The TONYS are the new OSCARS. The 70th annual awards show honoring Broadway’s best (click HERE for complete winners list) proved yet again what an eloquent, big-hearted, DIVERSE, and extraordinarily talented community theater artists belong to. Every night they take the stage and entertain, illuminate and inspire live audiences heart to heart, body and soul. (click HERE for ALL the performances)

This past Sunday night after what Tony-winning leading actor Frank Langella in his acceptance speech called a “hideous dose of reality,” the theater community lead by the brilliant host James Corden wrapped its arms around all of us watching and wounded as the horror of Orlando took center stage. Once again, theater artists spontaneously channeled all of our thoughts and feelings in the most moving ways.

No one did this better than Lin Manuel Miranda the genius behind the night’s big winner, the 11 time Tony-winning revolutionary rap musical HAMILTON. His acceptance speech was poetry in motion; it took the form of an exquisite sonnet that somehow contained the intimacy of his love and thanks for his own immediate family, and then took in the whole sorrowful world. I leave you with this fervent invocation to all that is best in us.