Tony Awards Kevin Spacey’s Epic Opening Number

Watch Kevin Spacey’s
Epic Opening Number

2017 Tony Awards

By Playbill Staff
Jun 11, 2017
The Tony- and Oscar-winning host kicked off the 71st annual ceremony by proving he’s a song-and-dance man.

Kevin Spacey opened the 2017 Tony Awards with an ambitious, 11-minute musical number paying tribute to (and sending up) some of this year’s shows.

 

The number kicks off with Spacey as a (perhaps overly mature) Evan Hansen—complete with a cast signed “#HOST.” To the tune of the show’s anthem “You Will Be Found,” the House of Cards star brushes off naysayers, critics, and mean tweets, asserting that he is indeed “Broadway-bound.”

The emcee then channels Andy Karl (after moving his cast from his arm to his leg) to parody Groundhog Day, grabs a toy accordion to offer his best Josh Groban in The Great Comet, and even dons a turban a la Sunset Boulevard’s Norma Desmond to sing a triumphant “I am host at last!”

Along the way, Spacey receives encouragement from Stephen Colbert and former Tony Awards hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal.