TBT: Xanadu

It was seven years ago today that Xanadu opened on Broadway.  Given the pre-show buzz, it is truly AMAZING that it had a year plus run (49 previews, 512 performances at the Helen Hayes Theatre), spawned a very successful cast recording, and boasts a cast that, today, reads like a who's who of the young Broadway elite.  Based on a flop film, but full of huge hits and some really rockin' tunes originally sung by ELO and Olivia Newton John, the show came in with very little buzz, and what there was was negative.  The naysayers and gossip columnists were sharpening their knives, ready to chop it apart and shut it down. Then the previews started and the response was largely positive, and then really took off as word spread that this uber self-aware meta-musical was a ton of fun, full of great laughs, performances and a blinding set of disco balls.

Heck, I'll even admit that the first time (I think I saw it 6 or 7 times altogether) Mike and I went to see it, we were prepared for the worst, thinking, "hey, the music will be decent, and we'll have something to talk about - read: make fun of - for years to come.  Well, we did talk about it (and still do, fondly) and had a blast the whole time!  Seriously.

The original cast featured Kerry Butler (solidifying herself as a true stage presence after Hairspray), Cheyenne Jackson (smarting after leading the company of the flop All Shook Up, and being the hero by replacing the seriously injured James Carpinello), the great Tony Roberts (who looked to be having the time of his life), and the bewitching and brilliantly funny Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman, who are both now "household names" among the Broadway set.

Cheyenne Jackson, Kerry Butler and Tony Roberts

James Carpinello (left) and Company

Olivia newton-John came to Opening Night!

The Muses: (on floor): Anika Larsen and Kenita R. Miller
(standing) Mary Testa, Curtis Holbrook, Kerry Butler,
Andre Ward and Jackie Hoffman

"Evil Women" Testa and Hoffman (center)
and the ensemble

 And the ensemble included Curtis Holbrook (pre-West Side Story, who went on as Sonny for Cheyenne, and now tearing it up in for Anthony Rapp in If/Then) and Anika Larsen (tearing it up these days as a Tony-nominee in Beautiful).  Before it was over, the likes of Patti Murin, Kate Loprest and Pippin himself, Kyle Dean Massey, and, get this, Whoopi Goldberg graced the "Greek bowl."

With four 2008 Tony nominations, including Best Musical, you have to believe it was MAGIC!

Jeff
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TBT: Brief Encounter and The Normal Heart

In my very first Throwback Thursday blog, I thought I'd take a look back to five seasons ago (2010-2011) at the two plays that really wowed me and continue to be standard setters.  One started the season, the other ended it - two perfect bookends!

The one that started it was the visually stunning Roundabout/Kneehigh production of  Brief Encounter (review HERE).  It was the very thing that thrills me about live theatre... I was completely transported by the acting and the story.  But you can get that from a movie, too.  What made it extra special was that took me away in all the ways that only a live experience can, with jaw-dropping staging and being able to create a believable world of impossibility - people don't swing from chandeliers trying to catch each other in real life!  It is also the single best use of projections I've yet to see on a Broadway stage, before or since.  How great that the actors onstage "joined" the filmed sequences!

Swinging from the chandeliers!

A pre-Matilda Gabriel Ebert

The theatricality!

Actor, meet projections...

The one that ended the season was the emotionally stunning revival of The Normal Heart (review HERE).  I've since seen the touring production of this revival and the HBO film, too.  But version will ever compare to the hold-my-breath-til-it's-over experience of the show that played the Golden Theatre.  Powerful, arresting, a roller coaster... it also contained some of the best acting I have ever, ever seen. Joe Mantello, John Benjamin Hickey and Ellen Barkin still occasionally haunt my dreams.  The memory of the roar of applause at the end of Barkin's masterfully performed monologue, followed by the quiet sobs all around me as the play came to its tragic but empowering conclusion, is one I'll hold with me forever.  The gold standard of modern day acting if you ask me...

Lee Pace, Jim Parsons, Joe Mantello, Patrick Breen

The power of a statement simply told

These people are why there needs to be
an Ensemble Tony Award

Jeff
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The New Tony Nominations Rule: What If...?

You've probably read about the new rule adopted by the Tony Awards Administration Committee regarding the number of nominees in the four major categories.  Simply, it states that if nine or more eligible shows in the Best Play, Best Musical, Best Revival of a Play or Best Revival of a Musical categories open in a season, the committee may choose to nominate up to five shows in those categories.  Also, if there are five or fewer eligible nominees for those categories, the committee may choose to nominate only three shows.  These new rules will come into play as soon as this season.

There are some unknowns at this point:

• Hedwig and the Angry Inch: New musical or revival?
• Violet: New musical or revival?
• Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill: Play or musical? New or Revival?
• The Cripple of Inishmaan: New play or revival?

Even not including any of those in any category, at least 12 new musicals, 10 new plays, and 12 play revivals will have opened.  No matter how these unknowns work out, there won't have been enough musical revivals to add a nominee beyond the typical four.

So, in the last five seasons, who would you have picked for the 5th nominee?  My choices are below.  Write in or Tweet me with your choices!

