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[0:00] Aaron Albano: You're listening to Tony Telecasts from The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. I'm Aaron Albano.

[0:08] Mo Brady: And I'm Mo Brady.

[0:21] Aaron Albano: Welcome listeners to our mini-series about the Tonys, bringing you all the drama behind the drama of a theater season in Broadway history. In each podcast episode, we watch a telecast of a previous Tony Awards, not only the performances, but the opening and speeches to see how it reflects the season as a whole. So, let's dive in and talk about the 1976 Tony Awards. The 30th annual Tony Awards were held at the Schubert Theater, the then-current home of A Chorus Line. As opposed to the usual June ceremonies we're used to, the ceremony took place on April 18, 1976, and was broadcast by ABC Television. The show featured six hosts, including Richard Burton and Jane Fonda. It should be noted that while revivals of My Fair Lady and Hello, Dolly! featuring Pearl Bailey ran the season, there was no category for Best Revival or Best Revival of a Musical.

Heading into the April ceremony, the original productions of A Chorus Line and Chicago were virtually tied for nominations, with 12 and 11, respectively. Also nominated for Best Musical were Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures and a revue called Bubbling Brown Sugar. But the night went to A Chorus Line, winning nine awards. The awards for Set and Costume Designer going to Pacific Overtures and Chicago going home empty-handed.

[1:42] Mo Brady: In addition to there being no awards for revivals, many of the somewhat familiar category awards had slightly different titles, such as Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Musical Comedy or Best Costume Designer, etc. But aside from the telecast itself, what was happening in 1976, Aaron?

[2:00] Aaron Albano: Well, Mo, one national event that encompassed the entirety of the 1975-1976 Broadway season was the United States Bicentennial Celebration. Spanning from April 1, 1975 to July 4, 1976, the U.S. held events across many platforms of national media, and even our own Tony Telecast showed their national pride with mentions of cultural democracy and shout-outs of hometowns across the country.

[2:25] Aaron Albano: 1976 also marked the end of President Gerald Ford's first and only term, as he would lose to President Jimmy Carter in the coming election that November. The 1975-1976 Broadway season boasted a whopping 73 opening productions, but also boasted a musicians' strike in September of 1975. This strike was the result of, surprise surprise, a dispute between producers and the musicians' union over salary increases and job security.

[2:53] Mo Brady: Aren't they all?

[2:55] Aaron Albano: This strike lasted a little over three weeks, from September 18 through October 13, in which every Broadway musical shut down during that time, and some openings were even delayed because of it.

[3:06] Mo Brady: Funny how a lot of our Tony Recaps are covering times when Broadway shut down.

[3:10] Aaron Albano: Our Tony Recap Ghost is at it again.

[3:22] Mo Brady: 73 openings with a three-week shutdown? That's impressive.

[3:29] Aaron Albano: I mean, keep in mind, we did have five more Broadway theaters than we will in 1981, so.

[3:35] Mo Brady: And in our first section, let's pour one out for the non-nominated musicals, we are really going to go through a multitude of shows.

[3:43] Aaron Albano: Let's go. Wow.

[3:44] Mo Brady: I've broken down our non-nominated musicals into categories because there are so many of them.

[3:50] Aaron Albano: Oh, bougie. We're stepping it up for the last episode.

[3:54] Mo Brady: We're just finding our form. We're like the 30th annual Tony Awards.

[3:59] Aaron Albano: Man.

[4:00] Mo Brady: Okay, the first category of non-nominated musicals are shows at the Palace, because there were three musicals that opened and closed at the Palace Theater during this truncated season.

[4:14] Mo Brady: Truncated not only because it was only from June to April instead of June to June, but also for a three-week closing. Number one, a show called The First Breeze of Summer played 48 performances in June and July.

[4:27] Aaron Albano: Wow, that's six weeks of performances, assuming we still had an eight-show week back then?

[4:31] Mo Brady: Yeah, I don't count previews into these numbers, so.

