Steve On Broadway (SOB)

The SOB Picks for 2006 Tony Awards

The SOB Picks for 2006 Tony Awards

It's the eve of the American Theatre Wing's 60th Tony Award celebration, during which a dizzying array of Broadway's finest talent will be on hand to share in bestowing the coveted medellion, if not to receive an award.

Many prognosticators and critics have already shared whom they believe will win tomorrow night. I've studiously avoided reading any of those stories so can provide my own unvarnished picks. These aren't necessarily who I think should win, but whom I believe will take home the awards.

My choices in each category are below in red:

Best Play
Rabbit Hole
Shining City
The History Boys
The Lieutenant of Inishmore

Best Musical
Jersey Boys
The Color Purple
The Drowsy Chaperone
The Wedding Singer

Best Revival of a Play
Awake and Sing!
Edward Albee's Seascape
Faith Healer
The Constant Wife

Best Revival of a Musical
Sweeney Todd
The Pajama Game
The Threepenny Opera

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Ralph Fiennes, Faith Healer
Richard Griffiths, The History Boys
Zeljko Ivanek, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Oliver Platt, Shining City
David Wilmot, The Lieutenant of Inishmore

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Kate Burton, The Constant Wife
Judy Kaye, Souvenir
Lisa Kron, Well
Cynthia Nixon, Rabbit Hole
Lynn Redgrave, The Constant Wife

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Michael Cerveris, Sweeney Todd
Harry Connick, Jr., The Pajama Game
Stephen Lynch, The Wedding Singer
Bob Martin, The Drowsy Chaperone
John Lloyd Young, Jersey Boys

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Sutton Foster, The Drowsy Chaperone
La Chanze, The Color Purple
Patti LuPone, Sweeney Todd
Kelli O'Hara, The Pajama Game
Chita Rivera, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
Samuel Barnett, The History Boys
Domhnall Gleeson, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Ian McDiarmid, Faith Healer
Mark Ruffalo, Awake and Sing!
Pablo Schreiber, Awake and Sing!

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Tyne Daly, Rabbit Hole
Frances de la Tour, The History Boys
Jayne Houdyshell, Well
Alison Pill, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Zoë Wanamaker, Awake and Sing!

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Danny Burstein, The Drowsy Chaperone
Jim Dale, The Threepenny Opera
Brandon Victor Dixon, The Color Purple
Manoel Felciano, Sweeney Todd
Christian Hoff, Jersey Boys

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Carolee Carmello, Lestat
Felicia P. Fields, The Color Purple
Megan Lawrence, The Pajama Game
Beth Leavel, The Drowsy Chaperone
Elisabeth Withers-Mendes, The Color Purple

Best Direction of a Play
Nicholas Hytner, The History Boys
Wilson Milam, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Bartlett Sher, Awake and Sing!
Daniel Sullivan, Rabbit Hole

Best Direction of a Musical
John Doyle, Sweeney Todd
Kathleen Marshall, The Pajama Game
Des McAnuff, Jersey Boys
Casey Nicholaw, The Drowsy Chaperone

Best Choreography
Rob Ashford, The Wedding Singer
Donald Byrd, The Color Purple
Kathleen Marshall, The Pajama Game
Casey Nicholaw, The Drowsy Chaperone

Best Orchestrations
Larry Blank, The Drowsy Chaperone
Dick Lieb and Danny Troob, The Pajama Game
Steve Orich, Jersey Boys
Sarah Travis, Sweeney Todd

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
The Color Purple, Music & Lyrics: Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray
The Drowsy Chaperone, Music & Lyrics: Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison
The Wedding Singer, Music: Matthew Sklar; Lyrics: Chad Beguelin
The Woman in White, Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber; Lyrics: David Zippel

Best Book of a Musical
Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy, The Wedding Singer
Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, Jersey Boys
Bob Martin and Don McKellar, The Drowsy Chaperone
Marsha Norman, The Color Purple

Best Scenic Design of a Play
John Lee Beatty, Rabbit Hole
Bob Crowley, The History Boys
Santo Loquasto, Three Days of Rain
Michael Yeargan, Awake and Sing!

