Tony Awards 2011

[lisa_simpson]

I may also have to see The Normal Heart. Jim Parsons is in that now?

Yup but I would check when his last performance is going to be. He's probably going to have to start shooting season 5 of Big Bang Theory soon.

They'll go back in mid- to late-July, so you've got about another month, max.

 

[Freelance Hack]

I actually tried a while back to get them - for THIS weekend. King Colossal Dumbass Me didn't realize what weekend it was at the time.

Stoopid question time: Does Broadway go dark for the Tony Awards, or do the shows go on with the understudy's understudy in the lead?

 

[HC]

I actually tried a while back to get them - for THIS weekend. King Colossal Dumbass Me didn't realize what weekend it was at the time.

Stoopid question time: Does Broadway go dark for the Tony Awards, or do the shows go on with the understudy's understudy in the lead?

The Tonys are held on Sunday night because all the theatres are dark then. Sunday is a matinee only (usually) and Monday is everyone's only complete day off.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

I actually tried a while back to get them - for THIS weekend. King Colossal Dumbass Me didn't realize what weekend it was at the time.

Stoopid question time: Does Broadway go dark for the Tony Awards, or do the shows go on with the understudy's understudy in the lead?

The Tonys are held on Sunday night because all the theatres are dark then. Sunday is a matinee only (usually) and Monday is everyone's only complete day off.

Not quite. F'r instance, I saw BOM at 7 PM on a Sunday, three weeks after the open . . . and there are
scattered Monday evening performances of other shows, though Monday is certainly the lightest day of the week.

 

[Moderator1]

A few shows do play on Sunday night but very few - most shows let their actors be "off" from Sunday late afternoon through Tuesday night.

Anything that is open IS dark on Tony night.

Here's my stupid question - can the public get tickets to the awards show?

 

[Ben_Hecht]

A few shows do play on Sunday night but very few - most shows let their actors be "off" from Sunday late afternoon through Tuesday night.

Anything that is open IS dark on Tony night.

Here's my stupid question - can the public get tickets to the awards show?

Even tougher, now, since they shifted from RCMH. Was blessed with tickets to the Sunday-morning dress rehearsal for years, but not in the past few seasons.

 

[HC]

Guess I've been lucky. The only shows I've been aware of with Sunday night performances have all been touring companies. I can't imagine not having Sunday nights off. Yikes.

 

[DanOregon]

Maybe its just that the performers are more accustomed to being live on stage, but the Tonys are almost always more entertaining than the Oscars - never would have thought the Tonys would have been bleeped as much as they were.
Sutton Foster is pretty amazing.

 

[YankeeFan]

A few shows do play on Sunday night but very few - most shows let their actors be "off" from Sunday late afternoon through Tuesday night.

Anything that is open IS dark on Tony night.

Here's my stupid question - can the public get tickets to the awards show?

Even tougher, now, since they shifted from RCMH. Was blessed with tickets to the Sunday-morning dress rehearsal for years, but not in the past few seasons.

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.

 

[Wenders]

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.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

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

 

[YankeeFan]

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.

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.

 

[finishthehat]

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

 

[DanOregon]

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.

 

[HejiraHenry]

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"?

 

[Central-KY-Kid]

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?

 

[YankeeFan]

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

 

[DanOregon]

We saw Memphis in December right before Christmas - lucked out and all the "stars" were in the show. Had a great time. Very well done, lots of fun. Montego Glover is something else.

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.

 

[HC]

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.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

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.