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A reminder that the Tony Awards are this weekend. It is on CBS. It is likely that Danny Tidwell will perform as part of the Memphis ensemble. I'm not sure whether Tharp's Come Fly Away will perform, since that show was not nominated for Best Musical. I'm sure there will also be a dance number from Bill T. Jones' show Fela, which is nominated for best musical.

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There were lots of ex-ABT dancers on stage last night at the Tony Awards. Keith Roberts and John Selya got to strut their stuff with the Come Fly Away cast. I guess Twyla couldn't resist the urge to pander to the masses and have the men open their shirts during the number. Danny Tidwell and the ensemble of Memphis were looking good. I enjoyed the show, and I though Sean Hayes did a fine job as the host. The bits about Spider Man and Billy Elliot were especially fun. In my opinion, Catherine Zeta Jones did not deserve her award. Montego Glover should have won. Zeta Jone delievered an even worse rendition of Send In the Clowns on television last night that when I saw her do it in the show. I thought everyone else who won was deserving.

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Was surprised that Kristen Chenoweth was not even nominated, but agree with Brantley she's all wrong for Fran Kubelik--way too Midwestern and without a trace of irony or cynicism (and she's sometimes boring because of that, despite her great voice). Just found his review, I agreed with most of it except about the score, which is not like 'elevator music', unless every other B'way show ever written is as well. Extraordinary they added 'I Say a Little Prayer' and 'A House is Not a Home', dreadful idea. However, I'd rather Ms. Chenoweth in almost anything than Ms. Zeta-Jones, I've never once seen the appeal of the latter, and clips of Sally Ann Howes singing 'Clowns' makes you never want to hear Ms. Zeta-Jones sing another note.

Had just been thinking that B'way shows are always emphasizing the verb 'to fly' in some form or other, it's getting a bit much by now. 'Come Fly Away' a dreadful title IMO, and there are tons of examples of songs about 'flying', and Hollywood musical endings like 'Pa-pahhhhh....I can FLYYYYYYY!' Oh dear..I hope they realize that this is pretty corny at some point, along with 'dream'.

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In my opinion, Catherine Zeta Jones did not deserve her award. Montego Glover should have won. Zeta Jone delievered an even worse rendition of Send In the Clowns on television last night that when I saw her do it in the show. I thought everyone else who won was deserving.

Yes, I wasn't sure which was worse: her rendition of "Clowns" or the fact that she actually won. Ghastly!

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Yes, I wasn't sure which was worse: her rendition of "Clowns" or the fact that she actually won. Ghastly!

Aside from her awful voice, why did she have a glassy look in her eye, and why did she keep turning her head from left to right? Was she channeling Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd? Bernadette Peters will be taking over the role in July. I'm anticipating that she will be considerably better than C. Zeta Jones. Ny the way, she never thanked Sondheim. She was too busy gushing that she gets to sleep with Michael Douglas every night.

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Aside from her awful voice, why did she have a glassy look in her eye, and why did she keep turning her head from left to right?

She was just channeling other Sondheim songs, to show her Daniel Day-Lewis comprehensive research, i.e., "Sometimes I stand in the middle of the floor

Not going left - not going right". Artistic way to 'thank Sondheim'.

Was she channeling Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd?

I bet that just came naturally.

Bernadette Peters will be taking over the role in July. I'm anticipating that she will be considerably better than C. Zeta Jones.

Sounds horrible to me, but she'll bring in the bucks a while longer.

gushing that she gets to sleep with Michael Douglas every night.

Was she really? I doubt it's that big a deal, as George Sand would say.

Did anybody see Rosemary Harris in 'The Royal Family'? One of my favourite actresses, and did the daughter in mid-70's to Eva LaGallienne's Fanny. This time she was Fanny, bound to have been great. Glad to know Scarlet Johannsen has some real acting chops, but I wish Rosemary had gotten it anyway, and I do wish I'd been paying attention and gone to see it.

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I tuned in and out, switching back and forth between that and "The Tudors," in which Anne Askew was put to the rack. Maybe Bishop Gardiner should just have had Catherine Zeta-Jones visit Anne's cell and sing "Send in the Clowns." Having Barbara Cook introduce her made it worse, somehow. But Z-J is also a movie star and someone the national audience will recognize.

It was worth it, though, when Z-J made her acceptance speech and announced proudly that she gets to sleep with Michael Douglas every night. Z-J, you're a beautiful woman and a good actress with an Oscar even if it is only a Best Supporting and I would like to be a beautiful movie star like you, but I would not like to be a beautiful movie star if it meant having to get into bed with your jowly old foreshortened husband every night. Yucksville.

Scarlett Johansson won, too. She also got good notices but in my experience Johansson gets decent notices even when she is demonstrably awful and I no longer trust critics on the subject of the blonde bombshell. Denzel won, natch.

