Sunday night is the biggest night of the Broadway year, when the 2017 Tony Awards will live stream from Radio City Music Hall in New York, and theater aficionados find out who will walk off with the highest honors handed out by the American theater industry, a competition that this year includes such innovative new musicals as the teen-suicide themed Dear Evan Hansen , and a musical about a terrorist incident, Come From Away .
While the Broadway season is most often highlighted by musicals based on movies or other popular source material, 2017 is unusual for the prevalence of original musical productions with risky and challenging themes. Also absent from the elite crop of shows this year, the usual roster of Hollywood stars who moonlight in Broadway shows. However, despite those deviations from the standard Broadway business model, the shows have proven surprisingly successful at the box office and popular with audiences.
While Dear Evan Hansen is considered the slight favorite, a win in the Best Musical category for Come From Away would not prove surprising either — and the razor close competition sets this year’s Tony Awards apart from the 2016 edition, when the runaway smash Hamilton fulfilled expectations by sweeping the big night with 11 awards, including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book and three acting honors among them.
But the highlights of any Tony Awards broadcast or live stream are always the performances, offering viewers across the country, most of whom may never make it to New York City to catch a Broadway show, a glimpse into the theatrical experience normally only available to the in-person crowds who pay the extravagant ticket prices charged by the 41 officially recognized Broadway theaters, all crammed into Manhattan’s Times Square district.
On Sunday, fans can expect performances from the following shows: Bandstand, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Falsettos, Groundhog Day The Musical, Hello, Dolly!, Miss Saigon, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, and War Paint.
Of course, with the Tony Awards taking place at Radio City Music Hall this year, the legend Radio City Rockettes will also get a chance to show off their talents to the Broadway audience.
Kevin Spacey will handle the hosting duties on Sunday. Spacey is expected to unveil his skills as an impressionist, reeling off spot-on mimicry of President Bill Clinton, Jack Lemmon and Johnny Carson. But reports also say that late in the broadcast, Spacey’s dastardly character from his hit Netflix series House of Cards may also make an appearance.
The 2017 Tony Awards live stream is scheduled to get underway at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 5 p.m. Pacific, from Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 11.
Who will carry off the trophies on Broadway’s biggest night? To find out, watch a live stream of the 2017 Tony Awards ceremony from the famed Radio City Music Hall in midtown Manhattan, New York, New York, by signing up for the seven-day free trial of CBS All Access, which is available at this link . Of course, the subscription may be canceled after the Tony Awards show. CBS All Access is available on mobile devices and set-top streaming boxes six as the Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV using the CBA All Access app.
In select areas, a CBS live stream may also be accessed through the new Hulu With Live TV service, which comes with a one-week free trial as well and may be accessed at this link .
[Featured Image by Evan Agostini/AP Images]