Tony Nods Go to GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE, HEDWIG, Rylance and McDonald

Today was Tony nominations day, when multi-media performers Jonathan Groff (Frozen, Looking, Spring Awakening) and Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels, Elementary, God of Carnage) took the podium at the Paramount Hotel in New York City to announce who among Broadway performers and which among Broadway shows Tony voters wanted to honor.

But first... Hugh Jackman crashed the announcement to offer a reminder that the Tony Awards themselves will take place on Sunday, June 8 at 8 pm Eastern time. Don't forget!

Back to the nominees. A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, a musical version of the Alec Guiness movie Kind Hearts and Coronets, landed at the top of the nominations heap with ten overall, with Neil Patrick Harris and Hedwig and the Angry Inch coming up next with eight.

There were some surprises, like the fact that they mustered only four nominees in the Best Musical category, with no love for The Bridges of Madison County, Bullets Over Broadway or If/Then. The nomination for Chris O'Dowd as Best Actor in a Leading Role for Of Mice and Men wasn't entirely surprising, although the production wasn't exactly a critics' favorite. But there was no space for Daniel Radcliffe in The Cripple of Inishmaan or Denzel Washington in A Raisin in the Sun, which were more well regarded. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart also came up empty for their performances in No Man's Land and Waiting for Godot and Zachary Quinto was the only member of The Glass Menagerie cast not to get a nomination.

I'm also a little miffed that Santino Fontana didn't score a nod for playing Moss Hart in Act One, although the oldest version of Hart in the play, Tony Shalhoub, did. Fontana has to run several miles a performance to play his Hart, and he should've been recognized for that, as well as for being adorable and fabulous in general. While we're on the subject of Act One, it might have been nice to see Andrea Martin on the Featured Actress list for her scene-stealing performance as Aunt Kate.

Meanwhile, Britain's Mark Rylance, a two-time Tony winner, took two nominations this time out for roles in Shakespeare plays. His turn as Richard III in Richard III earned him another nod as Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play, while his Olivia in an all-male Twelfth Night pulled in a nomination in the Featured Actor category. I am not a big Rylance fan -- he was the first Artistic Director of the Globe Theatre but he's a Shakespeare denier, which I find quite odd -- plus I'm not enthusiastic about the conceit of all-male Shakespeare shows when good roles for women in Shakespeare are already scarce. But he certainly does play well to the Tony committee.

The only one who plays better may be Audra McDonald. She's won five Tonys already, and if she picks up the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her work in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, she will set a new record with six acting Tonys, including one in each of the four major categories.

So who else was nominated? Here's the list:

Best Play
Act One, by James Lapine
All the Way, by Robert Schenkkan
Casa Valentina, by Harvey Fierstein
Mothers and Sons, by Terrence McNally
Outside Mullingar, by John Patrick Shanley

Best Musical
After Midnight
Aladdin
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder

Best Revival of a Play
The Cripple of Inishmaan, by Martin McDonagh
The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare

Best Revival of a Musical
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Les Misérables
Violet

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Tyne Daly, Mothers and Sons
LaTonya Richardson Jackson, A Raisin in the Sun
Cherry Jones, The Glass Menagerie
Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
Estelle Parsons, The Velocity of Autumn

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Samuel Barnett, Twelfth Night
Bryan Cranston, All The Way
Chris O'Dowd, Of Mice and Men
Mark Rylance, Richard III
Tony Shalhoub, Act One

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Mary Bridget Davis, A Night With Janis Joplin
Sutton Foster, Violet
Idina Menzel, If/Then
Jessie Mueller, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Kelli O'Hara, The Bridges of Madison County

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Ramin Karimloo, Les Misérables
Andy Karl, Rocky
Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder
Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Sarah Greene, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Celia Keenan-Bolger, The Glass Menagerie
Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun
Anika Noni Rose, A Raisin in the Sun
Mare Winningham, Casa Valentina

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Reed Birney, Casa Valentina
Paul Chahidi, Twelfth Night
Stephen Fry, Twelfth Night
Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night
Brian J. Smith, The Glass Menagerie

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Linda Emond, Cabaret
Lena Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Anika Larsen, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical
Adriane Lenox, After Midnight
Lauren Worsham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Danny Burstein, Cabaret
Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway
Joshua Henry, Violet
James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin
Jarrod Spector, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical

