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Movie and TV star Kevin Spacey to host the Tony Awards show

Mark Kennedy (Associated Press)
New York, United States
Wed, April 19, 2017

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Movie and TV star Kevin Spacey to host the Tony Awards show In this April 19, 2016 file photo, Kevin Spacey attends the "Elvis & Nixon" world premiere screening during the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Spacey has been picked to host this year’s Tony Awards on June 11, 2017 Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Invision/AP/Andy Kropa)

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evin Spacey has been picked to host this year's Tony Awards, putting the award-winning star of "House of Cards" in the unenviable position of steering a telecast surely facing a post-"Hamilton" hangover.

The telecast on June 11 will originate from the 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall, and producers are sure to be keeping their fingers crossed that they avoid any technical or human snafus that have marred previous awards shows this year, including the wrong winner announced at the Oscars and sound issues at the Grammys.

Spacey, who won Oscars for the movies "The Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty," won a Tony Award in 1991 in Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" and starred in the Broadway and West End productions of "Long Day's Journey into Night." With a foot in both Broadway and Hollywood — and a career singing onscreen and in concert to boot — Spacey brings glamour and acting chops to the job.

Read also: 'Hamilton' wins 11 Tonys but fails to break record

In a statement, he alluded to the telecast producers scrambling for a host after other celebrities dropped out. "I was their second choice for 'Usual Suspects,' fourth choice for 'American Beauty' and 15th choice to host this year's Tony Awards. I think my career is definitely going in the right direction," he said. "Maybe I can get shortlisted to host the Oscars if everyone else turns it down."

Producers hope Spacey will limit the audience erosion likely from the numbers last year when "Hamilton" and host James Corden drew 8.73 million viewers, up 35 percent from 2015 and its largest audience since 2001. Previous hosts include Hugh Jackman, Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes.

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