Tony Awards 2020: Broadway stars unimpressed as theatre awards replaced with Grease singalong

Broadway has shut down during the coronavirus pandemic

A host Broadway stars have expressed their frustration at the news that the 2020 Tony Awards will be replaced with a Grease singalong.

With both theatre and television production coming to a halt due to the coronavirus outbreak, the annual celebration of the best US theatre was indefinitely postponed.

Instead, CBS will fill the spot on 7 June with a singalong version of 1978 musical film Grease, which originally starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

The news prompted outcry from the stage community, who expressed their frustration that theatre was being overlooked at a time when it needs the most support.

The Last Five Years star Jeremy Jordan tweeted: “Really, @cbs? You’re going to air a Grease sing-a-long in place of the @TheTonyAwards? Leave the sing-a-longs to Disney and give live theatre back the ONE NIGHT of respect it gets per year.”

Clearly unimpressed, Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda reacted by posting a link to the announcement with a meme of Michael Jordan giving some side-eye on the basketball court.

Meanwhile, actor Gideon Glick, who was nominated in 2019 for his performance in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill A Mockingbird, reshared the news of the replacement programming with the words: “I truly thought this was an Onion article.”

The lights on Broadway went out on 12 March after New York banned all gatherings of over 500 people. It was announced last week that the Frozen musical would not be reopening.