Tony Predictions, Part I

Good morning. As promised, here is my first round of predictions for the Tony Awards. Most of the tech awards will be going to Utopia and Mary Poppins, making Bob Crowley the night's biggest winner.

Best Lighting Design Of A Musical
Who Will Win: Howard Harrison for Mary Poppins. As I mentioned, Poppins will get the bulk of the tech awards, mostly as a consolation prize for not getting any of the more substantial awards, but also because of the phenomenal achievement the musical represents in these areas. From all accounts, it's one of the most spectacular and high-tech shows to hit Broadway in a long time and I think the voters will recognize it. The possible spoiler would be Kevin Adams for Spring Awakening if Spring steamrolls the awards. However, a major sweep really hasn't happened lately, the closest thing being Light in the Piazza, which still only came away with 5 awards and didn't get the top prize.
Who Should Win: Peter Kaczorowski for Grey Gardens. Peter's work really made the musical come alive. The lengthening shadows of the first act as 5:15 approached was an excellent metaphor for the sun setting on Eddie and Little Eddie's life as they knew it, and the second act was just spectacular. The lighting was integral to the show without being too ostentatious.

Best Lighting Design Of A Play
Who Will Win: Brian Macdevitt, Kenneth Posner, & Natasha Katz for The Coast Of Utopia. Again, the trilogy is such a massive achievement, and it has swept the technical categories of all the pre-Tony awards, making it the favorite to win here. The only possible spoiler would be Coram Boy, which was such a multi-media experience, and the voters may decide to recognize it instead, especially since it's closing.
Who Should Win: Since I haven't seen any of the nominees, I really can't say, but I think Utopia should get it for all the hard work they put in, and from all accounts they really did do a terrific job.

Best Costume Design Of A Musical
Who Will Win: Bob Crowley for Mary Poppins. Again, it's a lot of work that he put in and I think the voters will recognize him for it. However, depending on the voters moods, it could just as easily go to Susan Hilferty for Spring Awakening (although this is a long shot, white dress shirts with black pants aren't really that difficult to come up with), or to William Ivey Long for Grey Gardens (a better chance, he nailed the early 40's Hamptons look and really stayed true to the movie for Little Edie's schizophrenically inspired second act get ups). However, I think the voters will stick with Poppins and reserve higher awards for the other shows.
Who Should Win: William Ivey Long. He gave each act a very different look that worked so well, it would be great to see him get recognition.
Who Should Have Been Nominated: The Times They Are A'Changin. Clown costumes rock!!! Just kidding. As I mentioned a few months ago, I would have loved to have seen Company get a nomination here. They nailed the look of the early 70's and did it so unobtrusively. I thought when I looked through the program, that there were separate people this time for costumes, set design, etc, unlike Sweeney Todd, which was all done by Doyle. Maybe I'm wrong, but even so, the nominating committee should have made an exception here, the work was superb.
Who Should Not Have Been Nominated: Gregg Barnes for Legally Blonde. Come on, Elle loves pink, that's so hard to do. This slot should have gone to a more deserving show, either Company or Pirate Queen.

Best Costume Design Of A Play
Who Will Win: Catherine Zuber for The Coast Of Utopia. This is more of a sure thing than Poppins' win in this category on the musical side. Catherine captured the look of two continents over a long stretch of time, and provided continuity for the three plays. This one is all hers. The possible spoiler would again be Coram Boy for its fantastic look and imagery, and the fact that it's closing. However, the voters gave multiple awards to a British import last year, and I don't see it happening two years in a row, they're going to go for a more uniquely American show.
Who Should Win: Again, I haven't seen any of them so I can't say, but Catherine gets the nod for all the work she put in.

Check back tomorrow for Scenic Design (no surprises there if you've read this far), Orchestrations, and Choreography (the most competitive category I've discussed to this point).

Getting Stuff

Another day, more money out the window, but very well spent. Yesterday I ordered my ticket for Shenandoah. I'll be going on June 21st, a Thursday night. I work close to there and since my companion isn't thrilled about it, that seemed to be the best way to do it. I upgraded to the dinner theatre option, for only $10 more I get a complete meal at their top restaurant, King's Wharf, at 6:00. Good deal. So, if any of you also happen to be there that night and you do dinner at King's Wharf and you see a big queen sitting there all by himself, feel free to come over and say hi, as long as you're cute. Those of you ugly readers, just keep reading, I really appreciate your support but we don't really need to mix socially. Then when I got home, the Time After Time/Dodsworth CD was waiting for me, and let me tell you, that is one of the best CD's I've heard in a long time. I didn't know it was a concert CD, I thought it was a concept album, but it really works. I love the movie Dodsworth and thought that Time After Time was a phenomenally stupid movie, but they both work well on the musical stage. Hopefully someday we'll get both of them in full productions on Broadway where they belong. Then, today when I got home, the Shenandoah tickets were in the mailbox. How's that for quick service? Now I just have to remember to take them with me. I also had the All That Jazz CD waiting for me. It looks like it contains just about everything from the movie except for the duet number with Ann Reinking and the girl who plays his daughter, which is too bad. It's a great song and Ann only has one other song in the whole movie (which is on the disc, so it wasn't a licensing or contract issue), but the real highlight for me is finally getting Roy Scheider and Ben Vereen's performance of Bye Bye Love, that will never get old. So, as is typical with half.com shipments, I got one right off the bat, had to wait just on the unreasonable side of the expected time frame for the bulk of the order, and now have one more to get, which probably won't come for another couple of weeks, if at all. I was kind of hoping to get Shenandoah first so that I could have time to really familiarize myself with it, but it's not to be. If I'm lucky though, I'll still get it before I see the show. Actually, it'll probably come on Tuesday, the day that I'll be getting Curtains and 110 in the Shade, that's the other pattern with half.com stuff. I never have time to really immerse myself and familiarize myself with what I get because fate somehow times it for me to just get everything at once. So anyways, starting tomorrow I'm going to try to start making daily Tony predictions, starting with the tech awards and moving up, with my predictions for the top awards next Friday. After last year it's kind of easy to be cynical and claim that I predict a sweep by Legally Blonde, but that would be too easy, and unrealistic. It's not in the same class as The Producers or Spamalot, and Tony voters know that. Also, the year after a major upset is usually fairly predictable, the voters want to make sure they don't spectacularly fuck up again and stick to the frontrunners. If Crash hadn't won Best Picture last year, it's a safe bet that Scorcese would not have won Best Director this year, but there's a good chance Peter O'Toole might have won Best Actor. So, keep reading and we'll all see how right I am.