[4:35] Aaron Albano: Sure.

[4:36] Mo Brady: The second was actually mentioned in the ceremony because it was nominated for best score, even though the composer had died like 30 years earlier. This is a show called Tree Monisha.

[4:49] Mo Brady: It is about a black orphan girl found under a tree who is educated and works to improve her community in this original Scott Joplin opera. It had a rotating cast of 52 performers, and it played 64 performances at the Palace, November 4th through December 14th, after opening at the Eurus Theater on October 21st.

[5:11] Aaron Albano: So it opened at the Eurus, now the Gershwin, played two weeks there, then over two days moved into the Palace and played 46 performances there.

[5:21] Mo Brady: With a rotating cast of 52 performers?

[5:23] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[5:24] Mo Brady: I mean, it's opera.

[5:25] Aaron Albano: It feels like, imagine The Met. You put up a show, and you take it down that night, and you have multiple casts.

[5:35] Mo Brady: So this was like a legit opera. This wasn't like, Tommy is an opera, or Rent is an opera.

[5:40] Aaron Albano: Like this was a legit opera, probably.

[5:42] Mo Brady: It's a Scott Joplin opera. It's an American opera, but it is an opera, yes.

[5:48] Mo Brady: And then the third show is Home Sweet Homer, which played one performance at the Palace. It was a musical adaptation of The Odyssey, and it starred Yul Brynner.

[5:57] Aaron Albano: The original Glory Day?

[5:59] Mo Brady: The original Glory Day.

[6:01] Mo Brady: The second category I'm calling We Love An Adaptation. So there was Home Sweet Homer, the adaptation of The Odyssey, Rockabye Hamlet, which played seven performances at the Minskoff.

[6:14] Mo Brady: It was William Shakespeare's tragic tale retold as a rock musical, with a cast of 40 on stage, featuring Meat Loaf as the priest.

[6:21] Aaron Albano: Meat Loaf's a Broadway dude, okay!

[6:23] Mo Brady: The third is called Boccaccio. It played seven performances at the Edison Theater, a musical adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron.

[6:31] Aaron Albano: Wow.

[6:32] Mo Brady: See, I don't know what that is.

[6:33] Aaron Albano: But I do know what the Edison Theater is.

[6:35] Mo Brady: The Edison Theater is the now event venue that is next to the Edison Hotel, but does have a stage. But for a time, it was considered a Broadway house.

[6:45] Mo Brady: And the fourth is a show called Very Good Eddie, played 304 performances at the Princess Theater, which we remember from-

[6:52] Aaron Albano: The Olive Garden Theater.

[6:53] Mo Brady: Oh, that's what I meant.

[6:54] Aaron Albano: Yes, the Olive Garden Theater.

[6:55] Mo Brady: And featured former AEA president Nick Wyman in the cast.

[6:59] Aaron Albano: Oh, cool.

[7:00] Mo Brady: That's awesome.

[7:01] Mo Brady: And then-

[7:02] Aaron Albano: Our last category.

[7:03] Mo Brady: Just calling other oddities. So there's a show called A Musical Jubilee, played 92 performances at the St. James Theater. It was still running at the time of the Tonys.

[7:11] Aaron Albano: And it had a cast of 20, including some heavy hitters in Broadway history. John Wright, Larry Kurt, Tammy Grimes, all playing themselves.

[7:20] Mo Brady: And it was like a musical history of America, with sections called American Frontier, American Military, Vaudeville, Jazz, and then ending with Early Broadway.

[7:30] Aaron Albano: Which at that time, Early Broadway is like pre-Oklahoma.

[7:34] Mo Brady: Another show called Me and Bessie. This was a three-hander about Bessie Smith that played 453 performances between the Ambassador and the Edison Theaters.

[7:42] Aaron Albano: That's respectable.

[7:43] Mo Brady: 453?

[7:44] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[7:45] Mo Brady: Okay.

[7:46] Aaron Albano: Three people.

