May 08 2009
NEW YORK -- The PG's annual spring ShowPlane to Broadway brought me here just in time for Wednesday morning's press event, a giant media reception for the Tony nominees who had been announced the day before. Call it a fan's fantasy, organized chaos or a scrum, it was a jam-packed 3½ hours.
I arrived early enough to get checked in, pass down the breakfast buffet and walk all around the site - the entire eighth floor of the Millennium Broadway Hotel, just off Times Square.
[Captions of all pix are gathered at the end of the story.]
Stepping off the elevator you met a big Tony Awards backdrop for the obligatory photographs with Tony dignitaries. Then turning left you passed nine TV cubicles, each with chairs, cameras, lights, monitors, interviewer and crew; continuing in a clockwise zig-zag, you walked down a packed photographers' gauntlet with another Tony backdrop; then 13 more TV cubicles; another gauntlet of radio, internet and Big Paper stations (Variety, N.Y. Times, Village Voice, USA Today); and then, finally, the smaller papers, among them the PG, tucked in between the Seattle Times (who apparently never showed up) and El Dario/La Prensa -- pretty fancy international company.
The g
reat thing about being at the end of the line was that it put you right back at the beginning, watching the nominees as they stepped off the elevators directly into interview maelstrom. So I can't say I spent much time at my table, instead ranging freely, talking with the celebs as they stacked up waiting for one TV interview or another.
The printed PG sign at my table lacked the final h in Pittsburgh, but just after I'd written it in, Theater Wing chief Howard Sherman showed up to do the same -- a measure either of his attention to detail or his having nothing left to do but let the morning's machine run itself. There was plenty of help with that, not just from all the nominees' flacks and agents but also a large P.R. staff. It was needed, because very suddenly the whole site was pulsing with nominees and their posses.
One of the first to arrive was fresh young Josefina Scaglione, the pretty Argentinian playing Maria in "West Side Story." I'd heard she'd once been at Point Park, and she confirmed it -- at age 14 she spent two summer months there in a musical theater program.
Equally fresh is tall, pencil-thin Sutton Foster, another part-time former Pittsburgher -- she spent one year at CMU. She says she's signed to play Princess Fiona in "Shrek" until November. We snapped a picture of her with the three Billy Elliotts, David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Keril Kulish. In the Tony committee's best move, they're nominated together as a trio, and they moved through the scrum as a diminutive three-headed unit, wider than tall, unfailingly cheery and responsive.
It happened that I talked most with the Billys' father, Gregory Jbara, mainly because I've enjoyed him in plenty of shows and he has such positive memories of Pittsburgh, having come through with several tours ("Born Yesterday," "Chess") and to work on a few movies. He especially recalled Grandview Avenue ("the name of the street I grew up on") and working once in "Forever Plaid" with Canonsburg's Paul Binotto. I'd seen Jbara's sweet, round face on Broadway in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "Victor/Victoria" and "Damn Yankees," the latter two of which had him working with Rob and Kathleen Marshall, to whom he sends heart-felt best wishes.
He says the "Billy Elliott" company is so big -- 53 actors -- that there's hardly room for them in the dressing rooms. There are actually four Billys, counting the understudy, who performs twice a week just like the other three, although his billing precluded his sharing the nomination. I don't know which Billy the PG group will see, but they're all distinctive, giving Jbara and the rest the nightly challenge of variety, which helps keep the show fresh. "The entire evening hangs on each Billy," Jbara said.
Since I'd seen "Billy Elliott" in London, he pointed out how much his role was reconceived for Broadway, "allowing me to be goofier and more vulnerable." His role as the working class father confused by his son's dance talent touches many a nerve: "Dads stop me on the street" to talk about it. As we parted he said, "have a cocktail for me at the Gandy Dancer." And when I ran into him later in the melee, he'd obviously been thinking about Pittsburgh, because he'd remembered the fries at the O -- something that stays with you a long time, take that how you will.
I was particularly eager to talk with Roger Robinson, whose marvelous performance as Bynum in August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" should make him a lock for Best Supporting Actor. (Bynum is really the lead, but "Joe Turner" is rightly considered an ensemble play, so everyone's classified as supporting.) 
