2013 Tony Nominations

It's my favorite time of the year. When the theater community (OK, theater producers) recognize the best of the theater season.

A number of notable snubs ("Chaplin" has one lone nomination; Alec Baldwin and Bette Midler were not nominated). My predictions for the winner are in bold.

"Lucky Guy"

 Best Play

"The Assembled Parties" by Richard Greenberg

"Lucky Guy" by Nora Ephron (The late playwright and screenwriter's last work, duh!)

"The Testament of Mary" by Colm Toibin

"Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" by Christopher Durang

"Matilda"

Best Musical

"Bring It On, The Musical"

"A Christmas Story, The Musical"

"Kinky Boots, The Musical"

"Matilda, The Musical"

Best book of a musical

"A Christmas Story, The Musical" Joseph Robinette

"Kinky Boots" Harvey Fierstein

"Matilda, The Musical" Dennis Kelly

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella" Douglas Carter Beane

Best Revival of a Play

"Golden Boy" Producers: Lincoln Center Theater, André Bishop, Bernard Gersten

"Orphans"

"The Trip to Bountiful"

"Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

"Pippin"

Best Revival of a Musical

"Annie"

'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'

"Pippin"

"Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella"

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

"A Christmas Story, The Musical" Music and Lyrics: Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

"Hands on a Hardbody" Music: Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green Lyrics: Amanda Green

"Kinky Boots" Music & Lyrics: Cyndi Lauper (Tony voters shouldn't pass up the chance to make history here; Should Lauper win, she will be the first female composer to be nominated solo --previous female composers have shared the nomination)

"Matilda The Musical" Music & Lyrics: Tim Minchin

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

Tom Hanks, "Lucky Guy"

Nathan Lane, "The Nance"

Tracy Letts, "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

David Hyde Pierce, "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

Tom Sturridge "Orphans"

Cicely Tyson in "The Trip to Bountiful"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

Laurie Metcalf, The Other Place

Amy Morton , "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Kristine Nielsen, "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

Holland Taylor, "Ann"

Cicely Tyson, "The Trip to Bountiful"

Billy Porter, "Kinky Boots"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

Bertie Carvel, "Matilda, The Musical"

Santino Fontana, "Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella"

Rob McClure, "Chaplin"

Billy Porter, "Kinky Boots"

Stark Sands, "Kinky Boots"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Music

Stephanie J. Block, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

Carolee Carmello, "Scandalous"

Valisia LeKae, "Motown The Musical"

Patina Miller, "Pippin"

Laura Osnes, "Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

Danny Burstein, "Golden Boy"

Richard Kind, "The Big Knife"

Billy Magnussen, "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

Tony Shalhoub, "Golden Boy"

Courtney B. Vance, "Lucky Guy"

Judith Light (r) with Jessica Hecht in "The Assembled Parties"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

Carrie Coon, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Shalita Grant, "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

Judith Ivey, "The Heiress"

Judith Light, "The Assembled Parties"

Condola Rashad, "The Trip to Bountiful"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

Charl Brown, "Motown, The Musical"

Keith Carradine, "Hands on a Hardbody"

Will Chase, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

Gabriel Ebert, "Matilda The Musical"

Terrence Mann, "Pippin"

Annaleigh Ashford, "Kinky Boots"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

Annaleigh Ashford, "Kinky Boots"

Victoria Clark, "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella"

Andrea Martin, "Pippin"

Keala Settle, "Hands on a Hardbody"

Lauren Ward, "Matilda, The Musical"

Best Scenic Design of a Play

John Lee Beatty, "The Nance"

Santo Loquasto, "The Assembled Parties"

David Rockwell, "Lucky Guy"

Michael Yeargan, "Golden Boy"

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

Rob Howell, "Matilda, The Musical"

Anna Louizos, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

Scott Pask, "Pippin"

David Rockwell, "Kinky Boots"

Best Costume Design of a Play

Soutra Gilmour, "Cyrano de Bergerac"

Ann Roth, "The Nance"

Albert Wolsky, "The Heiress"