[7:47] Mo Brady: I mean, you're filling up the Ambassador.

[7:48] Aaron Albano: I mean-

[7:50] Mo Brady: Chicago can't do that all the time.

[7:51] Aaron Albano: So they moved as well?

[7:52] Mo Brady: From the Ambassador to the Edison?

[7:53] Aaron Albano: Yes.

[7:54] Mo Brady: Wow.

[7:55] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[7:56] Mo Brady: They opened at the Ambassador and they moved to the Edison.

[7:57] Aaron Albano: Okay.

[7:58] Mo Brady: I guess after Boccaccio played at seven performances there.

[8:01] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[8:02] Mo Brady: And the last non-nominated performance is Robber Bridegroom. This played 14 performances at the Harkness Theater, which was on Broadway at 62nd Street.

[8:12] Aaron Albano: It was produced by The Acting Company, which was a national repertory company.

[8:16] Mo Brady: I knew about it because I read Patti LuPone's memoir and she talks about it because this is how she was nominated for her first Tony Award.

[8:25] Aaron Albano: Oh, cool.

[8:26] Mo Brady: And the cast featured many Juilliard alums, including her classmate, Kevin Kline.

[8:32] Aaron Albano: You know what? This is sort of what's ringing in my head from this entire list and it being all of these shows in one season. The industry back then did not look like the industry it does now.

[8:42] Mo Brady: Like long running shows were not common. Government jobs on the Broadway stage were not common.

[8:48] Aaron Albano: No, we don't even have categories for best revival of best revival of a musical because it's not a thing.

[8:54] Mo Brady: Because it's one of those things like I always, I mean, when I was doing Cats and when I was in Chorus Line, it's one of those things where those shows began at a different time where people just wanted to work.

[9:02] Aaron Albano: And so they even gave up like principal status to just have a consistent job.

[9:10] Mo Brady: And so seeing like that environment, sort of a show was a dime a dozen. This was truly for the love of this career.

[9:18] Aaron Albano: It was not for consistency, even the way we define it now.

[9:23] Mo Brady: It's amazing that like after a season where they had 73 shows open, Chorus Line then went on to become the longest running show for arguably a generation again before Cats.

[9:36] Aaron Albano: Well, this is where the phrase gypsy comes from, you know, the affectionate now out of date term to describe Broadway ensemble performers who would move from show to show to show.

[9:48] Mo Brady: You see why it's because they had short runs.

[9:51] Aaron Albano: So and it puts the like, every time I mean, okay, we'll get into the Chorus Line conversation in a little bit.

[9:56] Mo Brady: But like, even just that last scene where they talked about the unemployment line being a forever thing like we get that.

[10:05] Aaron Albano: But not to the degree that they got that.

[10:07] Mo Brady: And now seeing it sort of like in my face, as we look back on these like older, older seasons, it's like, wow, man, this was a very fleeting industry, even more so than it is now.

[10:20] Aaron Albano: Well, I think it's also I'm not sure if this is related or not. But I think it's interesting that when we think about ensemble performers, what we do is we acknowledge the number of Broadway credits they have not the amount of time they were on Broadway.

[10:33] Mo Brady: Hmm.

[10:34] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[10:35] Mo Brady: So like, like, when I got to the city, I really felt like Charlie Sutton was like the king of the Broadway ensemble person 10 years ago, he did four different Broadway shows in 2011.

[10:45] Aaron Albano: That is a lot.

[10:46] Mo Brady: That means you are in demand, right?

[10:47] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[10:48] Mo Brady: But the other side of that is somebody like Alison Carr, who was in Mamma Mia for over a decade, right?

[10:55] Aaron Albano: This idea of the way you rise up against the odds is by booking and booking and booking and booking, not booking the one show that keeps you employed for a decade.

[11:00] Mo Brady: And it's interesting how that stacking your resume is something that newcomers look forward to and strive for even today.

