Two Broadway shows already have announced their early closing in the week after the Tony Award nominations, prompting odd pushback from the producer of one of the shows. (see 4 below)
The Tony Awards are far from the only theater awards. The New York Drama Critics Circle announced their winners this week. If you don’t know the difference between the Drama Critics Circle, the Drama League and the Drama Desk Awards, check out my 2013 Theater Awards Roundup & Guide
Every time you turn around, there’s another theater award, but there never seem to be enough, so I added my own — and you can vote for the winner!
More than just awards have been going on this week, and this month. To test how well you have been paying attention, answer the 10 questions of the New York Theater April 2013 quiz. And read below for New York theater news from April 29 to May 5.
The Week in New York Theater
Monday, April 29, 2013
Ayad Akhtar, this year’s winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, is a first-time playwright?
@newyorktheater Makes a good story. Been writing screenplays and fiction filled with scenes for twenty years. Just happy anybody cares!
— Ayad Akhtar (@ayadakhtar) April 29, 2013
@newyorktheater not plays. screenplays. disgraced was indeed the first play i wrote. though i wrote it concurrently with two others…
— Ayad Akhtar (@ayadakhtar) April 29, 2013
Blythe Danner will play Sarah Jessica Parker’s mother in Amanda Peet’s playwriting debut “The Commons of Pensacola” at the Manhattan Theater Club, opening November 21
The Olivier-winning performance of Helen Mirren in “The Audience” will be broadcast live June 13 on movie screens across the U.S. via National Live. “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” will be broadcast in September; it just won seven Olivier Awards (the British equivalent of the Tonys), tying with Matilda for most ever.
There’s only us
There’s only this
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss
No other road
No other way
No day but today ~
Rent opened today on Bway in 1996
30
Does anybody ever stay up all night for fear of waking up too late for the Tony Award nominations?
SeekingTheExit @blackoutpete All the hopeful nominees – who will then tell the “I was asleep when my agent called…” story
Get sleep. SET ALARM! RT @newyorktheater: Does anybody ever stay up all night for fear of waking up too late for the Tony Award nominations?
— The Tony Awards (@TheTonyAwards) April 30, 2013
I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft~JFK
Praise is saltwater. Drink it and you become thirsty~David Hare.
Awards are silly. If you accept it when they say you deserve an award,then you have to accept it when they say you don’t~Woody Allen
Awards sell tickets, and they’re a clever publicity stunt…You musn’t take any award so seriously~ Tony Randall
2013 Tony Award Nominations
Kenneth Posner won three of the four nominations for lighting design — but his one competitor designed Matilda
“The Testament of Mary” will close Sunday, run May 5 after 16 regular performances — more than a month early — although it was just nominated for three Tony Awards.
Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater): Anybody see any outrageous omissions? I don’t
Ann Harada @annharada Josh Rhodes should have been nommed for Cinderella choreo. And I’m not just saying that cause I’m in it.
Jonathan Mandell: I thought the choreography was fine but (this is tricky) which show would you have dropped to make room for it?
Ann Harada I see what you’re saying but so much of the love story is told through dance
Scott Heller @hellerNYT Even Sue Mengers’s decorator got snubbed. No nomination for that sumptuous living room set in I’ll Eat You Last
Jonathan Mandell: Which scenic design would you have replaced for it? The Nance, The Assembled Parties, Lucky Guy, or Golden Boy?
Scott Heller : Good point @NewYorkTheater as those were all strong in their own way (though I’m not a turntable lover)
Chandra Thomas @truechandra There seems to be quite some reaction to the lack of Best Musical nom for #MotownTheMusical.
Jonathan Mandell: I think the four nominations it got are spot-on (I might have given costume design a nomination too). The book was too awful.
Chandra Thomas I haven’t seen it yet so i have no opinion on the matter but there have already been some grumbles.
lizwoolf @lizwoolf I was hoping Seth Numrich would get a nod for Golden Boy, but it was a tough category, as always.
