'Spring Awakening' and 'Coast of Utopia' Rack Up Tony Awards

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: June 11, 2007

The 61st annual Tony Awards last night were dominated by two shows drawn from the 19th century: "Spring Awakening," about sexually frustrated German teenagers in that era, won best musical and most of the other musical awards, while "The Coast of Utopia," Tom Stoppard's epic period trilogy about Russian intellectuals, set a record for the most awards won by a play in Tony history.

"Coast," an eight-and-a-half-hour epic produced by Lincoln Center Theater, won best play, best director, best featured actor and actress, and several design awards.

"I feel a bit nostalgic, actually," Mr. Stoppard said, "since it's been 40 years since I first came here with a play, and I'm sentimental enough to thank the New York theater for having me, for good times and good friends."

The play was a $7.5 million gamble for the nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater that paid off in critical acclaim and popular success. Bernard Gersten, the theater's executive producer, gave "thanks to the state of the art board of directors of Lincoln Center who urge us on in our follies."

"Spring Awakening," a musical that transferred from the Atlantic Theater Company Off Broadway, won eight awards, including those for best musical, book, score, direction and choreography and best featured actor in a musical.

The stage swarmed with the show's three dozen or so producers when the top award was announced.

"We thank you for creating a Broadway show that rocks," Ira Pittelman, one of the show's lead producers, said to the writers of "Spring Awakening."

In the night's highest-profile nail-biter, Julie White of "The Little Dog Laughed" won best actress in a play, beating out acting legends like Vanessa Redgrave ("The Year of Magical Thinking") and Angela Lansbury ("Deuce"), as well as the actresses Swoosie Kurtz ("Heartbreak House") and Eve Best ("A Moon for the Misbegotten"), whose performances received raves.

"Oh, my God," Ms. White said. "You Tony voters, what a bunch of wacky, crazy kids!"

"To be nominated with such extraordinary women — I never imagined I would be on a list like this unless it was for dinner reservations at Angus," she said, referring to a well-known Broadway hangout. "And then to get the tchotchke!"

A minor upset took place in the best leading actor in a musical category, where David Hyde Pierce, playing a detective in the Kander and Ebb murder mystery-comedy "Curtains," beat out Raúl Esparza from "Company," Jonathan Groff from "Spring Awakening," Michael Cerveris from "LoveMusik," and Gavin Lee from "Mary Poppins."

Mr. Pierce, who looked genuinely stunned, said his first line on a Broadway stage was "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to ask you to leave now." He had been anticipating, he said, that his name would be announced from the stage and he would then be asked to leave.

Frank Langella won the Tony for best actor in a play for his portrayal of Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan's comedy-thriller-docudrama "Frost/Nixon." The category was a particularly strong one this year, featuring critically acclaimed performances by Christopher Plummer, Liev Schreiber, Boyd Gaines and Brian F. O'Byrne, but Mr. Langella had long been the favorite.

"I think we must honor the common bond in us," Mr. Langella said, "for the struggle, the striving for success, because that's a race you simply can't lose."

On the musical side, "Spring" was followed in its victory count by another unconventional Off Broadway transfer, "Grey Gardens," a musical about the eccentric mother and daughter, Edith Bouvier Beale and little Edie Beale.

"I want to thank you all for embracing the two little engines that could, 'Spring Awakening' and 'Grey Gardens,'" said the designer William Ivey Long upon receiving the award for his "Grey Gardens" costumes. "This really is encouraging for all the regional theaters, all the little basement theaters."

Christine Ebersole won for best leading actress in a musical for playing both Big and Little Edie Beale in "Grey Gardens." Though she was in one of the toughest categories of the night, up against Audra McDonald ("110 in the Shade"), Donna Murphy ("LoveMusik"), Debra Monk ("Curtains") and Laura Bell Bundy ("Legally Blonde: The Musical"), Ms. Ebersole was considered a favorite.

"I left Hollywood when they told me I was over the hill," she said. Now, she added: "I'm over the hill in the role of a lifetime! This is so encouraging."

Accepting his award for the score of "Spring Awakening," the composer Duncan Sheik, who cut his teeth in the world of popular music before writing for theater, said to the show's producers: "Thank you for letting this live. You did a very cool thing. And musical theater rocks." (Steven Sater, who won for book, shared that award with Mr. Sheik.)

