The Playgoer: Tony Noms 09

Custom Search

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Tony Noms 09

It explodes with more of a whimper every year...

NYT's Patrick Healy live-blogged the nomination announcements this morning. Playgoer, of course, will be live-blogging the award show itself, as per tradition. (Let's see if Mr. Healy does the same. Will Playgoer have some competition this year? Hm...)

Healy's page is all full of who missed out. I for one am kinda glad some folks missed out for a change and we actually had enough strong openings to not have to nominate everyone just to fill the categories! And for every celebrity that didn't get nominated there's three or four hardworking pavement pounding stage actors who didn't either.

On the other hand, let's hear it for downtown darling Marin Ireland! (Who lucked out in replacing the otherwise busy Allison Pill in Reasons to be Pretty.)

I do think it's interesting Desire Under the Elms got completely shafted, just because the sheer presence of such an insane piece of directors' theatre (of a god-awful O'Neill play) on Broadway amuses me. At the very least the direction and production elements deserved some recognition but I guess the Tony voters just didn't know what to make of it all.

In other news...can you just imagine hearing the phrase "Tony Award Winning Actor Constantine Maroulis"???? As far as fame goes, though, it's quite a comedown from American Idol.

And, finally, the most gossippy story is the dissing of 9 to 5 despite a very clear and desperate attempt to take the Tonys by storm at the last minute. Tonys instead gave the nod to the little rock musical that could Rock of Ages, which at least is a refreshing contrast to that market-tested behemoth posing as a musical.

On the other hand, there is Shrek...

See y'all on June 7.

4 comments:

JESSICA TAGHAP said...

I LOVE THAT MARIN IRELAND IS NOMINATED! I got the chance to see her in Blasted and she was awesome. As Allison Pill was my reason to see Reasons (oh look, a play on words) when it was off-Broadway, Ireland is mine for the Broadway transfer (I still have yet to see it!).

As for Constantine, I didn't even know he was in Rock of Ages! That just makes things ten times better now, haha.

I might just be live-blogging teh Tonys, now that I have a computer this year. You probably don't have to consider me as "competition", because I'm pretty much going to rant the whole time, as that is how my train of thought works. Should be a fun night.

Abigail Katz said...

I have to cheer for my old friend, Brian Yorkey- hurrah! He and Tom Kitt deserve recognition, and I'm glad they got it. I also have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Nine to Five, regardless of what the critics (et tu Playgoer?) have to say. Of course that's largely because I've seen the film at least 1,000 times and can quote large sections, so it becomes a whole other form of entertainment. But also Allison Janey is AWESOME and Megan Hilty and Stephanie Block have voices that can reach next week. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Anonymous said...

Rock Of Ages is not a memorable musical and will not be remembered. That doesn't mean I think 9 To 5 is a classic either. But I suppose either were preferable to Title Of Show.

Anonymous said...

I'm just crazy about Marin, love that girl...