Show & Tell: The Tonys, Live!
This is Show & Tell where I tell you some things I loved from the week and the one thing I hated, plus round up everything else going on around these parts. The first half of Show & Tell is free to all. The adoration and hateration are for paid subscribers only.
Just because it’s June, June, Joan.1
Today you’re getting my full live thoughts from watching last night’s Tony Awards. If you didn’t watch them, sorry because this won’t make much sense. But you can watch them on Paramount+ if you’d like to sit for 3.5 hours and pretend like you’ve seen any of these Broadway shows.2
What else am I talking about this week? MNBA finals are well underway, and the World Cup starts on Thursday. I also read one of the best books of the year this week (review below) and had one of my faves, , on the podcast. Cake recipes abound from this month’s cake party. It was a very good week.
This Week in The Stacks
This month we’re reading a book that folks either love or hate, The Alchemist, and I’m so excited to talk about it with you all and .
I posted late last week, and since I hate being late, I titled my entire Show & Tell around that fact. I am fine. I swear.
Chatting with about her new book Pool House (out June 9) was a total joy. She gave the best answer on snacks and beverages we’ve ever had. Know her.
My monthly reads ranked from least to most favorite in a 15-minute mini pod. What else do you need?
Books I Read This Week
In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure by Rowan Jacobsen
A scientific examination of the benefits of sunlight that dismantles the “zero-sun policy” and shows us what we stand to lose when we hide from sunshine. This was a pleasant surprise of a book. The editor here is Kathy Belden, so I shouldn’t have been that surprised she really is the best in the business3. I don’t know that I had ever thought much about sun protection but Jacobsen asks his reader to do just that. I loved how simple he made his arguments, the book has a very commonsense approach. It made me change my behavior in small and hopefully meaningful ways. Straight forward, clear, and persuasive. This book does exactly what it set out to do. In the words of Jacobsen: Get sun. Not too much. Go outside.
Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment, and Extraordinary Survival by Justine van der Leun
Unreasonable Women follows three women in prison for murder after years of abuse. This book is about the unjust system and how it locks up people it is supposed to protect in a concept called “criminalized survival”. There is no shortage of adjectives to describe this book, it is intense, haunting, upsetting, visceral, and so damn good. Van der Leun takes great care to tell the story of the women she profiles but also to call into account the system and how it refuses to make sense of complexity. There is a part in this book where van der Leun calls her whole project’s validity into question and that bit is just remarkable. It is a gamble that pays off. As a reader my trust in the author multiplied, because she asked herself the questions I was asking in my own head as I read. In addition to the facts the story, that are undeniably important, the writing and pacing are near perfect. This book is unputdownable, tight, and extremely powerful.
Fave of the Week
Housekeeping
I’ll be a guest for the first ever Sam Sanders Show Live here in LA on Sunday June 28th. It’ll be me, Sam, and Eliot Glazer doing a 90s nostalgia bracket. You know you want to come. Get your tickets.
I did it, I watched all of this third season of Euphoria so that I could guest on 2 Black Girls 1 Rose’s finale episode. This season was so bad and was painful to watch, but that means we had a fucking blast discussing it.
Things I Love…
Pop Culture
I am going to give you my very live thoughts as I watched the Tonys on Sunday night. I have only seen a few of the shows this season4, but I love a dance number and to be a hater, so I think I’ll be fine.
This opening is off to a rough start. NPH and Pink in a Peter Pan costume is just sorta not where I want to be right now.
Shain Taub/Emma Goldman singing “Lady Marmalade”? I am now feeling very nervous. I do love this song, but like please be real, this could go very bad very quickly.
Ok, they are bringing out the celebs for this opening number, I am warming up.
Lea Michele. Surprise! But still, no thanks.
MEG THEE STALLION! surrounded by the casts of Cats and Rocky Horror. I am softening.
OK! I am on board. This was actually a very fun opening and Pink can really sing which helps. I think I loved that opening. So much broadway goodness. Mucho dancing.
Cole and Maya was very good.
Schmigadoon performance giving BROADWAY. Sometimes you just need a hitch kick and a pair of bloomers.
What the fuck is happening in this picture of the Ragtime performance? Why is that woman in black in the middle of the whites only section? I am so sorry, but the director of Ragtime is not good. I really hope she doesn’t win direction of a musical because the direction was not in the theatre with us.
HOLY SHIT CATS JUST WON BEST DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL AND I AM THRILLED!!!! WOWOWOWOOWOWOW.
This Titanique performance is very annoying. I am so sorry, but this is the thing people have been freaking out over for like six years? This is messy and they do not sound good at all5. I dunno man, Celine Dion as the butt of a joke in 2026 feels cheap and lazy.
Not Arianna DeBose doing a bit. We do not need this. Tonys you were doing so good, please boot and rally.
This is Shoshana Bean’s first Tony? That seems like a crime, this lady has been out here hustling for decades. Good for her. Also, please enjoy the intro to this song she released like 15+ years ago. Its soooo the little things!
I am going to be honest, we used to make fun of her a lot circa 2006-2010 and that intro and this performance6 are why. But that isn’t fair, because she is talented and real Broadway person. So I am genuinely happy for her.
Kitty Cat SZN, here we go.
I have that fan.
That white cat, Victoria, is that bitch! I love her down.
This crowd is sooooo off with these fans. PLEASE STOP.
The sound design every frickin’ year is trash. Every year it is bad and every year I get mad after and hour of their bullshit. You’re the fucking Tony awards, DO SOMETHING.
These cats are cooking. I could watch five hours of them just dancing and having a ball.7
Free Palestine from the best featured actor in a musical winner, Ali Louis Bourzgui. Thank you.
Cats and Chicago in the same Tony awards? Did they genetically engineer this show in a lab for me?8 “The Cell Block Tango”? Be still my heart. Ok, let’s get Pink up in that Velma Kelly role ASAP. This is obviously her audition, and she booked it.
Luke Evans is smoking hot in Rocky Horror and the man can sing.
Amber Gray so damn good in Rocky, too. What a voice! And to own such an iconic song is no easy task.
Am I the only one who is really struggling with Nathan Lane as Willy Loman? I can’t be, right? I’m sure the show is good (fine) but like, this is just nonsensical to me.
What is the stupid free speech bit? Either say something big to the powers that be, or cut the bit. We’re literally at war and this show is three and one half hours, you guys, please be serious.
The director of Ragtime sprinting to the stage when they won best revival is just so one the nose for all my issues with Ragtime in 2026.
Brandon Uranowitz sighting. A perfect human.
Leslie Odom Jr. on the in memoriam singing RENT9 is totally acceptable.
There is no greater reminder of how white Broadway has been over the yeas than watching the in memoriam.
Lost Boys, what am I looking at here?
With this next generation of Broadway people (strangers to me) I am just sitting here thinking like, who would have been in Lost Boys 20 years ago? Will Swenson?10
I loved Book of Mormon when I saw the OBC11 in 2011 but I feel like this play does not hold up. They just really said we’re going to be so racist and xenophobic when it comes to Ugandans (and Africans broadly). That boy Josh Gad can sing though.
NO! You cannot honor A Chorus Line without dancing. What are you even doing? Am I being punk’d?
You guys, I want to love Joshua Henry, but is he Lin?12
Congrats to Schmigadoon, I guess.
Ok so we made it to end here, and they didn’t give any creative awards in primetime, which I guess I knew they stopped doing, but I don’t like that at all. So here is the list of all the winners for people who care.
That was a lot, but I love Broadway and the theatre and the Tonys. I think Pink did great. Overall that was a positive experience for me. Thank you for coming on that journey with me.
Politics
