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Those in the New York theater community and theater fans everywhere are happy the Tony Awards will go on as scheduled June 11.
Canfield native Joey Monda is happier than most.
Sing Out, Louise!, the production company Monda is a partner in, is one of the producers of the musical "& Juliet," which is nominated for nine Tony Awards, including best new musical.
There is no greater marketing tool for a Broadway show than the Tony Awards. Getting to perform a musical number during the ceremony introduces a show to a wider audience, and a couple of Tony Award wins can get a show on the must-see list for both tourists and those who live in greater New York.
"New York tourism is still rebounding in a post-COVID world," Monda said. "Tourism is down, and the people who are coming to New York are seeing fewer shows than before. Broadway still has a ways to go before we consider ourselves recovered.
"The Tonys not only are integral to Broadway but to the theaters across the country and what's going to be appearing on their stages in two or three years. I can guarantee the Tonys have an impact on Playhouse Square in Cleveland and the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh."
The current strike by members of the Writers Guild of America threatened to delay this year's Tony Awards and / or to eliminate that television showcase. An agreement was reached recently that will allow the show to go on, at least the award announcements and the performances, without WGA pickets.
Monda, 33, is no stranger to the Tonys. He grew up watching them with his mother, Betty Jo Licata. When he first moved to New York, he would get a ticket in the nosebleed section and watch the ceremony live.
For the last three ceremonies, Monda has seen the show from the stage as a winner. He was a producer on best new musical winners "Hadestown" in 2019 and "Strange Loop" in 2022 and on best new play winner "The Inheritance" in 2021. He took his mother with him to last year's ceremony, which he called his favorite Tony memory.
Since its win, "Hadestown" continues to draws crowds on Broadway after more than 1,000 performances and is a big draw on the road (the tour played Pittsburgh in November 2022 and Cleveland in February 2023). The COVID-19 shutdown closed "The Inheritance" before its Tony win.
"Strange Loop" saw an uptick in attendance after winning best new musical, but the show closed in January after 293 performances. While the post-COVID-19 lull didn't help, he believes the adventurous show by Michael R. Jackson about a black, fat and queer man trying to create a black, fat and queer musical always was going to be a tough sell to mainstream audiences.
It will premiere in London next month, something Monda believes wouldn't have happened without that Tony win, and he said, "I think for many years and many shows to come writers will hearken back to it as an inspiration."
"& Juliet" is a more commercial and accessible musical. It takes a twist on the familiar story of "Romeo & Juliet," imagining what might have happened if the young woman hadn't killed herself after discovering Romeo's suicide. And it uses the pop hits of 1990s and 2000s to tell that story, songs such as "I Want It That Way," "… Baby One More Time," "Since U Been Gone" and "Roar."
"We originally saw it in November 2021 in London," Monda said. "We loved it from the first time we saw it. We ran back to the hotel and wrote to the U.S. producer, 'We have to be involved in this.' It's so much fun, and the audience had such fun. The integration of pop music with a story people are familiar with but puts it on its head was a recipe for success.
"I will say out of all the new musicals on Broadway, we've had the strongest box office performance. Audiences right now are just looking for high-quality entertainment -- have a good time, laugh and for a little escapism in their lives. Three of the nominees are big, bold musical comedies -- 'Shucked,' 'Some Like It Hot' and '& Juliet.'"
As a child, Monda did plenty of shows with Youngstown Playhouse Youth Theatre as well as the Oakland Center for the Arts, Victorian Players and Carousel Dinner Theatre in Akron. His focus shifted from performing to producing through his New York internships while studying at Wright State University
He's happy to see that shows he worked on in New York, like the musical "Disaster," now are being done in the Mahoning Valley (Trumbull New Theatre staged it in March).
"That was a full-circle moment for me."
Regardless of how "& Juliet" does next month, a national tour is planned for 2024. While cities haven't been announced yet, Monda said, "I feel confident to say it will be coming close to Youngstown."