TONY Noms Next Week (Part 1: The Plays)

The TONY Nominations will be announced next Tuesday. I'll do a more extensive discussion (filtered thru the lens celluloid of course) after the nominations proper for the fine souls among you who read my posts about theater. For now just a few notes. (If you want predix for everything down to scenic design it's all about ModFab this week. He knows this world ... in the biblical sense.)

PLAYS and REVIVALS
I haven't seen any non-musicals this year (seriously fell off of the theatre wagon) so I have not much to say. The early favorite to take the big prize seems to be History Boys, a British import.

Actresses? For you non-theatergoers but pop culture junkies there are people in the race that you'll know (and possibly love). Rest assured that "Miranda" from Sex & The City (i.e. Cynthia Nixon) will be nominated for Best Actress. No doubt about it. Last years KathleenTurner-slayer from Doubt (my review), gay activist heroine and Broadway icon Cherry Jones, will be up for the prize again. If you've never been to Broadway you still would recognize her. She shows up in M Night Shyamalan's and Steven Soderbergh's filmographies with some regularity. (Her girlfriend is Sarah Paulson who I discussed for a split second a few days ago). The biggest star on the boards right now is unarguably Julia Roberts. Her nomination chances for the revival Three Days of Rain are slim. Reviews were not kind. There is a small chance that her mega-watt stardom will sway the voters anyway.

Actors? Ralph Fiennes, whom you all know and love, will be in the field (he's co-starring with Cherry Jones in the revival of Faith Healer. "Emperor Palpatine" is also in it). Other very recognizable names to those outside theater circles that have a shot at the shortlist? Nathan Lane, Patrick Wilson, Mark Ruffalo (Arden could short circuit if it happens), Gabriel Byrne and TV stars Oliver Platt and Ross David Schwimmer.

I'll go into all of this in greater detail (including the people you might not know) once the actual nominations arrive. And I'll cover Musicals later today (or tomorrow?) and that post will be *ahem* longer and all thaaaaat jaaaaaaz.

tags: Ralph Fiennes, Cherry Jones, Julia Roberts, broadway, theater