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
John Lee Beatty, The Color Purple
David Gallo, The Drowsy Chaperone
Derek McLane, The Pajama Game
Klara Zieglerova, Jersey Boys

Best Costume Design of a Play
Michael Krass, The Constant Wife
Santo Loquasto, A Touch of the Poet
Catherine Zuber, Awake and Sing!
Catherine Zuber, Seascape

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Gregg Barnes, The Drowsy Chaperone
Susan Hilferty, Lestat
Martin Pakledinaz, The Pajama Game
Paul Tazewell, The Color Purple

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Christopher Akerlind, Awake and Sing!
Paul Gallo, Three Days of Rain
Mark Henderson, Faith Healer
Mark Henderson, The History Boys

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Ken Billington and Brian Monahan, The Drowsy Chaperone
Howell Binkley, Jersey Boys
Natasha Katz, Tarzan
Brian MacDevitt, The Color Purple

All totaled, I believe The Drowsy Chaperone will be the night's biggest winner in the musical categories, while The History Boys and Rabbit Hole will tie for the most awards in the play categories. But Sweeney Todd will also make headlines. I expect the award tallies to come down to this:

The Drowsy Chaperone -- Five awards, including Best Musical, Best Choreography, Best Book, Best Scenic Design of a Musical and Best Costume Design of a Musical.
Sweeney Todd -- Four awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical and Best Orchestrations.
The History Boys -- Three awards, including Best Play, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play and Best Direction of a Play.
Rabbit Hole -- Three awards, including Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play and Best Scenic Design of a Play.
Faith Healer -- Two awards, including Best Revival of a Play and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play.
The Color Purple -- Two awards, including Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical and Best Original Score (I expect this to be the upset of the evening).
The Pajama Game -- One award for the first Broadway turn by Harry Connick, Jr. in the Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical category. This is the award Tony will use to illuminate its star power to the broader CBS audience.
The Threepenny Opera -- One award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical.
Jersey Boys -- One award. Expect a nearly complete shutout of this overrated hit with a token award in the Best Lighting of a Musical category.
Three Days of Rain -- One award for Best Lighting of a Play.
Edward Albee's Seascape -- One award for Best Costume Design of a Play.

The 60th Tony Awards will be telecast at 8 pm EDT, Sunday, June 11 on CBS.

Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:
The Tonys: If I Could Vote....for Best Revival of a Play (June 5, 2006)
The Tonys: If I Could Vote....for Best Revival of a Musical (June 4, 2006)
The Tonys: If I Could Vote....for Best Play (June 3, 2006)
The Tonys: If I Could Vote...for Best Musical (May 31, 2006)
Tony Award Nominations Announced (May 16, 2006)

Labels: Cynthia Nixon, Faith Healer, Patti LuPone, Sweeney Todd, The Drowsy Chaperone, The History Boys, Tony Awards, Tony Nominations

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Saturday, June 10, 2006 0 comments

Faith Healer (The SOB Review) – Booth Theatre, New York, NY

Faith Healer (The SOB Review) – Booth Theatre, New York, NY

***1/2 (our of ****)

Not all great theatre is necessarily easy to sit through. But it certainly helps tremendously when you have three of the most gifted actors from either side of the Atlantic to convey the story. Such is the case with the retelling – literally – of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer, which opened last week on Broadway. I took in the show on Saturday evening.

I confess that I don’t know the reasons for Faith Healer’s all-too-short life span when it first appeared at the Great White Way’s Longacre Theatre 27 years ago with the late, great James Mason in the lead role of Frank Hardy, whose initials F.H. segue nicely with the vocation of Faith Healer. But it would appear that this play was a couple decades ahead of its time, complete with its individual soliloquies that supposedly share the same story over and over, yet reveal gaping holes through each successive telling.

The superb Ralph Fiennes was fine, and Cherry Jones was electrifying, albeit with an accent that didn’t quite fit the character. Indeed, what I had originally anticipated would be the most exciting aspects of the casting -- previous Tony winners Fiennes and Jones -- were revealed to be merely precursors to an incomparable performance by Ian McDiarmid (pictured above), who single-handed breathed lasting life into the production through his very human portrayal of Frank Hardy’s “all-business” manager, Teddy. McDiarmid, who is best known to American audiences for his role in five of the six "Star Wars" movies, succeeded in stealing the show right from under the two Tony winners by adding an essential touch of humor and heart. McDiarmid is sure to be nominated for a Tony Award in his own right for inhabiting this role so effectively.

As I noted earlier, this is not an easy production to sit through, but it is one that you’ll later revel in having seen true acting genii perform on the same stage, even if not at the same moment in time.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:

Vanessa Redgrave to Make Broadway Return as Joan Didion (May 26, 2006)
Critics Believe in Faith Healer (May 5, 2006)
Faith Healer Seeks Believers on Broadway Tonight (May 4, 2006)
Broadway Season Nears Finale (April 30, 2006)

Labels: Broadway, Cherry Jones, Faith Healer, Play, Revival, The SOB Review

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Wednesday, May 10, 2006 0 comments

Critics Believe in Faith Healer

Critics Believe in Faith Healer

With the clock ticking on the last moments of the 2005-06 Broadway theatrical season, I noted last week that most of the expected critical praise would likely be heaped upon the final entrants. Faith Healer is the latest show to open to critical acclaim, and certainly appears to have made true believers out of even the toughest of critics.

