Audio By Carbonatix
Keep Phoenix New Times Free
We’re aiming to raise $10,000 by April 26. Your support ensures New Times can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.
The Tony Awards show used to be a grand, serious affair. These days, it ain’t the Tonys without Chris Rock popping off a hooker joke, Brooke Shields dropping an S-bomb, or Neil Patrick Harris singing about how theater “isn’t just for gays anymore.”
It’s doubtful you’ll see such colorful events at the 21st Annual ariZoni Awards, which honors actors and behind-the-scenes contributors to Phoenix-area professional and amateur productions. That’s not to say the event will be a snooze. Local troupes will perform upbeat numbers from The Producers and Pirates of Penzance, and the hosts will likely have a few offbeat jokes in reserve thanks to ceremony director D. Scott Withers, who recently took a cross-dressing turn as big-haired mama Edna Turnblad in Phoenix Theatre’s Hairspray.
The curtain goes up at 5:30 p.m. for the youth awards and 8 p.m. for adults on Monday, September 19, at Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 West Rio Salado Parkway.
Mon., Sept. 19, 5:30 & 8 p.m., 2011
