Wednesday, May 14, 2008

“…and that’s how you carry the Antoinette Perry.”

Meet Cubby Bernstein, Tony Award campaign manager.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Tony Awards: If I were voting

The nominations for the 62nd Annual Tony Awards were announced this morning and, like last year, I'm going to go ahead and weigh in with my picks. Please note that these are not predictions. I'm awful at those. These are the people and productions for which I'd vote given an opportunity.

Choreography: Andy Blankenbuehler gave In the Heights some really nice moments, and Rob Ashford's work on Cry-Baby was the best thing about the show, but my nod goes to Dan Knechtges for Xanadu. +1 difficulty for skates and a tiny stage.

Orchestrations: A Catered Affair is a really sweet, gentle musical and Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations were lovely, but I'd vote for Jason Carr, whose work on Sunday in the Park with George let me hear a familiar, brilliant score in a refreshing new way.

Book of a Musical: Not a strong year for the new book musical. Points to Douglas Carter Beane for making soup from the bones of Xanadu, but my vote goes to Quiara Alegria Hudesa for In the Heights.

Original Score: A close one here, with Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights a strong favorite. Ultimately, though, I'll go with the surprising serendipity of Passing Strange by Heidi Rodewald and Stew.

Scenic Design: (play) Todd Rosenthal's ginormous house and environs for August: Osage County was spectacular; (musical) I left Young Frankenstein humming Robin Wagner's scenery, but would vote for Sunday in the Park with George. The only misfire: Calling down the lights before we get a good look at the completed painting at the end of Act One.

Costume Design: (play) Katrina Lindsay's gorgeous work for Les Liaisons Dangereuses was tops in my book, although I didn't get to see Cyrano de Bergerac, which is usually a playground for a costumer; (musical) David Farley, Sunday in the Park with George. (Yes, I tend to favor showy period productions in this category.)

Lighting Design: Tough choice this year, in which nothing really jumped out at me among the noms. Most everything seemed fine and workmanlike. (play) Howard Harrison's work on Macbeth was quite lovely; (musical) Howell Binkley, In the Heights.

Sound Design: Same here. (play) Mic Pool, The 39 Steps; (musical) Acme Sound Partners, In the Heights.

Direction: (play) No question about this one: Anna Shapiro for August: Osage County. I enjoyed all four nominated productions, although I generally feel playwrights shouldn't direct their own work. Conor McPherson's guidance of his own script for The Seafarer was okay, but the play would have benefitted from a second voice. (musical) I'm kind of torn here between Sam Buntrock for Sunday in the Park with George and Bart Sher for South Pacific. Both helmed exquisite revival productions, but I'll give it to South Pacific by a hair. (Sorry Mr. Laurents. Gypsy was not your best work, and certainly not the best of the season.)

Featured Actor, Play: I loved Bobby Cannavale in Mauritius, and that's about all I loved there, but my vote's with Conleth Hill for The Seafarer.

Featured Actress, Play: An extremely strong field this year. Rondi Reed, Sinead Cusack and Martha Plimpton were all great, but the always-marvelous Laurie Metcalf stood out in the otherwise mediocre November. She gets my vote.

Featured Actor, Musical: All gave fine performances, but Christopher Fitzgerald was the only actor on stage in Young Frankenstein who seemed to remember he was in a musical comedy and thus rescued the otherwise dishwater evening for me. Nice to see him in a meatier role than Wicked's Boq, that's for sure.

Featured Actress, Musical: No doubt here, I give my nod to Laura Benanti in Gypsy, the best Louise I've ever seen on stage.

Actor, Play: Patrick Stewart in Macbeth. Absolutely riveting. Make it so.

Actress, Play: I missed Come Back, Little Sheba, but really, my choice comes down to the two leading ladies of August: Osage County. Deanna Dunagan was just fierce as the gritty matriarch, but in a squeaker, I'd vote for Amy Morton, whose work I've admired for years, as the suffering sister.