Two Weeks To Go

Well, it's been a pretty quiet week or so here. Things should stay fairly calm between now and the Tony Awards, no one wants to rock the boat. Of significant news on the local front, I got my tickets for Superman, for July 8 at 2:00 pm. I still have to order my ticket for Shenandoah, but I should do that Tuesday, and I've started working to get my companion to go pick up tickets for Light and DRS, it should only be about another 2 weeks before he actually does so.

I ordered several CD's from half.com: No Strings, the All That Jazz soundtrack, Dodsworth/Time After Time, and Shenandoah (I also saw the [non-musical] movie on Friday night to familiarize myself with the story. Good movie, but I understand the musical is even more strongly anti-war, which I'm looking forward to, the movie actually seemed to have a mixed message when it came to that). I got No Strings right away, but the post office is taking its time getting the other 3 here, and as Monday is a holiday, I'm not expecting any of them until late in the week or even next week.

In local theatre news, Ragtime is getting an upgrade, moving to the Apollo on June 9. It's a somewhat bigger space, but hopefully won't impact the show's intimacy and immediacy.

While things have been fairly calm on Broadway, it was announced that Coram Boy is closing, rather prematurely, which is too bad, I would have liked to have seen it. Hopefully it will tour or license to regional theatre. I would think the Goodman or Steppenwolf would snap it right up. Before playing it's first preview, Matthew Morrison's new show, 10 Million Miles, has already been extended. Good for him, he's hot and I can't wait to see him live (my companion got to see him in Light, and I am very jealous, at least he had bad seats). He deserves as much success as he can get, at least until he turns old and looses the hotness. Xanadu began previews last week, and while the snickers up and down 42nd street haven't quieted down, they haven't gotten louder either. The next big date between now and the Tony's is June 5, when the last two major contenders see their CD's hit the stores: Curtains and 110 in the Shade, I'll be taking a trip to Borders at lunch that day. Speaking of the Tony's, it was announced that like last year, the telecast is going hostless, which doesn't thrill me. Awards shows need a personality to drive them and keep the momentum going, otherwise they end up like the Golden Globes. The only GG ceremonies I can remember in recent years are when Jack Nicholson gave his acceptance speach out of his ass, and Liz Taylor announced best picture (Glaaaaaaaaaaaadiator!), and I don't think I'm remembering those for the reasons the Hollywood Foreign Press Association wants them remembered. Last year's Tony's Ceremony, in addition to being a free for all of undeserving winners (with the exception of History Boys and the Drowsy Chaperone), was also frightfully dull. Doesn't anyone remember how naughtily awesome it was when Nathan Lane pretended to be Julie Andrews at the start of the 1995-96 ceremony, or his commradery with Matthew Broderick when they hosted the WTTW portion of the cereomony in the years when the broadcast was split up between networks? It provides a context and lightens up the ceremonies, seeing these personalities on display is what theatre is all about. I strongly urge the Tony Committee to reconsider, hell, I'll even host it for free!

Lastly, Entertainment Weekly had their quarterly roundup of New York theatre, and other than Frost/Nixon, which got an A-, they were really negative about everything, although still kinder than they should have been to Legally Blonde, which despite being a cornucopia of product placement and ridiculous embellishment of the movie's more gimmicky moments (a whole song about "bend and snap"), still got a B-. They revisited The Color Purple, now with Fantasia in the lead, and raised it from a C- to a C, but not really because of what she added, more because the rest of the elements seemed to have gelled a bit better over the past year. Deuce (C+)was decreed to have no reason for existing other than to showcase Angela and Marion, and apparently the entire play takes place in their seats at the tennis match, there's absolutely no action. 110 in the Shade (B-) is only worth watching for Audra's performance, the men can't keep up with her, and LoveMusik (C-) is almost worth watching only because of Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy. Lastly, Radio Golf got a B, for slightly boring. I guess if my upcoming potential trip on June 18-20 doesn't pan out, it won't be the end of the world. I'd like to see Deuce, but if it's not that good it might be worth waiting to see if, now that she's back on Broadway, Angela does another musical and going to see that instead, and still wait for Xanadu to officially open. Look for my Tony predictions starting later in the week. The countdown is on.

