Jane Fonda vs. Geoffrey Rush for the Triple Crown

You know about the Triple Crown of Acting, right? It's when an actor manages to stretch across three mediums and snag all three of the top competitive prizes: Tony (theater), Emmy (television) and Oscar (film).


To date only 15 actors* have accomplished this but the number could jump to 17 soon. Currently the rarified list reads like so...

• Jack Albertson (Tony: 65, Oscar: 69, Emmy: 75)
  
• Anne Bancroft (Tony: 58, Oscar: 63, Emmy: 99)
  
• Ingrid Bergman (Oscar: 45, Tony: 47, Emmy: 60)
  
• Shirley Booth (Tony: 49, Oscar: 53, Emmy: 62)
  
• Melvyn Douglas (Tony: 60, Oscar: 64, Emmy: 68) Did you know that this Hud star was Illeanna Douglas's grandfather? I certainly didn't.
  
• Jeremy Irons (Tony: 84, Oscar: 91, Emmy: 97)
  
• Thomas Mitchell (Oscar: 40, Tony: 53, Emmy: 53)
  
• Rita Moreno (Oscar: 62, Tony: 75, Emmy: 77)
  
• Al Pacino (Tony: 69, Oscar: 93, Emmy: 04)
  
• Vanessa Redgrave (Oscar: 78, Emmy: 81, Tony: 03)
  
• Jason Robards (Tony: 59, Oscar: 77, Emmy: 88)
  
• Paul Scofield (Tony: 62, Oscar: 67, Emmy: 69)
  
• Maggie Smith (Oscar: 70, Tony: 90, Emmy: 03)
  
• Maureen Stapleton (Tony: 51, Emmy: 68, Oscar: 82)
  
• Jessica Tandy (Tony: 78, Emmy: 88, Oscar: 90)
  

<--- Dianne Wiest on Broadway with John Lithgow (four EMMYs, two TONYs... only Oscar eludes him) and Patrick Wilson in All My Sons.

This year I expected to see one of my all time favorite actresses Dianne Wiest fighting for a place on this list. She already has two Oscars (Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway) and two Emmys (Road to Avonlea and In Treatment) but she did not receive a TONY nomination for All My Sons. I shall console myself with the happy knowledge that she's left boring-ass TV procedurals behind and is returning to fine roles elsewhere. Next up for Wiest: more In Treatment on TV and Rabbit Hole with Nicole Kidman onscreen... for which she could conceivably snag her fourth supporting actress Oscar nomination in 2010.

So, no Dianne. Jane Fonda and Geoffrey Rush did get nominated though and could become Triple Crowners in one month's time. Fonda has two Oscars (Klute and Coming Home) and one Emmy (The Dollmaker) and she's up for the TONY this year for 33 Variations. Geoffrey Rush has one Oscar (Shine) and one Emmy (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers) and Exit the King could bring him the TONY.

The Tony Lead Acting Races

Lead Actress Play

• Hope Davis, God of Carnage
• Jane Fonda, 33 Variations
• Marcia Gay Harden, God of Carnage
• Janet McTeer, Mary Stuart
• Harriet Walter, Mary Stuart

This category is brutal with two squabbling pairs of leading ladies. Although as far as I know neither Hope nor Marcia lose their head in God of Carnage so the battle in Mary Stuart is deadlier. It comes with a body count. Could all this infighting / vote splitting clear the way for Jane Fonda? [p.s. Harden already has the Oscar and if she snags this TONY all she's waiting for is the EMMY. Will she get a nomination for Damages in July?]

Lead Actor Play

• Jeff Daniels, God of Carnage
• Raúl Esparza, Speed-The-Plow
• James Gandolfini, God of Carnage
• Geoffrey Rush, Exit the King
• Thomas Sadoski, reasons to be pretty

It's cause for some despair that Esparza seems like he's never going to win the TONY. And with Pushing Daisies cancelled we'll never know if they planned to bring him back as "Alfredo Aldarisio" and maybe give him a duet with Kristin Chenoweth. He's so clearly one of Broadway's best and versatile too given that he hops between plays and musicals with ease. But TONY voters L-O-V-E movie stars and vote for them when they get a chance. Geoffrey Rush should be able to snag this one and join the triple crowners.

