Wednesday, June 16, 2010
So, in keeping with my theatre-loserdom...
...I slept right through the Tony awards this year :(
At 7:30 I was lying on the couch thinking, "Oh, awesome, I'm actually home and can watch the Tonys as they happen...well, tape-delayed for the West Coast anyway..."
At 12:30AM I woke up on the couch. Tony-less.
Sigh.
It sounds like it was a fun one too, what with the Glee element. Yes, I like Glee...while it started out painting really shrill stereotypical characterizations, particularly of the women characters, the episodes deepened over the season, until Glee was delivering some of the best dramatic moments on TV.
I also hear Sean Hayes was charming. I was wondering if there would be any references to the Newsweek dust-up, and I guess there was at least one.
This is probably the first year I missed watching the Tonys in I don't know how long. Even though I rarely have seen any of the productions anymore I still love watching, so bummer for me.
What did you think of them?
At 7:30 I was lying on the couch thinking, "Oh, awesome, I'm actually home and can watch the Tonys as they happen...well, tape-delayed for the West Coast anyway..."
At 12:30AM I woke up on the couch. Tony-less.
Sigh.
It sounds like it was a fun one too, what with the Glee element. Yes, I like Glee...while it started out painting really shrill stereotypical characterizations, particularly of the women characters, the episodes deepened over the season, until Glee was delivering some of the best dramatic moments on TV.
I also hear Sean Hayes was charming. I was wondering if there would be any references to the Newsweek dust-up, and I guess there was at least one.
This is probably the first year I missed watching the Tonys in I don't know how long. Even though I rarely have seen any of the productions anymore I still love watching, so bummer for me.
What did you think of them?
Labels: Tony Awards
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Tony nominations announced
Full listing here.
One really striking thing I noticed: Have they ever had so few musicals to choose from that one of the (only) four nominations for Best Original Score has been background score of a play????
Happy to hear any explanation about why that's not a sad statement about the state of the American musical today.
Also kind of interesting to me how Broadway is clearly a favorite destination of "serious" Hollywood actors right now. And Broadway producers, faced with mounting budgets, are gobbling that opportunity up to get a big name on their marquee. Lots of the Leading Actor/Actress nominations are folks better known for film.
"American Idiot" score a Best Musical nod, and some technical nominations, but nothing for actors or direction or book. And it wasn't eligible for score, since the songs were all already recorded.
Of course we're long past the days when I would have seen most (or even any) of these shows. I have no dog in the hunt, no opinion really.
How about you?
One really striking thing I noticed: Have they ever had so few musicals to choose from that one of the (only) four nominations for Best Original Score has been background score of a play????
Happy to hear any explanation about why that's not a sad statement about the state of the American musical today.
Also kind of interesting to me how Broadway is clearly a favorite destination of "serious" Hollywood actors right now. And Broadway producers, faced with mounting budgets, are gobbling that opportunity up to get a big name on their marquee. Lots of the Leading Actor/Actress nominations are folks better known for film.
"American Idiot" score a Best Musical nod, and some technical nominations, but nothing for actors or direction or book. And it wasn't eligible for score, since the songs were all already recorded.
Of course we're long past the days when I would have seen most (or even any) of these shows. I have no dog in the hunt, no opinion really.
How about you?
Labels: Tony Awards
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Are you watching the Tony's tonight?
Yet another year goes by in which I saw NONE of the nominated performances or productions. :(
I just spent all of last week in NYC and didn't have a spare evening to catch a show. I got some low-down from one of my local buddies about his thoughts (loved Hair, loved Alice Ripley).
The New York Times has a special Tony section, including a run-down of who has the best odds of winning.
Also, wrote a little post over at my green blog about how they're trying to "green" Broadway and the Tony Awards. If you're into the green movement at all, it's an interesting look at how even an old institution, working out of old buildings, with old traditions, can still work towards environmental responsibility.
But tonight I'll be watching as a complete outside observer, with no dog in the hunt, so to speak.
Except this (and feel free to call me a killjoy): I absolutely cannot wrap my head around this idea of nominating all three boys that play Billy Elliott to win the Best Actor in a Musical award.
See, there is a rule that you have to play a certain # of performances per week to qualify for a nomination. And since there are three of them splitting the role, none of them play it often enough to qualify.
To me, that should have been end of story, but no, they nominated all three to win the single award.
And I find it ridiculous. Anyone with me?
That's about all the pre-Tony commentary I got...how about you?
I just spent all of last week in NYC and didn't have a spare evening to catch a show. I got some low-down from one of my local buddies about his thoughts (loved Hair, loved Alice Ripley).