Summer Season

It seems like I was just writing about the spring season and now summer is already almost upon us. While I didn't get to see everything I wanted to in the spring season, some of the shows are still lingering on, so hopefully I can catch at least Puppetmaster in addition to Jerry Springer. Looking ahead, in a very serendipitous offering, Drury Lane Oakbrook is presenting It's A Bird It's A Plane It's Superman starting next week through the end of July. After my companion becomes obsessed with it and I track the CD down, we suddenly have a chance to see it. Hopefully a scaled down orchestra can fix some of the problems with the score, but even without Linda Lavin, it's worth making the trek to the burbs to catch this little-seen show. My only concern is that they advertised it as "The Family Friendly Musical" which means the place could be crawling with kids who won't shut up during the show. Every time I've seen Beauty and the Beast, I can't fully enjoy it because some kid behind me can't stop giving a running commentary to their parents, and said parents think it's so cute and don't have the common courtesy to understand that no one else wants to hear what their kid thinks of the show. Get the kid a blog and teach him to shut up while the actors are on stage.
The Marriott Lincolnshire is offering Shenandoah, in a highly acclaimed production, through the end of June. I plan to see it June 21st.
Theatre on the Lake tickets go on sale June 5, and I will be going to Gorey Stories and Side Show, and possibly Oklahoma.
Lastly, tickets for Light in the Piazza and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels have FINALLY gone on sale. I now just have to prod my companion to go to the box office and get them so we don't pay over $50 in Ticketmaster service fees, which should take about 3 weeks to do. Hopefully they'll still have tickets for the days we want, they're both very short runs since apparently Chicago isn't a very hospitable city for touring productions (and yes, there is a lot of sarcasm in that last sentence).
In awards news, Spring Awakening, Coast of Utopia, and Frank Langella are all speeding towards Tony glory. The Drama Desk Awards were announced yesterday, and as expected, Spring got best musical and best score, although, in a move that could foreshadow a validation of my Tony prediction, Curtains took best book, and Debra Monk walked away with best featured actress. Michael Mayer got best director, Company got best revival, Raul Esparza got best actor, Gavin Lee got best featured actor (the one surprise of the night), and best actress was a tie between Audra and Donna. Hopefully that means they'll split the Tony vote and Christine will win. Apparently Grey Gardens was ineligible this time around because of its Off-Broadway incarnation last year.
On the play side, Utopia got best play, and most of the technical awards, except stage design which went to Mary Poppins (as predicted, but hardly a loss for Utopia since Bob Crowley would have won anyways), Eve Best got best actress (again, another possible foreshadowing that my Tony prediction could be validated), and Frank Langella took best actor. Less than 3 weeks to go until the big ones, will this be the trend.
Lastly, on Sunday I watched Lady Sings the Blues for the first time, and finally watched All That Jazz. What a revelation Diana Ross's performance must have been at the time. It's a beautiful transfer with great sound, and is definitely a classic. Moving on, I first saw ATJ my senior year of college and was blown away. I have not watched it all the way through, start to finish since, I've only caught it in bits and pieces on tv, although its always been hard to pull myself away. Watching it again, it had lost none of its power, the last musical sequence still gives me chills. What a fantabulous movie, why Roy Scheider never became a bigger star is still beyond me. It truly is one of the greatest movies ever. However, the sticker on the box, boasted over 2 hours of extras, which would make sense since they decided to release it in a new edition. It appears thought to be a bit of false advertising. The three documentaries only add up to about 45 minutes of material. The only way they can claim there's over 2 hours of bonus features is if they count the running commentary track for the entire 122 minute length of the movie. That was a bit of a letdown, I was hoping for a lot more behind-the-scenes stuff, although there are some great photos of Bob working with the dancers, and a deligtfully lucid Liza talking about him as the greatest director/choreographer ever. So, it was still worth getting, and anyone who hasn't seen it must run out and watch it immediately. You can't be a true theatre or showtune queen until you've seen it.

A Brand New Day

I know this isn't exactly theatre related, but it's definitely queen related. After a life filled with spreading hate and intolerance all across the country and making the world a worse place than he found it, Jerry Falwell is dead!!!

Wouldn't it be awesome if the autopsy revealed he died of a drug overdose or secretly had HIV? I haven't felt this good about the world since the Pope died a few years ago. Perhaps they'll be roommates, I know there's a special level for people like them down there.

The Big Day

Ok, first of all, I got my Ravinia tickets last night, but enough of the small talk, I know what you're all here for.

After a very bad year last year, and with a lot to make up for, the Tony nominating committee really got it right. Most of the surprises were due to the large number of deserving potential nominees where one deserving person/show beat out another deserving person/show, and for the most part, those that didn't deserve to get nominated didn't, there's no Wedding Singer or LaChanze in the group, which means that like the Oscars (another awards show that had a lot to make up for this year), chances are I'm going to be fairly happy when all is said and done.

Starting with the biggies, Mary Poppins got the fourth slot for Best Musical, with no fifth slot given. As I predicted, Curtains, Grey Gardens, and Spring Awakening took the other slots. I would have predicted LoveMusik over Poppins for the fourth slot, or at least as a surprise 5th nominee, but it wasn't to be. After Poppins' disappointing showing yesterday, I doubt it will win, which means I'll be thrilled with whoever takes home the prize. Working in its favor though, the committee did split up the technical awards into play and musical categories, so that both Utopia and Poppins can take home those awards (which I actually found out will all go to the same guy - Bob Crowley, one of the hardest working designers in showbiz. He could end up the night's truly big winner). I was disappointed that Company was not nominated for any technical awards, I thought that unlike Sweeney Todd, the costumes and set design were done by people other than John Doyle, which would have made it competitive in these categories. That's too bad, because Doyle is probably not going to get Best Director this time. Speaking of directors, Scott Ellis is finally getting his due. Not only did The Little Dog Laughed get nominated for Best Play (freezing out Deuce), he finally got a director nomination for Curtains, although I'm still predicting Michael Mayer to win. The other big surprise here was Harold Prince's shutout, again given how the previous guilds have gone, I would have predicted him over Ellis, but he's been shutout before. Depending on the moment, the Tony's either love him or hate him, and I guess they're in a hate mode right now, although again, this category was one of the tougher calls, there were a lot of people who deserved a nomination here.

