IT WON'T BE LONG NOW

Tomorrow is the Tony Awards and the only awards ceremony I really care about, follow and anxiously anticipate every season.  Other than the times I actually see a show, Tony Awards day is my favorite day of theater every year.  This season is one of the most exciting, creative and diverse for the Broadway community and I couldn't be more thrilled!

Thank you, Tom Kitt & Brian Yorkey for what I think is truly the best new original musical the Great White Way has seen in a LONG TIME.

MAKE UP YOUR MIND, PART 1

This morning, the 63rd Annual Tony Award nominations were announced and what a season the NY theatre community has had! There are some amazing people nominated for some great work this year, some surprise noms and of course there was disappointment due to those who were snubbed. Yet, I was thrilled to see the recognition next to normal received and though I was disappointed that [title of show] didn't receive more noms, I was glad they got at least one.

Per the last 3 or so posts, all I can talk about is next to normal because I love it and think it is the best new original musical this season and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will take home the top prize.

I'm including a complete list of nominees below...but for musicals only (naturally) and including my picks & predictions for the June 7th broadcast live from Radio City on CBS. Without further ado...

---

Nominations for the 2009 American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards Presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing

Best Musical

• Billy Elliot, The Musical
  
• next to normal
  
• Rock of Ages
  
• Shrek The Musical

* My pick: next to normal

I LOVE next to normal and yet I've not even seen it yet! First and foremost, this is an original musical that is GOOD! How many quality, original musicals open on Broadway each season? The pickins are slim. The brilliance of next to normal is not just in the subject matter, but the way its presented and how much emotion I get just from listening to the OCR over and over and over and over again. Overall, its got a great book, great music, great actors, great lighting (from what video I have seen)...its a solid, solid show that has come a LONG way.

* My prediction: Billy Elliot, The Musical

There is so much buzz for this show because of the 3 Billys. From what I hear, its a hot ticket...but its not original. There's nothing SO compelling overall about this is there? There are certainly elements that make this show shine like the actors, the choreography...but is the music so first rate? Me-thinks not so much. But then again, I've not seen it, so what do I know? I can see it winning though.

Best Book of a Musical

• Lee Hall, Billy Elliot, The Musical
  
• Brian Yorkey, next to normal
  
• David Lindsay-Abaire, Shrek The Musical
  
• Hunter Bell, [title of show]

* My pick: next to normal well...maybe...maybe...[title of show]

I'm sorry, adapted material, thank you for playing, please leave. To write a musical about mental illness, dysfunction, death, love & raw emotions and then to portray it SO well that you can't help but to understand and empathize and not villainize any one character through it all, you have to have a damn good book. But...to write a musical about two guys writing a musical with such sweetness & humor. I can't help but to want to root for the underdog here, but will Tony voters?

* My prediction: see above.

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

• Elton John (music) and Lee Hall (lyrics), Billy Elliot, The Musical
  
• Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (lyrics), next to normal
  
• Dolly Parton, 9 to 5: The Musical
  
• Jeanine Tesori (music) and David Lindsay-Abaire (lyrics), Shrek The Musical

* My pick: next to normal

Ok. I admit, I don't know the music & lyrics well enough of any of these shows except for the obvious (and obvious only if you've read this post from the beginning). I'm gonna go ahead and keep rooting for for my favorite: next to normal

* My predictions: again, I don't know...I mean, Jeanine Tesori is a pretty great composer, Dolly Parton too...and Elton John can write, but did he do enough for Billy Elliot, The Musical to make it award worthy?

Best Revival of a Musical

• Guys and Dolls
  
• Hair
  
• Pal Joey
  
• West Side Story

* My pick: West Side Story HAIR
I have never cared for Hair...really, ever. In the past, I've seen it, it was fine, but not mind-blowing amazing. In the past few weeks, I've paid more attention, watched more online clips, caught the cast making its talk show rounds and I've been blown away. I am really digging Hair and it surprises me. Nothing though is as good as West Side Story - I love it and I think that the updating of the show makes it even better, more realistic. How can you deny such a classic score, lyrics and the choreography? Wow.

