Broadway pros fuming after CBS replaces Tonys with ‘Grease’ singalong

Broadway types are fuming just after CBS introduced that a singalong variation of the 1978 movie “Grease” will switch the Tony Awards on the network up coming thirty day period. One particular theater insider even despatched us an e-mail with the eye-catching matter line “Grease is the turd!” — including, “a tough year for Broadway types just acquired a total whole lot worse.”

The Tonys, which honor the very best of Broadway at Radio Metropolis Tunes Corridor, continue being indefinitely postponed. And though the movie “Grease” was based mostly on a phase musical of the very same title, Broadway stars are revolting on Twitter.

Tony nominee Gideon Glick of “To Kill a Mockingbird” tweeted at CBS, “I’m sure there are a million gays out there who could help you curate a greatest hits of the Tony Awards to air alternatively!” when “Frozen” star Patti Murin mused of the network’s go, “[Not] a retrospective of earlier wonderful Tony performances and speeches and moments?  Or a little something highlighting the incredible operate that folks in theatre do for their community?  Or virtually just about anything other than this?”

“Dear Evan Hansen” lyricist Benj Pasek opined, “Danny can never ever switch Tony,” referring to John Travolta’s guide character in “Grease,” and “Hamilton” expert Lin-Manuel Miranda posted a backlink to the announcement with a classic image of Michael Jordan on the court docket giving side-eye to his substantially-maligned Bulls teammate Scott Burrell. Former “Spring Awakening” and “Wicked” star Andy Mientus tweeted a backlink to the news and added, “Why is this hysterical to me.”

Outspoken Broadway energy PR professional Rick Miramontez informed Web site Six of the Tonys being upstaged for “Grease”: “As course president of LA’s John Marshall Higher Faculty during the precise filming of ‘Grease,’ I really feel I need to be diplomatic about this just one: Permit me put it this way, even during quarantine I be expecting to have a little something vastly a lot more exciting to do with my June seven night than tune in.”  (For movie buffs, John Marshall Higher Faculty was also featured in “Pretty in Pink,” “A Nightmare on Elm Avenue,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” new music video and lots of a lot more.)

Considering that New York introduced a ban on gatherings in excess of 500 on March twelve, Broadway has remained darkish, marking the longest hiatus in its historical past.