Lead Actress Musical

• Stockard Channing, Pal Joey
• Sutton Foster, Shrek
• Allison Janney, 9 to 5: The Musical
• Alice Ripley, Next to Normal
• Josefina Scaglione, West Side Story

It's a West Wing reunion... the EMMYS on Broadway! But I don't understand the Janney nomination. At all. I find her as endearing as a celebrity as most people but let me put it this way: she makes Renée Zellweger in Chicago look like a born hoofer. I could practically hear Janney counting whenever she had to do the simplest moves onstage. Both of her co-stars sang multiple circles around her and if you ask me, Megan Hilty in the Dolly role would have a right to be pissed that she was passed over so that TONY could get its celebrity fix. But thems the breaks. All awards bodies prefer celebrities to lesser knowns, if they're in direct competition.

Lead Actor Musical

• David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish (combined) as Billy Elliot
• Gavin Creel, Hair
• Brian d'Arcy James, Shrek
• Constantine Maroulis, Rock of Ages
• J Robert Spencer, Next to Normal

I'm not exactly sure why Gavin Creel (I'm not a fan) is considered lead in Hair while Will Swenson is nominated in "featured" (the story is about Creel but Swenson controls the show and gets more stage time -my review) but I'm not part of the nominating committee. Trivia: We have our first TONY nominated American Idol alum in Constantine Maroulis. Many of the Idol players have been on the boards (an odd twist given that American Idol regularly uses "Broadway" as an insult -- never mind that most Broadway performers can sing circles around Idol contestants) but this is the reality show's first nominee.

The SNUBBED

A lot of film stars were ignored this year including: Kristin Scott Thomas for The Seagull (my interview), Susan Sarandon for Exit the King, Rupert Everett for Blithe Spirit, Daniel Radcliffe's naked identity crisis in Equus (my review), smoking Carla Gugino for Desire Under the Elms and the romantic pairing of Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in Impressionism.

For a complete list of TONY nominees, click here.

Don't be quiet. What do you think of these nominations and which movie star would you most love to see on stage?

* Notable superstars like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg have all three prizes too but they didn't win them all in competitive categories or for performances.
*

We Can't Wait #15 Away We Go

Directed by Mr. Kate Winslet
Starring John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Jeff Daniels, Catherine O'Hara, Josh Hamilton, Melanie Lynskey, Allison Janney and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Synopsis a young pregnant couple travel the US "in search of a place to put down roots"
Brought to you by Focus Features
Expected Release Date June 5th

Nathaniel: I put this on my list for the curiousity factor: Sam Mendes, lover of dramatic angst and crushing profundities (Road to Perdition, Revolutionary Road, American Beauty, Jarhead) is doing a comedy. It might be just the thing to shake that monkey (let's call it "Oscar") off his back. He really needs to try something different, looser and funkier. I hope this is it.

JA: That list of names... those are like a thousand of my favorite things right there. I mean, Catherine O'Hara alone, but Janney, Rudolph, Gyllenhaal and Lynskey! Brain-freeze. If I were gonna play that game where one chooses who you'd like to have dinner with, five famous people, living or dead, well you wouldn't go very wrong with choosing these names.

So yeah, I could stand to be stuck in a car with these folks for a bit.

Whitney: I'm always a little scared of movies involving pregnancy. Not because of anything the movies do or don't do, but just because babies freak me the fuck out.

Fox: In the way that Nathaniel is a little bit scared of Drag Me To Hell, I'm pretty terrified to hear that Sam Mendes already has another film coming out after he made us ("me") suffer through Revolutionary Road. At least three years were allowed to pass between Jarhead and RR (same for the time in between Road to Perdition and Jarhead). So, Sam, how about taking your family on vacation for a while and canning this one until 2011, 'kay?

That cast, though... I'd like to see Krasinski and Rudolph in more big screen comedies.

Joe: I don't know what it is about Sam Mendes that keeps me loyal to him despite the fact that I'm not crazy-in-love with ANY of his movies. Like most people, American Beauty has faded in its esteem for me in recent years. Jarhead was good but (Santa hat "OPP" dance sequence notwithstanding) fell way short of expectations, and I outright hated Revolutionary Road. I did like Road to Perdition more than many people did, but it's not like I'm cuckoo bananas crazy for it or anything. And yet I'm always all "New Sam Mendes movie!" Maybe it's the Winslet fan in me.

How fun is this cast? a) extremely b) very c) quite d) yes

And it's a damn fine cast he's got here. I've heard rumblings that it's a dark comedy that might be a shade too dark (i.e. depressing) to let the laughs squeak out, but I remain hopeful. Particular with regard to the breakthrough potential for one Ms. Maya Rudolph, who I think is just so insanely talented. Here's your time to shine, lady!

