Tony Nominations and My Predictions

I have yet to see everything on the Tonys list this year, but I will bold what I think is going to win. 

Best Play

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Disgraced

Hand to God

Wolf Hall Parts One & Two

Best Musical

An American in Paris

Fun Home

Something Rotten!

The Visit

Best Revival of a Play

The Elephant Man

Skylight

This Is Our Youth

You Can’t Take It with You

Best Revival of a Musical

The King and I

On the Town

On the Twentieth Century

Best Book of a Musical

An American in Paris

Fun Home

Something Rotten!

The Visit

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

Fun Home

The Last Ship

Something Rotten!

The Visit

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

Steven Boyer, Hand to God
Bradley Cooper, The Elephant Man
Ben Miles, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Bill Nighy, Skylight
Alex Sharp, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

Geneva Carr, Hand to God
Helen Mirren, The Audience
Elisabeth Moss, The Heidi Chronicles
Carey Mulligan, Skylight
Ruth Wilson, Constellations

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

Michael Cerveris, Fun Home
Robert Fairchild, An American in Paris
Brian d’Arcy James, Something Rotten!
Ken Watanabe, The King and I
Tony Yazbeck, On the Town

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

Kristin Chenoweth, On the Twentieth Century
Leanne Cope, An American in Paris
Beth Malone, Fun Home
Kelli O’Hara, The King and I
Chita Rivera, The Visit

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

Matthew Beard, Skylight
K. Todd Freeman, Airline Highway
Richard McCabe, The Audience
Alessandro Nivola, The Elephant Man
Nathaniel Parker, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Micah Stock, It’s Only a Play

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

Annaleigh Ashford, You Can’t Take It with You
Patricia Clarkson, The Elephant Man
Lydia Leonard, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Sarah Stiles, Hand to God
Julie White, Airline Highway

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

Christian Borle, Something Rotten!
Andy Karl, On the Twentieth Century
Brad Oscar, Something Rotten!
Brandon Uranowitz, An American in Paris
Max von Essen, An American in Paris

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

Victoria Clark, Gigi
Judy Kuhn, Fun Home
Sydney Lucas, Fun Home
Ruthie Ann Miles, The King and I
Emily Skeggs, Fun Home

Best Scenic Design of a Play

Bunny Christie and Finn Ross, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Bob Crowley, Skylight
Christopher Oram, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
David Rockwell, You Can’t Take It with You

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

Bob Crowley and 59 Productions, An American in Paris
David Rockwell, On the Twentieth Century
Michael Yeargan, The King and I
David Zinn, Fun Home

Best Costume Design of a Play

Bob Crowley, The Audience
Jane Greenwood, You Can’t Take It with You
Christopher Oram, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
David Zinn, Airline Highway

Best Costume Design of a Musical

Gregg Barnes, Something Rotten!
Bob Crowley, An American in Paris
William Ivey Long, On the Twentieth Century
Catherine Zuber, The King and I

Best Lighting Design of a Play

Paule Constable, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Paule Constable and David Plater, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Natasha Katz, Skylight
Japhy Weideman, Airline Highway

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

Donald Holder, The King and I
Natasha Katz, An American in Paris
Ben Stanton, Fun Home
Japhy Weideman, The Visit

Best Direction of a Play

Stephen Daldry, Skylight
Marianne Elliott, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Scott Ellis, You Can’t Take It with You
Jeremy Herrin, Wolf Hall Parts One & Two
Moritz von Stuelpnagel, Hand to God

Best Direction of a Musical

Sam Gold, Fun Home
Casey Nicholaw, Something Rotten!
John Rando, On the Town
Bartlett Sher, The King and I
Christopher Wheeldon, An American in Paris

Best Choreography

Joshua Bergasse, On the Town
Christopher Gattelli, The King and I
Scott Graham & Steven Hoggett for Frantic Assembly, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Casey Nicholaw, Something Rotten!
Christopher Wheeldon, An American in Paris

Best Orchestrations

Christopher Austin, Don Sebesky, Bill Elliott, An American in Paris
John Clancy, Fun Home
Larry Hochman, Something Rotten!
Rob Mathes, The Last Ship

* * *

Something Rotten!

