City of Stars: Pasek and Paul, Sara Bareilles, Lin-Manuel Miranda and some shockers at the Oscars

City of Stars: Pasek and Paul, Sara Bareilles, Lin-Manuel Miranda and some shockers at the Oscars

This year’s Academy Awards featured performances and winners guaranteed to make theater lovers happy, and a completely unscripted dramatic moment on stage.

Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Justin Hurwitz took home the Oscar for Best Original Song for ‘City of Dreams’ from ‘La La Land’. This is the first Oscar for Pasek and Paul, who also wrote the songs for Broadway’s ‘Dear Evan Hansen’. They beat out nominees Sting, Justin Timberlake and Lin-Manuel Miranda. All the nominees performed their nominated songs (with John Legend singing City of Stars and Audition from ‘La La Land’).

Lin-Manuel Miranda did a rap intro before Moana star Auli’i Cravalho stepped out to sing ‘How Far I’ll Go’. Though he did not win the Oscar, Miranda enjoyed a light-hearted moment when presenters Seth Rogen and Michael J. Fox playfully sang part of ‘The Schuyler Sisters’ from the musical ‘Hamilton’. Miranda will have to wait before getting that EGOT.

Another performer who is now one award shy from the EGOT is Viola Davis, who won Best Supporting Actress for ‘Fences’. She also won a Tony Award for the same role on Broadway. In an emotional acceptance speech, she gave particular thanks to her director and co-star Denzel Washington, who was also nominated for Best Actor this year. With her win, Davis becomes the first African-American actress to win a Tony, Emmy, and Oscar for acting.

The most emotional part of the night had to be the In Memoriam segment. ‘Waitress’ songwriter and soon-to-be star Sara Bareilles sang a stripped-down version of the Joni Mitchell classic ‘Both Sides, Now’ to honor the performers and creatives who passed away last year.

However, the most shocking moment and biggest upset came at the very last minute, when the Best Picture Award was wrongly given to ‘La La Land’. In a bizarre turn of events, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope (for Best Actress , which Emma Stone had just won a few minutes before, for her role in ‘La La Land’). It was only after the producers of ‘La La Land’ had started their acceptance speech that the mix-up was discovered and ‘Moonlight’ was announced as the winner.

‘Moonlight’ had picked up two awards earlier in the night, Best Supporting Actor (for Mahershala Ali) and Best Adapted Screenplay. It’s the film adaptation of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play ’In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue’.

Catch all the excitement and drama when HBO replays The 89th Academy Awards and red carpet coverage tonight at 7.00 pm.