2009-2010 Broadway Season

[Big Magilla]

Aside from the quality of the production, given the events of the last two years isn't the Enron scandal a bit passe?

[Damien]

I saw Enron last night. It's a mess. The major problem with the text itself is how unfocused it is. Playwright Lucy Prebble can't seem to make up her mind as to whether she wants to make a docu-drama about the fall of Enron; a morality tale involving individuals and the price of their Faustian actions; an indictment of capitalism and its attendant greed, or a would-be madcap fantasia of America in the late Clinton/early Bush years.

In addition to its lack of consistency's Prebble's writing is weak and cliched, her moralizing adding nothing than what Oliver Stone did with Wall Street.

Making matters worse is Rupert Goold's vaudevillian, using extreme theatricality at times (but not consistently). Such items devices as a laser-light saber fight among businessmen, the Board of Directors as Three Blind Mice, a song-and-dance number or two. None of this heightens the meaning or issues of the story and/or themes, but only serve to underline the shallowness of it all. Worst of all, Goold's pathetic attempt at showmanship and innovative are so shopworn and unoriginal that they might have been seen at LaMam or other cutting edge of-off-Broadway venues 40 years ago.

The theatre was only about 1/3rd filled -- sad for a show that was supposed to be the Broadway event of the season.

[Okri]

So the Drama Desk doesn't distinguish between On and Off? I know the Tonys ignore Off-Broadway, but don't know much about the Drama Desk awards.

No. The Drama Desks are weird, though. 9 to 5 anyone?

Looks like Enron's gonna stumble though. Wouldn't have expected that at all.

[Big Magilla]

BEST ACTRESS – MUSICAL
Kristin Chenoweth, Promises, Promises
Bebe Neuwirth, The Addams Family
Chrstine Noll, Ragint
Sherie Rene Scott, Everday Rapture
Catheirne Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music

No Chenoweth, no Neuwirth - Kate Baldwin in Finian's Rainbow and Montego Glover in Memphis are much more likely.

Also, Terri White in Finian's Rainbow instead of Lillias White in Fela. Her back story is irresistible. She is in the midst of a major comeback after being homeless and resorting to sleeping on park benches in Grennwich Village where she was recognized by a New York City cop who found her a home leading to her casting in Rainbow.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1272928731

[OscarGuy]

So the Drama Desk doesn't distinguish between On and Off? I know the Tonys ignore Off-Broadway, but don't know much about the Drama Desk awards.

[FilmFan720]

My Chicago-based, theatre junkie predictions for tomorrow morning:


BEST PLAY
In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)
Next Fall
Race
Red

BEST MUSICAL
American Idiot
Come Fly Away
Fela!
Memphis

BEST REVIVAL – PLAY
A View from the Bridge
Fences
Lend Me a Tenor
The Royal Family

BEST REVIVAL – MUSICAL
A Little Night Music
Finian’s Rainbow
La Cage Aux Folles
Ragtime

BEST ACTOR – PLAY
Hugh Jackman, A Steady Rain
Jude Law, Hamlet
Alfred Molina, Red
Liev Schreiber, A View from the Bridge
Denzel Washington, Fences

BEST ACTRESS – PLAY
Viola Davis, Fences
Valerie Harper, Looped
Linda Lavin, Collected Stories
Laura Linney, Time Stands Still
Jan Maxwell, The Royal Family

BEST FEATURED ACTOR – PLAY
Michael Cristofer, A View from the Bridge
Jon Michael Hill, Superior Donuts
Brian d’Arcy James, Time Stands Still
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Fences
Eddie Redmayne, Red
BEST FEATURED ACTRESS – PLAY
Rosemary Harris, The Royal Family
Jessica Hecht, A View from the Bridge
Jan Maxwell, Lend Me a Tenor
Connie Ray, Next Fall
Kerry Washington, Race

BEST ACTOR – MUSICAL
John Gallagher Jr., American Idiot
Douglas Hodge, La Cage Aux Folles
Chad Kimball, Memphis
Nathan Lane, The Addams Family
Sahr Ngujah, Fela!

