8 Tony Awards Later...Have You Seen It Yet?

Spring Awakening, a show I've been, in a word, obsessed with since I first saw it in January has walked away the big winner at last night's Tony Awards, including Best Musical! Well deserved, see the show now because you'll want to see it again later. If you're anything like me, you'll want to see it over. And over. And over again. I already have tickets for later in the summer.

I enjoyed this years awards, especially because I was able to fast forward through all of those snoozy Coast of Utopia speeches. I think there should be more musical performances and perhaps even a few moments from plays - the awards are cool, but that's what the web is for. The Tony Awards are the one night Broadway really has to shine each year on such a national level. That said, I love all the gay people and their partners - even David Hyde Pierce, who only recently publicly came out of the closet, thanked his long time partner.

Love it.

Gay. Celebrity. Broadway. Nick'd. What a great way to spend a Sunday night.

In one corner, Tony Award. In the other, Tony Soprano.

It's the biggest night of 2007 for both Broadway and HBO.

Here's tonight's TV watching plan in 7 easy steps:

1. Go to dinner.
2. Start watching the Tony's a little after 8pm (to make FF commercials a cinch).
3. AT 10pm, switch over to watch The Sopranos SERIES FINALE in the real time during its premiere. How will it end? Everyone wants to know.
4. "OMG, can you believe that XXX happened on the Soprano's?? Holy fruck! What a great show."
5. Say good-bye to my sleepy friends.
6. Watch Spring Awakening finally take home that Tony!
7. Sleepytime.

Tony Nominations & An American Idol on Broadway!

The Tony Awards, celebrating the best of Broadway's 2006-2007 season will air live on June 10th on CBS.

Spring Awakening and Coram Boy are among the most nominated musicals and plays. See the full list.

Also, the NYTimes has put up a ballot for it's users to select who they'd pick for winners. If they had a say. Which we don't.







In other NYTimes theatre news, the paper has reviewed American Idol winner Fantasia's turn in The Color Purple on Broadway. I loved the show (saw it twice) when it first opened with LaChanze. The Times makes a case that 'Tasia, who once showed very few acting abilities in playing herself in a made for Lifetime movie, is apparently doing just fine playing someone else.

My favorite part of the piece is when he spends an entire paragraph trying to find the write words to call Fantasia...well, ugly:

Much is made of Celie’s unattractiveness. She is essentially sold off by her father to a brutish husband as if she were a workhorse with a lame leg. LaChanze, though a skilled singer and actress, couldn’t disguise her natural beauty and poise. Fantasia possesses her own beauty, but it is more idiosyncratic, and as Celie she moves with the uneven amble of a woman trained at a young age to debilitating drudgery and a carelessness about her looks.

Spring is here - But it's been on Brodway for months...

Ok, so I have avoided writing about it every time I've gone to see Spring Awakening. For those keeping score at home, I've been three times. That first time with Laia. Then I tagged along with Liz and Ingrid when they went. Then Jo, Simon, and Neena went with me the week after we saw Wicked. The show, the soundtrack, everything about it never fails to disappoint me.

Tonight, Bryan and I are going. It'll be his first time, but he's definitely heard about it a lot from both me and Rosie O'Donnell.

I'm so excited! This will make four times for me - just like Ro. I'm obsessed, in case you're blind. I know how it feels to be those teenage girls, smacking their gum, singing along and waiting at the stage door after each performance for my favorite 19th Century horny, German school kids to come out as their normal New York actor-selves. And, I kinda like it.

More SA video:

Spring Awakening on MY FAVORITE BLOG, towleroad.com!

Seriously, this show is getting close to becoming the hottest ticket in town (if it isn't already) - get tickets before you miss this original cast with still completely fresh and growing performances, and see what my favorite blogger Andy Towle calls "an engaging, often challenging, energized production that I found to be a breath of fresh air."

Read his full review and check out some clips from the show (like the one below).

I'm Awake!

It's been called the new Rent. The rock musical for a new generation. A revolutionary piece of theater on Broadway. And, I must say, even if people didn't say those things (and I'm pretty sure they did say something like that), I agree. The marketing for Spring Awakening does not necessarily draw the ideal audience (read: me) in for a show following a group of pubescent youth yearning for carnal knowledge and for that natural human desire to connect beneath the surface, both physically and mentally. In fact, with a title like Spring Awakening and the ghostly period-costumed bodies on the promotional materials, I barely looked twice. But, thank God for word of mouth. I felt the buzz building and you can only see a show pop up on so many Best Musical of 2006 lists before you need to learn more, if you want to consume popular culture like I do.

So, to make up for their marketing, with all due respect, let me offer my own tag line for

Spring Awakening:

Sex.
Revolution.

Rock On.

It may not be perfect, but it offers more of an idea of the themes of the show, one of which I think is challenging conservative ideals in order to truly live. If action isn't taken then the consequences can be severe. Maybe in 2007 we're not as conservative about sex as the Puritan community of 1890's Germany, but we live in a world where conservative ideals are causing people to die and perhaps the revolution begins with sharing information. See the show and let me know if you agree or if I'm way off base.

The show, with music by Duncan Sheik of 90's pop fame (Barely Breathing, anyone?), uses contemporary pop/rock sounds to show the clash of the adults vs. the kids, the period of the show vs. today, and the clarity of how the world seems on the outside vs. the chaos going on inside our heads. The show, through music and script, brought me back to a time when sex was a mystery, a power seemingly as big and powerful and awe-inspiring as religion itself - and the two, religion vs. sexuality, show up as perpetual conflict in the world of the show and in our world today.

Sitting around coming up with concepts of casting, direction and even the script and score may pr may not have felt like big risks. When I watched this show I felt like there was one risk taken after another and, while some didn't take off as well I would have liked (the ending could have swelled with greater emotion, honestly) I left Spring Awakening energized, in love with the characters (and some of the actors...damn. hot.) and on a high from the fact that a revolutionary new rock musical with a Rent-like sensibility exists ON BROADWAY for a new generation of sexually charged...well, me. And I hope a lot of other people.

Should you? Go.