Great White Way: June 2008 Archives

W00H00! This made me extremely happy. An article on Playbill.com says that Ashley Spencer and Derek Keeling will probably be the replacement Danny and Sandy in Grease on Broadway after Max Crumm and Laura Osnes have run their course! Now, all four of these actors were a part of the reality TV show "Grease: You're the One that I Want!" and Laura and Max were the winners. Spencer came in second place, and Keeling was a runner-up. However, they had been my favorites all along! Apparently, they will begin performances July 22.

Now, this information hasn't been officially announced by the producers of the Grease Broadway revival, but The Repository reported the happy news today. Ashley is already on Broadway currently, playing Amber in Hairspray, and Derek was featured in the pre-Broadway tryout of A Tale of Two Cities.

Sooo, check it out! It's going to be awesome.

Damnable Yankees!

Okay, that is the best pun I have heard in a very long time. And "Damn Those Damnable Yankees" is a fabulously funny number in IRON CURTAIN, a hilarious new show with book by Susan DiLallo, music by Stephen Weiner, and lyrics by Peter Mills. I saw IRON CURTAIN (guys, the show deserves a better name!) at First Stage as part of the Village Theatre Originals series -- two weeks of rehearsals and the actors are on book. However, IRON CURTAIN was pretty much blocked and choreographed, so you really got a good feel for the show's potential.

From the Village Theatre website:

"This side-splitting musical comedy takes place during the Cold War era. Meet Yengenyi Onanov and Sergei Schmearnov who work for the Ministry of Musical Persuasion in the Soviet Union. When the Soviets set out to create a great Broadway musical, they decide that they'll need to bring in some real New York writers — by force, if necessary. Enter Howard and Murray, two aspiring musical theatre writers, who have just had another musical rejected and are on the brink of throwing in the towel. Kidnapped, taken to Moscow, and forced to fix what could possibly be the worst musical ever written, these two characters suddenly find themselves working under the gun, literally!"

The book is hilarious with the puns and physical comedy coming fast and furious, and the music and lyrics take full advantage of the brilliant premise. I mean, what is funnier than Russians trying to do musical theatre? And of course, as always, the Village Theatre puts together an A list cast of actors who really deliver the goods. As a writer, it is very satisfying to workshop your material with really good, experienced and talented performers.

Next stop for IRON CURTAIN is the prestigious O'Neill National Musical Theatre Conference in Connecticut in July.

After that? I wouldn't be surprised to see those Reds on the Great White Way!

Note: By Suzy Conn

Yes, I enjoyed the Tonys this year. I even did the "who I want to win" and "who I think will win" ballot from Tonyawards.com. It was actually surprising how many of my predictions were correct, even though I hadn't seen any of the shows this season! If you read the trades, you can pretty much guess who is going to win. South Pacific anyone? In the Heights? Yup.

But I still have three lingering questions about this year's show:

1. What was Kristin Chenoweth giggling at? (That she has a steady TV gig this fall on Pushing Daisies and Idina Menzel doesn't?)

2. Why didn't Stephen Sondheim show up to receive his Lifetime Achievement award? (I mean, come on…)

3. How could they possibly think it was the right thing to do to eliminate the "Best Book of a Musical" and "Best Revival of a Play" from the tv show? As a musical book writer who is always being told "the book is the most important thing" in a musical, I was offended. I honestly could have done without quite so many goofy musical bits with Whoopi Goldberg, if it meant we could see those awards as part of the telecast.

I thought this official statement from the Dramatists Guild said it very well:

DRAMATISTS GUILD STATEMENT ON THE TONY AWARDS

On Sunday night of June 15, the annual celebration and commendation of this year’s Broadway theatre season was celebrated at the Tony Awards hosted by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League. While we gratefully acknowledge the program time spent on how playwrights construct their dramatic ideas (and the mention of all four playwrights’ names), we are concerned (and have expressed our concern) that the awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Revival of a Play were relegated to pre-televised programming. Council President John Weidman maintains, “The theatre is an art form which is driven by writers. Nothing exists before the script. So when theatre awards are given out, it’s appropriate that the writing awards should take first position. Even acknowledging the enormous time pressures on the producers of the Tony Award broadcast, Best Book of a Musical and Best Revival of a Play belong live, on the air.”

Actually, I do have a fourth question:

4. When will Hugh Jackman host the Tonys again?

Note: By Suzy Conn

Yay!! The 2008 Tony Awards aired Sunday, June 15th, and I thought enormous improvement had been made from last year's show. Whoopi Goldberg was the host, and I thought she did a pretty good job. However, nobody will ever beat Hugh Jackman, but what can you do? The program was obviously created to be more interesting and user-friendly, with more singing and less of the "boring" awards (I definitely do not consider them boring, but things such as scenic design, costume design, and even play revival were given before the broadcast).

Final Awards Tally:

South Pacific - 7

August: Osage County - 5

In the Heights - 4

Gypsy - 3

Boeing-Boeing - 2

The 39 Steps - 2

Les Liaisons Dangereuses - 1

Passing Strange - 1

The Seafarer - 1

Mad props to South Pacific, which took home Best Revival of a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Paulo Szot), Best Scenic Design of a Musical, Best Costume Design of a Musical, Best Lighting Design of a Musical, Best Sound Design of a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical. Bartlett Sher was the award-winning director of this successful revival, and has been the Artistic Director of the Intiman Theatre here in Seattle since 2000. Represent!

Best speeches of the night would have to go to Laura Benanti for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, Mark Rylance for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, Lin-Manuel Miranda for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre, and Patti LuPone for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. These winners, as well as all the others, completely deserved their Tonys and had inspirational, funny, or just plain cool speeches to boot! Great job, guys!

Stephen Sondheim received the Lifetime Achievement Award, but wasn't there to accept it. HUH?!?!? According to a quote from Mandy Patinkin in the Chicago Sun-Times, Sondheim is a "shy man." Really though? Dude, if you're going to be getting an award of this magnitude, at least be there to accept it. Although, I gotta admit that I did enjoy his heartfelt speech, and Patinkin's facial hair. :-)

Have to say that my favorite performance of the evening was Megan Mullally's "Deep Love" from Young Frankenstein. I saw her in that show when it did its pre-Broadway tryout here in Seattle, but I don't think her performance will ever get old for me. She is just so fantastic, with an amazing voice and incredible charisma. I also enjoyed the selection from In The Heights, and loved seeing Cheyenne Jackson in the Xanadu number!

Well, I know that I may be quite alone in this statement, but I did enjoy this year's Tony Awards. Most of the speeches were interesting, and there were some really great performances. I really want to see In the Heights now, because I thought it was pretty fantastic! I also want to see Xanadu, Little Mermaid, Gypsy, and South Pacific! I believe the only appropriate response to this evening would be "Oh, What a Night!" (I know, I know...)