Best Director of a Play
Tim Carroll, Twelfth Night
Michael Grandage, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Kenny Leon, A Raisin in the Sun
John Tiffany, The Glass Menagerie

Best Director of a Musical
Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Michael Mayer, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Leigh Silverman,Violet
Darko Tresnjak,A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder

Best Book of a Musical
Chad Beguelin, Aladdin
Douglas McGrath, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Woody Allen, Bullets Over Broadway
Robert L. Freedman, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics)
Alan Menken, music, and Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin, lyrics, Aladdin.
Jason Robert Brown, music and lyrics, The Bridges of Madison County
Steven Lutvak, music, and Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak, lyrics, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder
Tom Kitt, music, and Brian Yorkey, lyrics, If/Then

Best Choreography
Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine, Rocky
Casey Nicholaw, Aladdin
Susan Stroman, Bullets Over Broadway

Best Orchestrations
Doug Besterman, Bullets Over Broadway
Jason Robert Brown, The Bridges of Madison County
Steve Sidwell, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Jonathan Tunick, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Beowulf Boritt, Act One
Bob Crowley, The Glass Menagerie
Es Devlin, Machinal
Christopher Oram, The Cripple of Inishmaan

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Christopher Barreca, Rocky
Julian Crouch, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Alexander Dodge, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
Santo Loquasto, Bullets Over Broadway

Best Costume Design of a Play
Jane Greenwood, Act One
Michael Krass, Machinal
Rita Ryack, Casa Valentina
Jenny Tiramani, Twelfth Night

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Linda Cho, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
William Ivey Long, Bullets Over Broadway
Arianne Phillips, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Isabel Toledo, After Midnight

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Paule Constable, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Jane Cox, Machinal
Natasha Katz, The Glass Menagerie
Japhy Weideman, Of Mice and Men

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kevin Adams, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Christopher Akerlind, Rocky
Howell Binkley, After Midnight
Donald Holder, The Bridges of Madison County

Best Sound Design of a Play
Alex Baranowski, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Steve Canyon Kennedy, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
Dan Moses Schreier, Act One
Matt Tierney, Machinal

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Peter Hylenski, After Midnight
Tim O’Heir, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Mick Potter, Les Misérables
Brian Ronan, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

The 2014 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater will be presented to costume designer Jane Greenwood, while President and CEO of The Actors Fund Joe Benincasa, photographer Joan Marcus and general manager Charlotte Wilcox will receive this year's Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theater.

As announced a few days ago, the Signature Theatre will receive the 2014 Regional Theater Tony Award. Yes, the Signature is in New York. This is the first year that New York theaters were eligible for the Regional Tony. Why? I have no idea. The whole point of the Regional Tony was to honor theaters outside New York, after all.

SIX BY SONDHEIM: Tonight, Tonight Won't Be Just Any Night

The lyrics for "Tonight" from West Side Story -- all the lyrics from West Side Story, from "The Jet Song" to "Somewhere" and "Gee, Officer Krupke" -- are wonderful. And who wrote them? Stephen Sondheim. So when I put "Tonight, tonight won't be just any night" in the header, yes, I was quoting his lyrics. But mostly I was referring to the fact that there's a special documentary on HBO tonight. It won't be just any night. Tonight there will be Six by Sondheim!

If you've read Sondheim's first book about his lyrics, Finishing the Hat, you know that he wasn't completely in love with what he wrote for West Side Story. Leonard Bernstein, the composer, wanted "poetic" lyrics that Sondheim felt were at odds with Arthur Laurents' dialogue as well as how he felt a boy like Tony and a girl like Maria would really speak. I'm guessing that will be part of the discussion in Six by Sondheim, which is structured around six songs in the Sondheim ouevre.

The first song discussed is "Something's Coming" from West Side Story, a show early in Sondheim's career for which he did the lyrics but not the music. That came from Bernstein, as noted above. For that reason, it provides an entry point into Sondheim's work for James Lapine, who directed this documentary. Lapine is a frequent collaborator with Sondheim; Lapine wrote the book for and directed Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods and Passion, directed Merrily We Roll Along, and conceived and directed Sondheim on Sondheim, a biographical Broadway show that used video and music to look at his life and work.

