The Tony Awards
Metascore
53

Mixed or average reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6

Critic Reviews

  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Lloyd
    Jun 13, 2017
    70
    [Kevin Spacey] has a sense of play and fun. What mattered all the way through is that he was game. ... An evening with so many scheduled high points, so many moments of focused energy, can have a cumulative enervating effect. And yet, I will be honest, I choke up regularly and reliably through the Tonys.
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Cynthia Littleton
    Jun 13, 2017
    50
    The musical numbers were lively and engaging and the flow of the show was well-paced. The biggest shortcoming was host Kevin Spacey, who just didn’t deliver the same kind of engaging effort as his recent predecessors.
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Neil Genzlinger
    Jun 13, 2017
    50
    [The Tony Awards] had trouble figuring out what to do with Kevin Spacey, the evening’s host, making use of him in ways that ranged from torturous (the opening number) to tolerable (he does pretty good Johnny Carson and Bill Clinton impressions). It fared far better when it was about the work being honored and the people who did it.
  5. Sioux City Journal
    Reviewed by: Bruce Miller
    Jun 13, 2017
    50
    Spacey did a great job explaining why he was host (using riffs on the nominated musicals to make his point), but he was playing to a home crowd. If you didn’t know anything about “Dear Evan Hansen” (and you should), you wouldn’t understand why he had a cast on his arm (and, later, on his leg).
  6. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    Jun 13, 2017
    50
    Spacey is a brilliant actor, but warmth and humility are perhaps not his strongest suits. So opening on the defensive, with a messy mashup of songs from current-season musicals that he repurposed to head off any eventual criticism of his hosting performance, started the show on a strained note. ... What the 2017 Tony Awards ceremony did have going for it was an element of suspense around some of the major awards.
  7. IndieWire
    Reviewed by: Charles Isherwood
    Jun 13, 2017
    40
    Midler’s ebullient phone-book-length list of thanks was, indeed, a highlight of the Tony telecast on CBS. Considering what a wonderful season it was in terms of quality and even quantity on Broadway, the telecast can only be regarded as a dutiful but hardly dazzling, and often dull, celebration of a season that deserved a more vibrant tribute.