BIG BANG, FARGO, GOOD WIFE, NORMAL HEART and MASTERS Score with Critics

The Broadcast Television Journalists Association has announced who and what its members deem worthy of nomination for the 4th annual Critics Choice Television Awards.

The BTJA differs markedly from the Academy and its Emmy nominations on the comedy front, with no love for Modern Family, finding slots for shows like Broad City on Comedy Central and HBO's Silicon Valley instead. More familiar titles like The Big Bang Theory, Louie, Orange Is the New Black and Veep are the other contenders in the Best Comedy category, with Big Bang also earning nods for actor Jim Parsons, supporting actresses Mayim Bialik and Kaley Cuoco and guest performer James Earl Jones.

Big Bang's five nominations lead the pack among comedy series, although dramas like CBS's The Good Wife and Showtime's Masters of Sex also earned five nominations each, along with mini-series Fargo on FX and The Normal Heart from HBO.

The Good Wife herself, Juliana Margulies, is nominated, along with supporting actress Christine Baranski, supporting actor Josh Charles and guest actress Carrie Preston, while Master of Sex earned nods for actress Lizzy Caplan and actor Michael Sheen as sex researchers Masters and Johnson, as well as guest actors Allison Janney and Beau Bridges. For Fargo, it's lead actors Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton, supporting actress Allison Tolman and supporting actor Colin Hanks who are nominated, with lead actor Mark Ruffalo, supporting actress Julia Roberts and supporting actors Matt Bomer and Joe Mantello singled out from the all-star cast of The Normal Heart. I think anyone who saw The Normal Heart knew that Bomer would emerge as an awards-contender for his searing, heartbreaking turn as a beautiful man whose beauty is ravaged by AIDS, but Mantello is a bit more of a surprise. I love his work in general, and I have to think he is being recognized in part for playing the lead role, the one Ruffalo took in the HBO movie, when The Normal Heart was produced on Broadway in 2011.

Masters of Sex and The Good Wife share the Best Drama category with The Americans, Emmy favorite Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and True Detective. In terms of networks, that's HBO 3, AMC 1, CBS 1, FX 1.

Masters' guest actress Allison Janney has another nomination, too, for her work on the comedy Mom. She's one of three actors with two nods. The others are Martin Freeman, who plays a hapless (but murderous) insurance salesman on Fargo and Sherlock's right-hand man Watson on Sherlock, and Walton Goggins, nominated for his roles as a whip-smart criminal on Justified and a guest performance as transsexual Venus Van Dam on Sons of Anarchy.

In general, I'm happy to see Adam Scott and Robin Williams recognized in the Best Actor in a Comedy Series category. The former is too often overlooked, while the latter headlined a show that was canceled too soon. I loved The Crazy Ones. I would've welcomed some appreciation of Bob Benson himself, James Wolk, in The Crazy Ones, as well. ABC's Trophy Wife and Fox's Enlisted are the others who find themselves in the Already Canceled But Still Nominated arena; Albert Tsai of Trophy Wife and Keith David of Enlisted are both vying for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy.

Over on the drama side, Josh Charles is very much deserving of recognition for his stellar work as Will Gardner on Good Wife, even if he really ought to be in the leading actor category instead of supporting, and it's always nice to see Jeffrey Wright's name, even if Boardwalk Empire didn't have its best year.

The lack of love for anyone from Mad Men is also intriguing. Perhaps the critics will feel differently after seeing Mad Men's May episodes. They may be sorry they overlooked Broadway legend Robert Morse now that he's danced off screen.

Without further ado, here are the main categories. To see all the nominations, click here.

BEST COMEDY SERIES
The Big Bang Theory 
Broad City
Louie 
Orange Is the New Black 
Silicon Valley 
Veep 

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Louis CK, Louie 
Chris Messina, The Mindy Project 
Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation
Robin Williams, The Crazy Ones 

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Ilana Glazer, Broad City 
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep 
Wendi McLendon-Covey, The Goldbergs
Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
Emmy Rossum, Shameless

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Keith David, Enlisted
Tony Hale, Veep 
Albert Tsai, Trophy Wife
Christopher Evan Welch, Silicon Valley
Jeremy Allen White, Shameless

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory
Laverne Cox, Orange Is the New Black
Kaley Cuoco, The Big Bang Theory
Allison Janney, Mom
Kate Mulgrew, Orange Is the New Black
Merritt Wever, Nurse Jackie

BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A COMEDY SERIES
Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black
Sarah Baker, Louie
James Earl Jones, The Big Bang Theory
Mimi Kennedy, Mom
Andrew Rannells, Girls
Lauren Weedman, Looking

BEST DRAMA SERIES
The Americans 
Breaking Bad 
Game of Thrones 
The Good Wife 
Masters of Sex 
True Detective

BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad 
Hugh Dancy, Hannibal 
Freddie Highmore, Bates Motel 
Matthew McConaughey, True Detective
Matthew Rhys, The Americans
Michael Sheen, Masters of Sex 

BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Lizzy Caplan, Masters of Sex
Vera Farmiga, Bates Motel
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife 
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
Keri Russell, The Americans
Robin Wright, House of Cards 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Josh Charles, The Good Wife
Walton Goggins, Justified
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad
Peter Sarsgaard, The Killing
Jon Voight, Ray Donovan
Jeffrey Wright, Boardwalk Empire

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife
Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
Annet Mahendru, The Americans 
Melissa McBride, The Walking Dead 
Maggie Siff, Sons of Anarchy 
Bellamy Young, Scandal 

BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A DRAMA SERIES 
Beau Bridges, Masters of Sex 
Walton Goggins, Sons of Anarchy 
Allison Janney, Masters of Sex
Joe Morton, Scandal
Carrie Preston, The Good Wife 
Diana Rigg, Game of Thrones 

BEST MOVIE 
An Adventure in Space and Time 
Burton and Taylor 
Killing Kennedy 
The Normal Heart 
Sherlock: His Last Vow 
The Trip to Bountiful 

BEST MINI-SERIES
American Horror Story: Coven 
Bonnie & Clyde 
Dancing on the Edge 
Fargo 
The Hollow Crown 
 Luther

BEST ACTOR IN A MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES
David Bradley, An Adventure in Space and Time
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock: His Last Vow 
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dancing on the Edge 
Martin Freeman, Fargo
Mark Ruffalo, The Normal Heart 
Billy Bob Thornton, Fargo

BEST ACTRESS IN A MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES
Helena Bonham Carter, Burton and Taylor 
Minnie Driver, Return to Zero
Whoopi Goldberg, A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Holliday Grainger, Bonnie and Clyde
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven
Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES
Matt Bomer, The Normal Heart 
Warren Brown, Luther
Martin Freeman, Sherlock: His Last Vow 
Colin Hanks, Fargo 
Joe Mantello, The Normal Heart 
Blair Underwood, The Trip to Bountiful

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES
Amanda Abbington, Sherlock: His Last Vow 
Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Coven
Ellen Burstyn, Flowers in the Attic 
Jessica Raine, An Adventure in Space and Time
Julia Roberts, The Normal Heart
Allison Tolman, Fargo

March Comes Roaring in on Area Stages and Screens

The weather may not be getting any warmer, but our entertainment options continue to heat up.

Time Stands Still continues at Heartland Theatre this weekend, with its last performance on Sunday at 2:30 pm, with J.B. and Oklahoma! also finishing at Illinois State University's Westhoff Theatre and Center for the Performing Arts and As You Like It taking its last bow at Illinois Wesleyan's McPherson Theatre. J.B., Oklahoma! and AYLI all run through March 2.

Paddy Moloney and the Chieftains are coming to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts for a 3 pm show on Sunday, March 3, in plenty of time to boost your Irish spirits before St. Patrick's Day. This traditional Irish band has won six Grammys in an illustrious 50-year career. Their new album Voice of Ages celebrates that 50-year anniversary with contributions from Bon Iver, the Civil Wars, the Decembrists, Imelda May and Paolo Nutini, among others. You can see a teaser for that album here. For ticket information regarding the March 3 concert at the BCPA, click here.

Heartland Theatre will hold auditions on March 6, 7 and 8 from 7 to 9:30 pm for its April production of Will Eno's Middletown. Director John Kirk will be looking for an ensemble of 9-10 actors to play all 26 roles that make up the small burg called Middletown. Kirk has provided audition information here for prospective actors.

For one night only on March 7, Champaign's Art Theater will offer F.W. Murnau's classic vampire thriller Nosferatu, a silent from 1920. The Andrew Alden Ensemble will provide live musical accompaniment to Nosferatu for this screening, using piano, strings, synthesizers, percussion and electric guitars to bring a spontaneity and immediacy to Murnau's story of the creepy count. This is not the dark, elegant lord of later vampire films, but a strange and hideous pale creature with pointy teeth and ears. He's so much scarier this way!

The Art is also looking for entries into its New Art Film Festival, which takes place in April.They're looking for films by anyone in Illinois, but especially central Illinois, and they'll take features, shorts or "webisodes," preferably made within the last three years. The deadline is March 8, and you'll need to get a DVD to the Art by then. You'll find details here and updates here.

To Kill a Mockingbird is the March show for Community Players, with a preview performance on March 14 and "regular" performances continuing March 15-17 and 21-24. The play, based on the much beloved novel by Harper Lee, tells the story of a Depression-era Southern lawyer named Atticus Finch and his children, Scout and Jem, as the family is caught up in a trial involving a black man falsely accused of a crime. Finch is defending Tom Robinson on rape charges, and the injustice of that trial casts a deep shadow over the entire town, but especially on Scout, who grows up fast as events proceed around her. Marcia Weiss directs for Community Players, with a cast that includes Maggie McHale as Scout, Haani Ansari as Jem, John Bowen as Atticus, Ryan Rembert as Tom Robinson and Bruce Parrish as the mysterious Boo Radley.

