62nd Tony Awards
Date	June 15, 2008
Venue	Radio City Music Hall, New York City, NY
Host	Whoopi Goldberg
Network	CBS
← 61st Tony Awards 63rd →

The 62nd Tony Awards ceremony was held on Sunday, June 15, 2008. CBS television broadcast the event from Radio City Music Hall in New York City as it has since the 51st Awards (1997). The event recognized the Broadway shows playing during the 2007 – 2008 season and was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.^[1]

The cut-off date for eligibility in the 2007–08 season was May 7, 2008. The Tony Awards Administration Committee announced eligibility rules for many of the award categories.^[2][3] Two new categories debuted during the ceremony: Best Sound Design of a Musical and Best Sound Design of a Play.^[4]

The Tony Award nominations announcement was made on May 13, 2008 by David Hyde Pierce and Sara Ramirez. In the Heights, which premiered Off-Broadway, garnered the most nominations of any show with 13. Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific received 11, the second most of any revival to date (one of these was in the new "sound design" category). The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama August: Osage County earned seven nominations. The revival of Sunday in the Park With George took nine nominations, the revival of Gypsy received seven, as did the new musical Passing Strange.

The "Visa Signature Tonys Preview Concert" was taped at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 11 and will be broadcast on CBS television affiliates in June. The concert features performances from 10 Tony-eligible musicals as well as interviews with Tony nominees.^[5] The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American theatre.

The ceremony

Presenters

The initial list of presenters was announced on June 2, 2008.^[6]Additional presenters were announced on June 5.^{[7] [8]}

Performances

Starting the 62nd Tony Awards was the cast of The Lion King with "Circle of Life", celebrating the show's 10th anniversary.

The cast of Grease featuring Max Crumm and Laura Osnes as Danny and Sandy as chosen by the television audience as part of Grease: You're the One that I Want! reality TV show, performed "Grease" and "We Go Together (Reprise)."

Patti LuPone performed "Everything's Coming Up Roses" with Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti from Gypsy.

The cast of South Pacific performed a medley of "There Is Nothin' Like A Dame", "Some Enchanted Evening", and (I'm in Love with) a Wonderful Guy

Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell performed "Move On" from Sunday in the Park with George.

The cast of Cry-Baby performed "A Little Upset".

Stew and the cast of Passing Strange featuring Daniel Breaker and De'Adre Aziza performed "Keys".

Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of In the Heights performed "96,000".

The cast of Xanadu performed "Don't Walk Away".

The three new musicals that were not nominated for Best Musical also gave abbreviated performances of a song from each show. Sierra Boggess performed "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. Faith Prince performed "Vision" from A Catered Affair as Leslie Kritzer and Matt Cavenaugh danced in the background. Megan Mullally and Shuler Hensley performed "Deep Love" from Young Frankenstein.

The current cast of Rent performed part of La Vie Boheme, introduced by original cast member Anthony Rapp. Rapp then invited the rest of the original cast on stage and they performed part of Seasons of Love. All of the original cast members were there except for Kristen Lee Kelly and Jesse L. Martin. The current and original cast members came together for the performance to commemorate the revolutionary show's closing in September 2008.

Nominations tally

^[9]

Winners and nominees

(winners are in bold)

Special Tony Awards

Regional Theatre Tony Award

• Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Special Tony Award

• Robert Russell Bennett (for achievements in orchestration)

Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre

• Stephen Sondheim

References

See also

• Tony Awards
• 2008 in theater

External links

• The official website of the Tony Awards
• concert article
• Hip Hop vs. Roller Disco Which will the 2008 Tony voters pick?