Tony Telecast Presenters & Numbers Announced
More details have been announced about this year's Tony Awards broadcast. Sean Combs, Taye Diggs, Jimmy Fallon, Joel Grey, Ethan Hawke, Anne Heche, LL Cool J, Billy Joel, Scarlett Johansson, Jane Krakowski, Peter Krause, Nathan Lane, Laura Linney, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Anna Paquin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bernadette Peters, Phylicia Rashad, Chita Rivera, Carole Bayer Sager, Martin Short, Patrick Stewart, Sigourney Weaver and Marissa Jaret Winokur will join Nicole Kidman as presenters at the ceremony, which will be hosted by Hugh Jackman.
During the ceremony all four nominated Best Musicals and three of the four nominated Best Revivals will present numbers. Avenue Q's company, headed by Tony nominees John Tartaglia and Stephanie D'Abruzzo, will perform "It Sucks To Be Me." Host Jackman will perform "Not the Boy Next Door" from the Tony-nominated musical, The Boy from Oz. Tonya Pinkins will sing her big second act number "Lot's Wife" from Caroline, or Change. Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth will sing Wicked's first-act closer, "Defying Gravity."
As for the revivals, Big River has been told it cannot perform on the broadcast. However, video footage is expected to represent the acclaimed production. The Assassins company will perform "Everybody's Got the Right." Headed by Tony nominee Alfred Molina, the Fiddler on the Roof company will perform "Tradition." Tony-nominated lead actress Donna Murphy will lead the Wonderful Town cast in "Swing."
Video footage from this year's Best Play nominees Anna in the Tropics, Frozen, I Am My Own Wife and The Retreat from Moscow and Best Revival of a Play nominees Henry IV, Jumpers, King Lear and A Raisin in the Sun will be included in this year's telecast as well.
As previously reported, during the show Mary J. Blige and Tony Bennett will each perform their own interpretations of classic Broadway songs. The songs have been taken from the newly published Tony Awards Songbook, a collection from Tony Award-winning musicals. Blige will sing "What I Did for Love" from A Chorus Line and Bennett will sing "The Lullaby of Broadway" from 42nd Street.
The 2004 Tony Award will be broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall on June 6 on CBS from 8pm through 11pm.
