Tony Nominations Or, Hollywood on Stage

There are so many movie and television faces nominated for the Tony Award this year that one begins to worry about how any stateside stage actor can earn a living. The answer, appears to be get famous in another medium in order to get plum stage roles.

Jude Law (Hamlet) is equally at home on screen or stage

This can work against the audience, this self destructive drive to only see the familiar, if it robs them of great stage trained actors in meaty roles. But thankfully this isn't a problem with actors who are adept at changing their "scale" for any medium. Take The Lovely Laura Linney, for instance, who no one would dare accuse of being out of her element whether she's on the silver screen, the living room telly or treading the boards on Broadway.

Lead Actor in a Play
Jude Law, Hamlet
Alfred Molina, Red
Liev Schreiber, A View from the Bridge
Christopher Walken, A Behanding in Spokane
Denzel Washington, Fences

There's 9 Oscar nominations and 3 wins between these nominees and even the Tony contenders from this shortlist that haven't contributed to that movie-centric total (Liev & Alfred are both still waiting for Oscar's approval) are familiar screen actors. Who would you root for, sight unseen for this Tony race? Or if you're lucky enough to have seen any, who did you find deserving?

Lead Actress in a Play
<-- Viola Davis, Fences
Valerie Harper, Looped
Linda Lavin, Collected Stories
Laura Linney, Time Stands Still
Jan Maxwell, The Royal Family

Viola Davis made her name on stage some time ago so this lead role isn't as 'Look what Doubt did for her!' specific as you may suspect. But it's still great that her career is going so well. Valerie Harper carried Looped on her glamourous shoulders and made it sing with her filthy mouth. I'd say I was rooting for her but hers is the only one I've seen AND it's also movie-related (it's all about Tallulah Bankhead's final looping session) so that's perhaps unfair.

And we're always rooting for Laura Linney in one way or another. And another. And another.

Lead Actor in a Musical
Kelsey Grammer, La Cage aux Folles
Sean Hayes, Promises, Promises
Douglas Hodge, La Cage aux Folles
Chad Kimball, Memphis
Sahr Ngaujah, Fela!

I'm kind of horrified that Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) is nominated but maybe pickings were slim? When I last saw him on stage in Damn Yankees it was like a textbook case of how unfortunate it is that tv stars get Broadway parts over stage stars. Stage acting requires different skills or at least a different discern about how to deply the shared skills. He was basically just doing "Just Jack" only in longshot as opposed to closeup. Didn't work for me at all.

I assume it doesn't matter since one of the La Cage boys will probably win. I keep hearing that this revival is wondrous... but it's revived so often that I'm still struggling to generate any excitement about seeing it.

Lead Actress in a Musical
Kate Baldwin, Finian's Rainbow
Montego Glover, Memphis
Christiane Noll, Ragtime
<--- Sherie Rene Scott, Everyday Rapture
Catherine Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music

The immediate noticeable snub is Bebe Neuwirth in Addams Family though people weren't really expecting that nomination to happen given the critical reception. The sad snub is arguably Broadway darling turned TV star Kristin Chenoweth in Promises Promises. People say she's miscast but that you still can't take your eyes off her. (What else is new? I mean the 'can't take your eyes off her' part is always the case) Since I haven't seen any of these shows -- I hate being poor! -- I'm rooting for Sherie Rene Scott, one of my all time favorite Broadway babies, in her personal memoir show. Finally, I was always hoping that CZJ would get another musical post Chicago. I guess I just didn't expect it would be on stage and that I wouldn't be able to afford to see it.

Here she is singing one of musical theater's most iconic numbers...



Featured Actor in a Play
David Alan Grier, Race
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Fences
Jon Michael Hill, Superior Donuts
Stephen Kunken, Enron
Eddie Redmayne, Red

Superior Donuts is the latest play from August: Osage County genius Tracy Letts. It didn't get the "instant masterpiece" status of that epic play but at least it won this acting notice. Elsewhere in the category Film Experience readers will recognize Eddie Redmayne as Julianne Moore's gay son/incestuous plaything in Savage Grace.

Featured Actress in a Play
Maria Dizzia, In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play
Rosemary Harris, The Royal Family
Jessica Hecht, A View from the Bridge
Scarlett Johansson, A View from the Bridge
Jan Maxwell, Lend Me a Tenor

Who could have ever imagined that Scarlett Johansson, with that movie face, would get Tony nominated before she was Oscar nom'ed. Strangeness.

Featured Actor in a Musical
Kevin Chamberlin, The Addams Family
Robin De Jesús, La Cage aux Folles
Christopher Fitzgerald, Finian's Rainbow
Levi Kreis, Million Dollar Quartet
Bobby Steggert, Ragtime

If you're curious, Chamberlin plays Uncle Fester in The Addams Family, De Jesus plays La Cage's always scene-stealing housekeeper (Hank Azaria in The Birdcage is the reference point if you've never seen the stage musical) and Bobby Steger played the younger brother in Ragtime (if you've seen the film version -- which is not a musical, pity -- this role is played by Brad Dourif, it's not the same supporting role that was Oscar nominated from that movie back in the day)

Featured Actress in a Musical
Barbara Cook, Sondheim on Sondheim
Katie Finneran, Promises, Promises
Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music
Karine Plantadit, Come Fly Away
Lillias White, Fela!