Actor, Musical: Tough one! Paulo Szot gave one hell of a performance in South Pacific, but I was charmed by Lin-Manuel Miranda's Usnavi in In the Heights. He certainly wrote himself one hell of a Broadway debut role, then played it to the hilt.

Actress, Musical: Another rough decision, really, and so I'm cheating with two votes. Patti LuPone in Gypsy and Kelli O'Hara in South Pacific. As far as I'm concerned, these two are tied for the most thrilling female performances on Broadway this year. (I do think Ms. LuPone will go home with the statuette, however.)

Revival of a Play: Macbeth. The whole production was just perfect.

Revival of a Musical: South Pacific. Ditto. Although the plane was a little much. Just because it's in the budget, Bart...

Best Play: Tracy Letts' August: Osage County. Honorable mention to Rock 'n' Roll, which I kind of loved, but this isn't Stoppard's year. Mr. Letts deserves every accolade he's gotten for this grueling, gorgeous soaper.

Best Musical: Fresh but strangely conventional, my nod has to go to In the Heights. I had the best time overall here of the four nominated shows.

I guess we'll see how tuned in to the Broadway pulse I am. The Tony Awards will be broadcast on CBS next month, June 15.

Monday, June 11, 2007

The 50(ish) percent solution…

I was 12 for 25 with my hypothetical Tony Awards votes. If I had "voted" my gut instead of my heart, I'd probably have made 75 percent, at least.

I added the actual winners from last night's Tony Awards to my choices.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Success in America

Actor Frank Langella, accepting his Best Actor in a Play honor, gave the best Tony Award speech earlier tonight, the best in several years of my recollection:

There's a line in Frost/Nixon which says, 'Success in America is unlike success anywhere else. That feeling when you're up...it's indescribable.' And I'm very grateful to the theatre community, to my colleagues in Frost/Nixon here and overseas, and to the New York theatregoing public for allowing me that feeling this season.

The line in the play then goes on to say, 'But there's another feeling when it's gone, to somewhere else, to someone else.' And I know that feeling. Everyone in this room knows it. I suppose we can't stop people from putting us into competition with one another, and once we're here, I suppose we all want to win. But I think we must honor the common bond in us, the struggle, the striving for success, because that's a race you simply can't lose.

I am very proud and very honored to work and live among you splendid people. Thank you. Thank you for giving me that indescribable feeling. I wish it for you all.

Amen.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Clearing the Cache: June 6, 2007

• Chicago's gay and lesbian community Center on Halsted has officially opened. I can't wait to visit. Congrats!
• It appears that the CBS drama Jericho may be coming back after all. Hooray! Now I may actually get to find out how the end of the world ends.
• The cost to stage a musical number on the Tony Awards tops $250,000. Ouch.

The Tony Awards: If I had my way

Updated June 10: I've added the actual winners in brackets at the end of each of my choices.

Faithful (and handsome) correspondent Stefan asked, after reading my roundup of theatre moments over the past season, if I'd consider sharing my predictions for Sunday's Tony Awards.

While I'm loathe to turn down a request from a hottie reader, here's the thing. I don't do predictions. I suck at them. I mean really, really suck.

So half a bargain? Here's who and what would be taking home Tonys if I were king of the forest:

• Lighting Design: I'd give it to Chris Akerlind for 110 in the Shade; Chris always does wonderful work, but he really hit it out of the park here. It was just gorgeous. I'd give three trophies to Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Psner and Natasha Katz for The Coast of Utopia trilogy. [Musical: Kevin Adams, Spring Awakening; Play: The Coast of Utopia]
  
• Costume Design: William Ivey Long for Grey Gardens, and Ti Green and Melly Still for Coram Boy. [Musical: Grey Gardens; Play: Catherine Zuber, The Coast of Utopia]
  
• Scenic Design: Bob Crowley and Scott Pask for The Coast of Utopia; Christine Jones for Spring Awakening. [Musical: Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins; Play: The Coast of Utopia]
  
• Orchestrations: Jonathan Tunick for LoveMusik, closely followed by...Jonathan Tunick for 110 in the Shade. [Duncan Sheik, Spring Awakening]
  
