Tony Awards 2011

Why were they at the Beacon Theater anyway?

I love the Beacon, probably my favorite venue to see a concert, but it's about half the size of Radio City.

Did the Dolan's drive Broadway away?

I attended the TONYs a couple of times since we were the Official Airline of both the League of american Theaters & Producers and the American Theater Wing.

One year, when they were kissing my ass for a renewal, they sat me front row center.

I remember Vanessa Williams was there -- can't remember if she was a presenter or was nominated for something. The Lakers were in the Finals the same night and they kept updating the crowd on the score during commercial breaks, since Williams' husband Rick Fox played for the Lakers.

 

There was a venue issue with Radio City Music Hall this year. Cirque de Soleil has taken over RCMH, and the Beacon is much smaller -- only about 3,000 tickets total were available. I bet they're back at Radio City next year.

 

Right now, Phantom. House of Blue Leaves and Rock of Ages are running, Mondays . . . counterprogramming, designed to catch the desperate with a theater jones.

 

Ah, that makes sense.

The first year i went to the TONYs was in 1999, when I was a guest of Continental Airlines, before going to work there.

It was held at the Gershwin Theater, which holds just under 2,000.

I think it's been held at Radio City every year since then, which has a capacity of about 6,000.

The Beacon is comes in at about 3,000 seats.

After being in Radio City for so many years, that had to be a disaster for the producers. People get used to going to big events. Could not have been easy to cut out half of the audience.

 

Video of the rap finale being put together during the show. Neil Patrick Harris nails it on his first read, pretty much.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/rhyme-schemes-see-the-creation-of-the-tony-awards-closing-rap/?ref=theater

 

That thing was pretty incredible - glad to see the writers get some pub. You wonder when someone is going to cast Neil Patrick Harris in a big movie, just so they could get him to host (and help produce - I'm sure the rap was his idea) the Oscars.

 

What movie could possibly be bigger than "Starship Troopers"?

 

Undercover Brother?

 

Spiderman has finally had its official opening night.

The Times is not kind:

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/theater/reviews/spider-man-turn-off-the-dark-opens-after-changes-review.html?hp

 

Saw "Memphis" on Netflix on demand - pretty good - performances were strong, thought the songs were close, but weren't quite there, and the "drawl" of the male lead was annoying and it suffered from comparisons to Hairspray. Still, better than paying $80 for it. I wish more shows were available on tape.

 

I saw the Neil Patrick Harris "Company" at the movie theatre and loved it! Be great to see more shows that way. The Metropolitan Opera does this regularly and they sell out every performance.

 

Company was very well-done. Plenty of cameras and plenty of closeups. But ticket prices are going to be commensurate.