Roger told his accompanying publicist, Barbara Carroll, he was eager to get his picture taken with Dolly Parton (nominated for her score for "9 to 5"). I couldn't believe how small Dolly is, albeit interestingly structured and glowing all over like neon. I was eager to get a picture of the picture-taking. "Beauty and the Beast," I told him we'd caption it; "but which is which?" He liked that. But Dolly had her own mini-scrum moving her from one interview to another, and in the turmoil, I'm not sure if Roger got his wish.
I had a good talk with the "Joe Turner" sound designer Leon Rothenberg (co-nominated with Scott Lehrer). Sound contributes a lot to the magical realism of the show. Rothenberg pointed out it works on three levels: the natural environment (factory sounds, wind, rain), musical (a Taj Mahal score that reaches back from the blues to West Africa and combines guitar and African kora) and "the emotional or subliminal environment." Most of the latter is pretty subtle: "you get it when it goes away," he said.
This is only Rothenberg's second Broadway show, the first being "Impressionism," the modest Jeremy Irons-Joan Allen vehicle just now concluding a quiet run. So he could actually say of his Tony nomination that he's really "just happy to be here." Still, he wouldn't mind winning. Do you put it on your business card, I asked? "If you win," he said. "Or maybe print it on your forehead!"
Spotting Geoffrey Rush ("Exit the King") getting ready to leave, I made the obvious crack, asking if it was time for the king to exit. He smiled and said just about every photographer had had the same idea of posing him by an exit sign. He's also been given an ornate, antique electric exit sign for his dressing room, but the stage crew is still figuring out how to get it wired up.
Joining me for much of the time was Gwen Orel, a Pitt Ph.D. and former PG stringer who will be covering the Tony Awards for us -- blogging, twittering, who knows what all.
In the surging maelstrom I had brief encounters (or not) with a number of other stars -- Jane Fonda, Angela Lansbury, Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden, Karen Olivo (a dynamite Anita in "West Side Story"), Liza Minelli (she's pretty tiny, too), etc., etc. 
Gradually camera crews started to pack up and the long morning wound down. Having been to a starry "Waiting for Godot" the previous night (Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman, John Glover), I was heading to the matinee of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Ruined" before meeting the PG group for "West Side Story" at night.
I'll start telling you about the shows tomorrow. By the end of the weekend, I should have a better line on how the Tony races are shaping up.
CAPTIONS, from the top:
(1) The "West Side Story" crew, with the Theatre Wing's Howard Sherman at left and Josefina Scaglione (Maria) and Karen Olivo (Antia) in the middle.
(2) Jeff Daniels ("God of Carnage"), right, intervewed amid the throng.
(3) Three Billy Elliotts and one Sutton Foster.
(4) Gregory Jbara, Billy Elliott's dad.
(5) Diminutive Dolly.
(6) Jane Fonda signs a Tony nominees display.
(7) Marcia Gay Harden ("God of Carnage").
(8) Back out on Times Square, show biz goes on.
May 07 2009
The nominations are out! As in my last post, I mean, of course, the Kelly Award nominations. I was interested that the four high school Kelly shows I saw and wrote about this year did very well. More comment on this later, but first, hurry to secure your tickets to the Kelly Awards gala at the Benedum, May 23, every yeat one of the hottest tickets and best evenings in Pittsburgh theater.
(PHOTO at right: students from the six schools nominated for Best Choreography in the 2009 Gene Kelly Awards receive their medallions on May 6. Matt Polk picture.)
This year, the 19th since Pittsburgh CLO started the Kellys, there's a further wrinkle. As we first reported at length last summer (read the background here), the CLO and the Nederlander Organization (the Avis of Broadway landlords, and a cross-country theatrical power) have started the National High School Musical Theater Awards -- which, rendered simoply as the ol' NHSMTA doesn't exactly fall trippingly off the tongue, so it's just as well that they've presumed on the familiarity that should come with recognition and named the awards The Jimmys, after one of the masters of Broadway, James M. Nederlander.
As a result, this year's Best Actor and Best Actress winners, announced at the Kellys May 23 gala, will go to New York to compete against the winners of 15 other regional contests. (Unfortunately, unlike the August Wilson Monologue Contest, which held its national finals at Broadway's August Wilson Theatre, the Jimmys finals won't be at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre, where I'm seeing "Guys and Dolls" tomorrow night, but at the Skirball Center at NYU. It just doesn't sound the same. But it's still the Big Apple.)
