Cynthia Erivo was prepared for her close-up on the 2025 Tony Awards.
The host, a Tony winner herself, who additionally has an Emmy and a Grammy, was joined by Oprah Winfrey backstage on the high of the CBS ceremony for a second that paid homage to each this 12 months’s Tony-nominated musical revival Sundown Blvd. and a memorable second on the press tour for the primary Depraved movie, the place co-star Ariana Grande grabbed Erivo’s finger.
Backstage, Erivo walked over to Winfrey and requested what she was doing there and the mogul mentioned she needed to be there.
Erivo requested, “What do you do when everyone is telling you what it’s worthwhile to do?”
Winfrey replied, “Neglect about them babe, the one factor it’s worthwhile to do is simply be your self.”
With Winfrey pointing at her, Erivo grabbed her finger, simply as Grande did to her on the Depraved press tour, and smiled.
Erivo then took the stage, sporting a shimmering lengthy, crimson robe with white accents, and belted out a musical introduction to the energy of Broadway, with a refrain during which she crooned, “Generally all you want is a track.”
Halfway by way of her efficiency, Erivo was joined by Broadway Inspirational Voices, sporting white ensembles, who walked up the aisles and assembled behind her onstage.
She additionally went into the viewers, getting Kristin Chenoweth, Aaron Tveit and Adam Lambert to sing the refrain along with her. At one other level, Gayle King was noticed singing within the viewers.
Throughout her track, Erivo cited nominees Oh, Mary; Possibly Glad Endings; Sarah Snook; and George Clooney in addition to Glengarry Glen Ross star Kieran Culkin, Othello star Denzel Washington and McNeal star Robert Downey, Jr.
And close to the tip of her efficiency, she sang, “When the world is wanting gloomy, let that curtain rise. Broadway is a spot all of us belong.”
After the efficiency, Erivo delivered a quick opening monologue, during which she once more referenced the Depraved/Wizard of Oz universe: “As they apparently say in a really fertile piece of mental property, ‘There’s no place like house.’”
She went on to quote first-time nominees Cole Escola, Sadie Sink, Louis McCartney and “up-and-comer” George Clooney, who performed together with the bit from his seat within the viewers.
She proclaimed, “Broadway is again,” earlier than joking, “If we don’t run out of actors from Succession.”
Appropriately, the primary award went to Succession alum Sarah Snook, profitable greatest efficiency by an actress in a number one function in a play for The Image of Dorian Grey.
After the primary business break, Erivo returned to advise winners to maintain their acceptance speeches temporary, saying she would possibly sing them off.
“Don’t mess with me, I’ve been identified to solid spells,” she joked, in one other Depraved allusion.
Certainly, when Kara Younger, making historical past as the primary Black performer to win two Tonys in a row, went over time throughout her speech, audio of Erivo singing “My Method” started to play her off. The identical factor occurred roughly an hour later when the crew behind Eureka Day was accepting the award for greatest revival of a play.
Erivo additionally spent a while within the balcony, saying, “Everyone loves a balcony seat, besides, as we discovered this season, Abraham Lincoln,” with a deadpan allusion to Oh, Mary.
And she or he supplied that the balcony is the “most secure place to look at Jonathan Groff sing, if getting spit on is just not your factor,” referring to his well-known efficiency quirk.
She went on to jokingly introduce Groff as “a person who makes everybody moist.”
Erivo additionally delivered a black-and-white information temporary opening paying homage to Good Evening, and Good Luck, recapping the Broadway season.
Extra to return.