And Now The Grammy's Are Irrelevant

Ok, so the Grammy's have been irrelevant longer than the Oscars and Tonys put together, but last night's Best Show Recording award put another nail in their coffin. Jersey Boys won the award, beating out The Color Purple (no problem with that one), The Drowsey Chaperone (adding insult to injury, at least Wicked was able to snag this award after it's disappointing loss to Avenue Q at the Tonys), The Pajama Game (again, no problem with this one) and, worst of all, Sweeney Todd. Now, to start with, what's up with these nominees? I'm not sure what the rules are, but the cast recordings of See What I Wanna See, Thrill Me, and Grey Gardens all came out during the eligibility period, and any of them are much more worthy of a nomination than Color Purple and Pajama Game (and Jersey Boys for that matter). Are Off-Broadway shows ineligible? If so, why? Given that the two biggest shows on Broadway this season came from Off-Broadway, the distinction is becoming less and less important. And even if that is the case, we still had the Broadway cast recordings of A Chorus Line (I know, there's issues with that among the die-hards but it's still preferable to Purple, Pajama, and Jersey) and Tarzan (ditto), and the official US release of Billy Elliot (the best cast album since the London recording of Les Miz). It's just another kick in the gentles for The Drowsey Chaperone and Sweeney Todd. Good taste is gone.