Of the other 15 regional programs involved, all of which started by adopting the model pioneered by CLO, four are named like the Kellys for native musical theater favorites: Tommy Tune (Houston), Betty Buckley (Fort Worth), John Raitt (Fullerton, Cal.) and Shuler Hensley (Atlanta). Other cities are San Diego, Kansas City, Witchita, Rochester, Raleigh, Hershey, Norwich (Conn.), Beverly (Mass.), Nyack (NY), Millburn (NJ) and La Mirada (Cal.).
(PHOTOS: Competition for the Jimmeys will be stiff, judging by these pictures of winning 2009 shows; (above) Stratford High School's "Barnum," Tommy Tune Award [Bruce Bennett photo]; and (below) Atlanta International School's "Into the Woods," Shuler Hensley Award [Ed Zeltser photo].)
All these regional competitions are run by professional theaters, most of them big musical theater companies like CLO (North Shore in Beverly, TUTS in Houston, Starlight in Kansas City), some of them big regional theaters (Old Globe in San Diego, Paper Mill Playhouse in NJ). My guess is that it's that pro theater dimension that excluded the Mancini Awards, which were initially not in the Jimmys, then in, now out. As for the Westmoreland Night of the Stars, that's ineligible because it's a showcase, not a competition.
I'm still the only big city (well, medium city) theater critic I know who regularly writes about high school shows. For that, I can thank the CLO and the Kellys. I found myself doing a bit of a rant at last week's American Theatre Critics Association conference about the value of covering high school musicals, which includes publishing the Kelly Critics online, all as a way of encouraging the theater audiences, not to mention the performers, of the future -- and at the same time, covering theater that really matters to readers and also getting kids to read newspapers.
And here's a thought: Now that this national competition is an add-on to the two best-actor Kelly awards, the CLO should consider adding another step to the judging -- i.,e., for the six best actor and six best actress nominees, add a one-day workshop in Pittsburgh, with evaluations by the mentors added to the Kelly judges scores to choose the winners. After all, we want to send the two strongest representatives to NY, and the regular Kelly judging is inevitably tied closely to the vagaries of specific schools and shows.
Coming tomorrow in this space: spending four hours (yesterday) with the Tony nominees.
May 06 2009
The nominations are coming! The nominations are coming!
Not the Tony nominations -- they were announced yesterday morning and should be in today's Post-Gazette. I mean the nominations for the Gene Kelly Awards for Excellence in High School Musicals, to be announced at 5 p.m. today by the CLO to a cheering throng at the Benedum Center. We know that throng will cheer, because they're the ones receiving the nominations, which means word has gone out to them in advance, to be sure they'll be there to receive their medallions and have their pictures taken. And since dozens of high school teachers and students already know about the nominations, you can bet word has seeped out here and there. (Cue the images of the gossip-spreading "Telephone Hour" song from "Bye Bye Birdie.")
I was a Kelly judge this year, but I missed Friday's marathon judges' meeting because I was at a critics' conference in Sarasota. I submitted my votes for the shows I judged, but I didn't get to participate in the long, intense discussions, so I don't have an inkling what the nominations will be. I wait with bated breath, and I'll probably find some results to disagree with -- what judge wouldn't?
I have some thoughts about the Tony nominations, too, but I'll hold them back until I've bolstered opinion with a little more knowledge. I'm in New York right now, seeing eight Broadway shows this week, after which I'll know more of what I'm talking about.
Happy Birthday, Bill and August
The end of the term at Pitt and the critics' gathering (about which, expect a full report next week) made me an even more infrequent blogger than usual, so I missed congratulating Shakespeare on his 445th birthday (a week ago Thursday, April 23), and I missed noting sadly what would have been August Wilson's 64th birthday (a week ago Monday, April 27). It's still hard to believe August isn't still with us, harvesting that creative imagination and artistry. What a loss.
The biggest celebration of August's birthday wasn't in Pittsburgh, but New York, where nine local winners from Atlanta, Pittsburgh and New York met (fittingly) at Broadway's August Wilson Theatre in the first national finals of the August Wilson Monologue Contest. I've had a brief report from August's dramaturg and friend, Todd Kreidler, who said it was such a wonderful evening as to ensure the contest will continue into the future.