Case in point is The New York Times' Ben Brantley, who seemed downright mesmerized. His review mostly consisted of praise for the production and singled out Ralph Fiennes: "This shrewd channeling of his glamorously peevish star shine may finally get Faith Healer, a production from the Gate Theater of Dublin, directed with poetic starkness by Jonathan Kent, the New York audience it deserves...Faith Healer (is) a major work of art."

Elysa Gardner of USA Today awarded Faith Healer ***1/2 stars, noting: "In the title role, Ralph Fiennes, returning to Broadway for the first time since his Tony Award-winning turn 11 years ago in Hamlet (also directed by Kent, originally for the UK's Almeida Theatre), again delivers the nuanced intensity that makes him one of our most compelling stage and screen actors."

New York Post's Clive Barnes' review -- aptly titled "Fiennes & Co. Renew Faith in Theatre" -- raved: "Faith Healer is, to use one of its key words, a 'fantastic' theatrical experience, outdistancing the current Broadway pack by a country mile, with three performances to be treasured in memory, and reinforcing Friel's position as one of the three or four finest living English-speaking playwrights."

Broadway.com's Ron Kendt agreed: "Acting this good can be healing. In Brian Friel's Faith Healer, the simplest and most hypnotic show on Broadway, audiences find themselves in the capable and tender care of three very different, indeed vividly distinct, pros." Linda Winer of Newsday proclaimed Faith Healer "...a peculiar but mesmerizing evening," and New York Daily News' Howard Kissel agrees stating the play provides an "...extraordinary, unforgettable evening..."

For a show that first opened 27 years ago, only to survive 20 regular performances, this newfound praise is sweet vindication for playwright Brian Friel. I'm looking forward to being in the audience tomorrow evening and will have my own review shortly thereafter.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:
Faith Healer (SOB Review) - Booth Theatre, New York, NY (May 10, 2006)
Faith Healer Seeks Believers on Broadway Tonight (May 4, 2006)
Broadway Season Nears Finale (April 30, 2006)

Labels: Broadway, Cherry Jones, Critics' Capsule, Faith Healer, Play, Revival

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Friday, May 05, 2006 0 comments

Faith Healer Seeks Believers on Broadway Tonight

Faith Healer Seeks Believers on Broadway Tonight

Another hotly anticipated Broadway opening occurs tonight when Ralph Fiennes and Cherry Jones -- both Tony Award winners for their immediate past performances on the Great White Way in Hamlet and Doubt, respectively -- return to the stage in Brian Fiel's Faith Healer. The play is comprised of a series of monologues by Fiennes, Jones and Ian McDiarmid, none of whom appear together on the stage until the closing curtain. Fiennes is the titular Faith Healer, whose dubious character traveling between Scotland and Wales will have the audience wondering whether he is simply a charlatan or a true believer.

The Booth Theatre serves as the venue for this 15-week engagement. While I'll certainly be reporting on tomorrow's reviews, I'll be providing my own after taking in the show during this upcoming weekend. We'll see whether the critical praise for Fiennes and Jones continues as expected.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Click here for tickets.

Labels: Broadway, Cherry Jones, Faith Healer, Opening Night, Play, Revival

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Thursday, May 04, 2006 0 comments

Broadway Season Nears Finale

Broadway Season Nears Finale

As May begins, thus ends the 2005-06 season on Broadway. But before it fades into history, a few more shows are set to open, including the only truly original Broadway musical of the season, The Drowsy Chaperone -- which has so much advance buzz that it is likely the frontrunner for Best Musical at this year's Tonys; the Ralph Fiennes/Cherry Jones vehicle Faith Healer; Martin McDonough's latest The Lieutenant of Inishmore, -- which could give The History Boys a run for the Best Play Tony; Shining City with Brían F. O’Byrne, Oliver Platt and Martha Plimpton; and Disney's latest spectacle that's already SRO, Tarzan.

It's probably a safe bet that many of this year's Tony Award winners will come from these last offerings of the season. Personally, I'm most looking forward to catching Cherry Jones and Ralph Fiennes. We'll see if the Tony Awards agree.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Labels: Broadway, Cherry Jones, Faith Healer, Musical, Play, The Drowsy Chaperone, The History Boys

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Sunday, April 30, 2006 0 comments