Tony Wrap-Up

Thanks to all who tuned into The Big Blogcast. It was a record hit-count for a Sunday.

Turns out yours truly was not the only one blogging the night away. You can check out Playbill's Andrew Gans' blow-by-blow here, and see what it's like to do it from the official Tony press room. And get paid for it!

Among Andrew's revelations: apparently the "Spring Awakening" kids couldn't get away with singing "breast" on CBS? He also gets Michael Mayer on the record to explain what he really meant in his acceptance speech by "This is not heinous." Apparently it didn't have anything to do with the idea of selling out. Let's just hope is new "Flamingo Kid" musical is not...heinous.

Here's something else I bet you didn't know about the Tonys. Or at least I didn't:

To stage a musical number at Radio City, individual shows are required to foot most of the production costs. That can set a show back more than $200,000, a figure that has producers seeing red.

Bloomberg's Philip Boroff has the story. Read on, the infighting over this is fascinating. Apparently this is why you saw "Grey Gardens" and "Company" opting only for solo numbers by its respective stars. Those chorus boys/girls needs to be paid! Hence, it makes sense that Disney's "Mary Poppins" could afford the most lavish production number; a worthwhile investment for The Mouse, who can afford to drop the 200 grand if it boosts ticket sales.

What's that old story of the Nazi's making victims pay for their own trials? Don't know why I would compare that.

Meanwhile, watch out for two sets of numbers by the end of the day: who's up in box office sales and how down the CBS Nielsen ratings went last night.