BEST ACTRESS – MUSICAL
Kristin Chenoweth, Promises, Promises
Bebe Neuwirth, The Addams Family
Chrstine Noll, Ragint
Sherie Rene Scott, Everday Rapture
Catheirne Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music

BEST FEATURED ACTOR – MUSICAL
Kevin Chamberlin, The Addams Family
Robin de Jesus, La Cage Aux Folles
Levi Kreis, Million Dollar Quartet
Jim Norton, Finian’s Rainbow
Bobby Steggert, Ragtime

BEST FEATURED ACTRESS – MUSICAL
Barbara Cook, Sondheim on Sondheim
Katie Finneran, Promises, Promises
Rebecca Naomi Jones, American Idiot
Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music
Lillias White, Fela!

BEST DIRECTOR – PLAY
Michael Grandage, Red
Sheryl Kaller, Next Fall
Kenny Leon, Fences
Gregory Mosher, A View from the Bridge

BEST DIRECTOR - MUSICAL
Christopher Ashley, Memphis
Bill T. Jones, Fela!
Terry Johnson, La Cage Aux Folles
Michael Mayer, American Idiot
BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
Come Fly Away
Fela!
La Cage Aux Folles
Promises, Promises

BEST SCORE
The Addams Family
Fences
Memphis
The Royal Family

BEST BOOK – MUSICAL
American Idiot
Everyday Rapture
Fela!
Memphis

BEST ORCHESTRATIONS
American Idiot
Memphis
Ragtime
Sondheim on Sondheim

BEST SET DESIGN – PLAY
Collected Stories
Enron
In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)
A View from the Bridge

BEST SET DESIGN – MUSICAL
The Addams Family
American Idiot
Fela!
Ragtime

BEST COSTUME DESIGN – PLAY
Fences
Lend Me a Tenor
The Royal Family
A View from the Bridge





BEST COSTUME DESIGN – MUSICAL
The Addams Family
Fela!
La Cage Aux Folles
A Little Night Music

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN – PLAY
Enron
Fences
A Steady Rain
A View from the Bridge

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN – MUSICAL
The Addams Family
American Idiot
Fela!
Ragtime

BEST SOUND DESIGN – PLAY
Enron
Fences
In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)
Red

BEST SOUND DESIGN – MUSICAL
The Addams Family
American Idiot
Come Fly Away
Fela!

[dws1982]

Fela! played off-Broadway in the 2008-2009 season, and had some Drama Desk nominations last year.

[OscarGuy]

Now, it may not have been eligible for all I know, but one of the titles I keep seeing listed that didn't appear in this list either was Fela! I don't even know what the production was about, but shouldn't that also be a notable exclusion?

[Mister Tee]

Pass on congratulations, Damien.

Very conspicuously absent from the entire list is the word Enron -- which appears to be turning into the Lovely Bones/Nine of Tony season.

The Drama Critics Circle gave only one official award this season -- to Horton Foote's Orphan cycle as best American play. They couldn't agree on a musical or foreign play. On the whole, it seems like a year without enthusiasm for much of anything.

[Damien]

My Beloved's theatre company, Ma-Yi (he's Artistic Director) is receiving a special Drama Desk award: • To Ma-Yi Theater Company for "more than two decades of excellence and for nurturing Asian-American voices in stylistically varied and engaging theater." Bursting with pride, and I'll be attending the awards.

The Nominations:

Outstanding Play:
Alan Ayckbourn, My Wonderful Day
Annie Baker, Circle Mirror Transformation
Lucinda Coxon, Happy Now?
John Logan, Red
Geoffrey Nauffts, Next Fall
Bruce Norris, Clybourne Park

Outstanding Musical:
American Idiot
Everyday Rapture
Memphis
The Addams Family
The Scottsboro Boys
Yank!

Outstanding Revival of a Play:
A View from the Bridge
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Fences
Hamlet
So Help Me God!
The Boys in the Band

Outstanding Revival of a Musical:
A Little Night Music
Finian's Rainbow
La Cage Aux Folles
Promises, Promises
Ragtime

Outstanding Actor in a Play:
Bill Heck, The Orphans' Home Cycle
Jude Law, Hamlet
Alfred Molina, Red
Eddie Redmayne, Red
Liev Schreiber, A View from the Bridge
John Douglas Thompson, The Emperor Jones
Christopher Walken, A Behanding in Spokane

Outstanding Actress in a Play:
Ayesha Antoine, My Wonderful Day
Melissa Errico, Candida
Anne Hathaway, Twelfth Night
Kristen Johnston, So Help Me God!
Laura Linney, Time Stands Still
Jan Maxwell, The Royal Family

Outstanding Actor in a Musical:
Brandon Victor Dixon, The Scottsboro Boys
Douglas Hodge, La Cage Aux Folles
Cheyenne Jackson, Finian's Rainbow
Chad Kimball, Memphis
Nathan Lane, The Addams Family
Bobby Steggert, Yank!

