The 2017 Tony Awards get political
Broadway's best and brightest couldn't let the Tony Awards go by without getting in a few jabs at Washington, with "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert leading the charge.
Before announcing the winner for best revival of a musical, Colbert riffed on President Trump's administration being a revival itself, one that "started way off-Broadway -- all the way over on Fifth Avenue."
Colbert joked that the current production was scheduled to run for four years, but early reviews have been so rough that it could be closing early -- a line that drew cheers from the crowd at Radio City Music Hall Sunday night.
Colbert wasn't the only luminary on stage to bring politics into the evening. While accepting a Tony for his work in "Present Laughter," Kevin Kline thanked the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, two organizations under fire in Mr. Trump's proposed budget.
Kline pointed out that without those organizations, many of the people assembled at the Tonys wouldn't be there.
Cynthia Nixon had a message for the audience as well, citing the words of playwright Lillian Hellman.
"Sixty years ago, [Hellman] wrote, 'There are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it and other people who just stand around and watch them do it.' My love, gratitude and undying respect go out to all the people in 2017 who are refusing to just stand and watch them do it."