Not a good night for Chenoweth, who sounded no better than Zeta-Jones. Actually, a dead guy named Sinatra sounded better than almost everyone on stage I saw. The dancing excerpts from "Fela" looked like fun.

I didn't realize "Best Score of a Musical" is such an unimportant award that you can dispose of it in a montage (along with other unimportant types like Alan Ayckbourn, Marian Seldes, and David Hyde Pierce).

Viola Davis is awesome but I was underwhelmed by her "God Gave Me My Tony" acceptance speech.

Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth perked things up.

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Scarlett Johannsson won, too. She also got good notices but in my experience Johannsson gets decent notices even when she is demonstrably awful and I no longer trust critics on the subject of the blonde bombshell.

I never thought much of S. Johannson in films. However, she won me over in "A View From The Bridge."

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I can't imagine sitting through A View From the Bridge again even if I were on the East Coast, so I'll willing to take your word for it. I've seen Johansson give okay performances and casting her as Catherine isn't like putting her in Hedda Gabler, so she's probably all right.

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Such a shame :excl: Hollywood ran away with most of the principal awards....

Another sign of decline and fall, one fears. It seems much harder these days for a straight play or even a musical to succeed without a movie star or two - or even a teevee actor like Hayes if that's the best you can do.

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Such a shame :excl: Hollywood ran away with most of the principal awards....

Another sign of decline and fall, one fears. It seems much harder these days for a straight play or even a musical to succeed without a movie star or two - or even a teevee actor like Hayes if that's the best you can do.

And the Times had an article yesterday about how many of the Tony nominated or Tony winning shows and the actors in them stay for only short periods of time or in fact, have already closed. This because of "other commitments" which are most probably more lucrative. This surely takes jobs away from the talent that is committed to staying for a run, however long that might be. It used to be about getting a Broadway show and loving that prospect. Alas, the need for producers to make money over rules the fact that there are wonderful actors, dancers and singers that are all right here in New York. But it happens everywhere, in all the theatrical areas. We all scream over Osipova (and now Cojocuru), but they are here for only a few days. They do not commit to doing an entire season. What would it be like if Osipova stayed for the entire eight weeks and was seen in not only the big, bravura roles, but in "Company B", "Fancy Free", and "Brahms/Haydn". Dancing smaller, yet interesting roles. Gillian Murphy does it. Michelle Wiles does it. Irina Dvorovenko does it. That takes a lot of energy, strength and artistry. It says a lot about the artists that go the route of the "in for the duration". And it says a lot about the audiences that clamor only for the "stars" .

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Interesting points, mimsyb. Visiting stars do add a little zip to a ballet company's season (and indeed such travelers were one of the hallmarks of the dance boom of the seventies). Perhaps the difference for Broadway is that by and large it's no longer producing its own stars, despite the actors of great distinction to be seen on the boards.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/theater/...ones&st=cse

Broadway once had many homegrown stars who committed to working on a show for a year, as Nathan Lane has for the “The Addams Family.” This year, some theater heavyweights like Mr. Lane were not even nominated; instead, several Tony Awards were given for productions that were always intended to be short-timers on Broadway, given that many of their film-star performers had to move on to other commitments.
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And the Times had an article yesterday about how many of the Tony nominated or Tony winning shows and the actors in them stay for only short periods of time or in fact, have already closed. This because of "other commitments" which are most probably more lucrative. This surely takes jobs away from the talent that is committed to staying for a run, however long that might be.

I had mixed feelings about the Tony awards this year, but I have to say I don't think that anyone stays for the entire run of a successful show anymore. Even non-name actors on Broadway often only do stints of a year, and six month stays really aren't uncommon at all. New opportunities come up, new artistic challenges arise, and yes, chances to work in more lucrative and less physically demanding projects in film and TV are presented.

I do think it's really unfortunate that so many producers feel it's too risky to try to run a show when the name talent has left, though. In olden days, it may not have been as obvious because shows didn't run 5 or 6 years at a time, and they certainly didn't need to run that long to break even.

Interesting points, mimsyb. Visiting stars do add a little zip to a ballet company's season (and indeed such travelers were one of the hallmarks of the dance boom of the seventies). Perhaps the difference for Broadway is that by and large it's no longer producing its own stars, despite the actors of great distinction to be seen on the boards.

I don't entirely agree that Broadway doesn't produce its own stars, but I do agree that it takes a medium like film and TV to bring those names to the masses. As imperfect like shows like "Pushing Daisies" and "Glee" were/are, they've done a lot to show the vast majority of Americans who never get to New York and certainly couldn't afford the $100+ a ticket the kind of talent that's to be found on Broadway.

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