To the tune of the famous “A Chorus Line” song: “Kiss To-ny goodbye!”
Chances that the 2023 Tony Awards telecast will go on as planned a month from now are slipping away fast, multiple sources told The Post.
The complexities of the writers’ strike, which is still in its early days, have made it virtually impossible for the show, Broadway’s biggest promotional push of the year, to air June 11 on CBS.
“The Tonys are hanging on by fingernails,” said a source familiar with the turmoil. “It’s a mess.”
The American Theatre Wing and Broadway League, two trade organizations that put on the ceremony, are voting Friday to decide how to move forward.
The Wing, I’m told, would prefer to postpone the broadcast — which is still set to take place at the United Palace in Washington Heights — until the strike is over.
That option would look something like when the 2020 Tony Awards finally went on in September 2021, after theaters reopened from COVID shutdowns.
The last writers strike in 2007-08 lasted a little more than three months.
The wait would be an eternity for struggling musicals and plays, and frankly many wouldn’t make it until then. Multiple productions are bleeding money in the lead-up to the awards show, in hopes the visibility might give them a boost at the box office. By the fall, a few minutes of TV time won’t matter anymore.
The League, meanwhile, is said to want the winners to be announced in some other manner on schedule, like the Golden Globes did with a press conference due to the writers strike in 2008. That plan has pitfalls, too.
“No telecast means it’s meaningless,” an insider said. “It will be the end of all these shows that are running at big losses to get to the Tonys.”
Best Musical front-runner “Kimberly Akimbo” and likely Best Play winner “Leopoldstadt” are both posting troubling weekly grosses.
Spokespeople for the Tony Awards and American Theatre Wing did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Although a source said a script for the Tonys was written long ago for every contingency — avoiding one major roadblock — playwrights who penned the nominated plays and musicals are members of the WGA and likely wouldn’t show up for the big night. The WGA is expected to picket the event.
And most other entertainment industry unions — SAG-AFTRA, Actors Equity, the Directors Guild — are all standing lockstep behind the striking writers.
The insider said, “They have to can it. Nobody will participate. No actors will do it.”
Multiple sources said they doubt Tonys host Ariana DeBose, who won the Oscar for playing Anita in “West Side Story” and was the emcee last year, would go through with the gig. In a similar situation, last week Drew Barrymore pulled out of hosting the MTV Awards in solidarity.
Actors Equity, the union representing Broadway performers, recently encouraged its members to join the picket lines outside HBO and Amazon’s offices in Manhattan.
And that union’s president, Kate Shindle, told Deadline this week, “Equity stands unequivocally with the Writers Guild of America in their pursuit of a fair contract.”
But, she added, “It’s too soon to predict whether this will impact the Tony Awards, which are extremely important to our community as we continue to rebuild.”
There is still a spark of hope that the show could go on. The producers of the Tonys have requested a waiver from the Directors Guild to go forward with the telecast. That possible exemption is going to be discussed Thursday.
If the waiver is shot down? “S–tshow,” a source said.