Outstanding Actress in a Musical:
Kate Baldwin, Finian's Rainbow
Montego Glover, Memphis
Jayne Houdyshell, Coraline
Christiane Noll, Ragtime
Sherie Rene Scott, Everyday Rapture
Catherine Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play:
Chris Chalk, Fences
Sean Dugan, Next Fall
Santino Fontana, Brighton Beach Memoirs
Adam James, The Pride
Hamish Linklater, Twelfth Night
Nick Westrate, The Boys in the Band

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play:
Victoria Clark, When the Rain Stops Falling
Viola Davis, Fences
Xanthe Elbrick, Candida
Mary Beth Hurt, When the Rain Stops Falling
Scarlett Johansson, A View from the Bridge
Andrea Riseborough, The Pride

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical:
Kevin Chamberlin, The Addams Family
Robin De Jesus, La Cage Aux Folles
Jeffry Denman, Yank!
Christopher Fitzgerald, Finian's Rainbow
Jeremy Morse, Bloodsong of Love
Bobby Steggert, Ragtime

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical:
Carolee Carmello, The Addams Family
Carrie Cimma, Lizzie Borden
Katie Finneran, Promises, Promises
Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music
Kenita Miller, Langston in Harlem
Terri White, Finian's Rainbow

Outstanding Director of a Play:
Jonathan Bank, So Help Me God!
Jack Cummings III, The Boys in the Band
Sam Gold, Circle Mirror Transformation
Michael Grandage, Hamlet
Michael Grandage, Red
Ethan Hawke, A Lie of the Mind

Outstanding Director of a Musical:
Warren Carlyle, Finian's Rainbow
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, Ragtime
Igor Goldin, Yank!
Terry Johnson, La Cage Aux Folles
Michael Mayer, American Idiot
Susan Stroman, The Scottsboro Boys

Outstanding Choreography:
Warren Carlyle, Finian's Rainbow
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, Ragtime
Lynne Page, La Cage Aux Folles
Susan Stroman, The Scottsboro Boys
Twyla Tharp, Come Fly Away
Sergio Trujillo, Memphis

Outstanding Music:
David Bryan, Memphis
Michael Friedman, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Joe Iconis, Bloodsong of Love
John Kander & Fred Ebb, The Scottsboro Boys
Andrew Lippa, The Addams Family
Joseph Zellnik, Yank!

Outstanding Lyrics:
Rick Crom, Newsical The Musical
Kevin Del Aguila, Click, Clack, Moo
John Kander & Fred Ebb, The Scottsboro Boys
Dillie Keane and Adèle Anderson, Fascinating Aïda Absolutely Miraculous!
Andrew Lippa, The Addams Family
David Zellnik, Yank!

Outstanding Book of a Musical:
Joe DiPietro, Memphis
Joe Iconis, Bloodsong of Love
Dick Scanlan & Sherie Rene Scott, Everyday Rapture
David Thompson, The Scottsboro Boys
Alex Timbers, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
David Zellnik, Yank!

Outstanding Orchestrations:
William David Brohn, Ragtime
Larry Hochman, The Scottsboro Boys
Tom Kitt, American Idiot
Tom Kitt, Everyday Rapture
John Oddo, All About Me
Daryl Waters & David Bryan, Memphis

Outstanding Musical Revue:
Fascinating Aïda Absolutely Miraculous!
Million Dollar Quartet
Newsical The Musical
Simon Green: Traveling Light
Sondheim on Sondheim

Outstanding Music in a Play:
Adam Cochran, A Play on War
Adam Cork, Red
Gaines, A Lie of the Mind
Philip Glass, The Bacchae
Hem, Twelfth Night
Branford Marsalis, Fences

