ICEMAN and FOLLIES Score Big at the Jeff Awards

Chicago's annual Joseph Jefferson Awards were handed out for Equity productions on Monday at the Drury Lane Oakbrook Theatre, with the Goodman Theatre's production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh and Follies, the Sondheim/Goldman musical produced at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, each taking home six statuettes.

The Second City's We're All in This Room Together revue and The Doyle and Debbie Show, a lonesome road production in association with Jim Jensen and Lisselan Productions, which played for a few months at the Royal George Theatre, each won two.

Illinois State University alumni also won two awards, with Gary Griffin winning for his direction of Follies, and Kevin Depinet picking up an award for his scenic design for Iceman at the Goodman. Depinet earned his MFA at ISU, and his local set designs included Beast on the Moon at Heartland Theatre.

Follies was named Best Musical (Large), with director Griffin,  Musical Director Brad Haak, Costume Designer Virgil C. Johnson, Actress in a Principal Role Caroline O'Connor and Supporting Actress Hollis Resnick all named winners.

In addition to Depinet's Scenic Design award, Iceman won Best Production of a Play (Large) as well as Best Director for Robert Falls, Best Ensemble for the acting crew, Best Supporting Actor for Brian Dennehy, and Best Lighting Design for Natasha Katz.

Lee Hall's The Pitman Painters won Best Play (Midsize) for its TimeLine production, while Doyle and Debbie was named Best Musical (Midsize). Brian Arntson, one of the creators of Doyle and Debbie, won as Best Actor in a Principal Role in a Musical.

Other acting awards went to Larry Yando for his performance as Roy Cohn in Court Theatre's Angels in America, Diane D'Aquila from Chicago Shakes' Elizabeth Rex, Timothy Edward Kane in Court's An Iliad, Alex Goodrich in HERO, the Musical at the Marriott Theatre, and Natalie West in The Butcher of Baraboo at Red Orchid Theatre. Edgar Blackmon took top honors for performers in the Revue category for Who Do We Think We Are? at Second City.

For Best New Play, Ayad Akthar's Disgraced tied with Sarah Gubbins' The Kid Thing, while HERO the Musical, with book by Aaron Thielen and music and lyrics by Michael Mahler, won as Best New Musical. Oren Jacoby's Invisible Man was the winner in the Best New Play (Adaptation) category.

You can see all the winners here and test yourself on how many of these productions you saw.

Equity Jeff Award Nominations Announced

It's an embarrassment of riches. Or nominations. This year the judges handing out nominations for the equity side of Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Awards went big, with ten nods in the Director of a Play category and nine each for large and midsize plays.

Meanwhile, they made the usual head-scratching choices, singling out only Caroline O'Connor among the four leads of Chicago Shakespeare's "Follies," when she was by far the least successful of the four. Sorry, Susan Moniz! I loved you.

That "Follies" led the pack with seven nominations, including one for the production itself (large musical), supporting actress Hollis Resnick (who was terrific), director Gary Griffin, musical director Brad Haak, choreographer Alex Sanchez and costume designer Virgil C. Johnson.

Other productions with seven nominations include "Death and Harry Houdini" at the House Theatre of Chicago, and "Invisible Man," at Court Theatre in association with Christopher McElroen Productions.

The cast of "The Iceman Cometh" at the Goodman, one of the most talked-about shows of the year, was given an "ensemble" nomination along with individual nods for Brian Dennehy, as Larry Slade, director Robert Falls, scenic designer Kevin Depinet, lighting designer Natasha Katz, and the show itself in the large play category.

"Clybourne Park" at Steppenwolf was another show with its ensemble outshining individuals, as the cast as a whole, along with director Amy Morton and scenic designer Todd Rosenthal, were nominated. Rosenthal collected more nominations than most shows, with his work on "An Iliad" at Court Theatre and "Red" at the Goodman also honored. 

Other big name shows -- "Elizabeth Rex" at Chicago Shakes, "Angels in America" and "An Iliad" at Court Theatre, "The March" at Steppenwolf, "Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting" and "Eastland" at Lookingglass -- were handed multiple nominations, as well.

Like Rosenthal, lighting designer Jesse Klug, scenic designer Jack Magaw, sound designer Kevin O'Donnell, and production/media designer Mike Tutaj each received three nominations.

And IWU's Amanda Dehnert ("Eastland") and ISU's Gary Griffin ("Follies") were both nominated for best direction of a large musical.

For the complete list of nominations, click here. Theatre in Chicago and the Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones have some interesting commentary on the nominations, too.

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.

Happy Birthday, Stephen Sondheim!

There were a whole lot of special celebrations and tributes planned for Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday in 2010, continuing on through at least March 9, 2012, when Sondheim was given the UK Critics' Circle 2011 Award for Distinguished Services to the Arts.

Whether they were specifically intended to honor Sondheim's 80th, 81st or 82nd birthdays or it's just a general sense of celebration, we've seen "Sondheim: the Birthday Concert" at the New York Philharmonic, telecast on PBS and available on DVD; the musical "Sondheim on Sondheim," with a cast album available at PS Classics; "Sondheim 80," a concert at the Roundabout; another celebration at New York City Center; a British birthday concert during the BBC Proms; the New York Pops offering yet another tribute concert at Carnegie Hall; the publication of "Finishing the Hat" and "Look, I Made a Hat," two volumes written by the man himself discussing his lyrics and his general philosophy on songwriting; a New York Philharmonic concert version of "Company" that was filmed and screened all over the US; a "Follies" on Broadway (cast recording also available at PS Classics) and another one in Chicago; an outdoors "Into the Woods" built into a tree in Regent's Park; a City Center Encores! version of "Merrily We Roll Along," and, of course, lots and lots and lots of productions of other Sondheim shows all over the place.

I'm totally in favor of keeping this party going if it means I keep getting concerts and shows and cast recordings and book and posters to entertain me. I'm also willing to adopt Sondheim's birthday as my own if it will match up better to when Sondheim stuff is made available and I have gift list privileges.

In any event, if you haven't brought your own collection up to date, you have time to do that. But don't wait too long. Because (and I realize I have totally buried the lead here) The Guardian in England has announced that Sondheim is working on a new show. No, I'm not kidding. His last show was Wise Guys/Bounce/Road Show, which went through many different versions, casts and plot byways, never did quite gel as far as most critics are concerned, and is discussed at length in "Look, I Made a Hat." But this new show... The Guardian reports that Sondheim said he had 20 to 30 minutes of material written and that he is working with playwright David Ives ("All in the Timing," "Venus in Fur") on the book. And here's the really intriguing quote: "It's an idea I've had for a long time and it springs indirectly from a moment in a play of David's." Trotsky with a hatchet embedded in his head? Spinoza on trial? A cross-dressing painter or businessman?

We'll have to wait and see, but it's certainly intriguing. And I hope he has more than half an hour of material by now.