Supply: Theo Wargo / Getty
Broadway actress Denée Benton added extra shock to the Tony Awards as she blasted Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis onstage.
The veteran actress from Natasha, Pierre & The Nice Comet of 1812, Hamilton, and Into the Woods, was presenting the Excellence in Theatre Schooling Award from Carnegie Mellon College in the course of the stay broadcast of the awards on CBS and Paramount+ Sunday night time. “Hello, I’m Denée Benton, actor, and proud CMU alum,” she started after taking the state on the United Palace Theatre in New York Metropolis. The awards have been held with out writers as a result of ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, leaving presenters to sculpt their remarks.
“Earlier tonight, CMU and the Tony Awards introduced the 2023 Excellence in Theatre Schooling Award,” The Gilded Age actress continued. “And whereas I’m sure that the present Grand Wizard… I’m sorry, excuse me – governor of my residence state of Florida will likely be altering…. I’m positive that he’ll change the identify of this following city instantly. We have been honored to current this award to the really unbelievable and life-changing Jason Zembuch Younger, enhancing the lives at college students at South Plantation Excessive Faculty in Plantation, Florida.”
Benton’s phrases left some shocked with their mouths open whereas the viewers cheered mightily. These at residence watching additionally took notice, together with veteran reporter and leisure correspondent Bobby Rivers, who tweeted: “I guess DeSantis will attempt to get the Tony Awards telecast canceled. He’s most likely watching and stomping the bottom like Mr. Applegate on the finish of DAMN YANKEES.”
The “Grand Wizard” reference comes from the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan group, which bestows that title upon its prime chief. Since being elected as governor in 2019, DeSantis has actively made coverage choices which have angered civil rights advocates such because the “Don’t Say Homosexual” invoice focusing on educators making an attempt to help LGBTQ teenagers and their dad and mom along with overtly combating the Walt Disney Firm because it voiced opposition to his insurance policies. He has additionally focused Black college students by the state’s academic board and their refusal to implement a sophisticated AP course on African-American research in excessive faculties. There was no instant response from DeSantis or his representatives, as he’s at present out originally of his marketing campaign for president on the Republican ticket.
Actress Denée Benton Dubs Ron DeSantis “Grand Wizard” At Tony Awards
was initially printed on
hiphopwired.com
