Tonight the 73rd annual Tony Awards took over New York City. Held at Radio City Music Hall, the ceremony celebrated excellence in Broadway theater, with awards going to some of the year’s biggest productions, including Hadestown, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Cher Show (to name a few). Hosting was late-night talk-show host James Corden, who served as the event emcee once before in 2016.
Always one for a good show tune—have you seen Carpool Karaoke?—Corden unsurprisingly absolutely nailed his hosting duties at the awards ceremony. From his opening musical number championing theater and shading television to his comedic interactions with the A-list crowd, see Corden’s top five hosting moments below.
1. His Opening Musical Number Took Aim at TV
Corden is always up for a good song and dance, so it’s no surprise he opened the show with a full-on musical number. The subject matter for his song of choice? It was all about encouraging viewers to go outside and actually visit the theater instead of binging Netflix shows for hours. “You watch Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, till you can’t remember which program is on,” he sang. “We do it live! It can’t be hashtagged, and it isn’t tweetable!” Still his song did throw shade at one aspect of attending Broadway shows: “The price of a ticket is awfully steep—you buy it last minute, and it still isn’t cheap.”
2. He Kept Getting Interrupted
In the middle of Corden’s flashy opening sequence, he got sidetracked by the sight of actor Bryan Cranston getting up from the audience to leave the auditorium. Corden then stopped the show to ask where he was going, to which Cranston replied he needed a bathroom break. “You couldn’t wait? The show just started,” Corden said. Later in the show, as Corden introduced the next category, his speech was interrupted—a theme of the night!—by his very own (adorable) father, who decided to take a phone call after letting his iPhone ring for a bit. “Dad! Get off the phone! I’m hosting the show!” Corden said.
3. He Put the Crowd on the Spot
To break the fourth wall, as they say in the theater world, Corden ventured into the crowd to ask a few celebrity guests if they could practice their fake happy face when losing an award. (Admit it—all actors do it.) First it was Kristin Chenoweth, then the cast of The Boys in the Band, followed by a must-see Jeff Daniels, who currently stars on Broadway in To Kill a Mockingbird.
4. His Second Musical Number Was Live From the Bathroom
For his second musical moment, Corden sang a tune live from the bathroom at Radio City. After succumbing to anxiety related to his hosting gigs—he read tweets such as “Corden’s a talentless hack,” for example—Corden jokingly hid out in the bathroom, where he then ran into former Tonys hosts Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban, who had been hiding there since last year’s awards. The skit ended when veteran host Neil Patrick Harris also emerged from a stall—though he wasn’t there out of nerves. “I just had to use the bathroom,” he said.
5. He Tried to Start Theater Feuds
In a boost to get more ratings for the Tonys, Corden tried to get some guests in the audience to start some feuds. “We need our very own Cardi B/Nicki Minaj moment,” he says. “We cannot get along all the time.” He tried it unsuccessfully between Ben Platt and Rachel Brosnahan, and Andrew Rannells and Darren Criss. But when it came to Laura Linney and Audra McDonald, the feud was on after McDonald accused Linney of flipping her the bird during a recent Broadway performance. “Yeah, that was me,” Linney deadpanned.
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