The moment captured something essential about this year’s Tonys. Hours into the seventy-fifth annual Tony Awards, the world finally met Chris Harper, the lead producer of “Company.” Accepting the award for Best Revival of a Musical, Harper, a genial, bald British fellow, turned to LuPone-who had won a featured-actress prize earlier in the evening and given an emphatic speech during which no audience members were harmed-and said, “Patti, it’s an honor to be the person who pays your salary.” To those playing along with vodka Stingers at home: drink to that.
“Chris Harper pays my salary.” A recording of the exchange made it to Twitter, and a meme was born. “I pay your salary,” the spectator objected. Last month, at a post-show talk back at the revival of “ Company,” the indomitable Patti LuPone dressed down an audience member for not following mask protocol. To those in the know, it was Broadway’s favorite new in-joke. Who is Chris Harper, and why is he paying everybody’s salaries? The question may have crossed your mind watching last night’s Tony Awards, where enough winners thanked “Chris Harper, who pays my salary” (or, as one British winner translated it, “who pays my wages”) to warrant a drinking game.