Kenny Leon was emcee, talking about August while the judges scored each contestant. Ruben Santiago-Hudson also talked, and he and others, including Phylicia Rashad, read "Money Blues," a selection of excerpts from the 10 Pittsburgh Cycle plays that Todd arranged. Best of all, the occasion (which was free to the public) was a kind of reunion of Wilsonian soldiers, aka the August Wilson theatrical family.
The contestants met Todd for breakfast at the Edison Hotel Coffee Shop, August's favorite Broadway diner, and they all won boxed sets of the 10 cycle plays published by TCG. The main thing I don't know is who won the competition, for which the prizes included small amounts of cash and a major scholarship to Point Park University. I'll catch up with that and let you know.
Meanwhile, on Pittsburgh stages
A lot of theater rolled down the three rivers while I was grading term papers and convening with the critics. First was "Angels in America: Perestroika," the second part of Tony Kushner's great contemporary epic (at Pitt, ended April 11). Holly Thuma had directed Part 1; this was directed in a different, equally compelling mode by C.T. Steele. It's been said (even by Kushner) that Part 2 is "klunkier" than Part 1, because it was put together quickly, but I didn't feel that. Rather, Part 2 just feels more tentative and unresolved, as it would have to be, looking ahead of itself into the unknown. It was certainly fun to see different students take on these great roles, but with the continued stiffening of pros Doug Mertz and Elena Alexandratos as Roy Cohn and Hannah Pitt.
"Angels" supposes that God went on vacation and left mankind to its own devices on April 18, 1906, right after the San Francisco earthquake. Who can contradict that? But just how much was he on the job before that?
I caught up with Keith Reddin's "Human Error" (at City through May 10), which was reviewed by Anna Rosenstein. It's one of those seemingly-slight plays that grows on you as it shrinks in your rearview mirror. Reddin's wit is obvious right off, but you don't exactly know where it's going -- as Miranda (Tasha Lawrence) and Erik (Matt Walton), the two air crash investigators, bickered in an early scene, I made a note, "he succeeds getting under her skin, if not under her clothes," only to discover in the next scene that he does both. (But I can't believe he keeps his socks on.) The greater emotional depths reveal themselves slowly in the metaphoric connection between airplane crashes and human relationships.
Still, their investigation begins to seem like a long serial date until the play deepens with the introduction of a crash survivor, Ron (Ray Anthony Thomas). At the end, Miranda and Ron say goodbye, wishing each other safe trip -- and suddenly the emotion hit home for me. I complimented Lawrence on this a few days later, when we did an audio interview for the PG (click on podcasts on the theater page and go to April 10), and she said she remembered something had been unusual at that performance -- she hadn't been quite in control, and it struck her in an "odd" way. . . . Wow. . . . How often do we forget that theater is a live art and each performance really is different?
(By the way, our May 1 podcast is a conversation with Ray Thomas, touching on "Human Error" but also his many August Wilson roles.)
I caught up with Lorca's "Yerma" (Quantum Theatre, closed April 26), also reviewed by Anna. The excitement of Lorca, I think, is in his daring poetic yoking of opposites: earthy grit and the stars, dance and murder, social oppression and soaring flight.
I myself reviewed O'Neill's "Moon for the Misbegotten" (at the Public through May 17), which strikes me as sharing something with August Wilson's "Seven Guitars" (opened last weekend at Pittsburgh Playwrights, through May 24): besides being tragi-comedies by two of the premier American playwrights, they're both backyard plays that dramatize personal loss. "Seven Guitars" stars Homestead native, Pitt grad and Wilsonian soldier Montae Russell, whose podcast interview is due to go online later this week.
I'm looking forward to seeing "Seven Guitars" next week with some alumni of my August Wilson course at Pitt. If you're one of those alumni, please contact me at crawson@post-gazette.com.
And now to bed. I have a "meet the nominees" event to go to in NYC this morning -- Tony nominees, that is. I wonder who the Kelly nominees will be, back at the Benedum?
By the way, a whole slew of Kelly Critic reviews of high school musicals finally made it through the Chris Rawson editing machine. You can find them piled up under either of two links on the PG theater page.