Best Revival of a Play: All My Sons

Best Musical: [title of show]

NOMINEES/WINNER	POSSIBLE 5TH NOMINEE/MY CHOICE FOR 5TH NOMINEE
2008 – 2009
BEST PLAY	Only 8 eligible new plays opened, so new rule wouldn't apply.
BEST MUSICAL	10 eligible new musicals opened.
Billy Elliot	9 to 5	A Tale of Two Cities
Next to Normal	13	[title of show]
Rock of Ages	The Story of My Life	White Christmas
Shrek: The Musical
BEST PLAY REVIVAL	15 eligible play revivals opened.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone	Accent on Youth	Equus	The Philanthropist
Mary Stuart	All My Sons	Exit the King	The Seagull
The Norman Conquests	Blithe Spirit	Hedda Gabler	Speed-the- Plow
Waiting for Godot	Desire Under the Elms	A Man for All Seasons
BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL	Only 4 eligible musical revivals opened, so new rule wouldn't apply.

Best Play: Superior Donuts

Best Musical: Come Fly Away

NOMINEES/WINNER	POSSIBLE 5TH NOMINEE/MY CHOICE FOR 5TH NOMINEE
2009 - 2010
BEST PLAY	11 eligible new plays opened.
In the Next Room	After Miss Julie	Race
Next Fall	A Behanding in Spokane	A Steady Rain
Red	Enron	Superior Donuts
Time Stands Still	Looped
BEST MUSICAL	9 eligible new musicals opened.
American Idiot	The Addams Family	Everyday Rapture
Fela!	All About  Me	Sondheim on Sondheim
Memphis	Come Fly Away
Million Dollar Quartet
BEST PLAY REVIVAL	9 eligible play revivals opened.
Fences	Collected Stories	Oleanna
Lend Me a Tenor	Hamlet	Present Laughter
The Royal Family	The Miracle Worker
A View from the Bridge
BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL	Only 6 eligible musical revivals opened, so the rule wouldn't apply.

Best Musical: Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Best Play: Brief Encounter

NOMINEES/WINNER	POSSIBLE 5TH NOMINEE/MY CHOICE FOR 5TH NOMINEE
2010 – 2011
BEST PLAY	13 eligible new plays opened, so new rule wouldn't apply.
Good People	Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo	Elling		High
Jerusalem	Brief Encounter	A Free Man of Color		Lombardi
The Motherfucker with the Hat	Colin Quinn: Long Story Short	Ghetto Klown		The Pee-Wee Herman Show
War Horse
BEST MUSICAL	12 eligible new musicals opened.
The Book of Mormon	Baby It’s You!		The People in the Picture		Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Catch Me If You Can	Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson		Priscilla Queen of the Desert		Wonderland
The Scottsboro Boys	Elf		Rain
Sister Act
BEST PLAY REVIVAL	11 eligible play revivals opened.
Arcadia	Born Yesterday		A Life in the Theatre
The Importance of Being Earnest	Driving Miss Daisy		Mrs. Warren’s Profession
The Merchant of Venice	The House of Blue Leaves		That Championship Season
The Normal Heart	La Bete
BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL	Only 2 eligible musical revivals opened, so the new rule wouldn't apply.

Best Play: One Man, Two Guvnors

NOMINEES/WINNER	POSSIBLE 5TH NOMINEE/MY CHOICE FOR 5TH NOMINEE
2011 - 2012
BEST PLAY	15 eligible new plays opened.
Clybourne Park	Chinglish	The Lyons	Relatively Speaking
Other Desert Cities	The Columnist	Magic/Bird	Seminar
Peter and the Starcatcher	Don’t Dress for Dinner	The Mountaintop	Stick Fly
Venus in Fur	End of the Rainbow	One Man, Two Guvnors
BEST MUSICAL	Only 8 eligible new musicals opened, so new rule wouldn't apply.
BEST PLAY REVIVAL	Only 7 eligible play revivals opened, so new rule wouldn't apply.
BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL	Only 6 eligible musical revivals opened, so the rule wouldn't apply.

(Left) Best Revival of a Play: Harvey

(Right) Best Play: The Nance

NOMINEES/WINNER	POSSIBLE 5TH NOMINEE/MY CHOICE FOR 5TH NOMINEE
2012 - 2013
BEST PLAY	12 eligible new plays opened.
The Assembled Parties	The Anarchist	Dead Accounts	The Nance
Lucky Guy	Ann	Grace	The Other Place
The Testament of Mary	Breakfast at Tiffany’s	I’ll Eat You Last
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
BEST MUSICAL	Only 8 eligible new musicals opened, so new rule wouldn't apply.
BEST PLAY REVIVAL	12 eligible play revivals opened.
Golden Boy	The Big Knife	An Enemy of the People	The Heiress
Orphans	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Glengarry Glen Ross	Macbeth
The Trip to Bountiful	Cyrano de Bergerac	Harvey	Picnic
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL	Only 6 eligible musical revivals opened, so the rule wouldn't apply.

Jeff

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