Michael Mayer won best director for the show, and Bill T. Jones won best choreography. The show also picked up the best featured actor in a musical award, for John Gallagher Jr., who plays the suffering, shock-headed Moritz.

Mr. Gallagher made his Broadway debut just last year; Mary Louise Wilson, who won best featured actress in a musical for her portrayal of the elderly Big Edie Beale in "Grey Gardens," first appeared on Broadway in 1963. This was her first Tony.

"I used to wonder, if I ever won one of these things, would I feel like there was a mistake made, would I feel that way?" she said, looking down at her award. "And — I don't."

"Company," John Doyle's stark adaptation of the 1970 Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical about marriage and its discontents, won best revival of a musical.

In this category there were echoes of last year, when Mr. Doyle's radical interpretation of Mr. Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" was up against (but lost to) "The Pajama Game," a more faithful revival. This year "Company," which has struggled at the box office, found itself up against, and eventually prevailed over, the revival of "A Chorus Line," a faithfully restored musical and a box office hit.

The play awards were anything but varied in the early going, with "Coast" picking up every Tony in sight. Billy Crudup won for best featured actor in a play for his portrayal of the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, while Jennifer Ehle won her second Tony for portraying three different characters in the three parts of "Coast." Jack O'Brien won best director.

"Now let's have no more nonsense about the state of the American theater," Mr. O'Brien said.

And "Journey's End," R. C. Sherriff's World War I drama, which first appeared on Broadway in 1929, won best revival of a play, just hours after it closed following months of anemic sales.

"First, let me put down immediately a widespread rumor," said Bill Haber, one of the lead producers. "The show did not bankrupt me. Close."

In the special theatrical event race, referred to by wags around Broadway as the dummy versus the drag queen, "Jay Johnson: The Two and Only," a show featuring a ventriloquist, beat out "Kiki & Herb Alive on Broadway," a show featuring a cabaret duo (of which Kiki was the drag part).

In a ceremony that took place before the live broadcast, the awards for orchestration, set, costume and lighting design were given out by the cast of "Jersey Boys," two of whom won Tonys last year. "The Coast of Utopia" took all three categories on the play side, as had been predicted, given the scale of the project.

The musical side was mixed, with "Grey Gardens" taking the award for costume design, "Mary Poppins," Disney's stage adaptation of the 1964 movie musical, taking set design and "Spring Awakening" taking lighting design and orchestration.

That means that Bob Crowley, who designed the set for "Mary Poppins" and, with Scott Pask, the set for "The Coast of Utopia," took home two Tony Awards, one for a play and one for a musical.

"This is slightly indecent, actually," Mr. Crowley said, upon picking up his award for "Poppins." "I'm completely gobsmacked."

The show's broadcast kicked off with Marvin Hamlisch playing the well-known opening chords of "One," from "A Chorus Line," currently in revival, segueing into that show's opening number, "I Hope I Get It," and then the famous gold kick line.

The Tony Awards ceremony, broadcast from Radio City Music Hall, is the last hurrah of the Broadway season, which was crowded and unusually eclectic this year. Though there was no monster new hit — "Mary Poppins" being the only show that came close — Broadway as a whole continued to flourish, setting a new record for paid attendance with 12.3 million people. That's a jump of 2.6 percent from the previous year, according to the League of American Theaters and Producers. Grosses grew at a much higher rate, up 8.9 percent to $939 million from $862 million. The discrepancy is due in large part to increasing ticket prices, including the now prevalent "premium" tickets, which can go for as much as $350.

The Tony Awards are voted on by 785 producers, journalists, union officials and other industry professionals. They are presented by the league and the American Theater Wing, a nonprofit service organization that created the Tonys in 1947.

The television ratings for the Tonys have traditionally been less than impressive, a problem made worse this year with the broadcast up against the final episode of "The Sopranos" on HBO. This time around, an idea was floated this time around to include musical numbers from shows that weren't nominated — traditionally excluded from performing at the ceremony — but the plan was rejected. For the second year in a row, there was no master of ceremonies, but a rotating cast of presenters, including Harvey Fierstein, Felicity Huffman and Usher.

At the pre-broadcast ceremony, the Alliance Theater in Atlanta was given the annual regional theater award, the only recognition for work outside Broadway.