Are you kidding me? I love nothing more (in the revival of a musical category) than HAIR! You want to know what I think? See my posts. That says it all, I love the revival of HAIR and desperately hope it wins!

* My prediction: West Side Story HAIR

It has to win. The fellow nominees for a revival are worthy of an award and equally great in their own way. Didn't West Side Story pave the way for the kind of theater we're getting now? There's relevant and timeless topics like diversity, love, good vs. evil, survival...and its just so compelling.

See above in red about HAIR and how much I desperately hope it wins!

Ok, I'm exhausted, I just completely procrastinated in getting work done for you know, my real job, so I'm gonna cut it of here and continue in the next day or so. Part II - Acting picks & predictions coming soon! In the meantime, enjoy a little YouTube action of the nominated shows below:

Tony Nominations by Production

Billy Elliot, The Musical—15

next to normal—11

Hair—8

Shrek The Musical—8

Rock of Ages—5

9 to 5: The Musical—4

Pal Joey—4

West Side Story—4

Guys and Dolls—2

Irving Berlin's White Christmas—2

[title of show]—1

STOP, WAIT, PLEASE

Another show posts its closing notice...January 4, 2009. Its a shame what this economy is doing to our nation and I hate seeing shows I love (or would love to see) ending too soon. There are six weeks before 13, Hairspray and now Young Frankenstein will close and then 8 weeks before we bid adieu to Spamalot and Spring Awakening. What is going on!?

Go see 13 people and support this amazing YOUNG cast who have more talent in their left nostril than most of us can ever hope to have. I admit I wasn't the biggest fan when the show previewed here in LA in March, 2007. Since then though, JRB his written some awesome new material and everyone has worked so hard to get it to Broadway. 13 is doing some pretty irresistible promotions to sell tickets for its final weeks...so if you can afford to go see a movie, instead pay the extra $5 and go see the talented, young cast of 13 do their thing!

BACK IN BUSINESS

So now that Broadway has returned to its regularly scheduled programming, I feel it is my duty to add my own post about musical theatre. Ok, really its a plug for Playbill Radio. Its been around for awhile now, but for some reason I never bothered listening (for shame, I know). They stream showtunes (naturally), recap daily theatre news and stream podcasts. Amongst others, there is a cool weekly program called Composer Spotlight that surveys the career of a particular Broadway composer and plays from their repertoire of songs every Thursday night at 7 p.m. EST. Yesterday at work, I enjoyed an afternoon of Boublil/Schönberg from the beautiful Les Mis to the awful Martin Guerre. Take a listen to to Playbill Radio for a nice potpourri of showtunes old and new!

Ok, so I don't have a lot to say today and did an awful job of trying to more regularly post. Oh well, I (sorta) tried. I really wanted to just say to Broadway: welcome back and glad that the lights are shining bright once again!

SEASONS OF LOVE

Last week, Playbill.com had an article indicating "Seasons of Love" (from Rent of course) debuting at #68 on the Billboard Top 100 singles (as a "hot shot debut"). All this buzz almost three months before the film's release -- how exciting! I'm both surprised and not that the song is also among the top downloaded songs on iTunes. I mean, it's a hit Broadway show and everything...but it's not the most "mainstream" thing out there...or is it? Obviously I'm a tad incorrect because look at the buzz, look at the Billboard chart! Access Hollywood even has a link on their homepage: Access Rent: Behind the Scenes -- 'Rent' the Movie. They've even teased a show with a "first look" at Rent a few months back. Haha, this film has a stellar publicist and a great marketing strategy!