The New York Times has a special Tony section, including a run-down of who has the best odds of winning.
Also, wrote a little post over at my green blog about how they're trying to "green" Broadway and the Tony Awards. If you're into the green movement at all, it's an interesting look at how even an old institution, working out of old buildings, with old traditions, can still work towards environmental responsibility.
But tonight I'll be watching as a complete outside observer, with no dog in the hunt, so to speak.
Except this (and feel free to call me a killjoy): I absolutely cannot wrap my head around this idea of nominating all three boys that play Billy Elliott to win the Best Actor in a Musical award.
See, there is a rule that you have to play a certain # of performances per week to qualify for a nomination. And since there are three of them splitting the role, none of them play it often enough to qualify.
To me, that should have been end of story, but no, they nominated all three to win the single award.
And I find it ridiculous. Anyone with me?
That's about all the pre-Tony commentary I got...how about you?
Labels: Broadway, green, Tony Awards
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Tony Nominees Announced
You can see the full list here.
Apparently hair metal rock jukebox musical Rock of Ages, starring American Idol Season 4 6th place finisher Constantine Maroulis got a nod for Best Musical. And Maroulis himself got a nomination for Best Leading Actor in a musical! And if those aren't odd sentences, I don't know what would be.
Intrepid blogger and twitterer Jane Fonda got a nod for Best Actress.
In what may be a first, all three boys playing Billy Elliott have been nominated together as Best Actor in a musical. Frankly, I think seems that's incredibly lame. Granted, I haven't seen the show, but are they really saying all three boys are Tony caliber? Did they nominate all three so as not to hurt anyone's feelings? It's just weird. If they're all three just that good, then give them 3 of the 5 nominated slots.
Lots of star power not nominated for their performances this year. I'm sure someone will round that up. But nice to see that veterans like Angela Lansbury, Carole Shelley and Stockard Channing still got it.
Who's a surprise or who's missing in your book?
And congrats to all the nominees!
Apparently hair metal rock jukebox musical Rock of Ages, starring American Idol Season 4 6th place finisher Constantine Maroulis got a nod for Best Musical. And Maroulis himself got a nomination for Best Leading Actor in a musical! And if those aren't odd sentences, I don't know what would be.
Intrepid blogger and twitterer Jane Fonda got a nod for Best Actress.
In what may be a first, all three boys playing Billy Elliott have been nominated together as Best Actor in a musical. Frankly, I think seems that's incredibly lame. Granted, I haven't seen the show, but are they really saying all three boys are Tony caliber? Did they nominate all three so as not to hurt anyone's feelings? It's just weird. If they're all three just that good, then give them 3 of the 5 nominated slots.
Lots of star power not nominated for their performances this year. I'm sure someone will round that up. But nice to see that veterans like Angela Lansbury, Carole Shelley and Stockard Channing still got it.
Who's a surprise or who's missing in your book?
And congrats to all the nominees!
Labels: Broadway, Tony Awards
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Tony Nominations are out
You can see the column and full list of nominations at the NY Times.
I agree with the Times that one of the most interesting things is to check out who got snubbed. Young Frankenstein got snubbed big-time. Little Mermaid did too. (Although I notice it's nominated for Best Original Score, so I have to ask: how "original" is it? What's the ratio of new songs to songs from the movie? This seems odd to me, but I haven't seen it, so can't reall comment intelligently about it.)
Sondheim is getting a lifetime achievement award, so they must be thinking he's never going to bring another new musical to Broadway. (And if you read some of his comments back form when he was working on Bounce, they might be right.)
Hard to root for anyone when I've seen exactly one nominated show, but I'm going to guess that Patty LuPone wins...what are your predictions?
I agree with the Times that one of the most interesting things is to check out who got snubbed. Young Frankenstein got snubbed big-time. Little Mermaid did too. (Although I notice it's nominated for Best Original Score, so I have to ask: how "original" is it? What's the ratio of new songs to songs from the movie? This seems odd to me, but I haven't seen it, so can't reall comment intelligently about it.)
Sondheim is getting a lifetime achievement award, so they must be thinking he's never going to bring another new musical to Broadway. (And if you read some of his comments back form when he was working on Bounce, they might be right.)
Hard to root for anyone when I've seen exactly one nominated show, but I'm going to guess that Patty LuPone wins...what are your predictions?
Labels: Broadway, Tony Awards
Friday, May 09, 2008
Taking a look at past Tony winner and losers
The Oxford University Press blog has Thomas S. Hischak, author of The Oxford Companion To The American Musical: Theatre, Film and Television, to provide commentary leading up to the Tony Awards this summer.