If Lansbury wins this one she becomes the #1 most Tony winning actor of all time. Right now she's merely tied for that honor. But she has stiff competition from Katie Finneran who, according to all reports, steals Promises Promises from its stars. When acting with Cheno that has to be regarded as a miracle. This might also well go to Barbara Cook, one of those most revered of all Sondheim interpreters.

Best Play

In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play (Sarah Ruhl)

Next Fall (Geoffrey Nauffts)

Red (John Logan)

Time Stands Still (Donald Margulies)

I keep hearing great things about Next Fall which is a gay relationship drama between an evangelical and an atheist. Here's an audio piece on the movie which makes it sound like the kind of thing I should see, having had my own religious upbringing drama before coming out as a gay man. Time Stands Still already closed. When I heard Linney speak at that Linneyganza a month back I definitely regretting skipping it. But -- good news -- it's coming back to Broadway in the fall thanks in part to these nominations.

Best Musical

American Idiot

Fela!

Memphis

Million Dollar Quartet

Best Book of a Musical

Everyday Rapture (Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott)

Fela! (Jim Lewis & Bill T. Jones)

Memphis (Joe DiPietro)

Million Dollar Quartet (Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux)

Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

The Addams Family (Music & Lyrics: Andrew Lippa)

Enron (Music: Adam Cork Lyrics: Lucy Prebble)

Fences (Music: Branford Marsalis)

Memphis (Music: David Bryan Lyrics: Joe DiPietro, David Bryan)

This was a controversial category this year because few thought that Addams Family was deserving but there weren't a lot of eligible shows available since many of the acclaimed musicals were using previously written material. Two of the nominees here aren't even musicals. Not that plays can't have worthy music. I suspect Memphis will win this.

Revival of a Play
Fences
Lend Me a Tenor
The Royal Family
A View from the Bridge

We'll let Scarjo and Liev describe their Arthur Miller redo for ya...



Revival of a Musical
Finian's Rainbow
La Cage aux Folles
A Little Night Music
Ragtime

La Cage will win this easily since it's a) still open and b) winning rave 'you must see it' praise.

Have you seen any of the shows? Do you watch the Tonys each June?

'Is it a crime to link at Lange?'

popbytes Kate Winslet as Mildred Pierce. Have a looksee
Huffington Post rightly declares that Christina Hendricks is looking way too much like Julianne Moore in Esquire. But now that she's pulled off that trick, can we have some big movie roles please?
Critical Condition investigates Iceland in the movies. Very cool topic. I'm possibly going to Iceland for the first time this year. We've been planning it forevah
The Big Picture bemoans the Oscarlessness of the late great film editor Dede Allen. Such a giant of the field and I didn't know she'd died since I've been film festivalling :(
Movies Kick Ass ♥ Jayma Mays on Glee. As do I
Back Stage Blog Stage Despite critical drubbings, Addams Family could well win big at the Tony Awards this summer. One wonders when we'll get another stage musical based on a movie that's actually good enough to move back to the movies (see Hairspray)

Finally, I hope you've visited me pal Nick's site Nick's Flick Picks recently...

He's really outdone himself with three evocative portraits of Oscar winning actresses: Julie Christie, Jessica Lange and Emma Thompson. His beautiful incisive studies of these legends are more than a little intimidating but so worth having in the world. My favorite is the one on Christie. I don't share Nick's love of Lange but neither is it a crime to look at her. His writeup helps me understand what some think all the fuss is (or was) about.
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Glenn Gives Thanks

Australia's only knowledge of Thanksgiving is, essentially, what we see from TV and the movies. I feel then that it is only fitting that I "give thanks" for a certain woman who has shaped by idea of Thanksgiving more than any other: Christina Ricci.

Bless her lil cotton socks, but Christina Ricci had already solidified herself in the annals of cinema history by the age of 17 with her performance in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm. The gifts of that film are many, but the bit that I always remember first and foremost is the toast that Ricci's Wendy gives. Let us relive it:

Dear Lord, thank you for this Thanksgiving holiday. And for all the material possessions that we have and enjoy. And for letting us white people kill all the Indians and steal their tribal lands. And stuff ourselves like pigs, even though children in Asia are being napalmed.

Literally very amazing. And if it weren't just The Ice Storm keeping the Ricci Thanksgiving alive it would be Addams Family Values, a movie in which Ricci gives one of the best supporting actress performances of the decade (the Oscar, however, went to the New Zealand child, Anna Paquin). That Thanksgiving pageant is delightfully insane, and Ricci's speech is something to behold. The best moment in the film is Wednesday's smile. The faint crack of a smile that she emits to shocked onlookers. "I'm not perky."

