scores they yell ‘goal’ but at the Tonys when somebody scores, they yell ‘gurl!’

He then went on to welcome any closeted, right-wing Republicans that may have been watching the show in secret. “Hi, fellows!”

Genius.

And he kept it up all night, introducing presenters while dressed as Spiderman, Annie and in Billy Elliot’s tights.

Speaking of which, that was a codpiece, right?