The Tony awards may be Broadway’s biggest night, but between Denzel and Cate and Catherine and Viola and Scarlett and Naomi and Jada, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for the Oscars. Wait, scratch that: the clothes were all Broadway!
Before you get worried, yes, Broadway’s leading lights totally represented. Angela Lansbury was typically regal – yet saucy! – in curtain-red.
Stage vet Helen mirren was – duh – elegant perfection.
Bernadette Peters, in her element as an Oscar come to life.
Kristen Chenoweth, possibly dressed in “fortune-tellers” (aka “cootie catchers.”)
Rumored rival witch Idina Menzel wears the kind of sparkle train-wreck that calls out for “Rose’s Turn” lights. (Note: in 20 years, this is casting I will pay to see.)
Whoa, ditto Catherine Zeta-Jones, currently starring in A Little Night Music.
What becomes a legend most? Mother-of-the-bride grande dame, as modeled by Linda Lavin!
Bebe Neuwirth is Morticia-slinky.
Laura Linney, meanwhile, does short, sweet and confident.
Confused about the underpinnings to what otherwise might have been a fairly awesome Isadora-goes-to-Studio-54 for Kerry Washington.
Paula Abdul does not need an excuse to go over-the-top; here, this makes more sense.
I’ve hoped to work in a “it’s curtains for ___” “joke” here somewhere. Think Jada Pinkett Smith‘s cranberry can-can qualifies?
Lucy Liu goes totally steel magnolia.
Melanie Griffith did the obligatory Chicago turn: she should know that this is one night when basic black doesn’t cut it!
Laura Bell Bundy sure does!
Love that Scarlett totally brought the glitz and glam. Incidentally, she looks amazing – and apparently is seriously good in A View From the Bridge!
Ryan Reynolds: supportive, handsome.
Ditto Viola Davis: we’ve seem her be New Hollywood cool; here, she’s just going with the Broadway pageantry!
Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff: two Broadway-bred stars with red-carpet-hewn glam. Love.
Liev and Naomi, also stars of stage and screen, look effortless.
In the future, executive day-to-evening will look like this. Actually, Cate Blanchett‘s pants suit is more like a circa-’73 vision of the future.
Speaking of creative suiting! Sahr Ngauja‘s tux is ready for The Snake Pit. (*Cuddles rag doll in fear.*)
Loving Jessica Hecht‘s flirty, printed spin on evening. Also: for years (okay, sporadically) I have wondered if she’s related to legendary screenwriter Ben, and apparently no one else on the Interbet is remotely interested in this question. Leads?
Karine Plantabit brings the showmanship!
Denzel: veni, vidi, vici.
[Images via Getty.]