(Source: The New York Times | Theater | 'Spring Awakening' and 'Coast of Utopia' Rack Up Tony Awards)

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It's Tony Time for Sir Tom... and Kiki and Herb

by John Heilpern
Published: June 5, 2007

It's a little bit unfortunate that the final episode of The Sopranos will air at the same time as the 61st annual Tony Awards ceremony on Sunday, June 10. But I know which one I'll be watching. Yes, siree! I'll be tuned to CBS, breathlessly watching the outcome of the Tonys along with the other 322 theater queens across the nation. Besides, we love the show.

Here are my Tony Tips for the major categories. Stand by Sir Tom Stoppard. And the envelopes, please!

The winner for best play is Sir Tom Stoppard for his prestigious snooze, The Coast of Utopia. Only a minority of the 785 Tony voters will actually have seen the epic trilogy about 19th-century Russian intellectuals, but that won't stop the rest of them from voting for it in a tidal wave of insecure Anglophilia.

Like two or three distinguished drama critics I could name, I dutifully attended all three parts of The Coast of Utopia, but cannot claim to have been present throughout. Would the Tony voters admit as much? Would those who were actually there confess that they might have nodded off?

There ought to be a Tony rule: No ticket, no vote. Be that as it may, in my view Tom Stoppard has written better plays than The Coast of Utopia (though none as committed). Perhaps—just possibly—there might be an upset. My own vote for best play goes to August Wilson's Radio Golf, his final play, (written as he was dying), which completed his cycle of fantastic dramas about a century of African-American life and yearning. I, for one, would like to tip my hat to Wilson for his enduring achievement as one of the greatest playwrights this country has known and thank him with the Tony for best play.

Three of the four nominations for best director of a play are unsurprisingly British—on Broadway, the War of Independence has yet to be won. The nominees are Michael Grandage for Frost/Nixon, David Grindley for Journey's End and Melly Still for the maligned Coram Boy. The winner is certain to be the American, Jack O'Brien, for The Coast of Utopia (a British play).

The award for best actor is said to be a close race in an unusually hot field: Liev Schreiber, Talk Radio; Christopher Plummer, Inherit the Wind; Brian F. O'Byrne, The Coast of Utopia; Boyd Gaines, Journey's End; and Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon. Not to be a killjoy, but where's the raved-over Bill Nighy, whose relaxed and riveting performance as a philandering doctor single-handedly came close to saving David Hare's The Vertical Hour early in the season?

In contrast, Mr. Gaines' performance as the solid, pipe-smoking World War l British soldier in Journey's End, was, well, solid; Mr. O'Byrne is a specialist in contained killers and neurotics, as opposed to the romantic intellectual heroism of Alexander Herzen; and Christopher Plummer could have shone in his sleep playing the Clarence Darrow role in Robert E. Lee's 1955 courtroom potboiler, Inherit the Wind.

Mr. Schreiber's electric virtuoso performance as the self-hating radio host in Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio will battle for the Tony with Mr. Langella's star turn as an unusually sympathetic President Nixon in Frost/Nixon. Mr. Schreiber has said that Mr. Langella will win, and Mr. Schreiber is right.

The Tony for best actress is between two very different theater legends—Vanessa Redgrave for her monologue in Joan Didion's untheatrical adaptation of her best-selling memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking, and Angela Lansbury for Deuce, by common consent the worst play Terrence McNally has written. (Another fancied nominee for best actress, Eve Best as the mythic earth mother of O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten, is a shade too South Kensington for my vulgar taste.)

Ms. Lansbury is playing a former doubles tennis champion, if you please, in what is intended to be a touching, light comedy in partnership with Marian Seldes. Ms. Redgrave is battling alone onstage with questions of life and death (not to mention Ms. Didion's first play). No matter what she does, the beautiful Ms. Redgrave can do no wrong in my corner. Seeing her act is how I imagine it must have been to witness Dusa onstage. She gets my vote.

On the other hand, the beloved 81-year-old Ms. Lansbury has returned to Broadway in Deuce for the first time in almost 25 years—and she's won a Tony the previous four times she's been nominated, for Mame, Dear World, Gypsy and Sweeney Todd. All musicals, true. But possibly a sign.

Spring Awakening will take home the Tony for best musical or my name is Trudy Kockenlocker. Grey Gardens is popular, but I'm looking to Tony voters to embrace the thrillingly new and young on Broadway and vote en masse for Spring Awakening. My vote also goes to its innovatory director, Michael Mayer, over Michael Greif of Grey Gardens. The retro Cowardesque score of Grey Gardens' first problematic act is its weakness. The Tony for best original score surely goes to Spring Awakening's remarkable Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater.