As for the big race, which was last year's big fuckup, Christine Ebersole did get her nomination, bumping out Kristen Chenoweth, who made a good showing in the previous guild awards nominations. Given the lack of love for Musik, I would have expected her to replace Donna Murphy, but Donna got a nomination, as did Audra McDonald and Debra Monk. Donna could give Christine a good run for her money, but at this point I think Christine is still safe, although again, there's a long time between now and June 10. The other suprise in this category was the lack of a nomination for Stephanie J. Block, completely blocking the Pirate Queen, a big repudiation for previous winners Boublil and Shoenberg.

While I was glad to see Legally Blonde blocked from the top category, it replaces Poppins in most of the other categories, including Book and Score, however I don't think it has a chance for most of them. Spring Awakening is a lock for Best Score and possibly best Orchestrations, while Book is up for grabs among the top three, which could allow Blonde to rise to the top and nab its sole award of the evening. Spring Awakening could steamroll the awards, being the top nomination recipient and grab it, or it could go to Grey Gardens for the phenomenal job they did adapting the documentary almost word for word and then crafting a completely original first act, or it could go to Curtains for being the only original book in the bunch as well as Peter Stone's swan song and Rupert Holmes's overdue return. With all these scenarios, it's easy to see a win for Blonde, but givens the voters' recent propensity to reward original shows (Avenue Q, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and The Drowsey Chaperone, all original shows, were the past 3 winners), I think Curtains will end up taking Best Book.

While Cristine is dominating the Actress category, this really is the year of the boys. Jonathan Groff and John Gallagher Jr. got acting awards for Spring, but none of the girls did (BTW, did anyone else know that Lea Michele was Tateh's daughter in Ragtime?). Besides Groff, the other leading nominees are David Hyde Pierce (who I'd love to see win), Raul Esparza (the likely winner), and Michael Cerveris. I do think Gallagher may have a chance for featured actor, but we'll have to see. There's a chance Brooks Ashmanskas could take for being the sole nominee from Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me (another overlooked show by previous big nominees, although after listening to the cast recording, I'm not that impressed either).

In the last major category, A Chorus Line got a surprise nomination for Best Revival. I thought it had previously been ruled ineligible, along with Les Miz due to the fact that it was based on the original production and really was a remounting rather than a revival, but somehow it got through. I'm still looking for Company to take this one though, they still owe Doyle.

So, among the musicals, Spring Awakening leads the pack with 11 (the most of any show, play or musical), Grey Gardens has 10 (along with Utopia on the play side), Curtains has 8, Blonde has 7, Poppins has 6, and there are several shows with 1 or 2, being a good year, it was hard for anyone other than the front runners to break into more categories.

On the play side, Deuce only received one nomination, and it was the expected Best Actress nomination for Angela Lansbury. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. She's up against Vanessa Redgrave and Swoozie Kurtz, and they could split the vote, letting it go to Eve Best. However, she can't totally be counted out. I don't think they'd nominate her now just to see her lose for the first time, but they did it to Mary Martin, so you never know.

As I mentioned, Dog got Deuce's slot for Best Play, with the other nominees being Utopia, Frost/Nixon, and Radio Golf. I'm looking for Utopia to win, although Frost/Nixon has a lot of fans and with Golf being August Wilson's swan song, that could just as easily take it. We'll have to see if Frank Langella beats Brian F. O'Byrne again for best actor after yesterday, but seeing as how O'Bryne lost in a very surprising way a couple years ago for Doubt, the voters could feel they need to make this up to him, and he did anchor an entire trilogy. Again, lots can change between now and June 10th. That's going to be a busy day, I've got Jerry Springer in the afternoon and will then have to hurry home quickly to pop the champagne and settle in for the best night of the year. As the time gets closer I'll update my predications and then we can all see how they play out.

24 Hours To Go!

In anticipation of tomorrow's Tony Awards nominations announcement, the Outer Critics Circle announced their winners today. The big shocker was that despite leading the pack with 11 noms, Mary Poppins came away empty handed. That's right, not even a single technical award. All the technical awards went to Coast of Utopia, which was the night's big winner (although in a shocker, Frank Langella beat out Brian F. O'Byrne for best actor in a play for Frost/Nixon). Now, there are enough potential nominees that the Tony committee may decide to split the technical awards into musical and play categories, which they have done in the past when there have been numerous strong nominees in both categories. However, if they don't, it seems the wind is out from under Poppins' umbrella. Spring Awakening has solidified it's leading contender status, winning Best Broadway Musical (In The Heights won Best Off-Broadway musical, and will not be eligible at tomorrow's announcement) and Best Director (beating out John Doyle who nevertheless saw his Company take Best Revival). The other big shocker was Donna Murphey taking Best Actress in a musical for Lovemusik. Now granted, she has two Tony Awards (and while the legitimacy of her second win is open to debate, the 1995-96 season was what it was and the end result is still that she's a two-time Tony winner), but Audra was suddenly the woman of the hour, and this could put a big dent in her momentum, opening up the Tony race for Christine Ebersole again. As expected, Raul Esparza got Best Actor (sorry, I don't agree with this one) and in a somewhat lesser surprise, but a pleasant one, Karen Ziemba got Best Featured Actress, preventing Curtains from coming away empty handed. The other big loser of the night was Legally Blonde, coming away empty handed. Lovemusik racked up a second win with Best Featured Actor. Now, tomorrow, there are two confounding variables: Grey Gardens and Deuce, both of which were ineligible, for various reasons, for most preliminary awards, and while Deuce is not going to hurt Utopia, Grey Gardens could put a dent in Spring Awakening's armour, and the leading ladies of both are still the favorites to win, although a lot could change between then and now, just ask Patti.