[11:13] Aaron Albano: And it's interesting how that sort of mentality likely comes from like the history of our industry.

[11:19] Mo Brady: But we forget that that stacking wasn't like a privilege back then that was a necessity because no shows would stay open.

[11:26] Aaron Albano: You got Boccaccio at seven performances, you have Rockabye Hamlet at seven performances, you got me and Bessie going from multiple theaters.

[11:37] Mo Brady: And when shows do that now, it's like a big deal.

[11:40] Aaron Albano: Apparently, it wasn't back then.

[11:42] Mo Brady: It's a fascinating because then getting into the mindset of the actor at the time, it's a different world.

[11:48] Aaron Albano: Like the conversation about like workshops and labs and royalties and stuff.

[11:53] Mo Brady: It's an appropriate conversation to have.

[11:55] Aaron Albano: But acknowledging the fact that like this industry has shifted.

[11:59] Mo Brady: Once upon a time, it was just about have as consistent work as possible.

[12:03] Aaron Albano: And then it became about like, I want to travel with the show in all of its iterations.

[12:09] Mo Brady: And then it became like, I want to just have health weeks, I don't need to travel with the show, because I need more weeks to be able to pay for my health.

[12:18] Aaron Albano: And now it's like, I want to be paid for my contribution, whether I go with the show or not.

[12:24] Mo Brady: And tracking the reasons for those shifts is actually more evident than I expected.

[12:48] Aaron Albano: Let's talk about the telecast.

[12:49] Mo Brady: Okay.

[12:50] Aaron Albano: This ABC telecast!

[12:52] Mo Brady: This ABC telecast in April, this first half of talking about the telecast, I'd like to call it, let's show you how much people love theater.

[13:03] Aaron Albano: It's interesting that you brought up that everybody talking about where they're from was because of the Bicentennial.

[13:07] Mo Brady: I didn't put that together.

[13:08] Aaron Albano: I mean, that's just what I thought it was.

[13:10] Mo Brady: Do you think there's another reason?

[13:11] Aaron Albano: Well, there's this idea that we're mentioning people outside of the Tony's own community.

[13:19] Mo Brady: In the opening, they mention the 424 Tony voters, the nominating committee, theater lovers who come to New York and then teach at colleges and universities to help with this 200-year-old experiment in democracy.

[13:33] Aaron Albano: It does feel like it has this wider reach.

[13:36] Mo Brady: And most of the presenters talk about their hometowns, Alan Arkin from Chicago, Marlo.

[13:41] Mo Brady: I think it was the word democracy that hit me with the, oh, we're bringing in the Bicentennial this year. We're centering our focus around this great American melting pot that we had. I mean, even when they introduced Diana Rigg and Richard Burton, they're like, also, we love the British, even though we had a fight with them 200 years ago. But like, it's all making much more sense now.

[14:01] Aaron Albano: Yeah, well, but also like, it also makes sense the way you're seeing it, where it's like, they're extending the theater community as a sort of a democratic institution to outside of New York. This is also the first year that the Regional Tony Award is presented to Arena Stage. So interesting that that came out of the Bicentennial.

[14:21] Mo Brady: Yeah, never put those two things together. The opening of the show, we'll play some music underneath with some like jazzy 1970s Broadway music while I read this to you, okay?

[14:33] Aaron Albano: Oh, can't wait.

[14:35] Mo Brady: This is over aerial footage of Times Square at night. Some of them are just breaking into the business and the ones who are still hoping for that one big chance, but all of them have been stage struck and they have come to New York to try and make the grade on Broadway. It's been going for a long time, this odyssey, and it's still going now. Every plane and bus and train that comes to New York brings more people who have fallen in love. Stage struck romantics that have come to audition for the chance to do what they live to do. Go out on that stage and light up the sky.

[15:19] Aaron Albano: Mo, I think you have a future in audio media. That's the legit opening of this Tony Awards. It is hilarious to me, this like romantic tale that they are creating. Like, look how much all of you love theater. Everyone, every bus, people come here and people come from Detroit and they come from Chicago and they leave jolly old England to come here and try to make it on the stage.