Catherine Zuber, "Golden Boy"

Best Costume Design of a Musical

Gregg Barnes, "Kinky Boots

Rob Howell, "Matilda, The Musical"

Dominique Lemieux, "Pippin"

William Ivey Long, "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella"

Best Lighting Design of a Play

Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer, "Lucky Guy"

Donald Holder, "Golden Boy"

Jennifer Tipton, "The Testament of Mary"

Japhy Weideman, "The Nance"

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

Kenneth Posner, "Kinky Boots"

Kenneth Posner, "Pippin"

Kenneth Posner, "Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella"

Hugh Vanstone, "Matilda The Musical"

Best Sound Design of a Play

John Gromada, "The Trip to Bountiful"

Mel Mercier, "The Testament of Mary"

Leon Rothenberg, "The Nance"

Peter John Still and Marc Salzberg, "Golden Boy"

Best Sound Design of a Musical

Jonathan Deans & Garth Helm, "Pippin"

Peter Hylenski, "Motown The Musical"

John Shivers, "Kinky Boots"

Nevin Steinberg, "Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella"

Best Direction of a Play

Pam MacKinnon, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Nicholas Martin, "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"

Bartlett Sher, "Golden Boy"

George C. Wolfe, "Lucky Guy"

Best Direction of a Musical

Scott Ellis, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

Jerry Mitchell, "Kinky Boots"

Diane Paulus, "Pippin"

Matthew Warchus, "Matilda, The Musical"

Best Choreography

Andy Blankenbuehler, "Bring It On: The Musical"

Peter Darling, "Matilda, The Musical"

Jerry Mitchell, "Kinky Boots"

Chet Walker, "Pippin"

Best Orchestrations

Chris Nightingale, "Matilda, The Musical"

Stephen Oremus, "Kinky Boots"

Ethan Popp & Bryan Crook, "Motown The Musical"

Danny Troob, "Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella"

Recipients of Awards and Honors in Non-competitive Categories

Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre

Bernard Gersten

Paul Libin

Ming Cho Lee

Regional Theatre Award

Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, MA

Isabelle Stevenson Award

Larry Kramer

Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre

Career Transition For Dancers

William Craver

Peter Lawrence

The Lost Colony

The four actresses who created the title role of Matilda The Musical on Broadway - Sophia

Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon and Milly Shapiro

Tony Nominations by Production

"Kinky Boots" - 13

"Matilda The Musical"- 12

"Pippin" - 10

"Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella" - 9

"Golden Boy" - 8

"Lucky Guy" - 6

"Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" - 6

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" - 5

"The Nance" - 5

"Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" - 5

"Motown The Musical" - 4

"The Trip to Bountiful" - 4

"The Assembled Parties" - 3

"A Christmas Story, The Musical" - 3

"Hands on a Hardbody" - 3

"The Testament of Mary" - 3

"Bring It On: The Musical" - 2

"The Heiress" - 2

"Orphans" - 2

"Ann" - 1

"Annie" - 1

"The Big Knife" - 1

"Chaplin" - 1

"Cyrano de Bergerac" - 1

"The Other Place" - 1

"Scandalous" - 1 

In case anyone knows what I'll be doing the next day or so...my nose will be buried beneath the pages of this, the final "Sookie Stackhouse" book.

"Big Fish" poised to make a Broadway splash next season

Kate Baldwin (left) and Norbert Leo Butz in a scene from "Big Fish."

by Misha Davenport
(cross-posted from Broadwayworld.com)


Never, ever begin a show with a hoedown. Much less a hoedown in the belly of a catfish.                           

Perhaps, I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Big Fish,” is a visually stunning, ambitious and thoroughly original musical currently enjoying its pre-Broadway tryout at the Oriental Theatre. It features Tony award-worthy performances by its leading talents Norbert Leo Butz and Kate Baldwin.

Based on the novel by Daniel Wallace and the 2003 Tim Burton film, the show features a book  by John August (who also penned the film) and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa (more on the latter in a bit).

