Who's News this week: Tony nominees
If you love the theater like I do, you won't want to miss this weekend's Who's News column. It's a special report on the 63rd annual Tony Awards. We talked with several of the nominees — names and shows you're sure to know.
Take Allison Janney, for example. We all remember her from NBC's long-running drama The West Wing, but now she is nominated for 9 to 5: The Musical, and she is so happy about being on stage each night. Jeff Daniels, who got his theater start at my alma mater, Central Michigan University, is excited to have earned his first Tony nomination for the critically acclaimed God of Carnage. He thought for sure it would be his castmates and not him. In fact, it was all his castmates — James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis AND him. Then there was Angela Lansbury, who was the first to get on the phone. She was gracious with her time and told us that she is grateful that her fans from her days starring in Murder, She Wrote, go to the theater to see her in Blithe Spirit.
So, take a look at the page and then tune into CBS at 8 p.m. ET for the show, because you'll see scenes from many of the nominated plays and musicals as well as lots of stars.
June 03, 2009
Talk Tonys with Neil Patrick Harris
How I Met Your Mother's Neil Patrick Harris (at left with HIMYM co-star Cobie Smulders) met with the press by phone today to talk about hosting the Tony Awards on Sunday night and our Steve Thompson was among those asking the questions. Harris has been working with a team of writers to get ready for the big night but don't expect Hugh Jackman-like singing and dancing. Harris says he will be there to make the audience comfortable between acts and that's it. He's been seeing some of the nominated productions and let slip he'll be in the audience for Best Musical front-runner Billy Elliot, The Musical tonight. A veteran of theater productions like Cabaret and Assassins, Harris said this year he would like to see "some less than predictable winners."
Speaking of less than predictable, Harris is executive producing an adventure-scavenger hunt called Accomplice, where people in New York City and Hollywood can be led on an Amazing Race-type tour through the streets of those cities while actors play out different scenarios. Harris, who'll be back in HIMYM next fall as womanizer Barney Stinson, is nothing if not creative. "I like to live in lots of once in a lifetimes," he said of his across-the-board talent.
Photo by Randy Tepper
June 01, 2009
Sunday's Tony Awards bring out the stars
Neil Patrick Harris, right, hosts the 63rd Annual Tony Awards live from Radio City Music Hall this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, but viewers in New York City don't have to tune in to CBS to find out who wins. This year, fans can watch the awards in Times Square, including the pre-telecast Creative Arts Awards at 7 p.m. Performances from the nominees for Best Musical and Best Musical Revival, Billy Elliot, The Musical; Guys and Dolls; Hair; Next to Normal; Pal Joey; Rock of Ages; Shrek the Musical; and West Side Story will be featured throughout the show. There will be lots of movie and TV stars presenting on stage, including: Jeff Daniels, Will Ferrell, Jane Fonda, James Gandolfini, Lauren Graham, Marcia Gay Harden, Nicole Kidman, Anne Hathaway, Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Spacey and John Stamos. Get ready for your Tony viewing with a look at our special report in this coming Sunday's magazine.
May 14, 2009
Neil Patrick Harris to host '09 Tony Awards
How I Met Your Mother's dapper, catch-phrase dropping Barney — aka Neil Patrick Harris — will host the 63rd annual Tony Awards on CBS Sunday June 7. He has some big shoes to fill: Whoopi Goldberg hosted last year, Hugh Jackman previously. Harris may be best known for TV roles — he became a star when he played the teen doctor on Doogie Howser, M.D. — but he has considerable theater experience, including three Broadway productions. “The discipline of live theater — doing the same perfect thing night after night, eight times a week — never ceases to amaze me,” Harris said in a statement. “I'm truly honored to have been chosen as the Master of Ceremonies for this year's Tony Awards, and I hope to help provide a first-class evening for all.”
Photo courtesy of CBS
June 16, 2008
2008 Tony Award after party: Food, fun but few big names
I'm writing this post right after I'm back from scouting the Tony Awards party for famous faces and I'm sorry to report there were few BIG stars chowing down on the salmon, beef, chicken and veggies they most likely needed after that four hour show. Yes, four, not just the three hours you saw on TV — but more on that
later. First, the party.
I walked into the gala with Jim Norton, a very nice man who looked like all the rest of the men in tuxes except that he was carrying the Tony award he won for The Seafarer. I asked what he felt as he heard his name called and he said he didn't remember anything from that moment on. He did not even remember what he said on stage. Inside, I said hello to the lovely Law & Order lieutenant S. Epatha Merkerson, a nominee for Come Back, Little Sheba, who was there with her mom. And I got a chance to catch up with Stew (at left), the multiple nominee for Passing Strange, which was nice because we had talked at length on the phone for the special Tony report I produced for the magazine. I observed the very handsome Gabriel Byrne and would SO have liked to plop down at his table to talk about his recent HBO series In Treatment but he was surrounded by women. I talked for a few minutes with Barry Bostwick, who had introduced the musical number from Grease, because I've interviewed him a few times.
But really, let's get serious. I was hunting bigger fame. I stalked the Rockefeller Center "summer garden" - i.e. the ice rink in summer - where the gala was held until my toes, jammed inside my new high heels, could not take another lap. I was on the search for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Harry Connick, Laura Linney (at right), Mary-Louise Parker, Alec Baldwin, Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, Brooke Shields, or the Holy Grail herself, Whoopi Goldberg. I got nothin'. I spotted Marisa Tomei.
