The Tony Nominations Are Announced!!!

Well, one of my favorite times of year is here- Tony Time!!! Well, not exactly "Tony Time", but Tony Nomination Time!! I love finding out if the Nomination Committee and I appreciated the same things (and even more importantly- despised the same things) throughout the theatre season. What follows is a brief description of the categories I'm most interested in. For a complete list of nominations go to www.playbill.com or www.tonyawards.com.

First of all I would like to say, that leading with a total of 13 nominations is.... yes, you guessed it.... The Drowsy Chaperone!!!! This makes me very happy. It received a nodd in each of the "Musical" categories, including: Best Original Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book of a Musical. As for the four Acting categories, they received 1 nod in each: Leading Actor in a Musical- Bob Martin (who plays the narrator, "Man in Chair", and doesn't sing one note throughout the whole show), Leading Actress in a Musical- Sutton Foster (who, anyone that has read my blog in the past knows, I think the sun rises and sets on), Featured Actor in a Musical- Danny Burstein (who plays "Aldolpho", a 1920's Latin Lothario- who I found rather more annoying than my fellow audience members did) and Featured Actress in a Musical- Beth Leavel (who played the soused title character. She was hysterical and in my opinion the one who made the show amazing).

I think that Bob Martin should win, though I have a feeling he is going to lose to Michael Cerveris' "Sweeney Todd" (Don't get me started on that revival), and Sutton Foster, as much as I love her.... I don't think is deserving of a Tony this time around (see my review of The Drowsy Chaperone) especially considering she is up against Chita Rivera for The Dancer's Life (my single hope for this year's award show is that Chita win, she was PHENOMENAL). And I hope that Beth Leavel wins for Chaperone even though she is up against Carolee Carmello (another of my faves) from Lestat.

Speaking of Lestat, let me just throw in an opinion here: It could have been incredible, if the music was slightly more haunting and less Elton John, and if you had someone more commanding with more presence in the title role. Having seen Hugh Panaro as "Buddy" in Side Show, I expected more from him. But perhaps he just wasn't able to rise above the material. But I digress, Carolee Carmello seems to be as amazing as she always is (in my mind she became bankable after I saw her in Parade- God... she was amazing. Amazing!) so I'm glad she got a nod for Lestat, though I think Beth Leavel needs that award. Without a doubt- she's my girl.

As for the rest of the categories: I hope Pajama Game beats out Sweeney Todd and Threepenny Opera, I hope that Wedding Singer goes home alone, and I'm glad that Tarzan only got "Best Lighting". To me however, the most interesting category to watch will be Leading Actress in a Play because I haven't seen a category that packed with talent in a long time: Kate Burton, Judy Kaye, Cynthia Nixon, Lisa Cron and Lynn Redgrave? Wow. I wouldn't want to choose between them- so I'm not going to.

The Tony Awards will be aired on Sunday, June 11 at 8pm, with no host yet announced (it will be odd to see someone other than Hugh Jackman hosting after three years in a row of him- I wonder if that's why they haven't announced a host yet, perhaps they are trying every trick in the book to get him back for a fourth.)

Well, whoever hosts it I can't wait for Tony Night.