However, the award for best book will go to playwright Doug Wright for Grey Gardens—if only for his memorably sardonic line, "It's very difficult to bring up a girl 56 years of age."

Christine Ebersole was the clear favorite for best actress in a musical for her supreme performance in Grey Gardens—until four-time Tony winner Audra McDonald gave us the best reason to see Roundabout's revival of hokey old, nearly forgotten 110 in the Shade. If you can believe the glamorous Ms. McDonald in the role of plain spinster Lizzie, you'll believe anything. She enchants us in song. But remember that Ms. Ebersole plays two roles—her patrician Edith Bouvier Beale in Act I, and her unforgettably nutty, middle-aged Little Edie in Act II. She accounts for the risky show's memorable success, and she should get the Tony.

Her stage partner, Mary Louise Wilson, is the perfect embodiment of Little Edie's smothering, bedridden mad mother in Act II. Sentiment would like me to say that Charlotte d'Amboise's moment has come for her Cassie in the revival of A Chorus Line. But Ms. Wilson will win the Tony for best featured actress in a musical.

Audience favorite David Hyde Pierce is charmingly appealing as the detective in the somewhat laborious musical Curtains; Michael Cerveris' portrait of Kurt Weill in LoveMusik is widely admired; and Jonathan Groff in Spring Awakening is smashing. But Raul Esparza's stirring performance as the eternal bachelor Bobby among the ladies who lunch in Stephen Sondheim's Company is my tip to win the Tony for best actor in a musical.

Best musical revival? I fear the Tony voters will buy into director John Doyle's production of Company and its gimmicks borrowed from his previous staging of Sweeney Todd, in which everyone onstage plays a musical instrument, badly. The 110 in the Shade production is small and provincial, in spite of Ms. McDonald's star power; The Apple Tree was threadbare and foolish, in spite of Kristin Chenoweth's cutesy star power. For me, Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line will always remain a source of wonder, and my Tony vote goes to the current, loving revival.

No surprises for best play revival: R.C. Sherriff's 1929 Journey's End—which failed to find an audience and closes, with high irony, the day of the Tony Awards—will win the Tony.

Quickly! (as I run out of space). Best featured actor in a musical? Dunno! Either John Cullum for his understanding old dad of 110 in the Shade or David Pittu for his smelly Brecht of LoveMuzik.

Each five of the nominees for best featured actress in a play appeared in a show that has now closed. It will therefore be Jennifer Ehle, for her multiple roles in The Coast of Utopia, who wins.

Best choreographer? They might throw a bone to Jerry Mitchell for Legally Blonde: The Musical, but more likely to Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear for Mary Poppins.

Finally, the really big one! So prestigious is the Tony for special theatrical event of the year that we have only two nominations. It's an even bet between Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway (though even their biggest fans would amend that to "Half Alive"), and Jay Johnson: The Two and Only. Mr. Johnson is a true master of ventriloquism—an art form that was thought to be confined nowadays to cruise ships. Kiki and Herb aren't, of course, ventriloquists. They are camp. They will win.

(Source: The New York Observer | Arts & Culture | It's Tony Time for Sir Tom... and Kiki and Herb)

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The Host Is Unclear

JACKMAN, O'DONNELL SAY NO TO TONY DUTY

MICHAEL RIEDEL

May 25, 2007 -- QUICK hits and gossip today:

* Tony Talk (Scene 1):

For the second year in a row, it looks as if the Tony Awards telecast won't have a host. Broadway's go-to guy, Hugh Jackman, passed on the job. So did Broadway's other go-to guy, Rosie O'Donnell.

There was a rumor afoot last week that Jackman would make a surprise cameo. The cast of "A Chorus Line" was told that the actor, clad in gold lamé, would join them on the line performing "One."

"He was just going to be there with the kids," says an "A Chorus Line" source. "The place will go wild when they see him."

But Jackman's reps have put out the word that he'll be in Australia shooting a movie the week of the Tonys, which air June 10.

Perhaps.

But keep your eyes peeled for a very tall guy in a gold top hat. It could be Hugh.

Or Broadway's go-to gal, Tommy Tune.

* Tony Talk (Scene 2):

Jerry Mitchell, director of the snubbed "Legally Blonde," went from dressing room to dressing room after Wednesday's matinee telling his cast "not to believe what you read in Michael Riedel's column."