Norbert Leo Butz appears well on his way to another Tony nomination with his performance of patriarch Edward Bloom. A traveling salesman, Bloom is a world-class spinner of yarns. As played by Butz, he is less P.T. Barnum and more charming huckster who sees the ordinary world and its run-of-the-mill events as an opportunity for the magical and fantastic. Sure, he makes a few edits and stretches the truth along the way, but sometimes the world needs a little embellishing.

Kate Baldwin, singing "I Don't Need a Roof" in "Big Fish"

His wife Sandra (the lovely Kate Baldwin) is no stranger to Southern charm herself and for the most part indulges her husband in his tall tales. The second act ballad “I Don’t Need a Roof” has expressing her profound love for her husband and Baldwin’s performance is the emotional highlight of both the show and the score.

A father’s tall tales are a poor replacement for an absent father, however. Their son Will (played as a child on alternating days by Anthony Pierini and Zachary Unger and as an adult by Bobby Steggert) initially resents his father’s absences at all his baseball and soccer games and soon grows to resent his father’s tales. As an adult, Will is an award-winning journalist who has traveled the globe to expose the truth through his reporting.

His father’s cancer diagnosis forces the prodigal son to return home and for dad and son to come to terms with their relationship.

Essentially a memory play, father and son explore Edward’s life, albeit from two very different perspectives. Edward wants one more last chance to tell his stories complete with their exaggerations; his son simply wants to know the truth.

You will believe a man can fly (after being shot out of a cannon).

Thank goodness for the fanciful, however. Under Susan Stroman’s expert direction and choreography, Julian Crouch (scenic design) and Donald Holder (lighting design) are able to conjure up some truly magical moments of theater: a dark and haunted forest comes alive with bats, witches and scary trees, the stage overflows with brightly colored daffodils, and a  trio of elephants (seen from their backsides) dance in time beneath a big top circus.  When the big fish of the title finally makes her appearance late into the show, we’ve been treated to so many spectacles that the poor fish is horribly upstaged.

Lippa’s score and lyrics are perhaps the most complex that we have seen from the composer. There are definite strong points. Including the previously mentioned “I Don’t Need a Roof,” the score also features a bluesy “I Know What You Want” (song by Katie Thompson who plays the witch as equal parts Bonnie Tyler and Bonnie Raitt), “Bigger” (in which Ryan Andes as the giant Karl effortlessly sings and dances wearing stilts) and “Time Stops” (a splendid duet between Butz and Baldwin).

Much like “The Addams Family”( Lippa’s previous show that enjoyed a pre-Broadway run here) it’s in need of a new opening number. “The God’s Honest Truth” is equal parts hoedown and church-ish revival. It fails to set the magical tone of the rest of the piece.

Also at odds is the show’s final number “How It Ends.” For a man who had imagined living such a unique life, his final moments are perhaps a bit too quiet.

Still, the show has several months to fix these things. As it stands, “Big Fish” has enough in place to indicate it should make a big splash next season on Broadway.

“Big Fish” runs through May 5 at the Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph. Tickets, $33-$100. Call (800) 775-2000. www.BroadwayInChicago.com.

Election Day! Exercise your civic duty...

No kinks here, "Kinky Boots" is a crowd-pleaser



From left: Billy Porter as Lola, Annaleigh Ashford as Lauren and Stark Sands as Charile in "Kinky Boots."
Photo by Sean Williams

“Kinky Boots,” the new musical which opened its pre-Broadway tryout last night, is a bona fide, crowd-pleasing hit.

If you've been waiting for the reviews to come in before buying your tickets, you might want to forgo the heels and put on your flats. You're going to need them to race down to the Bank of America Theater to get tickets. Like "The Producers" before it, Chicago is being treated to a first look at what should be one of the Broadway season's biggest hits, but the show is only here to Nov. 4. The show should quickly become the hottest ticket in town –and quite deservedly.

Based on the 2005 sleeper film of the same name, “Kinky Boots” features a book by Tony winning playwright Harvey Fierstein, a score and lyrics by Grammy-winning pop icon Cyndi Lauper and energetic and well-paced direction and choreography from Tony award-winning director Jerry Mitchell. It's a rousing, heartfelt and sentimental musical that happens to have a drag queen front and center.

