It’s over, you guys. Finito. With a final flurry of starry openings, the Broadway season came to a close on April 26. Here’s how our post-mortem/pre-awards-show conversation is shaping up…
- The nominations are in. Well… for all the awards that matter less than the Tonys, anyway. The Drama Desk Awards, the Outer Critics Circle Awards, and the Drama League Awards all announced their nominations this week. The usual suspects (Once, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Newsies, Audra, Jan Maxwell, Philip Seymour Hoffman) were all nominated. But we’re intrigued — if less-than-shocked — by some of the omissions: Evita‘s Elena Roger was universally snubbed, as was Matthew Broderick. On the flip side, Bonnie & Clyde and Lysistrata Jones got some post-closing love. The best news of all? We only have to talk about this until Tuesday, when the Tony nominations obliterate the conversation surrounding these awards.
- He’s above the title. He’s an international superstar. But on Broadway, he’s a Featured Actor. The mysterious and all-powerful Tony nomimating committee ruled that Ricky Martin will be considered in the supporting category at this year’s awards. Our guess? The powers at Evita asked that he be placed there, instead of in the significantly more competitive Lead Actor category, to maximize his chances of getting nominated following some… ahem… lackluster reviews. We’re guessing Ricky Martin doesn’t mind, however. Considering that he’s rich enough to hire Jeremy Jordan, Steve Kazee, Danny Burstein, Raul Esparza, and Norm Lewis to all sing at his next birthday party…
- In other weird-ass Tony eligibility news that bears no resemblance to reality, Kara Lindsay is a Lead Actress, Josh Young and Christian Borle are both Featured Actors, Once doesn’t have an original score but Newsies and A Streetcar Named Desire both do, and lots of people are pretending that the actors in Ghost could feasibly be nominated for something other than Looking Hot in Underwear…
- In a move that made us LOL as hard as the show itself, One Man, Two Guvnors asked that the Tonys committee consider the show for the Best Revival of a Play category, because it’s partly based on a play from 1746. Good try, guys! Maybe next year! Oh sorry, they only do that at the Olivier Awards…
- Because famous people care so much about American theater and take it so seriously, Usher will appear in — count ’em — two performances of Fuerza Bruta this weekend.
- The annual Easter Bonnet competition was held this week. This is important because Jeremy Jordan was there IN GLASSES. In glasses, y’all. Hold onto your britches before you spy these pics, ladies and gents. They’re pretty exciting.
- And score one for anyone invested in keeping the Spencer-Jordans in NYC for the moment: Ashley Spencer has been cast as Sherrie in Rock of Ages.
- Producers announced the casting of Broadway’s new Annie live on the Today Show. Because apparently… zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
- A promo poster for the Les Mis movie (aka “The Motion Picture Event of 2012”) turned up on the internet this week. We like it — and dig that they’re using the iconic art used in the theater — but new candids of Aaron Tveit in costume would be considerably more interesting.
- It’s unofficial! Director Mark Brokaw told Playbill that Harriet Harris and Victoria Clark are set to join Laura Osnes on Broadway in Cinderella (as Cinderella’s Stepmother and Fairy Godmother, respectively). This is so badass we don’t even want to ruin it with our own commentary. We just hope the show confirms it soon.
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Using the iconic theater art for Les Miserables is smart. They’re shouting to the gazillions of people who’ve seen it onstage: Look, it’s a movie now!
And I’m also excited about the (confirmed) Santino Fontana joining Laura Osnes in Cinderalla. I’m in my own little corner in my own little chair right now thinking how awesome they’ll be together!