61st annual Tony Awards

Sean Hayes scores! Five highlights (and a couple of lowlights) at the TonyAwards — with video

Sean Hayes

The Tony Awards might as well have been called the "Sean and Kristin" show as Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth, now starring on Broadway in Promises, Promises, had the funniest bits in television's classiest awards show.

Hayes, best known for his role as Jack in Will & Grace, hosted the show and Chenoweth kept showing up in funny bits that poked fun at the brouhaha over his sexual orientation and her omission as a nominee. (Hayes triumphed as host, expertly playing the piano, coming up with well-timed zingers and appearing as the lead character from Annie, a dancer with a big package from Billy Elliott, and Spiderman.)

Here are our five favorite moments from the Tonys (and a couple we wish we had missed):

1. Poking fun at the controversy that erupted last month when a Newsweek columnist wrote that Hayes, who is gay, wasn't convincing playing straight roles, the actor convincingly French-kissed Chenoweth for a prolonged period. "I know what you're thinking...she's too short for me," Hayes deadpanned afterward.

2. Chenoweth, who was overlooked for her role in Promises, Promises, appeared later to thank her parents and a long list of friends for her award when Hayes informed her that she wasn't even nominated. Chenoweth prompted fainted. She recovered in time to present the best featured actor in a musical to Levi Kreis in Million Dollar Quartet.

3. Green Day turned Radio City Music Hall into a rock palace with a wicked rendition of "Do You Know The Enemy?" and the cast of Green Day's American Idiot continued the high-energy session by later performing the title song from the musical (although censors bleeped the F-word). Too bad it didn't win best musical. (The honor went to Memphis.)

4. We're not sure why Leah Michelle and Matthew Morrison from Glee were performing at the Tonys, although both are Broadway veterans. Singing an overheated rendition of "Don't Rain on My Parade" from Funny Girl, Michelle proved she's no Streisand. But she did a passable job and showed moxie by milling through the audience while she sang, stopping in front of Will Smith and Beyoncé and Jay Z. Beyoncé seemed to get a kick out of seeing another singer in the spotlight while Jay Z waved at Michelle.

5. Best line of the night: "If you want to see a Democrat kissing a Republican, come to the Longacre (theater)," said Douglas Hodge, winner of best actor in a musical for his role as a female impersonator in La Cage aux Folles. He was referring to Kelsey Grammer, a prominent Republican supporter in real life who plays Hodge's husband in the musical farce.

What we could have done without:

1. Incessant ads for Plavix, Toviaz, Cymbalta, Orencia and Pristiq. We know the show aims for an older audience, but do they have to remind us of what the future holds?

2. Catherine Zeta-Jones, who sang an off-key rendition of "Send in the Clowns" earlier on the show, looking shocked that she had won best actress in a musical for A Little Night Music (movie stars usually win Tony's; Scarlett Johansson and Denzel Washington also took home awards Sunday night). In accepting the award, Zeta-Jones prattled on before ending with a reference to husband Michael Douglas, saying "that man there is a movie star and I get to sleep with him every night."

See the kiss between Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth:

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Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer visits Houston in new Christmas movie Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

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Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

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