Nathaniel: I hope she does. Road trip comedies can be divine. If it's as funny as Flirting With Disaster it's going to be a big smart highlight of 2009. And it better be since that's my birthday weekend!

In case you missed any entries they went like so...
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We Can't Wait:
#1 Inglourious Basterds, #2 Where the Wild Things Are, #3 Fantastic Mr. Fox,
#4 Avatar, #5 Bright Star, #6 Shutter Island, #7 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
#8 Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, #9 Nailed, #10 Taking Woodstock,
#11 Watchmen, #12 The Hurt Locker, #13 The Road, #14 The Tree of Life
#15 Away We Go, #16 500 Days of Summer, #17 Drag Me To Hell,
#18 Whatever Works, #19 Broken Embraces, #20 Nine (the musical)
intro (orphans -didn't make group list)
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Prop 8 The Musical

This has been making the web rounds for the past couple of days. I don't care if I'm late to the party. Fashionably late. A few of you probably haven't seen it. I don't want to miss a party that manages to get Margaret Cho, Kathy Najimy (where ya been?), Alison Janney, John C Reilly, Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris (yum yum) and Maya Rudolph singing and dancing for civil rights.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Although perhaps being late to something that's only 3 minutes long isn't such a good idea.

It's a Look

Episode 9 of The "Best Picture From the Outside In" series is ready for your eyeballs. Nick's Flick Picks hosts this week's discussion in which Nick, Mike and yours truly wax longwinded (you would too!) about 1999's American Beauty Inconsistency and 1936's bio-epic The Great Plain Ziegfeld.

Here it is

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In the odd chance you're just joining us...the complete series (so far)
episode 1 No Country For Old Men (07) and Wings (27/28)
episode 2 The Departed (06) and Broadway Melody (28/29)
episode 3 Crash (05) and All Quiet on the Western Front (29/30)
episode 4 Million Dollar Baby (04) and Cimarron (30/31)
episode 5 LotR: The Return of the King (03) and Grand Hotel (31/32)
episode 6 Chicago (02) and Cavalcade (32/33)
episode 7 A Beautiful Mind (01) and It Happened One Night (34)
episode 8 Gladiator (00) and Mutiny on the Bounty (35)
episode 9 American Beauty (99) and The Great Ziegfeld (36)

9 to 5 and twice on Wednesdays

As you've undoubtedly heard, the classic 80s comedy 9 to 5 is coming to Broadway with all new songs by the one & only Dolly Parton. Movie-to-stage musicals are all the rage these days (it used to be the other way 'round) largely because they're critic proof and to some extent even word-of-mouth proof. When you're charging $100+ a ticket for a show you can't afford to produce anything that isn't already a known quantity and easily saleable in advance.

If I sound cynical well, I love the theater and it gets depressing. We'll never get the next Sondheim --hell, we won't even get the next Guettel or LaChusia -- if the only thing that gets produced is transfers. Nevertheless, of all the movie-to-stage projects this one seems like a natural. The movie is already cartoonish. It's already got setpieces for each character that would could house perfect solos. It's already got a hit song. If the stage version gets good reviews I'll totally be punching the clock since the film holds a special place in my heart.

They held a meet & greet with the cast yesterday [more photos @ A Socalite's Life] with Dolly cheerleading. Y'all know Alison Janney (far left below) already. She'll be handling Lily Tomlin's ringleader "Violet" role.


Dolly's part "Doralee", the sexually harrassed secretary, will be played by Megan Hilty who's been logging time on the boards in Kristin Chenowith's old Glinda role in the unstoppable Wicked [tangent: now where's that reverse stage-to-movie transfer? You'd think a smash like that would work in the opposite direction and go back to the screen. Too expensive to mount?]. Stephanie Block is stepping into Jane Fonda's "Judy" role. She's also been logging time in Wicked.

If it sounds intimidating to follow Jane Fonda into anything, don't worry about Stephanie. Her last successful Broadway gig was marriage to Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz (pictured together, left) Listen up: if you can pretend to be Liza Minnelli whilst singing and dancing you're probably brave enough to do anything. Finally, everyone's favorite "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss-from-hell inhabited by Dabney Coleman on film will be filled by Broadway regular Marc Kudisch, who is (trivia alert) Kristen Chenowith's ex. He's got a huge booming voice and he's pretty good at the bombastic smug comedy. If the casting isn't surprising it still seems pretty sensible. Break a leg!

poll by twiigs.com

How do you feel about 80s movie comedies like Hairspray and 9 to 5 becoming Broadway musicals: The death of the theater or all in good fun?