Thank you Christina Ricci for services towards making Thanksgiving somewhat relevant to people outside of America. You'll always have a place in my heart!

RCL: Foxy Licorice Roller Derby Edition

Time for another edition of Red Carpet Lineup wherein we gather up actresses who were photographed at events during the week... and talk about them.


First up is Famke Janssen because I've been waiting for her Turn the River follow up ever since the terrific one-on-one I had with her in early 2008. She's on set in Monaco... for which movie I do not know. Where Famke goes her puppy Licorice is never far behind, so I had to include him (her?) too. It was recently announced that she'll be reprising her transsexual "Ava Moore" role for the series finale of Nip/Tuck.

Megan Fox is a phenomenon I haven't yet grasped. I've been playfully arguing about her on twitter. Screen Rant implied that she should hold her tongue in interviews, since people will lose interest if they start noticing what comes off of it. I say her faux shocking sound bites are the only interesting thing about her. After all, "Fuckability" is generally and crassly accepted as a pre-requisite for screen actressing. If you really stop to think about it this means that virtually every famous actress is (or was) a major turn-on for at least some sizable segment of the audience. In a world (i.e. the movies) where everyone is sexy, don't you have to bring something else to the table? What "else", I must ask, is she bringing?

Miranda Otto of "I am no man" fame didn't end up a huge movie star like so many of her fellow Australian ex-pats but I thought she'd at least end up a TV star. I'm terribly disappointed that her TV pilot "A Marriage" wasn't picked up. It was by the Thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, Relativity and Once & Again team of Marshall Herskovitz & Edward Zwick who are geniuses of the small screen. They have proved time and again to have an enviable grasp of the daily drama of family/marital dynamics. If this new pilot, which co-starred Bruce Greenwood as Miranda's husband, had the depth and humanity of those shows it's a large unseen loss for the audience.

Nicll Kihthhmn! sorry, my speech is apparently unintelligible through the fanboy drool ("anonymous" says it so it must be true!). I'm still so excited about The Lady of the Locks: The Return of The Ginger. That's another photo from the set of Rabbit Hole. [via] Nicole Kidman ... there, I've wiped away the spittle.

Marcia Gay Harden turns 50 this August. Her career is going better than ever: A Tony for God of Carnage, a great turn on television's Damages (will they bring her back for Season 3?). Her new film The Maiden Heist is a comedic caper with Morgan Freeman. It was apparently shelved due to financial problems (boo) but we'll see her next in Drew Barrymore's roller derby movie Whip It! We assume Marcia isn't one of the tough derby bitches but we hold out hope that she miraculously is. Wouldn't it be great to see her body slam into Ellen Page?

Bebe Neuwirth is busy. She just got married last month, introduced the in memoriam section at the TONYs, and next she'll play Morticia Addams in the Addams Family stage musical (Spring 2010). She's already training for the part by draining herself of all remaining pigmentation. We see a possible third TONY Award coming her way. She's previously won for Sweet Charity and for her hugely successful reworking of "Velma Kelly" in Chicago before Catherine Zeta-Jones got her eager hands on the role. Showbiz careers are so weird. Isn't it a bit curious that Bebe hasn't had a major slam dunk television role since "Lilith" on Cheers/Frasier for which she won two Emmys? Or a worthy film follow up to her excellent work as a sly cougar in the indie Tadpole for which she won the Seattle Film Critics Award and a FB nomination here.

• Would you pay to see Marcia Gay Harden on roller skates?
• Can you see what Megan Fox brings to the table?
• Is there any point in anything Addams Family without Christina Ricci on board?

Speak up. Don't make me talk to myself.
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Alice's Wonderlink

Playbill the cast of Broadway's Addams Family musical adaptation is announced. Bebe Neuwirth is such a great choice for Morticia. Not happy about Gomez.
Cinematical Hedy Lamarr by way of Rachel Weisz?
Esquire First official (rave) review of The Road. Apparently they've added voiceover since I saw it.
Bad and Ugly Iron Man 2 @ Randy's Donuts
If Charlie Parker... the statuesque Julie Newmar


Pink is the New Blog Megan Fox on the High School Musical franchise. If Megan Fox were half as interesting onscreen as she is in sound bites I would be a major fan. ......Sadly, she's not.
Pixar see the latest UP -isode in beautiful quicktime. People with irrational love of chocolate (I am one of said people) will particularly enjoy. I have this weird thing with Pixar movies in that I'm never excited before they arrive but then I'm thrilled to be watching them once they do.

And finally I don't know whether to praise or diss Underwire for pointing to this trippy image generating site YoooouuuTuuube and this clip "Alice" which is all kinds of cool if you're into the general hallucinatory potential of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. You can plug other YouTube clips in too, so naturally I had to try my girls Madonna, Michelle, and Nicole. Basically this is the latest way to waste hours (literally) of your life on the internet.