Outstanding Set Design:
Sandra Goldmark, The Boys in the Band
Phelim McDermott, Julian Crouch & Basil Twist, The Addams Family
Derek McLane, Ragtime
Christopher Oram, Red
Jay Rohloff, Underground
Karen Tennent, Hansel and Gretel

Outstanding Costume Design:
Antonia Ford-Roberts & Bob Flanagan, The Emperor Jones
Santo Loquasto, Ragtime
Clint Ramos, So Help Me God!
Bobby Frederick Tilley II, Lizzie Borden
Matthew Wright, La Cage Aux Folles
David Zinn, In the Next Room or the vibrator play

Outstanding Lighting Design:
Neil Austin, Hamlet
Neil Austin, Red
Christian M. DeAngelis, Lizzie Borden
Maruti Evans, John Ball's In the Heat of the Night
Natasha Katz, The Addams Family
Dane Laffrey, The Boys in the Band

Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical:
Acme Sound Partners, Ragtime
Jonathan Deans, La Cage Aux Folles
Ashley Hanson, Kurt Eric Fischer & Brian Ronan, Everyday Rapture
Peter Hylenski, The Scottsboro Boys
Scott Lehrer, Finian's Rainbow
Brian Ronan, Promises, Promises

Outstanding Sound Design in a Play:
Dan Bianchi & Wes Shippee, Frankenstein
Dale Bigall, Underground
Adam Cork, Enron
Lindsay Jones, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers
Fitz Patton, When the Rain Stops Falling
Elizabeth Rhodes, John Ball's In the Heat of the Night

Outstanding Solo Performance:
Theodore Bikel, Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears
Jim Brochu, Zero Hour
Colman Domingo, A Boy and his Soul
Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking
Judith Ivey, The Lady With All the Answers
Anna Deavere Smith, Let Me Down Easy

Unique Theatrical Experience:
Charles L. Mee's Fêtes de la Nuit
Hansel and Gretel
John Tartaglia's Imaginocean
Love, Loss, and What I Wore
Stuffed and Unstrung
The Provenance of Beauty


Other Special Awards:
Outstanding Ensemble Performances
This year the nominators chose to bestow special ensemble awards for acting to the casts of two shows. (Therefore, individual cast members for these shows were not eligible for acting awards in the competitive categories.)

• Circle Mirror Transformation
• The Temperamentals

Special Awards:
Each year, the Drama Desk votes special awards to recognize excellence and significant contributions to the theatre.

• To the cast, creative team and producers of Horton Foote’s epic The Orphans' Home Cycle: "We salute the breadth of vision, which inspired the exceptional direction, performances, sets, lighting, costumes, music and sound that made it the theatrical event of this season."

• To Jerry Herman "for enchanting and dazzling audiences with his exuberant music and heartfelt lyrics for more than half a century."

• To Godlight Theatre Company for "consistent originality and excellence in dramatizing modern literature, and especially for the vibrant theatricality of its innovative productions."

[Damien]

Drama Desk nominations Monday, Tonys on Tuesday

Here's Michael Reidel of the NY Post on the latter:

Tony tip sheet reveals all
By MICHAEL RIEDEL
April 30, 2010

By now, everybody knows the Tonys are a hopelessly com promised, conflict- riddled award run by those two useless and bloated organizations, the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League.

What shred of integrity the Tonys once had was obliterated last year when those clucks at the Wing and the League stripped the press -- the impartial press -- of its voting privileges.

Now the voters are mainly producers and national tour presenters, who cast their ballots as follows: first, for the shows they have money in; second, against shows produced by their rivals; and third (a distant third), for what they actually like.

There is, however, one group associated with the Tonys that still upholds the awards' now risible motto about "honoring excellence in the American theater."

That group is the Tony nominating committee, which meets this weekend to pick the slate of nominees that will be announced Tuesday.

These 30 theater professionals take their job seriously, even when it entails suffering through duds like "The Addams Family" and "Promises, Promises."

But what I like most about the nominators is that their contempt for the officious twits who run the Tonys nearly matches my own.

"They treat us like babies," one nominator says. "They give us a condescending lecture every year about not sharing our opinions with anyone. And they're paranoid about the press. They really hate you."

