Ariana DeBose Opens Tony Awards by Telling Audience “We Don’t Have a Script, You Guys”
Ariana DeBose kicked off the 2023 Tony Awards without any words, literally.
The Oscar-winning actress, who returned to host the Tony Awards for the second year in a row, began Sunday night’s telecast across CBS and Paramount+ by flipping through empty pages in a binder labeled “script” in a dressing room.
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DeBose then danced through the United Palace Theater along with many other dancers in the wordless, music-forward opener, which included a piano performance and instrumental versions of “Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)” and “On Broadway,” the latter co-written by the late Cynthia Weil. DeBose and the dancers moved through the aisles, where the host tried to entice nominee Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson, whose production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson was nominated for best play revival, to dance before she and her fellow performers finished the number onstage.
Taking the microphone, DeBose celebrated the show being uptown in Washington Heights at the United Palace Theater and shared, “Happy Puerto Rican Day.”
“That was very special to me to be able to open with a dance-forward, music-forward opening number,” DeBose said. “I’m sure some of you caught the blank pages [in the script]…our siblings over at the WGA are currently on strike in pursuit of a fair deal. How many of us know what that is?”
She said people at home might be wondering what that means for the Tony Awards before explaining that shows like the Tonys are traditionally written by members of the WGA and this time a “whole host of people had to come together in order to find a compromise and we are all here,” offering a “full-throated THANK YOU” for those who came together for the compromise.
Spelling it out even further, DeBose grimaced and said, “We don’t have a script, you guys.”
“To anyone who may have thought that last year was a bit unhinged, to them I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up,'” she said.
She explained that she and every presenter will be operating without a script and without a teleprompter, with the only thing on the two screens in the theater being a countdown clock for people to know how much time they have left for their speeches.
DeBose closed by telling the audience in the theater, “You should all be so proud of everything you’ve given to this Broadway season.”
About an hour into the show, DeBose popped up in the audience, taking a selfie with some audience members and praising Bonnie Milligan’s performance in Kimberly Akimbo. She then checked her notes, written on her arm, for the next presenters, but couldn’t read what was written.
DeBose later resumed dancing, taking the stage with Julianne Hough in a tribute to Chicago. And she popped up in the United Palace Theater’s balcony after Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee won saying that both actors “did the thing,” referencing her viral BAFTAs rap.
The 2023 Tony Awards aired live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday night from New York’s United Palace Theater after the Writers Guild of America agreed not to picket the awards ceremony as the Tonys agreed to go without a script for Sunday night’s telecast.
Though the WGA urged nominated members not to attend, the Dramatists Guild, which represents playwrights, composers and lyricists, met with the affected nominees and urged them to attend but to voice support for the writers, which many winners did.
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