The other side of Tony night- what happens next

See a complete list of Tony Winners here.

The 2009 Tony awards are officially ended. The general consensus is that host Neil Patrick Harris was fantastic, the sound design was atrocious and Billy Elliot was a shoe-in. It was a different kind of Tonys this year with online technology providing unprecedented access. The official Tony website broadcast a preshow webcast. Twitter and Facebook were burning up the internet with musings, congratulations, and criticisms of every aspect of the production and the results. Now that the dust is settling and the powers that be on Broadway are safely tucked into their beds after a wild night of parties and revels, let's look at the aftermath.
 

Grosses-Out: Who will gain from the Tony telecast?
Selling tickets is a huge reason to have an awards show. The irony is that often, and this year is no different,  the biggest winner of the Tonys (Billy Elliot) can't immediately capitalize on the win. Billy Elliot is already selling 99% of its house without the wins so look for tickets to be impossible to get unless you are buying weeks or even months in advance. Hair also did well on the show (both in awards and production) and their Broadway grosses have little room for improvement. The biggest winners of the Tony telecast may have nothing to do with awards. Rock of Ages, Next to Normal, West Side Story, 9 to 5, and Guys and Dolls all had major performances on the show. Two of them, West Side Story and Next to Normal even won high profile awards. If the national audience liked their performances enough to buy tickets, the Tony telecast may have made the difference between staying alive or closing sans recoupment. My bet is both Next to Normal and Rock of Ages will  see an increase in ticket sales. 9 to 5 might also squeek by as Dolly Parton and that catchy title tune were pretty awesome (despite some truly atrocious sound design).  Dolly also had the benefit of a 60 Minutes feature minutes before the Tony telecast.

Plays have a bit rougher time of if because it's hard to give a television audience a sense of what enfolds onstage in a non-musical. For plays, the award-winners stand to gain. This year Tony may have helped both Norman Conquests and Joe Turner's Come and Gone in the Broadway grosses department. God of Carnage the Tony winner for Best Original Play and Best Actress needed no help as it's selling quite well already and has already announced an extension with the original cast.
 

Swan songs
The dark side of Tony night is that many shows that are struggling economically are dependent on a win to help stay afloat. Great shows on the cusp of financial success (or worse) close because there's no longer a reason to presume post-Tonys that grosses are going to improve without a Tony win. This is a sad state of the industry which can be percieved as a questionable business practice on the part of producers and marketers of Broadway shows. Why producers are content to allow one single event to dictate success or failure is beyond me. The industry does it with the critics as well, relying entirely too much on positive reviews to sell shows instead of creating new, bold marketing initiatives that might circumvent poor showings in awards or reviews.

This may be a bit unfair. Producers and marketers work very hard to find their audience. In general Broadway is incredibly reluctant to move forward in business practices and an over-reliance on old standards handicaps the entire industry not just individual shows. Coupled with the fact that Broadway is a relatively small industry that centers around a few square blocks of one very large city and it's probably no surprise that a national telecast of the awards show is so important.

Look for at least one show to post closings next week, even as soon as Monday.

Breaking new ground
This year technology found the Tonys and vice versa. Three versions of #Tonys trending topics were consistently in the Top Ten on Twitter for the entire broadcast. At least one Tony trending topic beat any basketball topic when the NBA was also playing on another major network. That spells big demographics potential for Broadway. If the industry can tap into those people pre-disposed to twitter for them then we may be ushering in a new Golden Age of Broadway, and perhaps even theatre in general. Technology and internet applications have the potential to even the playing field for Broadway and almost any live event against the big machines that are the movie, television and recording industries. The key is using the tools effectively and converting that big demographic into revenue.

Right now Broadway is flirting with technology and technology is flirting back. If the relationship ignites, then we could all be part of one of the most exciting times in the history of theatre.