I know a lot of the nominators, but I have to meet them in parking garages far away from the Theater District. They fear that if the Tony Award Nazis see them with me, they'll be tossed off the committee and forced to sit through "American Idiot" again without earplugs.

But talk we do, throughout the season. Based on those hushed conversations, here's my sense of what they're thinking.

For Best Musical, "Come Fly Away," "Fela!" and "American Idiot" are sure bets. The fourth slot is up for grabs. Believe it or not, a couple of nominators like "The Addams Family" (a momentary lapse of taste, I guess) and there's good will toward Sherie Rene Scott and her show "Everyday Rapture," which opened last night.

But I think the fourth slot goes to "Memphis."

On the play front, "Red," "Next Fall" and "Time Stands Still" will be nominated. "Enron," which was supposed to be the event of the spring, is collapsing faster than, well, Enron. What puts off people, even all the left-wingers in the theater, is its smug anti-Americanism. If it gets the fourth slot, it'll be because the nominators sort of like director Rupert Goold's flashy production.

But I predict the fourth nominee will be "In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play," if only because the nominators keep detailed notes (usually on their Playbills) and often resurrect long-forgotten shows.

Best Revival of a Play is easy to call: "Fences" and "A View From the Bridge" are first-rate productions of first-rate plays; rounding out the category will be "Lend Me a Tenor" and "The Royal Family."

The nominees for Musical Revival will be the charming "La Cage aux Folles" (which will win, by the way), "A Little Night Music," "Finian's Rainbow" and, bringing up the rear (where it belongs), the lame "Promises, Promises," which slips in only because "Bye Bye Birdie" was even worse.

As for actors, the names I'm hearing are Katie Finneran ("Promises, Promsies"), Catherine Zeta-Jones ("A Little Night Music"), Angela Lansbury ("A Little Night Music"), Denzel Washington ("Fences"); Viola Davis ("Fences"); the wonderful Stephen McKinley Henderson ("Fences"), Linda Lavin ("Collected Stories"), Jessica Hecht ("A View From the Bridge"), Valerie Harper ("Looped"), Kevin Chamberlin ("The Addams Family"), Levi Kreis ("Million Dollar Quartet") and Chad Kimball ("Memphis").

And last, but certainly not least -- Nathan Lane, who, I predict, will do just what Julie Andrews did in 1995 when she was nominated but her show, "Victor/Victoria," was not.

"I have searched my heart," Nathan will say, "and find that I cannot accept this nomination. I will stand instead with the egregiously overlooked 'Addams Family' and my beloved Bebe Neuwirth."



Edited By Damien on 1272851421

[Damien]

It's odd that in none of the reviews I read for Promises, Promises was there any mention of Katie Finneran being a Tony winner. She had received great reviews in Noises Off, but was pretty much off the radar after that. I didn't recognize her name with Promises.

A friend of mine was in acting class with her and said she was about the most horrible person he had ever met -- apparently from the Eve Harrington school of career counseling. He was very upset when she won the Tony.

So I say, Let's Go, Barbara Cook!

[Big Magilla]

If you're unfamiliar with the musical, it's the role Hope Holiday (not Joan Shawlee as I incorrectly identified her in my 4/23 post), the woman Jack Lemmon meets in the bar on Christmas Eve in the The Apartment.

Like Holiday, Mercer had one scene in the musical in which she sang a duet with Jerry Orbach called "A Fact Can Be a Beautiful Thing".

The name of Kaite Finneran was not one I recognized but apparently, according to IMDb., she made her film debut in the 1990 version of Night of the Living Dead and was one of the replacements for Natasha Richardson in the long running revival of Cabaret.

[dws1982]

Also remember that Kate Finneran just won a Tony a few years back also (for the Noises Off revival), and she is only in one scene, I believe.

I don't know that they'll remember that Finneran won a Tony almost a decade ago. They're a lot more likely to remember that Lansbury has several, including one she won just last year. (And some voters will want to give her another one, and some will probably feel that enough is enough.) And I'm not familiar with the roles in Promises Promises but Marian Mercer in the original production won a Tony for the role that Finneran's playing in the revival.



Edited By dws1982 on 1272729962

[FilmFan720]

Also remember that Kate Finneran just won a Tony a few years back also (for the Noises Off revival), and she is only in one scene, I believe.