THE executive producer of the Tony Awards doesn’t believe he owes Elaine Stritch an apology for cutting short her acceptance speech Sunday night.
And neither, for that matter, does the Broadway diva herself.
“I overreacted,” Stritch admitted to The Post yesterday, the day after she publicly lashed out at CBS for giving her the hook on Sunday night’s Tony telecast as she accepted the award for Best Special Theatrical Event.
“Nobody owes me an apology. I think I misbehaved a little, and I am sad about that. I’m just too emotional to win any more awards.”
Tony executive producer Gary Smith said he “feels very badly that Elaine feels she didn’t get enough time, but if we had allowed her to continue talking, we would have lost the last award [Best Musical] totally.”
Stritch was in the middle of thanking the backers of her acclaimed one-woman show, “Elaine Stritch at Liberty,” when the Radio City orchestra started playing over her speech.
That was a not-too-subtle signal that she had to wrap it up.
But the actress, who tends to ramble in amusing, often colorful ways when accepting awards, plowed on.
“Please don’t do this to me,” she pleaded in vain with the orchestra just moments before CBS cut to a commercial.
In the press room later, Stritch said the network had “spoiled” the award for her – her first Tony in 50 years on Broadway.
Yesterday, though, her comments were more measured.
“I don’t think I should have been given special treatment,” she said. “I had so little time, and that was frustrating.
“But I came home with the doggy bag,” she added, meaning her Tony, “so I can have lunch today.”
Smith said he impressed upon the nominees the need for brevity – the telecast is allotted just two hours of air time – before the ceremonies began.
He also sent nominees letters asking them to keep acceptance speeches to one minute.
All complied, except for Stritch, who spoke for 3 minutes and 20 seconds.
“I asked CBS if I could have an extra 30 seconds because I knew Elaine was running long,” Smith said. “They said no, so I had no alternative but to go to a commercial.
“America,” he added, “had a right to know who the Best Musical award winner was.”
The general feeling on Broadway yesterday was that CBS had not treated Stritch unfairly and that she should have stuck to the time limit.
But some theater people lamented that the rigid two-hour time limit imposed on the Tonys by the network undermines any chance of emotional drama or an unscripted moment.
Stritch agrees: “I think the Tonys should be on [PBS]. Then they can go on for two or three hours and be more informal. When you deal with commercial television, it’s a no-win situation.”
Stritch might get her wish: Sunday night’s telecast received a 5.9 rating, its lowest ever.
How much longer CBS will bother with the Tonys is anybody’s guess.