Is it so hard for me to believe that other people might actually be excited about this too? Am I being a theatre snob? Look at how successful Chicago was -- Academy Award winner for best picture, best actress in a supporting role (amongst others) and a Golden Globe for best musical/comedy film. Besides being a great film period, this is a musical. Mind you, musicals used to be a part of the Golden Age of Hollywood -- look at popular films like Oklahoma! and Carousel! These once common, popular film genres were almost a thing of the past. ..until Chicago.

It has been said that Chicago singlehandedly, is bringing back the musical genre in the film industry. Since Chicago, the only other mainstream "musical" film released has been Phantom of the Opera (I'm not counting Reefer Madness since it's a TV movie). Though Phantom of the Opera created buzz -- A.) because it was finally produced and B.) critics questioned how it would do in the box office -- overall, the film failed to surpass or even meet expectation. Despite Phantom's box office failure, film companies continued on with their musical films. In production currently, we have of course, Rent & The Producers with Sunset Blvd. and Aspects of Love in pre-production. Of course this is only seven that have either been released, are in production or pre-production -- but this is seven more than a few years ago. Again, I don't know if this is a good thing. Chicago set a precedence, but the failure of Phantom of the Opera made people stop and question the genre. I think Rent & The Producers hopefully will cause more positive buzz (and successful results at the box office) while Sunset Blvd. and Aspects of Love might slow things down again.

What are the "facts" behind my reasoning? The movie musicals on trial are as follows:

Jesus Christ Superstar

Evita

Phantom of the Opera

What do these films have in common? Any true musical theatre fan will instantly know they were written by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. While all are hits on the stage (with Phantom of the Opera set to surpass Cats as the longest running musical on Broadway, Monday, January 9, 2006), his films failed to turn a big commercial profit (a la Chicago). On a personal level, as much as I wanted to love Phantom of the Opera, I just couldn't. Some musicals just don't seem to translate well from stage to screen and Sir Andrew's just...don't. Not to say that Sunset Blvd. and Aspects of Love will fail, but if you look at the history of Sir Andrew's successful films, things just don't look too good for him.

Ok, I went on a huge tangent. What I really wanted to write about was Rent and what I thought about the excerpts from the soundtrack, but I'm too tired, so I'll save it for another day.

BACK TO BEFORE

I just got finished going through a box of old Playbills my great-aunt just gave me and all I can say is...wow. What this box contains -- in my opinion -- is simply historic. I cannot believe how many incredible performers she has been lucky enough to witness in the last 30-40 years (maybe more they're just not included in this collection?). She was lucky enough to see Mary Martin, John Raitt, Rock Hudson, the original company of Chicago (with Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach), Buster Keaton (who knew) and Alfred Drake and Anna Maria Albergetti in Carnival -- just to name a few. And to my amusement, saw future Tony Award winner Sutton Foster in one of her first shows -- the touring production of The Will Roger's Follies as well as my personal favorite, Patrick Wilson in the touring company of Carousel with Sarah Uriarte Berry.

I can't imagine how cool it would have been to see these shows coming through town when they were new or having their first revival. My great-aunt saw Chicago with Jerry Orbach and Chita Rivera at the Ahmanson in the 70s (I think), the very place I saw the revival in the late 90s with Jasmine Guy and Brent Barrett! She saw a very young Bernadette Peters in Mack and Mabel with Robert Preston (YES, the Music Man) -- I think that is incredibly awesome! Though not musical theatre, but musical, she got to see Zubin Mehta conduct the LA Phil too. I realize that wasn't so long ago, but it was long before my intrest in music had piqued.

For the very few people reading this, I guess it's pretty obvious how obsessed with theatatre I am (and how this blog is taking on a new shape as a freakish Broadway fan's soapbox). But the more time that passes and as my unhappiness grows with my current employer, it is becoming increasingly clear to me what I want to do and where I want to be...I just don't think I can bear to be so far away from my friends and family. I wish New York were closer...or that they were closer to New York. I know that is where I am meant to be...maybe right now just isn't my time...yet.