Every award show has its share of theatrics — musical numbers, comedy sketches, monologues — but the Tony Awards are an entirely different animal. The 2018 Tony Awards performances are bound to be impressive, but they might be a little difficult to find unless you have a certain streaming subscription.
According to a representative for CBS, the Tonys will, in addition to airing live on CBS itself, be available to stream both live and on-demand with CBS All Access, so you can get ahold of the performances there. If you've already got a CBS All Access account, great — you're set. If not, a subscription is $5.99 a month with a free week at the beginning, according to the site. So, theoretically, you could sign up long enough to catch the show and its performances, and then cancel before you're charged the regular subscription fee.
That seems to be about it, though. A glance at the ceremony's YouTube channel includes teasers from nominated shows, acceptance speeches, and some of the nominations' announcements, but no actual performances. This is likely due to music licensing and other roadblocks like that, but there's always the possibility that some performances and highlights will make their way onto Twitter and other social media for everyone to enjoy.
And let's just say these performances aren't any that you'll want to miss. According to the 2018 Tony Awards' website, the ceremony will feature performances by the casts of Tony-nominated musicals Mean Girls, My Fair Lady, Once On This Island, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical, and more. There will also be a special performance from Dear Evan Hansen, which was nominated and won at last year's Tony Awards. And, according to Playbill, rock legend Bruce Springsteen is slated to perform and receive an honorary Tony Award.
The cast performances aren't the only thing to look out for. Musicians and Broadway stars Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban will be co-hosting the shindig. “We’re both so excited about it,” Groban told People magazine. "We’ve both had such great times at the Tonys over the last couple of years and to go from being part of shows to having our own nominations to coming back to hosting? I think our adult selves and our child selves are both equally high-fiving right now."
At its core, the Tony Awards are always a joyous celebration of musical theater, and the people who come together to enjoy it. Bareilles told The Hollywood Reporter that she sees more and more people coming out and acknowledging theater's importance and outwardly being fans of it in a more mainstream sense. "I certainly see more and more artists coming out of the "theater closet." Embracing their love of theater. I think for some reason it was stigmatized and now thankfully... Hamilton has made it so cool," Bareilles said. "We're finding out that people have been listening to cast albums their whole life and they're just feeling like it's OK to admit it now."
Groban agreed, echoing the influence of Hamilton, and credited its ingenuity for perhaps bringing a new group of people into the theater community. "Producers have seen that [new kinds of theater are] commercially viable. Experimentation is cool," he said in the same THR interview. "Breaking boundaries and incorporating sounds that young people listen to into musical theater is important. I think people like Lin-Manuel [Miranda] are helping to change that."
Given who's scheduled to appear at the Tonys this year, it's a show that has the potential to seriously impress its audience with star-studded musical numbers and charming hosts. If you don't have cable or CBS All Access, maybe crash on a friend's couch or check out that free trial — it's shaping up to definitely look worth your while.
