<p>[TonyAwards.com</a> - The American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards - Official Website by IBM](<a href=“The Tony Award Nominations | The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards®”>The Tony Award Nominations | The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards®)</p>
<p>As always, there will be lots of complaining about the choices, but it’s always fun! Congratulations to Raul Esparza (Tisch) who now joins Boyd Gaines as the only actors to ever be Tony-nominated in all four acting categories. He’s a gem! And I’m really excited that of the actors I know who have been nominated, I’m so proud of the two kids - Karen Olivo(CCM) and Constantine Maroulis(BoCo). Yay for both of them!</p>
<p>Don’t forget to watch on June 7th.</p>
<p>Perhaps Raul Esparza will finally win. I saw STP on what seemed like the first night he and
Norbert Leo Butz clicked. When the lights came up for the curtain call they were locked in
a bear hug, laughing and crying. A once in a lifetime theatergoing experience.</p>
<p>We loved Karen Olivio when we saw her in In the Heights last summer so we will be pulling for her. My D had me texting her all of the nominations this morning as she was in school!
D is looking forward to seeing West Side Story this summer when she is back east in Philadelphia the month of July. She already has two weekend trips planned to NYC.</p>
<p>Wow, Billy Elliot really sweeped the nominations this year. Interesting that the kid actors are jointly nominated…</p>
<p>I predict the Tonys will be The Billy Elliot Show: Awards version :)</p>
<p>And richly deserved, I might add.</p>
<p>Re: Post #1…and kids…Josefina Scaglione (West Side Story) and Jennifer Damiano (Next To Normal) are also young (not to mention the boys in Billy Elliot).</p>
<p>Oh, I know, Susan. I was just mentioning two kids I know. 
I don’t think Constantine has much of a chance but I’m really hoping that Karen wins. Both categories are (mostly) strong.</p>
<p>forrest, I would love for Raul to win, but I’m not holding my breath.</p>
<p>be_somebody, the producers lobbied to have the boys considered jointly, which I think was wise.</p>
<p>Oops, sorry…did not realize you meant those were the two kids you actually know and I read the comment incorrectly. Great for all these young actors though!</p>
<p>Marin Ireland from The Hartt School class of '00 just got nominated for a Tony for best featured actress for Neil Labute’s “Reasons to Be Pretty”</p>
<p>Moved this from another thread. Yay…Hartt!</p>
<p>The boys from Billy Elliot were nominated the same way in Britain- they play the same role, with different strengths, and compete as an “entity”. The three nominated in Britain won and each received an award. I have a strong feeling that this year’s Tony winners role will be dominated by “B.E”!</p>
<p>I haven’t a clue who will win the big awards…the only person I am rooting for is John Glover. “Waiting for Godot” was my first Broadway experience. It was also with Nathan Lane and John Goodman. Now, John Glover was FANTASTIC as Lucky…I was hoping he would get recognition for his performance upon leaving Studio 54. He was SO good. I am hoping the Tony for Best Supporting Actor in a Play goes to John Glover!</p>
<p>So what did you think about the Tonys? As expected, Billy was king.</p>
<p>I thought that, overall, the show was very entertaining, as usual, but it was somewhat of a technical disaster. The sound problems were terrible and, frankly, inexcusable. There were also several glitches with the camera work. I’m often a little surprised at the choice of musical numbers that some shows choose to perform, and last night was no exception. I think the inclusion of a few touring companies was largely a mistake. The performances were mediocre.</p>
<p>I don’t think that there were any huge upsets. I was disappointed that John Glover didn’t win but other than that, I was happy for all the winners, especially Karen! Yay for her! Geoffrey Rush gets the award for the best speech and Alice Ripley’s speech may lead many to believe that she was typecast for this role. 
</p>
<p>Neil did a very good job as host, and I’m happy that they allowed his intelligence and rye sense of humor to come through in the writing. My guess is that most in the tv audience didn’t get half of the humor in his lines, which were filled with ‘inside’ jokes.</p>
<p>Lastly, I hope that I’m as active, funny, and gracious as Angela Lansbury when I’m 83!</p>
<p>alwaysamom, amen, especially:</p>
<p>Alice Ripley’s speech may lead many to believe that she was typecast for this role. </p>
<p>Yeah, what was up with <em>that</em>? She sounded, well, bizarre.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed the telecast too. The opening medley of the current musicals on Broadway was entertaining and a nice array to showcase what is showing right now this season in terms of musicals. </p>
<p>I also could have done away with excerpts from the touring productions as it was unusual to showcase three musicals that are not new this current season, let alone to use the touring casts and not the Bdway casts. I realize it may help with ticket sales. But the time allotted for this when they barely showed excerpts of the current plays on Bdway was not balanced. They did not show live excerpts of the plays up for nomination and then the film clips were VERY short to boot. I did like that the current musicals got a lot of air time as they had excerpts in the opening medley as well as their own numbers. I was sorta surprised at the number they chose for the Billy Elliot single excerpt (not the one in the opening medley) having seen the show. It was good of course but I would have assumed one of the very entertaining group numbers may have been showcased over the one chosen. </p>
<p>Angela Lansbury was very inspiring. To think she not only has won five Tonys but that she is performing nightly at her age and really, it was all quite awesome. </p>
<p>I was happy for the three Billy’s and thought their acceptance speech was just very cute and age appropriate…they were in shock it seemed. </p>
<p>I was surprised at the sound glitch in Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat but thought that he did great even so, though it must have limited his acting of the song in the way he normally would do the number, to have to hold a mic. </p>
<p>I thought Neil Patrick Harris did a very good job and his ending song was fun! </p>
<p>I had some tears to see Karen Olivo’s speech as it is always quite something when a young person gets this level of achievement! </p>
<p>Lots of actors thanked their parents…aww…behind every great actor is a lot of support. :D</p>
<p>As I write this, please know that I have a bi-polar sibling and parent. As I am sure you all know, it is a very difficult life for the individuals as well as family members. I want to see Next To Normal, but know I will look like an ill person myself blubbering the entire way through!
The number from Next to Normal was wonderful, in my opinion… but what stood out for me as curious was Alice’s very small mouth movements when she was not singing. It is not uncommon to have “primative” oral movements in bi-polar people, so I wondered if Alice incorporated that tiny detail into her character. If so, that is brilliant. If not, I wonder if she was just a little nervous? Did anyone else notice that? </p>
<p>As for her speech…it seemed to me she became so overwhelmed with her passion for the arts that she could not contain it!!! I betcha SNL or Talk Soup does a sketch of it. It was good stuff. </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I did notice the little twitches and tics, and I think it was intentional. She was brilliant – and I can’t wait to see this show! But I think her acceptance speech was a little strange. She did mention that she has a BFA, and I was curious so I researched it – she graduated from Kent State.</p>
<p>I’ve heard some negative comments about Rock of Ages – but to me it just looked like a lot of fun. I’ll probably go to see it. I remember all of those songs!</p>
<p>And the sad part of the post-Tony week has begun. Two shows have posted closing notices:</p>
<p>Reasons to Be Pretty
Guys & Dolls</p>