Song Of The Day 6/8/2014: Neil Patrick Harris - "Bigger!"

Broadway Off And On: And today we're wrapping up Broadway Off And On Week, which actually went eight days because of the Sunday matinee. You have that Tony Awards show coming up later tonight, although I will probably not be watching it on account of my knowing almost nothing about the nominees, and because I'm still evaluating whether I'm going to follow Halt And Catch Fire on AMC, which takes place in 1983 and has caused extremely uncomfortable memories about wood paneling and large-frame eyeglasses. But I like to seize opportunities to test my mettle in topics related to '80s nostalgia.

Anyway, back to the Tonys. I didn't watch the Tony Awards last year either. In fact I don't know if there's ever been a time I've watched the Tony Awards, to be honest. Again, it's that distance thing, the death of live theatre, all that stuff. But I do use YouTube to watch certain televised items that I've missed, and when everybody started talking about Neil Patrick Harris' opening number for the 2013 ceremony, I had a look at it.

I'll submit this to you: This is the greatest opening number in the history of televised awards shows. Any of them. Tonys, Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Pulitzer Prize, Westminster Dog Show -- all of them. There has never been a better opening number than this. This is show biz. If show biz were like this every day I'd resign right now and be a waterboy for Hugh Jackman.

Well, this week was fun, and not the ratings disaster I'd feared it be. Maybe theatre's not dead after all. Maybe it's just waiting for another grand-scale, emotionally searing work to redefine it again. Like Starlight Express. Keep that greasepaint roaring, hoofers.