What the Tony Wins Mean to Chicago

Eight days - more than a week - after the 62nd Tony Awards telecast on Sunday, June 15th, theatre blogs and theatre sections of news sites are still abuzz of Chicago's big wins.

As I watched "August: Osage County" and Chicago's Shakespeare Theatre win the awards, I knew that the wins will mean something big and something good for Chicago and its theatre scene. I just didn't know exactly what, and how to put it into words.

Good thing there are other people who can. My Inbox last week was filled with articles about how the Tony wins will impact Chicago and beyond. These two were among the best:

Chicago Tribune Theatre Critic, Chris Jones, writes about how the wins will change not only Chicago's theatre scene but the entire city and the nation. He sets us straight about what realistic changes the Tonys might bring and what are simply pipe dreams, "So what does it all mean? Does this win Chicago theater permanent fame and fortune? A Broadway pipeline? A chance to retire the Second City moniker for good? More theaters? More jobs? More audiences? More media coverage? More funding? Does it maybe even help with the Olympics?"

Pat Craig, of the Contra Costa Times, writes about how last week's Tonys were important to lesser known theatre communities, "What makes this so appealing is that it continues to build the body of evidence that New York is no longer the center of the American theatrical universe. While the motto "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere" continues to apply to theater and New York, there is no rule anymore about having to start out there."


There is no doubt that the awards are big news to Chicago, which has always seemed to play third fiddle to New York and Los Angeles in the theatre scene. Watching the telecast last Sunday was sincerely an exhilirating moment of my life as someone who loves theatre and this city. "Finally," I said proudly. The victory that night was not only for the Steppenwolf Theatre and the Shakespeare Theatre and Tracy Letts and Rondi Reed and Anna Shapiro. They were for all of us Chicagoans.