Mitchell, sources say, insisted that "Legally Blonde" may yet get to perform on the Tonys.

"He was adamant about it," says a source. "He kept saying the fight isn't over yet."

As I reported - correctly, Jerry - "Legally Blonde" was first invited and then disinvited to be on the telecast.

Yesterday, a Tony source said CBS was still pushing for more musical numbers, and that, if "Legally Blonde" does get on, it will be as part of a montage of all the shows from the season - Laura Bell Bundy in pink, Stephanie J. Block in a pirate hat, Twyla Tharp with her closing notice, Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy doing their Boris-and-Natasha routine from "LoveMusik."

"Legally Blonde" will not get its own segment.

"The Tony management committee made that crystal clear this week," my source says.

* Tony Talk (Scene 3):

Last month, Elizabeth I. McCann, executive producer of the Tony Awards, brought all the members of the Tony management committee together and made them watch - and criticize - last year's telecast.

Her goal was to get them thinking about how to improve the show, a perennial ratings loser.

What became clear to everyone was that the telecast must open with a Broadway song that viewers will recognize.

(What insight!)

So don't expect this year's Tonys to kick off with "The Word of Your Body" from "Spring Awakening," or "The Revolutionary Costume for Today" from "Grey Gardens."

"One," from "A Chorus Line," is an obvious choice - and would certainly be a boon to that revival's box office, since the first show featured on the telecast usually generates the most ticket sales.

But I hear Disney may push to open the awards show with "Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious" from "Mary Poppins."

Meanwhile, the producers of "Curtains" are making the case that their song "Show People" sounds like a classic John Kander-Fred Ebb showbiz anthem and, since the song's theme is theater people, it should be the opening number.

Listen, the only way to save this year's show from being a total ratings bust is to open with Tony Soprano singing a medley from "Guys and Dolls."

* Frankly speaking:

The producers of "Young Frankenstein" hosted a lunch at Café Gray Wednesday for a select group of ticket brokers and group sales agents.

Neither Mel Brooks nor director Susan Stroman showed up.

Stroman appeared on video, blah-blah-blahing about how much fun the musical's going to be.

Mel sent autographed DVD sets of all his movies.

The afternoon was saved by costume designer William Ivey Long, a funny and clever fellow.

He showed off the designs for his extravagant costumes.

"I can't tell you what ticket prices are going to be, but they should be $250 apiece because of the cost of all my costumes," Ivey Long said.

He also said he couldn't reveal the theater that will house "Young Frankenstein," but he added: "They told us we could make the castle much bigger."

Translation: the Hilton.

(Source: New York Post | Theater | Michael Riedel On Broadway | The Host Is Unclear)

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'Spring Awakening' Gets 11 Tony Nominations

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: May 15, 2007

In a season rich with contenders, "Spring Awakening," a dark rock musical based on a 19th century German play about sexually anguished teenagers, led the field of Tony Award nominations this morning with 11, including chances at awards for best musical, director and best actor for two of its cast.

The show moved uptown from Off Broadway, a move that originally seemed risky. But in the musical category, it is closely followed this year by another Off-Broadway transfer: "Grey Gardens," about the eccentric Little and Big Edie Beales, which received 10 nominations, including shots at best director and acting nods for two of its performers.

The other shows in the top Tony category are "Curtains," a Kander and Ebb musical about a backstage murder in a Boston theater, and "Mary Poppins," about, well, exactly what you think it's about.

The nominations were announced this morning by Jane Krakowski, a Tony winner herself, and Taye Diggs at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center.

The awards ceremony will be held on June 10 at Radio City Music Hall, and broadcast live on CBS.

Though the straight-play category was robust this year, there were few surprises: "The Coast of Utopia," Tom Stoppard's sprawling trilogy of 19th century Russian intelligentsia, picked up a whopping 10 nominations, including best original play. Others nominated for best play are "The Little Dog Laughed," Douglas Carter Beane's comedy about a closeted film actor; "Frost/Nixon," Peter Morgan's play about the 1977 interview of Richard Nixon by David Frost; and "Radio Golf," the last play in August Wilson's 10-play cycle on the black American experience in the 20th century.