[15:39] Mo Brady: For sure. Just in case you were afraid that this Tony Awards would not have a medley, we do.

[16:05] Aaron Albano: This needs to be an entire section, just that we always do, because man. Okay, so this year's medley was only 16 minutes long and had no commercial breaks. Top notch. Good job. The theme of the show was the ones that got away, and it featured this 16 minute medley of memorable songs from past musicals that did not win the Tony Awards. Just that concept alone, at first I was like, what are we doing? But then as the medley progressed, I was like, wait, this is the most educational thing I've ever seen.

[16:33] Mo Brady: Again, they're trying to teach us. This is not about selling. This is not about selling anything.

[16:39] Aaron Albano: No, this is about promoting the industry. You're not selling marketable individual shows, you're selling the lifestyle.

[16:48] Mo Brady: Yeah. It makes me really glad that we started with 2013, actually, where it was such a commercial, you know, so many numbers, and it felt like every moment of this telecast has a financial attachment to a bottom line.

[17:04] Aaron Albano: Sure. It's allowing us to enjoy these medleys as like oddities. They were selling the brand, for lack of a better word. They were selling the entire theatrical American theater brand, and seeing how much joy it brought everybody. Whereas now, like, it's just like, it's here now. And like...

[17:24] Mo Brady: Give us your money.

[17:24] Aaron Albano: Yeah. Because this was also the era where Broadway made stars.

[17:30] Mo Brady: Yeah. And so these were household, like, Leslie Uggams, Michelle Lee, Clifton Davis, Hal Linden are all like household names, not because they did some movie before. Gwen Verdon and Donna McKechnie are both here. And Chita Rivera, they're stars because of this industry.

[17:46] Aaron Albano: Right. Those four performers you mentioned, Michelle Lee, Clifton Davis, Leslie Uggams, and Hal Linden performed a medley of songs from shows like Gypsy, West Side Story, Hair, Grease, Pippin. Lots of statements, like, they didn't win the Tony, but they're still packing them in. It was almost like an anti-Tony ad. Like, you don't need a Tony. A first runner up medley, which all I wanted was like, hey, for 2020 Tonys or 2021 Tonys, can we get an updated medley, please?

[18:15] Mo Brady: Did you have a favorite moment in the medley of the ones that got away?

[18:20] Aaron Albano: Did I have a favorite moment? No. Did I love every single moment that Leslie Uggams opened her mouth and graced us with that gift? Low key, before we started watching these, I knew Leslie Uggams as June June Jones.

[18:34] Mo Brady: Right. That is exactly the same thing for me, too.

[18:37] Aaron Albano: And now every time I'm watching her in these medleys, I'm like, yo, our generation has 100% slept on Leslie Uggams.

[18:45] Mo Brady: Uh-huh.

[18:46] Aaron Albano: Every time she sang anything, I was like, we're about to get a show. So good. Flawless. And then on top of that, Clifton Davis just optioned up every chance he got, and I loved every second of it. All I want is an updated version of this.

[19:03] Mo Brady: Yeah, it's like I want to see one with The Full Monty and Something Rotten.

[19:07] Aaron Albano: Uh-huh. You start it with Ragtime and you just go.

[19:09] Mo Brady: Yeah. Come on.

[19:11] Aaron Albano: Could be a little newsy section for you, Aaron. That could be.

[19:14] Mo Brady: Oh!

[19:15] Aaron Albano: Could do a little Carrying the Banner.

[19:19] Mo Brady: But what four would sing it?

[19:20] Aaron Albano: But what four would sing it? My initial mind went to the four who did the television thing with Neil Patrick Harris, Megan Hilty, Laura Benanti, Andrew Reynolds and Neil Patrick Harris.

[19:33] Mo Brady: That's a pretty white crew.

[19:34] Aaron Albano: That is a pretty white crew.

