Tony Baloney

VOICE OF PROTEST: N.Y. Post theater critic Michael Riedel gave a big thumbs-down to last night’s choice of Memphis for Best Musical Tony. “When a Broadway musical like Fela!—dynamic, inventive, ambitious—loses to a Broadway musical like Memphis—infantile, predictable, tedious—you know the Tony Awards no longer have anything remotely to do with ‘excellence in the theater.’” Riedel blasts the Tony’s decision to exclude critics and theater reporters from the process this year, claiming Fela! would have won had they been allowed to vote. “As a result of the decision, touring producers now hold sway over the Tonys, and they don't want anything like Fela!— political, edgy, tough, authentically black—challenging mainstream audiences. Far better to have Memphis—which challenges, what, I don't know, the last vestige of the Ku Klux Klan, I guess—play your markets.” (6/14a)