"Kinky Boots" tells the story of Charlie Price (Stark Sands) who, after his father's death, reluctantly leaves his more urban-minded fiancé Nicola (Celina Carvajal) in London to return home to Northhampton to run the family's shoe business. The shoe business is in decline and Charlie is faced with the possibility that he may have to soon sack several of the factory workers, including the feisty Lauren (Annaleigh Ashford).

After a chance meeting in London with a drag queen with a broken highheel boot (Billy Porter, as Lola), Charlie decides that the niche market of women's shoes for men might just be the thing to save the family business, but he'll have to convince the closed minded blue collar workforce and Lola (whom he wants to design the shoes) that it is a good idea.

As Lola, Billy Porter is mesmerizing in a performance that will surely earn him a Tony nomination. His Lola is equal parts Tina Turner and Whitney Houston, fierce in his delivery of both line and song.

Annaleigh Ashford, best known to Chicago audiences as Glinda in the sit-down production of “Wicked” nearly stops the show with the hilarious “The History of the Wrong Guys” (which also happens to be the most Lauper-sounding song in the show.  

Barring some miraculous recovery, the economic climate in the musical should resonate with theatergoers (assuming, of course, economically depressed factory workers can afford to go to live theater; hey, there's always the TKTS ticket booth). In an age of Bain-style venture capitalism, the very idea that Charlie would choose to return home and save the family business (as opposed to leveraging it to the hilt, driving it into bankruptcy and collecting his golden parachute on the way out) may seem particularly far-fetched. The fact that both musical and film are based on a true story may seem the work of fantasy in a country where CEOs like Charlie are an even smaller niche than those shopping for women's footwear in men's sizes. We could use a few more Charlie Prices, willing to strap on heels and do the right thing, though.

He doesn't do it alone, though. And that's the point. The show celebrates industry, ingenuity, dreams and hard work. It's about sticking together and, as themes explored in the finale "Raise You Up/Just Be" imply, there is more power in raising each other up instead of tearing each other down for some short-term personal gain.  

Fierstein returns to the well once again with the theme of what makes a man, but you can't fault a guy for so thouroughly humanizing Lola. Perhaps moreso than in either "Torchsong Trilogy" or "La Cage aux Folles," Fierstein succeeds in visually showing us something that Ru Paul has been saying for years: we're all born naked, everything after that is drag. The clothes we chose to wear do not define our worth and that goes for drag queens or dock workers.

Mitchell's choreography deserves a shout out particularly for the first-act closer "Everybody Say Yeah" in which factory worker and drag queen alike gyrate on moving convey belts.

Gregg Barnes’ costumes capture the blue collar feel of the factory workers as well as the more fantastical outfits worn by Lola and his drag queen backup singers. When the thigh length, red-sequined heels first roll off the assembly line at the end of the first act, they are more than just shoes; it is the visual equivalent of Eliza Doolittle making her debut.   



Perhaps the biggest surprise is Lauper’s score. Unlike other recording artists who try their hands at writing a Broadway show and never seem to understand the medium of the Broadway musical, Lauper proves she is equally adept at crafting radio-ready, hook-heavy pop and dance songs the likes we’ve never heard in a Broadway show as well as traditional Broadway ballads, duets and ensemble numbers. “Sex is in the Heel” and “Raise You Up/Just Be” are infectious pop songs with beats that will get you up and moving. “Hold Me In Your Heart” and “I’m Not My Father’s Son,” are delivered with such honesty, they might have you reaching for the tissues.

Still, a few minor things will need to be tweaked before the April Broadway opening. Charlie’s quasi-materialistic fiance Nikola is a bit underwritten and the terrific actress Celina Caravajal does her best with what she is given (which is to say,  not much).

Sand’s Charlie shifts a bit too quickly from factory savior to boss from hell and his relationship with Ashford’s Lauren needs to be further developed as well.

