Live from New York: It's the Tonys!

These eight Tony nominated shows deliver chills, thrills and major wow, but you’re going to have to wait until June 8 to see if any of them take home a Tony

Back in December we turned the spotlight on the Top Broadway Moments of 2013, and now we are doing the same for the freshly nominations This year’s crop is a diverse group, from historical dramas to rock musicals to a cheeky murderous farce that earned the most nominations, which means the moments are also all over the map. So what makes a moment a capital-M Moment? It’s that know-it-when-you-see-it brilliance that makes live theater an experience like no other, when you get goosebumps and nothing can distract you from what’s happening on the stage. Here are our picks for the top moments from eight of this year’s Tony Award nominees. Find out who wins on Sunday, June 8th at 8pm on CBS!

After descending from the sky, Neil Patrick Harris lands on top of a car parked on stage in ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Neil Patrick Harris’ EntranceBest Musical Revival Nominee Hedwig and the Angry Inch..Forget Doogie Howser and Barney Stinson. When Tony nominee Neil Patrick Harris first appears in the new production of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s inspired rock musical, you’ll see this actor in a whole new light. He flies in from high above the proscenium standing on a trapeze-like device that lowers him onto the hood of a car, where he walks with incredible grace in his gold lamé pumps down the bumper and onto the stage. He’s costumed in a glittery shell, which he whisks off to reveal sexy hot pants. And oh, he’s also in a super-coiffed blonde wig. Then he licks the stage. Does it grab you?  Absolutely. It also makes the crowd go wild.  

Bryan Cranston in ‘All the Way’ (Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva)

Bryan Cranston’s MonologueBest Play Nominee All the WayThough Robert Schenkkan’s new play about President Lyndon Johnson covers just one year, it cuts an epic swath through history as LBJ fights viciously to get the landmark Civil Rights Act passed by Congress and signed into law. Bryan Cranston rightfully received a nomination for his performance. In a breathtaking moment, the stage goes dark and Cranston steps into the spotlight and launches into a brief, haunting reminiscence of his first job as an elementary-school teacher in a dirt-poor south Texas town where most of his students were illegal Mexican immigrants. He recalls how he watched their excitement turn to despair over time as they realized the world hated them for the color of their skin. And now, as President, he can do something about that. In an instant, he makes the political personal — and it’s utterly transcendent.

The ice skating scene in ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’ (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Jefferson Mays’ Icy DeathBest Musical Nominee A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and MurderTony nominee Jefferson Mays gets to die eight times nightly in this new musical, all so handsome Monty Navarro (Bryce Pinkham, also a Tony nominee) can work his way to the top of an inheritance chain. Mays bites it in hilarious ways — from bee stings to a shove from atop a church bell tower — but one demise earns the biggest reaction. Navarro has his sights on Asquith D’Ysquith, Jr., a dandy who has whisked away a saucy young chorine to a lakeside hotel for some wintertime hanky panky. After some cleverly realized “skating,” Navarro produces a saw, cuts a hole in the ice and D’Ysquith meets his maker in the freezing depths below. It’s all achieved via deceptively simple, hilarious stage effects, including water that’s spat out in a final gasp. To die for? You bet. It’s one of the many reasons this show was the most nominated of the year, with ten nods.  

The Cotton Club Stomp is performed with exact precision in ‘After Midnight’ (Photo: Matthew Murphy)

The Cotton Club StompBest Musical Nominee  After MidnightThere’s lots of incredible dancing in After Midnight, and choreographer Warren Carlyle (nominated for a Tony as well) crafted spectacular moments in the spotlight for each of the members of his talented cast. But it’s an ensemble number late in the show where it all comes together in perfect harmony, as dance scenes that have happened throughout the evening are reprised and collide in one mind-blowing celebration of everything Duke Ellington. Five guys in white suits move with stunning precision, phenom Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards taps her heart out, a tall dancer and a shorter hoofer square off in gravity-defying amazement. It’s all happening everywhere you look, and it’s dance heaven.  

