NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Spacey has been picked to host this year’s Tony Awards, putting the award-winning star of “House of Cards” in the unenviable position of steering a telecast surely facing a post-“Hamilton” hangover.
The telecast on June 11 will originate from the 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall, and producers are sure to be keeping their fingers crossed that they avoid any technical or human snafus that have marred previous awards shows this year, including the wrong winner announced at the Oscars and sound issues at the Grammys.
Spacey, who won Oscars for the movies “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty,” won a Tony Award in 1991 in Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers” and starred in the Broadway and West End productions of “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” With a foot in both Broadway and Hollywood — and a career singing onscreen and in concert to boot — Spacey brings glamour and acting chops to the job.
Producers hope Spacey will limit the audience erosion likely from the numbers last year when
“Hamilton” drew 8.73 million viewers last year, up 35 percent from 2015. The show’s host was James Corden. In 2015, Kristin Chenoweth teamed up with Alan Cumming.