He kicks off with a post exploring which shows won, but probably shouldn't have; lost but probably shouldn't have, and laughed their Tony-free way all the way to the bank.
I agree on some calls, not others. From the lists he provides I agree the most shocking losers are:
West Side Story
Follies
Sunday in the Park With George
OTOH, there's not a single musical on his list of the biggest money-makers that didn't win that I feel is a stunning omission.
Finally, he has a list of those that did win that shouldn't have, and I must disagree about Avenue Q, but I couldn't agree MORE about The Will Rogers Follies.
When you check out his list, what's your reaction?
He kicks off with a post exploring which shows won, but probably shouldn't have; lost but probably shouldn't have, and laughed their Tony-free way all the way to the bank.
I agree on some calls, not others. From the lists he provides I agree the most shocking losers are:
West Side Story
Follies
Sunday in the Park With George
OTOH, there's not a single musical on his list of the biggest money-makers that didn't win that I feel is a stunning omission.
Finally, he has a list of those that did win that shouldn't have, and I must disagree about Avenue Q, but I couldn't agree MORE about The Will Rogers Follies.
When you check out his list, what's your reaction?
Labels: Tony Awards
Monday, June 11, 2007
Did you watch the Tony's?
As you can imagine, I was somewhat pleased by Spring Awakening's dominance at the Tony Awards last night! But poor Jonathan Groff...was he the only nominated SA person who didn't win?
The Spring Awakening cast was live blogging the entire Tony's experience, albeit with whatever awkward non-bloggy platform their site uses. Complete with blurry cell phone pictures. Gotta love modern technology :)
Other random thoughts:
-Did anyone else find the naked-fig-leaf-statue-guy dancing with the little boy in the Mary Poppins number kind of creepy?
-And did anyone else wonder why chimney sweeps would have sparkly clothing?
-They stuck those poor presenters with college lectures about theatre arts, didn't they? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
-Fantasia? She is just amazing, isn't she? She really was the only part of last night that hit me emotionally. She has so much passion when she sings, and so much connection. I have no idea if she can act during the book scenes, but I know she must act the hell out of every moment she's singing.
-Has David Hyde Pierce always been out? I mean actually out, not everyone just assuming he's out. He gave a charming speech, I must say. But Curtains looked a bit dreary to me.
-Why did Karen Ziemba never become a big, huge Broadway star? I have always loved her, but I don't think she's gotten the roles she deserves.
-Billy Crudup....rowwwrrrr
-There was something kind of mean about John Mahoney and Jane Krakowski mocking those ATWW folks, wasn't there? I didn't really find it too funny, considering the real folks were behind the chandelier listening to everyone laughing at a parody of them.
-Is this Audra McDonald's first Tony loss? I think she may have been four for four before last night. She's a fantastic star...
-Having a host would be way better than having those weird pre-commercial "teasers."
All in all I thought the show was one of the worst-produced Tony Awards I had seen in a while. The presenter "banter" was so very tedious and patronizing.
What did y'all think?
The Spring Awakening cast was live blogging the entire Tony's experience, albeit with whatever awkward non-bloggy platform their site uses. Complete with blurry cell phone pictures. Gotta love modern technology :)
Other random thoughts:
-Did anyone else find the naked-fig-leaf-statue-guy dancing with the little boy in the Mary Poppins number kind of creepy?
-And did anyone else wonder why chimney sweeps would have sparkly clothing?
-They stuck those poor presenters with college lectures about theatre arts, didn't they? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
-Fantasia? She is just amazing, isn't she? She really was the only part of last night that hit me emotionally. She has so much passion when she sings, and so much connection. I have no idea if she can act during the book scenes, but I know she must act the hell out of every moment she's singing.
-Has David Hyde Pierce always been out? I mean actually out, not everyone just assuming he's out. He gave a charming speech, I must say. But Curtains looked a bit dreary to me.
-Why did Karen Ziemba never become a big, huge Broadway star? I have always loved her, but I don't think she's gotten the roles she deserves.
-Billy Crudup....rowwwrrrr
-There was something kind of mean about John Mahoney and Jane Krakowski mocking those ATWW folks, wasn't there? I didn't really find it too funny, considering the real folks were behind the chandelier listening to everyone laughing at a parody of them.
-Is this Audra McDonald's first Tony loss? I think she may have been four for four before last night. She's a fantastic star...
-Having a host would be way better than having those weird pre-commercial "teasers."
All in all I thought the show was one of the worst-produced Tony Awards I had seen in a while. The presenter "banter" was so very tedious and patronizing.
What did y'all think?
Labels: Tony Awards
