May 21 (Bloomberg) -- In a triumph of image over substance, accounting giant KPMG LLP has replaced the small firm that has tabulated Broadway’s Tony Awards votes for more than half a century.

The change was made in the hopes of bringing a higher profile to the Tony Awards telecast, according to Alan Wasser, an executive with the awards. The Tonys are a joint venture of the Broadway League, a trade organization, and the American Theatre Wing, a service group that owns the Tony Awards name.

“When we came on board, we decided that we wanted a Big Four firm,” said Wasser, who is in his first year as one of two general managers of Tony Awards Productions, which produces the show.

CBS will present the awards show live from Radio City Music Hall on June 7, beginning at 8 p.m.

Asked what difference the change would bring, Wasser said, “It gives the Tonys the imprimatur of credibility.”

Whether viewers will notice that the inevitable shot of a suit carrying a briefcase filled with the Tony winners’ names is a KPMG suit is difficult to predict.

Until this year, Tony voters returned their ballots to Lutz & Carr, a midtown-Manhattan accounting firm. The tally of votes remains secret until the telecast, when a principal of the company hands the name of each winner to the award presenter.

This year, 804 voters will decide who wins the awards in 27 categories, including Best Musical and Best Play. The votes are expected to be close, with an unusually strong group of nominees in several categories.

Marking Territory

Lutz & Carr also supervised other aspects of the Tony Awards process, including the voting by the nominating committee that selects each year’s slate after the close of the Broadway season in early May.

A former manager of the awards, Elizabeth I. McCann, said in an interview that Douglas Burack, the general partner of Lutz & Carr, was not informed of the change until he called for details of the nominating committee’s meeting three weeks ago.

“Burack learned at the last minute that they would not be overseeing the meeting,” said McCann, a highly regarded Broadway producer who was replaced this year as producer of the Tony ceremony.

Burack did not return several calls. When asked about the change, Donald Shaefitz, a partner at Lutz & Carr who is directly connected to the firm’s Tony Awards work, said: “It’s not our policy to comment on our clients, or our former clients.”

McCann questioned whether viewers of the telecast will notice the change, and whether it made sense to bring in a second, high-priced company if there were no complaints about the work of Lutz & Carr. She likened the move by the new Tony team to animals marking their territory.

“This smacks of peeing on a tree,” she said.

If no longer the stars of the Tonys, Lutz will continue in a featured role, as the accountants for Tony Awards Productions.

“This is decidedly not a referendum on Lutz & Carr,” Wasser said. “Only the voting function changed.”

To contact the writer of this column: Jeremy Gerard in New York at jgerard2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 20, 2009 23:00 EDT