The major acting categories on the play side are some of the hottest races this year. Among the men, the contest is among Liev Schreiber, playing a self-aggrandizing radio D.J. in "Talk Radio"; Christopher Plummer, making a case as Henry Drummond in the revival of "Inherit the Wind"; Frank Langella, channeling Richard Nixon in "Frost/Nixon"; Brian F. O'Byrne, channeling Alexander Herzen in "The Coast of Utopia"; and Boyd Gaines, as an avuncular lieutenant trying to hold it together in "Journey's End."

The leading actress in a play category includes Broadway royalty — Vanessa Redgrave playing Joan Didion in "The Year of Magical Thinking"; Angela Lansbury as a retired tennis pro in "Deuce"; and Swoosie Kurtz as the dryly witty Hesione Hushabye from "Heartbreak House" — and some neophytes: Eve Best, making her Broadway debut as the lovelorn Josie Hogan in "A Moon for the Misbegotten," and Julie White, in her breakout role as the agent Diane in "The Little Dog Laughed."

The leading actress in a musical category is strong, even though Christine Ebersole, portraying Little and Big Edie Beale in "Grey Gardens," is considered a front runner.

She has stiff competition, though, from Audra McDonald, playing an unhappily unmarried woman in the revival of "110 in the Shade"; Laura Bell Bundy playing the blonde in "Legally Blonde"; Donna Murphy playing Lotte Lenya in "LoveMusik"; and Debra Monk playing a money hungry theater producer (insert cynical joke here) in "Curtains."

The leading actor in a musical is not a category that has attracted as much buzz, but on the other hand there is no clear frontrunner yet. The nominees include Raul Esparza, as Bobby in John Doyle's revival of "Company"; Michael Cerveris, as Kurt Weill in "LoveMusik"; David Hyde Pierce as a showbiz-smitten detective in "Curtains"; Gavin Lee as a chimney sweep Burt in "Mary Poppins" and Jonathan Groff as the precocious Melchior in "Spring Awakening."

There's a little déjà vu in the musical revival category: John Doyle, whose stripped-down, re-envisioned "Sweeney Todd" lost in an upset to "The Pajama Game" last year, will have another chance when his stripped-down, re-envisioned "Company" goes up against "A Chorus Line," "The Apple Tree" and "110 in the Shade."

Mr. Doyle, who won best director of a musical category last year, is back in the category again, alongside Michael Mayer ("Spring Awakening"), Michael Greif ("Grey Gardens") and Scott Ellis ("Curtains").

In the play revival category, "Journey's End," will be competing against "Talk Radio," "Inherit the Wind" and "Translations."

David Grindley, the director of "Journey's End" was nominated for best director of a play, along with Michael Grandage ("Frost/Nixon"), Melly Still ("Coram Boy") and Jack O'Brien ("The Coast of Utopia").

The featured actress in a play category includes Jennifer Ehle and Martha Plimpton, both from "The Coast of Utopia"; Xanthe Elbrick and Jan Maxwell, both from "Coram Boy"; and Dana Ivey from "Butley."

The featured actor in a play category includes Billy Crudup and Ethan Hawke, both from "The Coast of Utopia"; Anthony Chisholm and John Earl Jelks, both from "Radio Golf" and Stark Sands from "Journey's End."

On the musical side, the featured actors nominated are Brooks Ashmanskas ("Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me"), Christian Borle ("Legally Blonde"), John Cullum ("110 in the Shade"), John Gallagher, Jr. ("Spring Awakening") and David Pittu ("LoveMusik"). The featured actresses are Rebecca Luker ("Mary Poppins"), Charlotte d'Amboise ("A Chorus Line"), Orfeh ("Legally Blonde"), Mary Louis Wilson ("Grey Gardens") and Karen Ziemba ("Curtains").

(Source: The New York Times | Theater | 'Spring Awakening' Gets 11 Tony Nominations)

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Tony Nods Odds

'SPRING' IS IN; 'BLONDE' SEEKS OUTSIDE PUSH

MICHAEL RIEDEL

May 11, 2007 -- 'DO not speak to the press," Elizabeth I. McCann, the executive producer of the Tony Awards, recently instructed the Tony nominators.

"Especially the persistent Michael Riedel."

Nice try, Liz, but I'm afraid you've been thwarted.

Over the last couple of days, I've spoken to several nominators - usually in various parking garages around Manhattan in the dead of night - to get a sense of how next week's nominations will shake out.

The three sure bets for Best Musical are "Spring Awakening," "Curtains" and "Grey Gardens." Every nominator I spoke to says so.

