NEW YORK — Broadway is in need of a boost these days so it has smartly called on one of its most beloved, award-winning stage veterans for help — Audra McDonald.
McDonald has been tapped to host the Tony Awards on Sunday, a telecast which theater producers hope can serve as a splashy advertisement that a post-pandemic Broadway is inching back to normalcy.
“I was honored that they asked me, and I am so happy to be a part of bringing Broadway back online, as it were,” McDonald told The Associated Press. “Broadway is my family.”
The typical three-hour awards show this year has been expanded to four, with McDonald handing out Tonys for the first two hours and Leslie Odom Jr. hosting a “Broadway’s Back!” celebration for the second half, including the awarding of the top three trophies — best play revival, best play and best musical. (The Tony Awards air 7 p.m.-9 p.m. ET/PT on Paramount+, followed by the second show from 9 p.m.-11p.m. ET/PT on CBS.)