Celebrity Gossip /By Liz Smith
All things Tony
“Which individuals have won all four major entertainment awards— the Tony, the Oscar, the Emmy and the Grammy!”
This is an annual question that comes up now because the theater’s Antoinette Perry Awards will be happening on Sunday in New York, airing on CBS.
Thanks to our friends at Parade magazine, we know the answer. Only nine people have been honored with trophies in competitive categories—for theater (The Tony), for movies (the Oscar), for TV (the Emmy) and for music (the Grammy.)
They are directors Mel Brooks and Mike Nichols, actor Sir John Gielgud, actresses Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn and Rita Moreno and composers Marvin Hamlisch, Richard Rodgers and Jonathan Tunick.
We can add comedian Whoopi Goldberg (our very own Wow woman) if we include the daytime Emmy Awards. And we can add Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli if we are allowed to consider their noncompetitive, special-achievement Tony and Grammy honors.
So there! Now you know. Stump your friends.
On the eve of the Tonys, my writer compatriot—Michael Riedel of the New York Post—has offered up a severe critique of what CBS has done this year to the Tony Awards. He and the distinguished actor Kevin Spacey both deplore the musicalization of the show we’ll see Sunday night. The “new” Tonys will evidently drop a lot of awards onstage. “Who wants to see an old costume designer accept an award and make a speech?” seems to be the new point of view. So many important awards will be given off-camera. Dancing and musicals will shine! Straight plays and technical wins will suffer.
This “may” make good TV but it doesn’t do the hard work of all of Broadway any good. Spacey says the Tonys should be taken over by PBS, with the genius Mike Nichols directing, and should be given the formality and inclusiveness that the theater deserves.
The ebullient legend Phyllis Newman, who already has a Tony Award for acting, will be honored with a humanitarian award Sunday night. This is a first. Phyllis has raised millions of bucks for health care for women in the theater.
And now I see that three-time Tony nominee Kelli O’Hara will join with Andrea McArdle, Audra McDonald and Bebe Neuwirth in a benefit concert for Phyllis’ “Women’s Health Initiative” at New World Stages on June 15. Do a good deed in a naughty world—call 212-221-7300, Ext. 133. I’m betting this will be a lot more exciting than the Tony Awards.
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