Concluding with The Banana

Well, I'm stuck in the burbs for Mother's Day weekend. I came out Saturday early afternoon and should be back home later this afternoon. Instead of sitting around bored, I decided to make the best use of my time out here. I brought my laptop and Saturday afternoon made the rounds at local libraries snapping up Broadway CD's and copying them. From the St. Charles library I got Baby, Barnum, and Jerry's Girls, as well as Ragtime so I could copy one song that didn't copy right when I got it from the Batavia library last summer. From the Batavia library I got The Full Monty and Chess. Unfortunately, with such a time crunch, I only have time to copy them. I can't listen to them to make sure they copied ok, but I'll do that in the next few days when I get home and can earmark what ones I either need to find elsewhere or pick up again and try doing a live audio capture the next time I'm home. I'm very interested in the Jerry's Girls CD especially. There wasn't much of an insert, only a tri-fold with a track listing, 3 pictures from the show, and a VERY '80's picture of Carol Channing, Leslie Uggams, and Andrea McDonald in red sequined shirts standing around a very young looking Jerry Herman. The desperation in Carol Channing's eyes is overwhelming and neither Leslie nor Andrea look very happy to be there. Unfortunately, there was almost no commentary other than a line stating that the show premiered at a dinner theatre in Florida and Harvy Fierstein was one of the writers. Nothing about how the show came about or how it was received. I know Carol got a Tony nomination, so at some point it did move to Broadway, although obviously not very successfully. I'll have to do more research.

After the libraries, I went to Banana Republic in the Geneva Commons to use that $20 card they sent me, and I am over that store for good. First of all though, I have to say, how cool is it to drive around the burbs with the window down and Barbra's new concert CD blaring on the stereo? Well ok, for the vast majority of people out there it's not cool at all, but for a once upon a time misfit who grew up there, it's a big f-you to anyone I went to high school with that might still be around, or at least in town themselves for Mother's Day. I'm comfortable with who I am dammit and will listen to whatever music I choose no matter how uncool it is, and that makes it pretty damn cool in my book. Anyways, I went to the Banana and they were having a sale on fitted T's; they were $16.5o each, but 3 for $39. I needed a new black one, and then picked out a white one (which no one ever has in small) and an off-white/vanilla one. I went to the register and they all rang up for $16.50. I pointed out to the cashier that they were supposed to be on sale since I bought 3 and she couldn't figure out why they didn't ring up that way and had to call someone over. Well, it turned out that the white one was a different type of fitted T that was not part of the sale even though it was on the same table and looked exactly the same as the other 2 shirts I had. The only way to tell them apart was that they had different codes on the tags, so I don't understand why they were all lumped together on one table. It's very misleading, bordering on bait and switch. So, she went back to the table to check and there were no small white fitted T's in the style that was on sale. She then checked the back, and they had one Medium, and several Larges, Extra Larges, and Double/Triple Extra Larges (and people that need XXL should not be wearing fitted T's to start with), no smalls. Again, when I was at Target this is where we would just give the person the shirt at the sale price. However, she asked me if I wanted to pick out another color. I was so over them by this point I just said no, I'd take the two others at the regular price. She tried to talk me into taking a 3rd so I could get the sale, but I was steadfast, I was so over them. So, then, she rang them up and I gave her the $20 card, and it wouldn't go through!!! She tried it 3 times and the terminal kept rejecting it, saying it was invalid. I was about to just turn around and leave the store but she offered to call the 1-800 number and see what was going on. She did and they were able to look up the card and tell her how much was on it (the full $20), but they didn't know why it wouldn't work. She tried it again and it still wouldn't go through, so then, at last, she showed some customer service initiative and just gave me a $20 discount off the shirts so that I paid what I would have paid had the card gone through. I cannot believe that. I don't know what their problem is, but sending out bogus appreciation cards to people who have already made a complaint is not going to help them retain customers, and they are not retaining me. If the card snafu hadn't happened, I could have overlooked the "we're going to put a bunch of shirts together on a table that all look the same, but some are on sale and some are not and we're not going to tell you how to determine which ones are one sale and then the size and color you want will not be in stock in the sale style" debacle, but finding out the card was bogus was the tipping point. I do appreciate the cashier's willingness to go the extra mile on that issue, but I'm so done with them.