• Choreography: Kind of torn here, since I loved what Jerry Mitchell did with Legally Blonde, but I'd give the nod to Rob Ashford's work on Curtains. [Bill T. Jones, Spring Awakening]
  
• Direction of a Musical: John Doyle for Company. He really pulled the whole production together, and his conceit of actors-as-orchestra worked ideally here. [Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening]
  
• Direction of a Play: Another toughie, but my award goes to Michael Grandage for Frost/Nixon, a superlative production all around. [Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia]
  
• Featured Actress in a Musical: Karen Ziemba in Curtains. (As I noted before, I'd love to see her up for a leading lady Tony sometime soon.) [Mary Louise Wilson, Grey Gardens]
  
• Featured Actor in a Musical: John Gallagher Jr. for Spring Awakening, closely followed by Christian Borle in Legally Blonde. [John Gallagher Jr., Spring Awakening]
  
• Featured Actress in a Play: Jennifer Ehle in The Coast of Utopia. [Jennifer Ehle, The Coast of Utopia]
  
• Featured Actor in a Play: Stark Sands in Journey's End. [Billy Crudup, The Coast of Utopia]
  
• Leading Actress in a Musical: Man alive, this is the hardest category for me to choose, because each of the nominees gave performances that knocked me out, but I'll go with my first choice, which is Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens. [Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens]
  
• Leading Actor in a Musical: Raúl Esparza in Company. Hands down, no contest. Best. Bobby. Ever. [David Hyde Pierce, Curtains]
  
• Leading Actress in a Play: I loved Eve Best in A Moon for the Misbegotten, but I really want the Tony to go to Julie White from The Little Dog Laughed. She split my sides. [Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed]
  
• Leading Actor in a Play: Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon. An amazing, mesmerizing performance. [Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon]
  
• Best Theatrical Event: Alas, I missed both nominees, but Kiki & Herb are my sentimental favorite. [Jay Johnson: The Two and Only!]
  
• Best Revival of a Musical: If Company wasn't in the running, this would be 110 in the Shade's award. But I gotta go with Mr. Sondheim's masterpiece under Mr. Doyle's direction. Almost perfect. [Company]
  
• Best Revival of a Play: Journey's End. [Journey's End]
  
• Best Original Score: Spring Awakening. [Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, Spring Awakening]
  
• Best Book of a Musical: Spring Awakening. [Steven Sater, Spring Awakening]
  
• Best Musical: While acknowledging that Spring Awakening has the edge here, my award would go to Curtains for sheer fun. [Spring Awakening]
  
• Best Play: Mr. Stoppard's marathon The Coast of Utopia, trailed by Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon. [The Coast of Utopia]
  

Monday, May 8, 2000

Wicked stage

The 1999 Tony Award nominations have been announced. Rather spare assortment of musicals this season, but we knew that going in. A special Tony for Dame Edna? Cool. (Speaking of Edna, Christine Lavin finally found a place for her story of Edna addiction. Congrats!)

Wednesday, June 3, 1998

June 3, 1998

"28. I will meet somebody nice, away from a bar or the tubs or a roller-skating rink, and I will fall hopelessly but conventionally in love.

29. But I won't say I love you before he does.

30. The hell I won't."

-- three of Michael "Mouse" Tolliver's "Valentine's Day resolutions" from More Tales of the City

What I'm reading now: Goodnight, Nebraska: A Novel by Tom McNeal. [A taste of chapter one, courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribune]

Another addition to the 'To Read' pile: A Boy Named Phyllis: A Suburban Memoir by Frank DeCaro. (I'm also planning to re-read David B. Feinberg's Eighty-Sixed in the next week or so, and it's about time for my semi-annual re-reading of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City sextet, apropos to the airing of the new mini-series adaptation on Showtime.)

Speaking of which, props to Showtime for producing and airing the latest installment of Maupin's Tales for the screen, but what programming genius decided to debut this as counter-programming to the Tony Awards? Are they honestly expecting a massive gay exodus tuning out Broadway in favor of Barbary Lane? We shall see.