Six by Sondheim performs that same function, using six seminal pieces and Sondheim's thoughts about how and why he created them to chart the different phases in his career. Larry Kert, the first Tony in West Side Story, performs "Something's Coming" in a clip from the 50s, followed by "Opening Doors," the jaunty number about what it is to start out as an adult in the world from Merrily We Roll Along. For Six by Sondheim, "Opening Doors" gets a fresh performance from Glee's Darren Criss, Ugly Betty's America Ferrara, and Smash and Newsies star Jeremy Jordan, with Jackie Hoffman from The Addams Family, Laura Osnes, currently starring in Cinderella, and Stephen Sondheim himself in the mix.

Husband and wife Broadway stars Will Swenson and Audra McDonald, who is fresh off her triumph as the Abbess in The Sound of Music, will sing Sondheim's biggest hit as a single, "Send in the Clowns" from A Little Night Music, after we get a chance to see video of some of the very different artists -- Glynis Johns, Frank Sinatra, Cher -- who performed it over the years.

And then it's "I'm Still Here," the wry Follies song about surviving "good times and bum times," "plush velvet sometimes, sometimes just pretzels and beer..." Instead of giving it to the aging showgirl-turned-Hollywood-star described in Follies, Lapine turns the "I'm Still Here" segment over to director Todd Haynes, who has Jarvis Cocker of the rock band Pulp perform it in front of the kind of women it's about. A provocative choice, to be sure.

It's back to the vault for footage of Dean Jones trying to get "Being Alive" right, taken from the D.A. Pennebaker documentary about the recording of the cast album from the first Company. The evening ends with "Sunday," the soaring piece about how art can immortalize, as performed by Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin in the Broadway production, captured for television broadcast on American Playhouse. Ending with "Sunday"? Perfection.

I loved Sondheim on Sondheim. I loved the two volumes he wrote -- Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat -- that go into detail about his lyrics. You can never get enough Sondheim, after all. Which is why Six by Sondheim is a must-see, tonight at 8 Central time on HBO.

The Tony Wrap-Up: Lackluster Was the Name of the Game

How do you solve a problem like the Tonys?

Theater people love them. They live for this one night. But the pool that is "theater people" seems to be shrinking, if the Tony Awards ratings on TV, the fact that they've now cut half the awards and don't show them to us on our screens, and all the hoops they're jumping through to try to make the evening work for the film and TV world are any indications. (The way "Smash" has been treated is also evidence that the people at the top of the TV pyramid do not respect Broadway, but that's a discussion for another day.)

My first problem: They keep giving us Neil Patrick Harris. Lots and lots of Neil Patrick Harris. Don't get me wrong -- I like NPH. I was there with everybody else lauding him in the past for bringing pizzazz, good spirits and what is presumably a high Q score to an event which sometimes plays as too much of an insider game for Middle America.

Still, with Broadway performers like Christian Borle, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Audra McDonald, Matthew Morrison, Cynthia Nixon, Denis O'Hare, Mary Louise Parker, Sara Ramirez  and Vanessa Williams playing high-profile roles on high-profile TV shows, it's not like Broadway isn't already on Middle America's TV sets. (And Sutton Foster, more Broadway royalty, will be joining that group tonight, in her own starring role on TV in ABC Family's "Bunheads." More about "Bunheads" tomorrow...)

Meanwhile, so many TV and film stars have gone the other direction, putting themselves on stage to keep the box office going, that Harry Potter, a kid from "Glee" and a Jonas Brother all played J. Pierrepoint Finch in Broadway's "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" within the space of a month, hitting the film/TV/pop music trifecta.

All of that is my way of saying that Neil Patrick Harris may be charming, but he isn't necessary to bridge the TV/Broadway gap anymore. And what once played as fresh and funny from NPH came off more tired and self-serving for me in this year's Tony broadcast. So the show opened with the fresh-faced Mormon boys from "The Book of Mormon," last year's winner for Best Musical, knocking on stars' doors, only to be followed up by a second opening number with Harris lamenting the fact that life isn't more like a musical. It was okay, but who needs two opening numbers?

Then he had another musical number at the mid-point, and a third to wrap up the show. And he got to hang from the rafters as a scene-stealer while Angela Lansbury and Ted Chapin sped through the American Theatre Wing explanation we hear every year. Angela Lansbury does not need Neil Patrick Harris to steal her focus or spice up her appearance, no matter what she's delivering.