Then, I went to Border's for a much better experience. I got Martin Short's Fame Becomes Me CD and the new "Music Edition" of All That Jazz, and then found the mother load, a book called "Second Act Trouble: Behind The Scenes at Broadway's Big Musical Bombs" by Steven Suskin. Of course I had to snatch that one up. I actually have cast recordings from several of the shows profiled, included Mack & Mabel, Hallelujah Baby!, and Kelly. While there's no discussion of Darling of the Day or The Happy Time, I'm hoping that Darling will at least be mentioned in the Hallelujah Baby! chapter and The Happy Time should be mentioned in The Act's chapter. The only slight disappointment is that Carrie is not covered. However, it appears that the book discusses true Broadway shows that were created in the Broadway/New York scene, and since Carrie was a London import, it may have exceeded the scope of the book, although successful (or at least mildly successful) foreign shows that then have a disastrous Broadway life would be a great subject for a follow up book, as long as Carrie and Dance of the Vampires are included. I can't wait to start reading.

So, that's about it. Happy Mother's Day to all my mother readers, and look for Tony analysis, if not Tuesday, sometime fairly soon after.

Wrapping up

Well, it's been another long week. However, this was finally THE week, Barbra went ahead and released her concert CD, and it's just as thrilling as I remember. I went to the Best Buy near work and picked up a regular (ie, non-limited/exclusive) edition. I know Barnes & Noble and Borders each have their own special editions with an extra song, but I wanted something as close to the actual experience I had and didn't want to risk getting jealous, although we did get Stoney End and no other audience did, even the second Chicago audience. So, I picked up the regular one, I'm sure the extra tracks will be available via download at some point in the future. I still think it would be a good idea if 6 months from now she'd put out a companion CD with all of those extra "one night only" songs, as well as the Bush routine and duet version of Happy Days Are Here Again, and, if not all, at least a sampling of the best, of her Q & A sessions. Anyways, this CD is definitely enough for now, I'm on Barbra overload already just listening to it. So, I had a coupon for 10% off the regular price of up to 3 CD's. The Barbra CD was on sale, so I looked around to see what other CD's they had, and low and behold, they had the Bernadette Peters Legends of Broadway CD!!! Of course I grabbed it, but then looking at the track list, this is the one that I have been most ambivalent about getting. I have the vast majority of the songs on that CD from the same cast recordings, performed by her; Annie Get Your Gun, Sunday In The Park With George, Song & Dance, and Into The Woods, plus her take on Anyone Can Whistle on a compilation CD and the Mack & Mabel cast recording (but it turns out the song from M&M is from a concert recording in the mid-80's, so there was some differentiation). However, I felt it was still important to get it, so that I could hear the other ones, and to show the label that there is an audience for these CD's and hopefully they will release more artists, like the ones I suggested a while back. So, I got home and stuck them in the computer to put on my mp3 player, and while I (correctly) expected the Bernadette CD not to have a CDDB entry, neither of the Barbra discs did (it's a 2 CD set). So, once again I typed everything in. I really should be getting paid for this. Then I got to watch Bernadette on Boston Legal. Great use of a guest star, and I was thrilled that her character felt the same way I did about the issue she was hearing. I feel kind of bad I'm missing her concert Thursday at the Paramont, but going to Aurora on a weeknight is kind of tough, I'm not sure I'd do it for anyone other than maybe Barbra. Oh, but anyways, I was expecting the Barbra CD to ring up at the sale price, and then get 10% off the Bernadette CD, but instead it took 5% off the sale price of the Barbra CD and 5% off the Bernadette CD, so I ended up getting a slightly larger discount, although still only by a few cents. Go figure, Best Buy still doesn't quite know what they're doing, but this at least worked in my favor.

It appears that Spring Awakening is gaining steam in the awards race, racking up Lucille Lortel and Drama Circle awards. It also appears that while Deuce did not make itself eligible for any of the critics and guild awards, it has a major shot at Tony gold. Word of mouth has been ecstatic, although we'll have to see if Angela can hold her own against Marian as well as Vanessa Redgrave to go 5 for 5. I doubt the Tony voters would nominate her just to break her streak now, if they don't want her to win they probably won't nominate her, but they did it to Mary Martin, and Angela's previous 4 Tony's are for musicals. This will be her first play nomination. Speaking of unsure things. 110 in the Shade opened last night, and suddenly Christine Ebersole is no longer the front runner for Best Actress in a Musical. Audra got raves, and even though it's because she's always good, she has the sympathy vote on her side. However, her one loss was in the leading category, all her wins are for supporting roles, in plays and musicals. She lost her one leading nomination, for Marie Christine, to Heather Headley, for Aida, which, even though it was a tough loss, is totally understandable. We'll have to see how it plays out. For now, all eyes are on Tuesday, nomination day. It's a sure thing Curtains, Grey Gardens, and Spring Awakening will get nominations, but the fourth slot is up in the air. Will it be Mary Poppins or Lovemusik, the top recipients of earlier critics and guild group nominations, or could we have a repeat of last year, when The Wedding Singer inexplicably ended up in the fourth slot, and even the nominating committee couldn't explain why, and see Legally Blonde slip in under the radar. Given the number of potential nominees, will they allow 5 nominees this year? It's been a long time since they've done that. There's also a slight chance that The Pirate Queen could take the slot, but High Fidelity and The Times They Are A'Changin can pretty much only count on being shut out. Due to their unsentimentality and almost mafioso mindset against certain shows/people, the Tonys are the most unpredicatable of all the awards. We'll see how it plays out, and of course you'll get my commentary, sooner or later on everything.

