“I didn’t come here to work tonight,” Billy Porter joked from the 73rd Annual Tony Awards stage Sunday night, immediately before putting in work. During a commercial break (a commercial break!), the Tony-winning star of Pose was asked by host James Corden to take part in a short round of Corden’s Broadway karaoke, for which Porter instantly belted out “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy. “Oh, you’re changing the key?” Porter teased the accompanist, who quickly picked out a key in Porter’s range. “Thank you, bitch.” This, plus all the work he did single-handedly demolishing the Tonys red carpet earlier in the evening, means Billy Porter must be absolutely exhausted. He’ll be sleeping well tonight.
Billy Porter wasn’t the only one to put in work at Corden’s karaoke. Anthony Ramos and Christopher Jackson, in an epic crossover, sang “96,000” from In the Heights. Anthony Ramos, who will be starring as Benny in the movie adaptation, kicked off the song. Then, the original Benny, Christopher Jackson joined in. Ramos helped Jackson out when a few of the fast lyrics escaped him because, contrary to what it feels like, 2011 was eight whole years ago. Ramos and Jackson worked together in Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Hamilton as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton and George Washington, respectively. James Corden’s commercial break game simultaneously gave us a throwback and a look ahead at Ramos’ performance in In the Heights.
