Success on the Broadway stage doesn't automatically mean success on the small screen, as a number actors can attest. In fact, those actors took the stage with Neil Patrick Harris at last night's 67th Annual Tony Awards to lament their failed series. Of course, that meant singing alongside Neil Patrick Harris, which may have been a bit of musically charged lemon in some fresh wounds. After all, he's funny, charming, talented and the host of the awards show, but he's also the star of a TV series that did actually last beyond a season or two, which is more than can be said for Smash, Go On, The New Normal and The Playboy Club. Of course, it was all in the spirit of humor and music for these actors.
Host Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) was joined on stage by Andrew Rannells (The New Normal), Megan Hilty (Smash) and Laura Benanti (Go On and The Playboy Club), three stage actors who managed to score starring roles in TV shows that were all, unfortunately, short-lived. On the bright side, all of their shows were just successful enough that many of us likely recognize them. And let's face it, failed series or not, they're all incredibly talented, which is what makes the bit work so well. There was a brief pause in the bit to tell Smash's Will Chase to suck it for being nominated at the awards show. ("No, Will! Don't suck anything!")
It ends in good spirits as they sing about returning home to the theater and what they did for money, a loft and the chance to be embraced and adored by the public. Someone please find something on television for Hilty, Rannells and Benanti to star now that their series are one. There has to be a way to make something successful out of all that talent.
View the winners and see some of the other performances from last night's Tony Awards here.