[19:36] Mo Brady: I don't think when Broadway comes back, we're going to be quite as intentionally whitewashed.

[19:41] Aaron Albano: Yeah, that's fair. Goodness, let's hope so.

[19:43] Mo Brady: What if it's just Audra McDonald doing 16 Minutes by herself?

[19:47] Aaron Albano: The woman can do no wrong. I'm fine with that.

[19:50] Mo Brady: Yeah, let's go. Just Audra McDonald singing from every show from 1976 to present day. She could do every show she did. She could do Secret Garden. She could do Ragtime. She could do Marie Christine. She's got them all.

[20:04] Aaron Albano: She can even do a little Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. Like, I'm fine with the whole thing.

[20:09] Mo Brady: Perfect. She could even do Santa Fe. Like, let's be real. Audra, have your people call our people. We don't have people.

[20:18] Aaron Albano: Daddy always thought that he married beneath him.

[20:20] Mo Brady: That's what he said.

[20:23] Aaron Albano: That's what he said. When he proposed, he informed my mother.

[20:25] Mo Brady: He was probably her very last chance.

[20:29] Aaron Albano: Okay, so I feel like the telecast both had a we love theater about it, but then also, because it's so young, still had a we don't know how this goes. There are many, many references to 1967 being the first time the Tony Awards were presented on television.

[20:47] Mo Brady: Which is wild because, well, it is the 30th Annual Tony Awards. So there were just 20 years of doing it in Duffy Square? Like what?

[20:55] Aaron Albano: In a ballroom. I think it was a dinner originally. This telecast, not only did they talk about 1967 being the first Tony Awards on television, they show so much b-roll from previous awards ceremonies. Whole joke segments about how previous winners walked to the stage or gave their accepted speeches.

[21:14] Mo Brady: Oh yeah, I wrote them all down. You want to know them all?

[21:17] Aaron Albano: Yes, please tell our listeners what the sequences were about.

[21:20] Mo Brady: So all of them, and there were so many, it was like, it was sequences about reading people for their lack of excitement or moroseness walking up to the stage, for being comedians during their acceptance speeches, just cracking jokes, about crying.

[21:34] Aaron Albano: It got a little like gender specific there where they only like hit all the women.

[21:38] Mo Brady: And that gave me the ickies.

[21:39] Aaron Albano: Well, men didn't cry before the 90s, so.

[21:41] Mo Brady: Oh fair, that's true. It's proven. It's science.

[21:44] Aaron Albano: Great. About excitement, about shading directors. And this was the one section where after the sequence ended, they were like, just kidding directors, yuck, yuck, yuck.

[21:54] Mo Brady: And then the last section was about recipients kissing their significant others on their way up to accept their award.

[21:59] Aaron Albano: It was so strange because I remember that trope of like, let's go back and show you some people who won this award in the past. Like, let's show you a B-roll package before we show you this year's nominees. But they did it not for awards.

[22:16] Mo Brady: Yeah, well, it wasn't even because it wasn't about like, this is who won this award before. It was about, this is how actors are. There's an entire B-roll package about how radiant Angela Lansbury is through the years, and what facial hair Robert Preston and or Hal Prince had each time they presented or won.

[22:34] Aaron Albano: Nothing.

[22:35] Mo Brady: Great. Nothing. It's just about like, the heavy hitters of the day. Obviously, ABC is not interested in monetizing their television time.

[22:53] Aaron Albano: I want to go back to this idea of this Tony Awards is telling you the Tony Awards don't matter.

[23:02] Mo Brady: Okay.

[23:03] Aaron Albano: I noticed it first when Diana Rigg is giving a speech about how the category best supporting actor might be misconstrued as less than stellar. It's interesting, they sort of call out that stigma. It's also interesting that they don't change the title. Shoutouts to Ben Vereen and Bette Midler happen for their supporting Tony performances. And they're couched with the phrase like, if you look quickly, you'll catch that this Bette Midler was actually in Fiddler on the Roof.

