It’s always a pleasure to see Jay-Z—largely because it might mean Beyoncé is somewhere in the room—but his appearance at the was particularly exciting. Sure, he and Alicia Keys have performed “Empire State of Mind” live together before, but hearing the singers unite on the Grammy-winning song at the Tonys felt like a fitting tribute to , the award show’s New York City setting, and, indeed, to the New York institution that is Broadway. The energy of the song—which followed ’s opening performance of an original song called “This Party’s for You”—was undaunted by the fact that Jay-Z technically joined the song via video feed from the David H.
Koch Theater’s lobby (a fact that ). Nevertheless, the performance was undeniably fun and brought a welcome note of hometown pride to the proceedings, which have been challenged in past years by and a that forced last year’s Tonys ceremony to go unscripted. This year, Keys was in attendance to represent her semi-autobiographical jukebox musical , but she didn’t let her many metaphorical hats at the Tonys cheat her out of a fashion moment: Keys playfully escalated the long-running by wearing monogrammed Gucci to play off of Jay-Z’s cropped LV jacket.
Honestly, if this fashion-meets-theater moment augurs Jay-Z’s Broadway debut, you can consider me seated..