“We're the same, you and me, Charlie boy," Lola tells Charlie at the end of the first act and with that, the show places it's well-designed heels on one of those universal truths: there is so much more that unites us rather than divides us.  "Kinky Boots" heart is in the right place and its heels are on firm ground.  

"Kinky Boots" runs through Nov. 4 at the Bank of America Theater, 18 W. Monroe. Tickets, $33-$100. Call 800-775-2000. www.broadwayinchicago.com; www.kinkybootsthemusical.com



A "Kinky" tease



Stark Sands (left, as Charlie Price) and Billy Porter (as Lola) in "Kinky Boots"
photo by Sean Williams

 "Kinky Boots" officially has it's pre-Broadway opening tonight (it's been in previews for the past couple of weeks). Come back tomorrow for my review, but until then please enjoy the production shot of the charming leads in the show, Stark Sands and Billy Porter.

And if you haven't seen the show yet, buy your tickets! It's important to support live theater, especially new works. Ticket deals can be had for weekday performances. You can always say you saw it first!

It's no "1776," I'll give you that



The cast of Bailiwick's "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson"
photo by Michael Brosilow

Much like the presidency that it depicts, Bailiwick’s Chicago premiere of the off-Broadway hit musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” is a mixed bag.  

For those who thought “Spring Awakening,” “Urinetown” and “American Idiot” played it too safe, “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” may just fit the bill as truly the first punk rock musical. The 100-minute, intermission-less show is a hipster re-envisioning of history; our seventh president is painted with the largest of brushstrokes as a guyliner-wearing, hip-swaggering, Emo rock star in tight jeans.

Loosely sketched, the show is equal parts satire, cartoonish vaudeville act and critique of our political process and dark history. It plays fast and loose with actual history, though (you would no sooner be advised to treat this as a history lesson than you would a marathon of “Hogan’s Heroes” as a lecture on World War II prisoner of war camps).

Matt Holzfeind as the charismatic President/rockstar
photo by Michael Brosilow

As the man who literally had the presidency stolen out from under him by a Congress that feared the true will of the people, Matt Holzfeind is a charismatic force of nature; a noble feat considering he is on stage singing, dancing for the major for most of the show.

As Jackson’s long-suffering wife Rachel, Samantha Dubina brings heat and longing to the proceedings. There’s often a quiet nobility to her performance as we watch her cope with a husband struggling to strike a balance between his public and private life.  

Other shout outs in the cast: Judy Lea Steele brings the laughs as the motorized scooter-bound modern narrator, Jill Sesso’s performance of “Ten Little Indians” elevates things almost to the level of Laurie Anderson’s performance art, Patrick Rooney’s guitar virtuosity and rocking vocals on several male solos and the overall band (lead by the Jeff nominated music director James Morehead) who are as much a part of the action as the actors.

Nick Sieben’s scenic design draws the starkest analogy to our current political climate. Occupy Wall Street handbills share wall space with posters that urge you to “Vote Addams, Vote often” and others advertising tickets to Cleveland Indians baseball (the smiling face of the Cleveland Indians mascot is particularly jarring given the atrocities depicted in the play). Sieben also scores extra points for the 24 paper lanterns hung above the stage which represent the 24 states that made up the union when Jackson took office (Arkansas and Michigan would be added during his tenure, but that’s perhaps more factual history than you’ll gleam from the show).

For a company that has in part a history in presenting intelligent gay theater, crass stereotypes were the go-to for cheap laughs, particularly in “The Corrupt Bargain.” Whether this was a choice made by the individual male actors or director Scott Ferguson, it’s a bit of a head scratcher.  Just what do we think is witty, sardonic or “post-modern” about the embrace of gay stereotypes, gentlemen?

It’s also likely that the play’s unconventional format and 11^th hour shift to a more serious tone will bewilder some theatergoers.

Bailiwick Chicago’s production of “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” runs through Nov. 11 at the National Pastime Theater, 941 W. Lawrence, 4^th floor. Tickets, $25-$30. Free performance on election night (Nov. 6) with proof you voted. bailiwickchicago.com