Steve On Broadway (SOB)

Is It Just Me, Or...

Is It Just Me, Or...

...Are there more theatre afficionados out there now than ever before? Broadway topped the 12 million attendance mark for the first time in its long, storied history. Grosses for the year grew 12% to $861.6 million. CBS estimates that its Tony Awards television audience attracted 7.79 million viewers, up 1.29 million from last year and it's the second consecutive year with an increase. Each of the major winning productions received sizable bumps in box office success as of Monday morning. What's more, even touring productions have enjoyed a successful year overall.

...Were Bruce Vilanch and Allee Willis (pictured above) separated at birth? I've met and love them both. But after seeing Willis -- nominated for a Tony as part of the songwriting team for The Color Purple -- on the Tony Awards, I was struck by just how much she resembles a beardless Vilanch. Just curious!

...Would you send a note to a performer prior to buying tickets to see if he/she is actually planning to be in his/her role the night you're planning to attend? I'd really like to see The Drowsy Chaperone but am nervous that Sutton Foster will stiff me for the third time (she was a no-show just a couple weeks after she won her Tony in Thoroughly Modern Millie and then again last year when I saw Little Women).

...Isn't Barbra Streisand being just a tad bit greedy asking $350 and $750 for tickets to her tour?

...Don't Tony Awards count for anything? Months after it was announced that John Travolta got Harvey Fierstein's Edna Turnblad role in the new movie version of "Hairspray," I'm still scratching my head, especially since Travolta hasn't had a decent film since his last comeback in "Pulp Fiction." It's a shame that Hollywood couldn't stick with Fierstein, who made us all but forget Divine from the original movie version and earned a Tony to boot.

...Didn't Sunday's Tony clip of Jennifer Holliday and the commercial for the movie version of "Dreamgirls" get you excited to see this show on the silver screen later this year?

...Isn't it a little insulting to American audiences when London productions get rewritten for the Broadway stage? I saw Taboo and Bombay Dreams on the West End and thought they were great, but then saw them desecrated here. Why must producers mess with success? I shudder to think what they'll do to poor Billy Elliot - The Musical!

Tell me what you think!

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Labels: Allee Willis, Bruce Vilanch, Dreamgirls, Jennifer Holliday, Sutton Foster, Television, The Color Purple, The Drowsy Chaperone, Tony Awards, Understudy

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Wednesday, June 14, 2006