That was quite the start! Kevin Spacey kicked off the 2017 Tony Awards with a musical mash-up at NYC’s Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 11. (Watch a clip above.)
The House of Cards star, 57, parodied several of the nominated Broadway shows, including Dear Evan Hansen, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Groundhog Day the Musical and Come From Away. The actor started off wearing a cast with #Host written on it in nod to Dear Evan Hansen and belted out a rendition of the musical’s hit “You Will Be Found.”
Spacey also poked fun at the fact that he wasn’t the first choice to host the annual awards show and that it’s his first-ever hosting gig. At one point, the American Beauty actor jumped into a bed (a la Groundhog Day) and woke up to hear the radio host saying, “It’s Tony Award day, and they still don’t have a host. It will be six more weeks until they find one.”
The opening number had a few special guest appearances, too. The dancing groundhog onstage pulled off his costume head to reveal that it was Stephen Colbert underneath. The Late Show host, 53, gave Spacey some hosting advice to the tune of Groundhog Day’s “Hope.” (Colbert has never hosted a major awards show, but he’s set to host the 2017 Emmy Awards in September.)
Then, Whoopi Goldberg surprised the audience by coming out of the closet, literally. “Whoopi, how long have you been in that closet?” Spacey joked, to which Goldberg replied, “Well, Kevin, that depends on who you ask.”
The actor even did a quick outfit change into Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard. He poked fun at rumors about his own sexuality, singing, “’I’m coming out.’ Wait, no, no, no, no.”
Spacey has appeared in six Broadway shows and has won a Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Lost in Yonkers in 1991.
