by Zach Raffio. @zachraffio.
NEW YORK, NY - The 2020 Tony Awards have officially been postponed due to the spread of coronavirus, the American Theatre Wing announced today. However, representatives of the Staten Island “Tony” Awards, honoring the borough’s very best men and women named Tony, have announced plans to go on as scheduled, sources confirmed.
“That’s too bad about the other Tonys,” said “Tony” award chair Tony DiMaggerini. “We’re thrilled to be able to host our awards honoring the very best in Staten Island Tony’s for our record-breaking 55th consecutive year. We’re gonna scrub down and sanitize Tony’s Pizza and Pasta in West Brighton, or as we like to call it, “AM Radio City Music Hall”, and host the biggest, brightest gala we can. Our lights are new LED’s from Tony’s Hardware, the big ones, so they may not be as big as the Broadway ones, but ya know what? They're enough to light the standing ovation we give one another.”
Toni Spinelli, a SI resident who’s nominated for two awards this year, shared her excitement at the ceremony’s perseverance.
“I’m nominated for ‘Best Hairdresser Toni’ and ‘Best Rigatoni and Gravy’, which are two categories I’ve always dreamed of winning,” noted Spinelli. “It’s important, as a community, for practices such as these to maintain during times of stress. It brings us closer together as a culture, and makes sure that the next generation doesn’t simply forget about all the great Tony’s and Toni’s that came before.”
American Theatre Wing president Heather A. Hitchens shared her own praise for the adjacent Tony community.
“I’m so happy that the other Tony’s are able to come together,” noted Hitchens, who attends the local ceremony every year as a seat-filler. “We’ll hopefully be back in the Fall, but in the meantime, I recommend everyone in the theatrical community take a look at another passionate community making great, creative strides - a community of people named Tony doing normal things, but with a little extra Tony magic.”
At press time, representatives of the 2020 Staten Island “Tony” Awards announced that they would be donating all proceeds for this year’s event to several local food banks throughout the borough.