Monday, May 26, 2014

The Tony Awards: The Best Revival of a Play Nominees on TV

The nominees for Best Revival of a Play represent a wide variety of plays - comedy and drama, classic American, classic modern European, and classic (in every way) Shakespeare.  They also represent some of the very best in theatre from the entire season!

The Cripple of Inishmaan



Grade: C Okay, they can claim "The Most Tony Nominations of Any Play On Broadway," but on a technicality... the plays that got the most, its competition, no less, isn't "on" Broadway anymore.  And a laugh track to show how "funny" it is?  Wow.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the play, and they are smart to include some of the visual comedy in the ad, but people shouldn't go into it expecting a guffaw-fest.  And, just as with the Tony nominations, the best thing about it, star Daniel Radcliffe gets the short shrift here.

Twelfth Night



Grade: A  Since it closed long before the Tony nominations, obviously they couldn't come up with/didn't need an awards-related ad.  But what is here represents the show perfectly, from the "Elizabethan" sounding British voice, to the visuals that match the critical huzzahs and still manage to capture Shakespearean grandeur and simplicity of the production.  Classy.  The ad, like the production, is first-rate.

A Raisin in the Sun
Apparently, there is no TV ad for Raisin, at least not one I could find.  Of course, who needs one, when your show is already sold out!

The Glass Menagerie
I've already rhapsodized over this brilliant show many times.  And the same for their commercial - HERE.

BONUS!: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill






Both Grade A+: Let there be no doubt, even in these 15 second ads, that Audra McDonald loses herself (and any previous expectations the audience might have) in the role of Billie Holiday.  And the song choices tht go along with the montage of bits match the actual show's tone and serious nature.  Has anyone done "cut-up shtick" and looked so tragic doing it? The ads make this look like must-see theatre, and for Audra alone, it is.

Jeff
5.178

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