Amanda Seyfried at the Tonys

My second problem: Half the presenters were people with minimal connection to Broadway. Amanda Seyfried, Anne Hathaway, Josh Groban, Tyler Perry, Jessica Chastain, James Marsden, Sheryl Crow, I'm looking at you. If the only people watching are real Broadway enthusiasts, then why not give them presenters like Tommy Tune (who owns the record for most individual Tony awards), Julie Harris (who owns the record for most nominations), Harvey Fierstein, Barbara Cook, Boyd Gaines, Sutton Foster, Bobby Cannavale, Joe Mantello, Kathleen Chalfant, Joel Grey, Donna Murphy, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Victoria Clark, Robert Sean Leonard, Laura Benanti, Howard McGillin... And I could go on all night. Angela Lansbury, Mandy Patinkin, Patti Lupone and Bernadette Peters were a step in the right direction, but... More Broadway stars, please.

My third problem: They didn't give "Follies," my favorite musical ever, the Best Revival of a Musical award, instead handing it over to what is being called "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," even though it is the least Gershwin (or DuBose and Dorothy Heyward) version of "Porgy and Bess" ever. The orchestrations were changed, the book was diced and spliced, the recitatives were excised in favor of new dialogue from Suzan-Lori Parks, Porgy's goat-cart was taken so he could have a limp and a new, more self-actualized storyline... And no matter whether the Gershwin estate approved it, that's not "Porgy and Bess." Everyone I know who has seen it has said that Audra McDonald, the one-woman Tony machine, was spectacular, and deserved her award for Leading Actress in a Musical. But... That's still not "Porgy and Bess" and it shouldn't be winning awards for being a revival when it's not a revival, it's a whole new show.

Of course there's no way to stop the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League and their voters from giving their awards to whoever they feel like. That's part of the game in any awards show, where disgruntled fans of other shows or other performers swear and throw things at the TV when their faves are bypassed. So you can regard my third problem as my chance to vent about my beloved "Follies" being overlooked again and leave it at that, if you really want to.

My fourth problem: The pieces from nominated shows didn't make me want to hop a plane to Broadway tomorrow. The scenes shown on the Tony Awards show usually get me all fired up to get to New York immediately, before the nominated works close or their stars move on. But the awful, screechy and incomprehensible power trio from "Ghost," the bizarre Matthew Broderick number from "Nice Work If You Can Get It," wherein he looked bloated and uncomfortable as he half-heartedly warbled "Sweet and Lowdown," one of my favorite songs, and flung his hair around with some chorus girls, the muddled bits of "Peter and the Starcatcher," which is from all reports a terrific show but certainly didn't display what's good about it here, the odd choices for numbers from "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Godspell," Ricky Martin and Elena Rogers sounding none-too-good for "Evita," and James Corden, who later won the Best Actor in a Play award for "One Man, Two Guvnors," rolling around on the floor like Mary Lou Retton in the 1984 Olympics... Well, it made me want to stay away, not see those shows.

Unfortunately, there was too little of "Clybourne Park" or the Tony-winning parts of "Nice Work If You Can Get It," (i.e. Michael McGrath and Judy Kaye) to get much idea of whether I want to see them or not. All in all, only Steve Kazee and the "Once" cast, the spiffy dance number from "Newsies" and Nina Arianda's acceptance speech for "Venus in Fur" made Broadway look appealing.

And you wonder why the Tony Awards get so little coverage.

As a side-note, if I were being all Central Illinois-centric, I would've led with the fact that all three of the shows featuring alumni from our area universities had good nights. "Clybourne Park," with U of I's Crystal A. Dickinson and Brandon Dirden in the cast, won Best Play, while "Newsies," featuring IWU's Evan Kasprzak, took home Tonys for its score and choreography. IWU's Bryonha Parham is part of the "Porgy and Bess" I already told you about, and my unhappiness over its award for Best Revival has nothing to do with Parham, who has been singled out for her vocal chops in the role of Serena.

The big winner of the night, however, was "Once," a small, intimate musical about a street performer and a girl he meets one night in Dublin, based on the movie of the same name. "Once" was named Best Musical and took awards for lead actor Steve Kazee and director John Tiffany, as well as for its book, lights, sound, orchestrations, and the warm Irish pub set designed by the fabulous Bob Crowley.

Drama Desk Awards Handed Out to Follies, Once, Salesman and Tribes

The Drama Desk Awards were handed out last night in New York, with revivals of "Follies" and "Death of a Salesman" plus new play "Tribes" and new musical "Once" taking prizes.