The fourth slot is up for grabs, the contenders being "Mary Poppins," "LoveMusik" and "Legally Blonde."

All are seriously flawed. "Mary Poppins" is "a big bore," one nominator says. "LoveMusik" is thought to be ambitious but "clunkily" staged by Hal Prince. And "Legally Blonde" is described as "empty" and "dumb," with "a terrible score."

The producers of "Legally Blonde" are desperate for that fourth slot. If they get it, they're going to marshal the so-called "road vote" in an effort to topple "Spring Awakening."

The "road vote" is made up of theater owners and presenters from around the country. The producers of "Blonde" are convinced the road will vote for their show because it will sell much better around the country than "Spring Awakening," which deals with teenage sexuality.

The only things standing in their way are the Tony nominators.

Some of the savvier ones are onto the plan, and I think they'll deny that fourth slot to "Legally Blonde" as a way of protecting "Spring Awakening," a musical everybody with a brain in this industry recognizes as a beautiful and important show.

That fourth slot, then, will go to "LoveMusik," an arty show that stands no chance of winning, and the "Blonde" backers will see red instead of pink.

On the Best Play front, "The Coast of Utopia," "Frost/Nixon" and "Radio Golf," the late August Wilson's final work, are shoo-ins. The fourth slot is likely to go to "The Little Dog Laughed," a funny off-Broadway play that just couldn't survive on Broadway.

"The Year of Magical Thinking" will not get in because nominators think it's "a recitation" rather than a play.

As for "Coram Boy," the only people who despise it more than the critics are the Tony nominators.

The most hotly contested acting category is for Leading Actor in a Play. Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon"), Christopher Plummer ("Inherit the Wind") and Liev Schreiber ("Talk Radio") all win praise from the nominators. The remaining slots are likely to go to Bill Nighy, fondly remembered for his performance in "The Vertical Hour," and - here's the surprise - Boyd Gaines, who, one nominator says, "is simply astounding" in "Journey's End."

Kevin Spacey will not make the cut for "A Moon for the Misbegotten." Nominators knock him for being too "jumpy" and "antic."

"Journey's End" is a huge hit with the nominators. They know it's struggling at the box office, so they're planning to shower it with what they hope will be box-office boosting nominations - Best Revival of a Play, Best Director (David Grindley) and supporting acting nods for Stark Sands and Nick Berg Barnes.

Another production nominators are talking about is the revival of Brian Friel.

"Journey's End" is a huge hit with the nominators. They know it's struggling at the box office, so they're planning to shower it with what they hope will be box-office boosting nominations - Best Revival of a Play, Best Director (David Grindley) and supporting acting nods for Stark Sands and Nick Berg Barnes.

Another production nominators are talking about is the revival of Brian Friel's "Translations," now closed. Expect it to pick up nods for Best Revival and Best Director (Garry Hynes). Cast members Susan Lynch, Chandler Williams and Niall Buggy could all snag nods for featured actor.

In addition to "Journey's End" and "Translations," the other nominees for Best Revival of a Play will be "Inherit the Wind" and "Talk Radio."

There is almost no support for "Moon" save for Eve Best, who's sure to get the nod as Best Actress in a Play. She'll go up against Vanessa Redgrave ("Magical Thinking") and Julie White ("Little Dog Laughed").

The nominators also seem to favor Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes, although no one has a good word to say about "Deuce," the play in which these two great ladies star.

Christine Ebersole ("Grey Gardens"), Donna Murphy ("LoveMusik"), Audra McDonald ("110 in the Shade") and Kristin Chenoweth ("The Apple Tree") will be nominated for Best Actress in a Musical.

And Debra Monk, very funny in "Curtains," will just beat out Laura Belle Bundy, of "Legally Blonde," for the fifth slot. The nominators like Bundy; they just don't think she's a star.

As for Best Revival of a Musical, in a year of slim pickings, if you opened, you're in. So the nominees will be: "Company," "110 in the Shade," "A Chorus Line" and "The Apple Tree."

Only the embalmed "Les Miserables" will remain in the morgue.

The nominators meet Monday at 4:30 p.m. at the Edison Café on West 47th Street.

The doors will be locked; the windows covered with brown paper. And Liz McCann better check the matzo balls for hidden microphones.

(Source: New York Post | Theater | On Broadway | Tony Nods Odds)

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