Avenue Boo Hoo

Well, it sucks to be Chicago. Late yesterday afternoon the producers of Avenue Q announced their 30 city tour schedule, and after recent successive snubs by Chita Rivera and Sweeney Todd, Chicago was once again not on the list. Are they afraid the company of Wicked is going to storm the theatre and kick their puppet asses? What do they think the audiences in North and South Carolina, Atlanta, and Fort Worth are going to do when they get to the third-to-last line in the show? Despite high profile tour premiers of Hairspray, Wicked, and (even though I hate it) The Color Purple, Chicago is losing its status as the desired first tour city, a trend started in 1994 when Disney, partly due to an arrangement with their Toronto producing partners, stuck Chicago as the dead last stop of the Beauty and the Beast first tour, bringing it here in 1997, almost 4 years after it first bowed on Broadway. They tried to make up for that by doing Aida's pre-Broadway run here but then they didn't bring the Lion King here until 2003, 5 years after its Broadway premiere and after it had already stopped in several other cities. Now, we're missing out on several recent hits, and being treated like bastard stepchildren by Light in the Piazza and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, both of which are squeezing us in at the very end of their tours after initially leaving us off the schedule, like they're doing us the biggest favor by just showing up. Granted, we got a pre-Broadway engagement of Piazza, but that was a very different incarnation that didn't stay very long. Where's the love? I'm starting to worry that we're not going to get a visit from The Drowsey Chaperone. I'm really glad I caught several of the new shows when I was in NY in March. God only knows when or if they'll even make it here.

Ragtime and more

So here it is, finally. I really should stop promising to have posts up by certain times when I'm not intent on following through. I did want to write this post yesterday, but I spent two hours in the afternoon figuring out how to run the Tivo through my recordable DVD player so that I could finally get around to recording The Wiz and Show Boat onto DVD. After two hours of fidling around, shining a flashlight into the back of the entertainment center, marking wires with masking tape labels, I finally got it hooked up. Usually it doesn't take me nearly as long to fiddle with things like that, but for some reason, this was not very intuitive and the instruction manual for the DVD player didn't help. There's such a thing as too much dumbing down. Finally though, I got it and now have permenent copies of The Wiz (although it's the VHS version, full frame with muddied video and unremastered audio, watching it again in this format reminded me why I didn't like it the first time I saw it, but now that I appreciate it more, it's worth having) and Show Boat, the movie musical that started it all. Of course, nothing like it would get made today, but it's a great capsule of its time and what we find offensive about it today is exactly what it was about, how we deal with prejudice, stereotyping, and small-mindedness. So, with that, let's transition into the main event.

First of all, as I mentioned Friday night, how the hell did The Lion King end up winning Best Musical, especially after Ratime very deservingly won Best Book and Best Score? Of course, it's the same reason Jersey Boys won after The Drowsy Chaperone won the same awards: the touring theater building owners across the country get to vote for Best Musical and they knew The Lion King would be a much bigger draw (and they were right), so they wanted to create goodwill with the producers by giving it the top prize, even though it's artistic merits are mixed (great stage, costume, and lighting design, but a mixed bag musically and it's way too bloated, they should have stuck with Elton John for the additional music, and trusted the movie's script to get the themes across instead of trying to pad it and double the running time just to hit the audience over the head with every theme). Now, on the Broadway stage, Ragtime cries out for epic treatment. It had massive sets, larger than life actors, and numerous showstoppers/anthems. That's not going to work in Porchlight's space, and to their credit, they realized this and didn't even try. What we got was a much more subtle, nuanced Ragtime with numbers that came out organically and felt natural to what was going on on the stage. Even a lighting snafu at the beginning of the second act, causing the act to be halted and restarted about 5 minutes in, felt natural. Despite the posted running time, it really did end up being almost as long as the Broadway production, and I didn't notice any cuts other than the dialogue before Wheels of a Dream. They went right from Sarah coming down the stairs, to lying in a field by the car and with only two lines of spoken intro, went right into Wheels. Instead of being the big blockbuster number of the Broadway production, it was instead a softer medidation on the life they hoped for for themselves and Coalhouse Jr. The second act, which felt incomplete on Broadway, particularly benefited from this style and really came alive, bringing everything from the first act together and creating a full rich story. My only quibble is that at a couple of points, particularly during Make Them Hear You, the orchestra's enthusiasm nearly overpowered the singers. It would behoove the director at these moments to either pull back ever so slightly on the orchestra, or increase the volume ever so slightly on the performer's mics. This is actually the same single issue I had with the Light Opera Works production, I think it's because the music is so good the orchestra can't help but get so enthusiastic and play its heart out. As for the performers, they were all excellent, but the standout was Charissa Armon as Mother. In the two other productions I've seen, Mother has always faded into the back. She was an important character, but not quite the lynchpin she needed to be. Charissa changed that, bringing Mother to the forefront of the show and making it her story. She performed a searing rendition of Back To Before that crystallized the whole point of the show and sealed Mother's position as the chief character. As Coalhouse, Jayson Brooks was excellent, making Coalhouse more authentic than the previous versions I've seen, which tended to glamorize the African American's poverty. Coalhouse was real, and his rage was palpable, which was why I didn't even notice the lighting problem at the beginning of Act Two until the director came out and stopped the show. I was so wrapped up in his emotion I didn't notice that the illumination was coming from the house lights. They could have done the rest of the act without lights and I wouldn't have noticed. Jayson had an excellent voice, even if he was somewhat overpowered by the orchestra in Make Them Hear You (not his fault), and I look forward to seeing him in more productions in the future. As always, Jeremy Trager gave a memorable performance primarily as Harry Houdini but also as other immigrants and the Judge in Evelyn Nesbitt's trial. The staging was so perfect. This musical doesn't need a massive house in the center of the stage, a real model T, or any other elaborate sets or a huge cast. This production relied on a mostly static background of brick walls and doors and was so effective, the sign of a truly great musical being that it can be produced in almost any size theatre, large or small, and not loose anything, which is not true of The Lion King. Best of all, the creativity showed here in adapting to the small space means they won't get sued by the producers of the Broadway version. They even carefully rechoreographed the opening number so that instead of going around in a circle as three spokes, the three groups instead moved backwards and forwards and left and right, so there should be no lawsuits here. The only real disappointment was that the theatre was only about 3/4 full. This is most likely due to the fact that it starts early and it was a Friday night, making it harder for the work crowd to make it on time, especially since with the long running time, dinner beforehand is a must. Still, this show deserves a sold out run. Go see it.