[23:32] Mo Brady: And I was like, she's singing matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof on the friggin Tony Awards. Like no one missed her.

[23:39] Aaron Albano: Yeah. It's interesting because I feel like this Tony Awards is trying to show us that theater matters and Broadway matters, but somehow winning a Tony Award does not. It's an interesting narrative.

[23:48] Mo Brady: Interesting. Talk about like calling something out and then not doing anything about it. Jumping ahead to our section about how these Tonys introduced the plays. I forget who the presenter was.

[24:01] Aaron Albano: I mean, I'm definitely-

[24:02] Mo Brady: There's six hosts.

[24:03] Aaron Albano: And no bottom third.

[24:04] Mo Brady: And no lower third. I didn't realize how much I relied on that lower third until we got to the generation before the lower third. But so like this wonderful man, who I don't know his name, gives a whole speech about how people ask him all the time about why do the best musicals and why do the musicals get so much attention at the Tonys, but the plays don't.

[24:27] Aaron Albano: And they should get more attention and la la la la la la.

[24:31] Mo Brady: And then he says, all right, well, then let's go hear more about the plays. And then Trish Vanderveer reads us the title of the play, the author, and the producer.

[24:42] Aaron Albano: And that's all.

[24:43] Mo Brady: Yeah, what else do you need to know about a play to buy a ticket? That's all you got. And then just announces the winner. But I was like, you went out of your way to say how we don't give the plays enough accolades and then proceeded to not give the plays any accolades.

[25:00] Aaron Albano: Speaking of lower thirds and what we can do on screen, don't worry, there are still technical difficulties in this telecast.

[25:08] Mo Brady: And almost all the technical difficulties are because of this weird 1976 thing they do with the television screen. Just like Brady Bunch Squares, just like Zoom before Zoom.

[25:18] Aaron Albano: Brady Bunch Squares with fuzzy edges on them where they would show the nominees in the corners of the screen as their names are being read. Anne Rankin gets shown on camera instead of Patti LuPone as LuPone's nomination is read. And you can see Anne canoodling with Bob Fosse being like, this is weird. A white woman is showed instead of Sammy Williams for his nomination.

[25:41] Mo Brady: I was like, that's not Paul.

[25:42] Aaron Albano: Jerry Orbach is shown twice from two different cameras instead of Ian Richardson showing at all. I straight up was like, because I don't know what Ian Richard looks like. I was like, oh, he looks a lot like Jerry Orbach. And then they showed Jerry Orbach. And I was like, wait, that's the same dude.

[25:57] Mo Brady: Man, somebody wasn't telling the cameraman where to go.

[26:02] Aaron Albano: I mean, it is a new technology at this point. We've only been on television for 10 years, Aaron.

[26:09] Mo Brady: So, you know.

[26:18] Aaron Albano: All right. This feels like a good place to take a pause. Join us again this Friday when we delve further into the 1976 Tony telecast.

[26:25] Mo Brady: The Ensemblist was produced today by me, Aaron Albano.

[26:28] Mo Brady: And me, Mo Brady. Special thanks to Wasif Sami for the background research on this week's Tony season. There are two great ways you can be helping The Ensemblist right now. One is by becoming a Patreon member at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist.

[26:41] Aaron Albano: And another is by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

[26:44] Mo Brady: Even better. Do you have a favorite Tony's telecast that we haven't recapped yet and wish we would? Tell us about it in that review and maybe we'll recap it in a future episode.

[26:53] Aaron Albano: We're bribing you.

[26:56] Mo Brady: We're enticing you.

[26:57] Aaron Albano: Okay, sure. You can follow The Ensemblist wherever you listen to podcasts on Apple Podcasts, where you're going to leave that review, on Spotify, or at bpn.fm, the home of Broadway Podcast Network.

[27:08] Mo Brady: You can also follow us on Instagram. Thanks for listening, everybody. Until next time!