The Week in Review

Tony Awards: Congratulations to this year's Tony Award Winners: Rob Howell (scenic design of Matilda), John Lee Beatty (scenic design of The Nance), Leon Rothenberg (sound design of The Nance), John Shivers (sound design of Kinky Boots), William Ivey Long (costume design for Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella), Ann Roth (costume design for a play for The Nance), Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer (lighting design of Lucky Guy) and Hugh Vanstone (lighting design for Matilda). Best play went to Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (expected) and best musical went to Kinky Boots (slightly less expected). In terms of numbers, the big winners were Kinky Boots (six), Matilda and Pippin (four each), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Lucky Guy (three each). (In one of the evening's bigger surprises Tracey Letts, of Virginia Woolf, took best actor in a play away from Tom Hanks, who had been tapped by many in the media to win for Lucky Guy.

Other points: The Nance's near-sweep of the design categories was especially interesting, as it was shut out of the play category. Viewers of the broadcast could see for themselves the striking vista costume changes that surely won William Ivey Long his newest Tony. This was Ann Roth's first Tony, a deeply surprising fact since she designed her first Broadway show -- a flop comedy called Maybe Tuesday -- in 1958. Kenneth Posner's three nominations -- a remarkable feat -- proved his undoing, as possibly confused voters went with Hugh Vanstone instead. According to Playbill Online, viewership was up 20% from last year. To get the full list of winners, go to http://plasa.me/kwqdv.

Empty Broadway Theatres: But, as The New York Times reports, this season has been less than stellar: "Attendance fell by 6% in the 2012 - 13 season, to its lowest level in eight years. The key reason: There were only 1,430 'playing weeks' on Broadway, an industry term for the total number of weeks that all shows had performances. The last season when Broadway had so few playing weeks was in 1996 - 97, and then the reason was the relatively paltry 37 new shows (compared with 46 in 2012 - 13, which was slightly more than in recent years). Box office revenue was flat, at $1.14 billion, with Broadway continuing to benefit disproportionately from the popularity and high-priced tickets of a few hit shows like Wicked, The Book of Mormon, and The Lion King." And because landlords are holding out for potential blockbusters, especially in their musical houses, this translates into more theatres empty for longer periods of time. Get the full story at: http://plasa.me/dry0z.

Wybron Closes its Doors: In what is surely the saddest news of the week, Wybron announced it will close its doors at the end of the month. In the official statement by Keny Whitright, the company's president and CEO, makes light of things, but this is surely a sign of the times. For decades, Wybron dominated the US market for scrollers and color-changers while launching a variety of other products. But these are different times; with the advance of LED units, one imagines scrollers aren't as necessary as they once were, and nothing else Wybron has come up with has filled the gap. Whitright is well-known as one of the industry's more outspoken citizens, and his candor and nose for innovation will be missed: http://plasa.me/of4h8.

Avolites Signs with Group One: In another major announcement, Avolites revealed that it has made a sole distribution agreement with Group One to develop the US market for Avolite products. Avoiltes, which has never been as big in the US as it is in the United Kingdom, was previously handled here by Creative Stage Lighting. Group One is best-known for handling audio products -- such as DiGiCo and XTA -- although it also carries the Elektralite brand and once handled MA Lighting. Brad White, who worked for Avolites when Avolites America was in existence, has joined Group One to help with the effort. If Avolites gets a real foothold in the US, this could affect the concert industry in particular. For the official word, go to: http://plasa.me/x8wsx.

Charges in Radiohead Collapse: Last summer's stage collapse at a planned Radiohead gig in Toronto has led to charges against Live Nation, Optex Staging and Services, and an engineer named Domenic Cugliari. This looks serious and, unsurprisingly, Live Nation is pushing back. Jim Hutchinson has the details at his blog, Jim on Light: http://plasa.me/s36nx.