Next season Porchlight is doing Maury Yeston's Phantom, as well as Nine, and I intend to be there for both of them. I picked up the revival recording of Nine this morning at Borders to get myself ready. The Harold Washington Library has Phantom, so I'll be getting that at some point too. So, better late than never, that is all for now. Hurry and see Ragtime before it ends. As a side note, Bohemian Theatre at the Theatre Building, which got raves last year for its production of Side Show, to be reprised this summer at Theatre on the Lake, will be doing The Life starting July 2. I'll be there for that one.

Ragtime

There will be more coming tomorrow, but I just couldn't wait to get something up. Can someone please remind me how The Lion King won Best Musical instead of Ragtime?

Happy Friday

Good morning and happy Friday! What a week it's been. Of course, I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of today all week because I finally get to see Ragtime tonight. Look for a post tomorrow morning with a full wrap-up. I also got my tickets for Jerry Springer The Opera yesterday. The Bailiwick ran a 2 for 1 promotion mid-week, so I was finally able to light a fire under my companion to agree on a date to see it. All the Saturdays are already sold out so I'll be going on Sunday May 10, the day after I take the CADC exam, which will make for a nice celebration.

Keeping our local scene theme, congrats to all the Jeff Award nominees. This is the first time in quite a few years that I have not seen any of the major nominees, although not because I didn't want to. Most of the nominees are fairly recent productions and it has been so brutally cold here that other than the opera, which I subscribe to and have to go, I really haven't braved going out of the condo for anything other than Doubt and Legends. It's just been much more pleasant to lay on the sofa under a blanket with a movie musical in the DVD player. Hopefully starting tonight that will change. I am glad that Timeline will be doing Fiorello again over the summer and I hope to catch it then. I didn't hear about it the first time until its last couple of weeks. I'm also hoping to catch Sparrow. I've seen 2 other House productions: The Terrible Tragedy Of Peter Pan and Death And Harry Houdini and immensely enjoyed both of them. The problem is that the House is so popular it's hard to get tickets, and then you have to show up really early or else you end up sitting on the floor, and as you know from my New York trip, that is very hard to do with my companion. I also had wanted to catch Side Show, but my companion was adamantly opposed to seeing it. They're doing it this summer as part of the theatre on the lake series, so I will be sure to catch it then, along with Gorey Stories. Tickets go on sale in June. The only nominees that I've seen are Scott Gryder (such a hottie) in Thrill Me, Jeremy Trager in Flora The Red Menace (for my money the best production of the season, I'm disappointed it didn't get more nominations), and Danielle Brothers for Flora. I hope they all win, they were excellent and hope to see more of them in the future.

I was very disappointed in today's Sun Times review of The Color Purple. Just because there's a strong Chicago connection doesn't mean you automatically have to give a pile of crap a glowing review.

In a related vein, I know I've complaining vociferously lately about the trend of turning any random movie into a musical, so I was glad to hear that Shrek is running into some difficulties. However, my curiosity was piqued by news that the best movie of 2004, Saved! is going to get the musical treatment in 2008, directed by Gary Griffin (Chicago native and director of the awful Color Purple, but also some really great shows as well). It's going to be produced by Playwrights Horizons, the same company that created Grey Gardens, so it could be good. We'll have to see how it goes, I'm not completely sold but I'm not opposed to checking it out later.

It seems ABC is attempting to corner the queen audience. After lining up numerous divas on Ugly Betty, the network has also managed to entice Bernadette Peters to make an appearance on Boston Legal on Tuesday. I'll be watching. Maybe she can team up with Shirley's ex-husband's wife for a duet.

Lastly, Judy Kaye will be taking on the role of Mrs. Lovett in the national tour of Sweeney Todd, which starts later this year. If Patti can't do it, I can't think of anyone better to replace her (and apparently the producers can't either, Judy was Patti's replacement last summer when Patti took her vacation to come to Ravinia to do Gypsy). My only complaint is that Chicago is not on the schedule. However, Atlanta is, so maybe I'll take a trip to see my cousin, who saw Porchlight's production with me when she was here a few years ago. Anyways, I have almost depleted my phone's battery with this long entry, so if I want to get it posted, I need to say goodbye for now. Look for my assessment of Ragtime tomorrow.

Perfectionism

And it's been delayed again! Barbara's concert CD, which was supposed to come out today, has been postponed until next Tuesday. I believe this is now the 4th release date, we'll see if it actually happens. At least for this week, we've got Melrose Place Season 2 on DVD today!