Congrats to all the Tony Nominees today!!! Woo Hoo!!! 🎉🎊🎈🎉🎊🎈🎉🎊🎈🎉🎊🎈
— Megan Hilty (@meganhilty) April 30, 2013
Jonathan Mandell: Will Smash have a Tony episode?
David Yazbek @DavidYazbek OH PLEASE PLEASE YES! SAY YES!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 1, 2013
2013 Tony Award Nomination Snubs — And Why They Shouldn’t Be Considered Snubs
“Beautiful—The Carole King Musical” to debut at SHN Curran Theater in San Francisco in September, aiming for a Spring 2014 Broadway run
The Elmos and SuperMarios MissLiberties and SpongeBobs are out In force. This could give a child nightmares #middleagedmantoo
Allie Horton @alliehorton01
I always thought the Elmos that weren’t even red were the creepiest!
Steven Tartick @Tartick I was clipped by a bootleg SpongeBob just this afternoon.
Theater Awards Roundup And Guide
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Test how well you were paying attention. New York Theater April 2013 Quiz, special theater awards edition.
Nine-time Tony winner Tommy Tune will be at Town Hall on June 1 in “Steps in Time – A Broadway Biography in Song & Dance”
After only eight weeks, Lucky Guy has made back its $3.6 million capitalization — I.e., recouped.
Jason’s Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years with Betsy Wolfe and Adam J. Kantor ends at Second Stages on May 18, but will live on as a cast album by ShKBoom.
Lindsay Mendez, so terrific in Dogfight and Godspell , will play Elphaba in Wicked starting May 28th
The Nance, with Nathan Lane as a gay burlesque comic in the 1930s, has been extended on Broadway through August 11th.
For her version of “Pippin,” director Diana Paulus reached back to the wisdom of the Ancients – distracting us from a dud by offering bread and circuses…“Pippin” has acrobats who jump through hoops to entertain us, as well as jugglers, aerialists on trapezes, a human jump-rope, pole-climbers, back-flippers, and contortionists who waddle up the aisle with their heads between their legs. What is most extraordinary about all these acts is that they are performed not just by the life-long circus artists, but by the regular cast – most memorably Andrea Martin, in a deliciously comic turn as Pippin’s lustful grandmother…I think Paulus may be onto something with her circus acts that could revive not just “Pippin” but all of Broadway’s worst shows. In the 2012-2013 season alone: What if prisoner Patti LuPone had performed a Houdini escape in The Anarchist, or Cheyenne Jackson in The Performers had engaged in simulated sex mid-air on a trapeze?..
3
NY Drama Critics Circle: Best play: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Best musical: Matilda. Special certificates to SoHo rep, New York City Center’s Encores! series, scenic designer John Lee Beatty
Jekyll and Hyde will close on Broadway Sunday May 12th, six weeks early, after 15 previews and 30 regular performances.
Buyer and Cellar with Michael Urie closes May 12 at Rattlestick – then reopens June 18 at Barrow St Theater!
Actors Equity objects to special Tony Award to The Lost Colony because it uses non-union actors.
Surviving Mommie Dearest: Joan Crawford’s daughter 35 years later
4
My Playbill article about Valisia LeKae and Brandon Victor Dixon, who play Diana Ross and her mentor and lover Berry Gordy Jr. in Motown The Musical. I also offer a photo gallery of Ross and Gordy through the years, and what they’ve said about each other and their relationship.
Producer Scott Rudin attacks Patrick Healy of the New York Times IN the New York Times
5
Broadway’s Best Abs — a new award
Jenny Lyn Bader @JennyLynBader Seems unfair not to consider Off and Off-off Broadway abs…
Jonathan Mandell: Yes, well, think of this as the Tony for Torsos. There would be a separate Obie for Abs
2013 Lucille Lortel Award winners
“Dogfight” won best musical and best choreography. “The Whale” won best play and best costume design, and its lead Shuler Hensley won best leading actor.”The Piano Lesson” took home four awards, including best revival, best director, best featured actor and best lead actress — the last two categories trumping nominees Jake Gyllenhaal and Vanessa Redgrave.
Click on any photograph to see it enlarged
1 thought on “Tony Awards Fallout. The Pippin Approach. Scott Rudin Roars.”