Tony Awards
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The Tony Awards will continue to be televised unscripted on CBS, Hollywood Reporter to learn.
Ariana DeBose is still expected to lead the ceremony in some capacity, according to sources.
The Tony Awards management committee asked the WGA last week, and it was denied. The committee appealed to the Writers Guild again on Monday for a way to move the ceremony forward.
The WGA said late Monday that the union will not grant the June 11 ceremony a waiver or exception, but it will not picket the event.
The decision was made after Tony Awards Productions informed the union that it would make changes to the show “to comply with specific requests from the WGA,” the union said in a statement.
“The responsibility for having to make changes to the format of the 2023 Tony Awards rests with Paramount/CBS and its allies,” the statement said. “They continue to refuse to negotiate a fair contract for the writers represented by the WGA.”
“Just as they stood by us, we stand with fellow workers on Broadway who were affected by our strike,” the statement continued.
Hollywood Reporter I mentioned earlier that a script for the ceremony was already completed before the writers’ strike began.
Lin-Manuel Miranda was tapped to write a number for the Tony Awards but stopped writing in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America strike, according to sources familiar with the matter.
He had begun writing shortly before the WGA program strike began on May 2.
Miranda is not a member of the WGA but was seen handing out cupcakes to WGA members at picket lines in New York last week. Miranda has worked on stage and screen, including starring and creating Hamiltonwith other credits for directing the film put a markAnd put a mark… bubble and composing the score for Moana And encanto, among other projects.
Miranda wrote additional lyrics for the musical New York, New York, It’s the best musical at this year’s Tony Awards.
A resident of Washington Heights personified his love of the neighborhood with music in the heightsMiranda has also been a big supporter of the United Palace, where the Tony was to be held, and regularly hosts free community film screenings there, with joint support from the Miranda Family Foundation.
Miranda has previously written for the Tony Awards, incl Write down the closing rap number for up to a minute During the show for 2011 host Neil Patrick Harris.