Tony Awards 2014: Best/worst moments

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HIGHLIGHT: NPH licks the competition — and Samuel L. Jackson’s glasses — in a showstopping number from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. (The four-time Tony host later picked up his first-ever award for Best Actor in a Musical.)

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LOWLIGHT: Hugh Jackman gamely tries to do a rap version of The Music Man with LL Cool J and T.I., but comes off looking like the white dude in the Soul Train line.

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HIGHLIGHT: When legendary Carole King appeared to sing with her younger self (Tony winner Jessie Mueller) in the musical number for Beautiful, you could feel the earth move under their feet.

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LOWLIGHT: Clint Eastwood appears lost as he hands out the directing prizes. Did someone forget to bring him his chair from the Republican National Convention?

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HIGHLIGHT: Audra McDonald gets a standing O for her record breaking win for Best Actress in a Play for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, then delivers a tearful speech: ”I want to thank my mom and my dad up in heaven for disobeying the doctors’ orders and not medicating their hyperactive girl and finding out what was she into instead.”

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LOWLIGHT: After delivering a terrific performance from Cabaret, the Good Wife star appears wearing a white jacket with a mysterious Rorschach test-like inkblot on the front.

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HIGHLIGHT: Tony nominee Jefferson Mays pulls off an impressive live quick-change (into three of his nine characters) to introduce a musical number from Best Musical winner A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder.

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LOWLIGHT: The meandering, time-wasting song from Finding Neverland, a show that isn’t even on Broadway, sung by Jennifer Hudson, who isn’t in the show, with a weird ballet-dancing Peter Pan figure.

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HIGHLIGHT: Starry, high-stepping number from After Midnight, which starts with Fantasia in a fringy green gown, adds Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle, and then brings in a stageful of amazingly limber dancers.

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LOWLIGHT: Yes, there was a viral video introducing the Tonys’ bouncy host. But even after his bouncing opening routine, I have no idea why Hugh Jackman chose to open the show with a Tigger impression.

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HIGHLIGHT: James Monroe Iglehart’s praise shout and happy dance. ”I know this is supposed to be the most dignified awards show of the season, but I have to do this: This is a praise shout.”

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LOWLIGHT: Fran Drescher, dressed like a lobster with ruching, gets ahead of herself introducing the nominees for featured actor in a musical.

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HIGHLIGHT: Sophie Okenedo’s lovely acceptance speech for featured actress in A Raisin in the Sun. ”Blimey,” she begins, before thanking producers who ”somehow had the vision that a Jewish Nigerian Brit could come over the pond and play one of America’s most iconic parts.”

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LOWLIGHT: Introducing a number from Cabaret, Maggie Gyllenhaal appears in feathery dress that made her look like the loser in a down pillow fight.

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