The Tony show actually got started at 7 p.m. here in NYC, but the first hour of award giving was not televised. Still, that makes for a long night even if you are sitting in the majestic Radio City Music Hall. While you at home were watching commercials, the audience at Radio City was up and stretching legs and backs - or running out to the rest room until the next commercial. Whoopi did a wonderful job as host, and just as she told us she would, she was a storyteller of sorts and champion of Broadway. The Tony producers should sign her up now for next year.
(photos via tonyawards.com)
June 13, 2008
2008 Tony Awards report: Meet some nominees
I'm heading up to New York City this weekend to cover the 62nd annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall. Time for some star-gazing! Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe, 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin, Weeds' Mary-Louise Parker, Glenn Close, Kristen Chenoweth, Laurence Fishburne, Patrick Stewart, S. Epatha Merkerson, Patti LuPone, Mary McCormack, Laurie Metcalf and, of course, the host - or storyteller as she prefers to be called - Whoopi Goldberg are among the faces I expect to see.
We talked to as many of the nominees as would fit on a page for the magazine's Who's News Special Report this weekend. All were very excited and honored, of course, but some - like Stew, the one-named phenomenon who created the much-nominated Passing Strange - were truly surprised.
The show is on CBS at 8 p.m. Sunday and it will include more than the giving away of the statues. Musical numbers from nominated shows and tributes to Rent and Stephen Sondheim will make it worth watching.
Read on below for more of our interviews with some of the nominees, check out our previous post of outtakes from the interviews, and be sure to read our separate posts below on Patrick Stewart and Deanna Dunagan to read a whole lot more of what they had to say.
Deanna Dunagan on 'August: Osage County'
Deanna Dunagan (at right) is a Texas native, but she puts her Southern charm on hold each night as she plays Violet Weston, a vicious, pill-gulping, fork-tongued matriarch in August: Osage County. Recently, Dunagan, who's nominated for a Tony at this weekend's awards, dished to USA WEEKEND’s Jon Tollestrup about why she owns a bull’s ear, having Hollywood’s elite come backstage and why she initially turned down the part of Violet, which is sure to become her signature role. Read more below for the full scoop.
Patrick Stewart's Macbeth
Patrick Stewart (at left) has gone from Capt. Picard to the Bard and garnered a Tony nomination for his portrayal of Macbeth. Since the inception of the Tony awards in 1948, no other actor -- a list which includes Michael Redgrave and Christopher Plummer -- has landed a Tony nomination for playing the Scottish king. Will he take it all the way and win this weekend? That remains to be seen, but Stewart, 67, recently took time to chat with USA WEEKEND’s Jon Tollestrup about taking on the role and what his plans are post-Macbeth. Hint: It includes more Shakespeare.
Read below for his full report.
May 16, 2008
Taylor Hicks to star in Grease
Will I see him at the Tonys? News of the day is American Idol winner Taylor Hicks will appear in Grease beginning June 6. Other Idol winners have gone this way before, among them Fantasia and, most recently, Clay Aiken.
More Broadway bits: Don't tell Broadway legend Patti LuPone, now starring in the musical Gypsy, that her job is glamorous. “It’s not glamorous...," she tells us, "backstages are dirty. Neither is movie making (glamorous). Sound stages are just as dirty.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote his Tony-nominated musical In The Heights during his sophomore year in college because, “I needed to write. I wasn’t IN the original.” And he laughed when I asked if the play on Broadway is anything like the one he wrote 9 years ago. "I think there might be five notes that are the same," he says.
May 15, 2008
2008 Tony nominees talk
It's been a busy morning working on a page about the Tony Awards on June 15. We're on deadline with our June 15 issue this week so I've been madly interviewing and writing since last week, as have a few other of my writers. This is the third year for our special report on the Tonys and it's refreshing how accessible our Broadway stars are. I'll be running full interviews with some of the nominees in the blog closer to the Tony date — and there will be a full page in our print issue — but I want to share a few bits today.
Patrick Stewart (at left), who has been raved about for his riveting rendition of Macbeth, has thrilled Shakespeare fans and also introduced the Bard to many of his other followers. “There is a huge following for all the theater work that I do from my fans of Star Trek and X-Men,” Stewart says. “People tell me they're seeing Shakespeare for the first time and that they're going to the theater for the first time and that's something to be very pleased with.”
Paulo Szot (pronounced SHOT) plays Emile de Becque in South Pacific and he talks to us about the challenge of doing an authentic accent because he speaks English with a Brazilian accent, but plays a Frenchman in the musical. And though life on Broadway is good, Szot still yearns for certain features of his homeland. “I miss Brazilian beaches, especially when it’s cold here.”
Stew, who wrote and stars in the autobiographical Passing Strange, told me his nominations (four of them) are “the continuation of this crazy feeling that is a dream, but it’s someone else’s dream... it’s like waking up in a suit. It’s a suit that fits and I like it.” We talked while he was in his dressing room between shows last Saturday; he keeps a mini recording studio there.
S. Epatha Merkerson (at right), who has played Lt. Anita Van Buren on Law & Order for 15 years, called us from LAX while waiting for a plane back to NYC. She says live theater is like no other medium and that's why she tries to do it "whenever I can." She's Tony-nominated for Come Back, Little Sheba.
(Patrick Stewart photo by Alastair Muir; S. Epatha Merkerson by Virgina Sherwood/NBC)
