NEW YORK -- Suspense may be missing from much of tonight's 2003 Tony Awards. Think Hairspray, Take Me Out and Long Day's Journey Into Night and you could be more than halfway there.

Still, hopes are high for the entertainment portion of the telecast, particularly with Hugh Jackman as host and the decision by CBS to devote three hours of network time to the show, after several years of letting PBS broadcast the first hour. The Tonys may be perennially low-rated but the ceremony attracts those upper-income viewers certain advertisers love.

That means 44 minutes of each hour -- the rest is commercials -- can be devoted to celebrating Broadway, according to Gary Smith, executive producer of the show. And Smith plans to hook middle America right from the start.

He will have Billy Joel singing New York State of Mind in Times Square before cutting to Radio City Music Hall and a scene from Movin' Out, the Tony-nominated dance musical infused with Joel's tunes.

"It could be argued that the Tony Awards are only as good as Broadway is in any given year," Smith says. "And this has been a great year because it is so diverse."

Smith is determined to keep viewers watching. That's why he brought in the charismatic Australian actor, popular with the highly prized 18-49 age bracket, to serve as master of ceremonies.

Jackman, currently on screen in X2: X-Men United, is not exactly a Broadway regular but has sturdy theatrical credentials, including Curly in the 1998 London revival of Oklahoma.

"They just asked me, and I said, 'Yeah -- no problem,' " the actor says with a laugh in an interview from Los Angeles where he is filming a new vampire movie, Van Helsing. He doesn't make his Broadway debut until next October when he stars as entertainer Peter Allen in the big-budget musical The Boy From Oz.

It will be a quick trip for Jackman: he flew to New York yesterday, had tickets for Nine last night, rehearses this morning, does the telecast, then heads to the airport around midnight.

"I wouldn't call myself a stand-up comedian," Jackman says, but he has been conferring with the show's writers about material. "They will be giving me ideas, but you have to make it your own in some way, give it your own flavour."

The main focus of the show will be entertainment, with production numbers from seven musicals: the four nominated musical revivals, Gypsy, Nine, La Boheme and Man of La Mancha; and the three nominated new musicals of the season, Hairspray, Movin' Out, and A Year With Frog and Toad.

There also will be taped excerpts from the four best play nominees: Take Me Out, Enchanted April, Say Goodnight Gracie and Vincent in Brixton.

Hairspray, based on John Waters's campy film about integration in 1960s Baltimore, would seem to have a lock on the best musical prize, and Take Me Out, Richard Greenberg's drama about a gay baseball player, is considered a shoo-in for best play. Long Day's Journey Into Night appears to have the revival-play prize locked up.

The acting awards are far more contentious, though.

For musicals, no one is quite sure whether Tony voters will prefer Harvey Fierstein's full-figured frump of a housewife in Hairspray or Antonio Banderas' sexy women-obsessed film director in Nine. The two performers tied for the Drama Desk actor-musical prize, and while ties are not unheard of in Tony history, they are rare.

For plays, Brian Bedford, a stalwart of Canada's Stratford Festival, is nominated for his role as Orgon in Tartuffe. His competition is Brian Dennehy (Long Day's Journey Into Night), Eddie Izzard (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg), Stanley Tucci (Frankie and Johnny) and Paul Newman (Our Town).

IF YOU WATCH

What: 2003 Tony Awards

When: Tonight, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Where: CBS