Celia Keenan-Bolger and Brian J. Smith’s tender moment in ‘The Glass Menagerie’ (Photo: Matthew Murphy)

The Gentleman Caller SceneBest Play Revival Nominee The Glass MenagerieWhen Tony nominee John Tiffany’s exquisite new production of Tennessee Williams’ classic drama debuted on Broadway, everyone raved about Cherry Jones’ performance as Southern Belle-from-hell Amanda Wingfield (she got a Tony nod). But this show had an emotional time bomb waiting in the wings. In Act Two, wounded Laura (Tony nominee Celia Keenan-Bolger) is visited by a handsome Gentleman Caller (Tony nominee Brian J. Smith). Their paths had crossed very briefly in high school. And in what could be played as a pathetic attempt by a sad woman with no prospects to latch onto a former idol, the opposite happened: He met her in the middle with respect, honor and care, even though romance was never meant to be. In his review in The New York Times, Ben Brantley singled out this scene, saying this “may be the best version of it we’ll ever see.”

Tyne Daly’s wears her fur coat like armor in ‘Mothers and Sons’ (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Tyne Daly’s Emotional BreakthroughBest Play Nominee  Mothers and SonsFor the first 15 minutes of Terrence McNally’s new play, Tony nominee Tyne Daly refuses to take off her full-length fur coat. It’s like her armor, protecting a tough-as-nails Dallas widow from Cal the man who was once the lover of her son, Andre, who died of AIDS in 1994. When the coat finally comes off, so do the gloves, as Daly and Frederick Weller as Cal unearth years of resentment, including the anger she has over his new modern family. But it’s when the coat goes back on that the magic happens. Cal has almost gotten it over her shoulders, when she grabs him into an unexpected, open-hearted embrace and begins sobbing loudly. Earlier in the play, Cal had raged at her for not hugging him the last time they’d seen one another — at Andre’s memorial service two decades before. But she does so now. No words are exchanged. It’s just two human beings connecting, finally, for a moment of pure theater.  

The boxing scene gets the audience on its feet in ‘Rocky’ (Photo: Matthew Murphy)

The Boxing Ring Comes Into the AudienceBest Set Design of a Musical Nominee  Rocky!
This show’s got a lot in its corner: a rousing score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, a muscular book by Thomas Meehan and Sylvester Stallone himself, plus a hard-hitting star turn by Tony nominee Andy Karl   But when the main event happens between rival boxers Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, watch out. Audience members in the first few rows of the orchestra are escorted to bleachers onstage, and the ring itself slides out over the empty seats, bringing the action right into the theater. Theatergoers on the front sides of the floor are encouraged to stand, creating a boxing-arena-in-the-round. And the fight itself is the stuff of blood, sweat and cheers. When it comes to Broadway spectacle, this moment goes above and beyond, delivering — dare we say it? — a total knockout.

The Shirelles’ quick-change is mind blowing in ‘Beautiful – The Carole King Musical’ (Photo: Joan Marcus)

The Shirelles’ Jaw-Dropping Costume ChangeBest Musical Nominee Beautiful – The Carole King MusicalIn this behind-the-music show about legendary singer/songwriter Carole King’s trajectory from Brooklyn to big time, there are plenty of great scenes where King and her songwriting partner (and then-husband) Gerry Goffin write tunes that become pop standards. But there’s one that achieves this magic with the help of a masterful costume change. King and Goffin pitch “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” to producer Don Kirshner, with King (Tony nominee Jessie Mueller ) singing the song as a simple piano ballad. Then they try to sell it to the Shirelles, who want more elegance. As King rushes off promising orchestrations with strings, a panel slides across the stage, the Shirelles step behind it, then re-appear miraculously wearing sparkling knee-length dresses and singing their version of the song (with costume technology used similarly to great effect in  Cinderella last year’s winner for best costume design).