The Drama Desk Awards recognize excellence among Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway shows and performers. The organization was formed in 1949 by a group that included New York theater critics, editors, reporters and publishers, banding together to try to educate the general public about "vital issues concerning the theater." And the awards are still nominated and voted on by media people not associated with individual shows.

Seven plays were nominated in the Outstanding Play category, including David Henry Hwang's "Chinglish," Dan LeFranc's "The Big Meal," "Unnatural Acts" from Members of the Plastic Theatre, "Completeness," by Itamar Moses, "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark," by Lynn Nottage, Nicky Silver's "The Lyons," and the winner, "Tribes," by Nina Raine.

"Tribes" is described Ben Brantley for the New York Times as "a smart, lively and beautifully acted new play that asks us to hear how we hear, in silence as well as in speech."

And, yes, the Drama Desk nominators did manage to find seven musicals to nominate for Outstanding Musical. "Bonnie and Clyde," "Death Takes a Holiday," "Leap of Faith," "Newsies," "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "Queen of the Mist" were all nominated in addition to "Once," which won last night.

"Once" is based on the movie of the same name, about a Dublin street busker and the young Czech woman he meets one night who takes an interest in his music. Enda Walsh wrote the book for the stage musical, which keeps much of the music from the film, composed by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová and also performed by the two of them on screen.

"Once" director John Tiffany also won a Drama Desk Award (Outstanding Director of a Musical), as did the show's orchestrations (by Martin Lowe) and lyrics (Hansard and Irglová).

The award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical went to the production of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" that took New York by storm before transferring to LA and changing leading ladies. (Bernadette Peters was replaced by Victoria Clark.) "Follies" beat out the infamous "Carrie," Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita" and "Jesus Christ Superstar," the new version of the Gershwins' "Porgy and Bess" (with the book updated by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks for this production), and Bertolt Brecht's "The Threepenny Opera."

Danny Burstein, who played Buddy in "Follies," won as Outstanding Actor in a Musical with Gregg Barnes (costume design) and Kai Harada (sound design) also winners. Burstein's competitors were Kevin Earley in "Death Takes a Holiday," Raúl Esparza in "Leap of Faith," Jeremy Jordan as the lead Newsie in "Newsies," Norm Lewis as Porgy in "Porgy and Bess" and Ricky Martin as a very different kind of Che in "Evita."

The revival of "Death of a Salesman" starring Philip Seymour Hoffman took the Outstanding Revival of a Play award in a category that included Bloomington's own Rachel Crothers and her play "A Little Journey," Edward Albee's "The Lady from Dubuque," Gore Vidal's star-studded "The Best Man," "Lost in Yonkers" by Neil Simon and last winter's BAM production of Shakespeare's "Richard III" starring Kevin Spacey.

Mike Nichols was named Outstanding Director of a Play for that "Salesman," although Hoffman lost out to James Corden in the British import "One Man, Two Guvnors" for Outstanding Actor in a Play. Others in that category included Kevin Spacey for his R III, Hugh Dancy for "Venus in Fur," Claybourne Elder in "One Arm," Santino Fontana for "Sons of the Prophet" and Joseph Francini in "The Navigator."

Outstanding Actress in a Play went to Tracie Bennett for playing Judy Garland in "End of the Rainbow," with Sanaa Lathan nominated for "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" along with Linda Lavin in "The Lyons," Jennifer Lim in "Chinglish," Kim Martin-Cotten in "A Moon for the Misbegotten," Carey Mulligan in "Through a Glass Darkly" and Joely Richardson in "Side Effects."

The oft-lauded Audra McDonald added another one to her trophy case, winning Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her performance in "Porgy and Bess," in a category that included Jan Maxwell and Bernadette Peters in "Follies," Miche Braden in "The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith,"  Kelli O'Hara in "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and Molly Ranson in "Carrie."

Tom Eddon won Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for "One Man, Two Guvnors," joining Judith Light ("Other Desert Cities"), the Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, in the winners circle along with Michael McGrath, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, and Judy Kaye, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, both for "Nice Work If You Can Get It," the "new" Gershwin musical.

You can see the complete list of nominees and winners here. And now it's on to the Tony Awards next Sunday, when many of these people will once again dress their best to vie for statuettes and some thank you time at the microphone.