Tales of the Lost Formicans, Constance Congdon's exploration of American society seen through the eyes of aliens from the future, opens at Illinois State University on March 28. Deb Alley directs this eccentric comedy for Centennial West 207, with Michelle Stine as a mother forced to move home with her own mom and dad, who will be played by Jacki Dellamano and Joseph Faifer, while her unhappy son, played by Carlos Kmet, acts out. There's also a strange neighbor who happens to be a conspiracy nut, with Hannaniah Wiggins in that role.

March 28 is also opening night for Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, directed by Henson Keys for the University of Illinois's Department of Theatre. This fiery account of the first reaction to the AIDS epidemic from within New York's gay community has the potential to break your heart. It has every time I've seen it. It will play within the cozy confines of the Studio Theatre at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Click here for information on The Normal Heart and all the other music and dance pieces coming up at Krannert Center.

As always, I will keep you updated with more events as they appear on my radar. Stay tuned!

The 2012-13 Theatrical Season at U of I

It's fitting that I was over in Champaign-Urbana yesterday*, only a stone's throw from Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, just as they were sending out emails to announce their 2012-13 schedule of programs to fill all four (five? six?) of the lovely performance spaces inside the Krannert Center.

That schedule includes dance, opera, visiting artists, bands, companies, quartets and orchestras, and a good deal of theater, including the University of Illinois Department of Theatre productions in both the "black box" Studio Theatre and the more expansive Colwell Playhouse. My focus is on theater, of course, and here's what you have to look forward to if you're inclined to give Krannert Center a look:

The University begins its theater season October 4 with "44 Plays for 44 Presidents," a two-hour look at each and every American president, showcased through short biographical scenes. Those scenes include comedy, tragedy, music and theatrical razzmatazz, as we see things like Ben Franklin hosting a Borscht-Belt "roast" of Thomas Jefferson and a "Nixon-praising dance number" as the company of performers passes on a star-spangled coat to represent the mantle of the presidency.

Whether this is intentional irony I don't know, but "Dracula" follows the presidents, opening October 14. There are a number of scripts that tell the "Dracula" story, and so far, Krannert's materials aren't telling which one U of I is using. Still, we can expect vampires, pale maidens, bloodlust and probably a few caskets on stage for any "Dracula."

Squeezing one last drama into October, "A Dream Play" opens on October 25. I'm assuming this is the 1901 Strindberg play, a surreal and symbolic piece that moves a man through a melancholy dreamscape filled with issues of gender, class, capitalism, philosophy, theology and the illusory, painful nature of human life.

The Department of Theatre opens the new year with "No Child..." on February 13. In New York, "No Child..." was a one-woman show for actress Nilaja Sun, as well as a "tour-de-force exploration of the New York City public school system," with Sun playing kids, parents, teachers, administrators, and even the school janitor. I'm guessing that U of I will open it up to an ensemble, but we'll have to see what happens in February.

That's followed by Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart," a call to arms about AIDS in America that was recently revived on Broadway in a very well-regarded production. "The Normal Heart" will run from March 28 to April 7.

And the Theatre Department season ends with another call to arms in "Spring Awakening," which offers a dire warning as to what happens when you keep kids completely ignorant on issues of sex and what's happening to their bodies. The original play was written by German playwright Frank Wedekind in about 1890, with a rock musical version (music by Duncan Sheik) hitting Broadway (as well as winning a slew of Tony Awards and launching the careers of Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff and John Gallagher, Jr.) in 2007. Are they doing the straight play or the musical? If I had to guess, I would say the musical. But who knows, really? Potential ticket-buyers should know that there is sex (awkward, adolescent sex) all over "Spring Awakening," which might be either a plus or a minus for you, considering your taste in theater.

Some highlights from elsewhere on the schedule:

Anne Bogart and her SITI Company bring their "Café Variations" to Krannert November 8 to 10, the U of I Opera Program performs Daniel Catán's "Florencia en el Amazonas" November 8 to 11, and "The Nutcracker," an annual holiday treat, runs November 30 to December 9. As 2013 opens, the Russian National Ballet Theatre brings "Don Quixote," "Chopiniana/Romeo and Juliet," and "Swan Lake" to Champaign in January, The Black Watch and the Band of the Scots Guards perform in February, Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway bring their sister act called "Boom!" to town February 20 to 22, and the U of I Opera Program does a concert version of "My Fair Lady" February 28 through March 3 and brings back "The Threepenny Opera" April 25 to 28.

To see the complete schedule, click here. The season brochure will be available July 20, with tickets on sale for the entire season on August 11.

*I was in Urbana yesterday to do a radio interview with Kevin Kelly at WILL for his "Live and Local" program, along with Ron Emmons, Alyssa Ratkovich and Kent Nusbaum,who are the director and cast of the play "Missed Connections," by Marj O'Neill-Butler, which is part of Heartland's 10-Minute Play Festival. Kent and Alyssa performed a piece of the play, while Ron and I talked about Heartland's contest and process. If you'd like to hear our interview, click here. Always nice to be back in C-U!