Holy hell, I haven't laughed at the theater like I did at Something Rotten since probably Gentleman's Guide or Book of Mormon. It was so fresh and just darn funny. Full of musical jokes, meaning that anyone who regularly sees them or has starred in them will get a big kick out of it. I went with a friend because the idea of musical Shakespeare really turned Aaron off. I guess we should've done our research as it wasn't really that Shakespeare-y at all. In fact, Shakespeare was a character, but barely any old English "backwards talking" happened. The jokes at times were even crass and crude, and modern!

We sat in the balcony row B. It was high up, but I had great sight lines. The cast works SO hard and they do at least 3 tap numbers, one of which has 8 soloists that have to dance in a train like round, meaning that if one screws up, the entire theater sees it. 

 Christain Borle was spotless as Shakespeare, the rock star sex pot. What a funny way to portray him. And Brian d'Arcy James as Nick Bottom was flawless....he carried the show. Brad Oscar as the soothsayer was so damn funny....he had the best numbers in the show.

It's been a long time since I have seen a show and at intermission loved every song I had already heard. The second act wasn't as strong, but I still enjoyed it. Great show! I can see this winning a shit ton of tonys!

An American In Paris

As soon as the tony nominations came out, and I saw that this show received 12 noms (clap clap clap), I had to get tickets. I've never been a huge fan of the movie (though I love me some Gene Kelly tap dancing) and it didn't really do anything for me storewise on stage....but it was a beautiful piece of theater to watch for dancing. It was very cheesy (Aaron was a little beside himself on how cheesy it was) but that's to be expected. The choreography was amazing and I am sure it will win for best Choreography. 

 Thank goodness for Broadwayabox.com because there aren't any on tdf. I got tickets for the mid mezz, row K to be exact. It was a great seat. Maybe little far back for seeing facial expressions but for a dance show, the acting is done with the whole body. 

 The leads were great....though Aaron commented that Jerry is not a likable character. Very true. Leez was an amazing dancer, and she was a quadruple threat (singer, actor, dancer, pointress!)

The usage of screens and projections was very thoughtfully done. The intro had a flag that had Swastikas projected on, then pulled around and it was a French flag. It made me miss Paris so much. All in all, it was great and a classic musical, but it won't win Best musical.

Gigi

OMG I love Gigi! I love the music, the story, the costumes! I got tickets with TDF for me and my friend Voon. I wasn't super excited to see Vanessa Hudgens because I don't really care about her and know her to be a movie star. But the urge to see the story line that I love so much was too strong. 

The costumes were AMAZING! I loved all the colors, blues and reds! Vanessa was a bit stiff as Gigi the child. She really came into the character at the end of act 1. It was a bit long to wait for that. The show itself was also a bit long. The second act had a couple of songs that I felt were unnecessary. The best actors were Corey Cott (Gaston) and Victoria Clark! Victoria Clark is a given as she is broadway royalty. For Corey Cott, I'd never seen him perform before, but he was so convincing that I leaned over to Voon and said that he'll get a tony nom for this performance. It can't be easy acting against someone who isn't giving it all back. 

 The scenes at Maxime's were always really fun to watch. The choreography was enjoyable. In the first act, Gaston went to a series of balls, all different themes. The transitions for each ball were very exciting to watch. The choreo changed its feeling with each ball as well.

Act 1 ending was fun! "Night they Invented Champagne!" 

 And of course, the big reveal for her ballgown got applause. I did feel like they loved each other, but Gaston's journey was much more exciting to watch. It's hard to give Vanessa a fair trial as no one can compare to Leslie Caron's stellar performance on screen. In fact, I think I may have to watch the movie now.

 We had great seats (Row U center section of orchestra) but they were obstructed only by the overhang. I don't think we actually missed ANYTHING, but I always like to see the top of the marquee.

Into the Woods

I have been dying to see this live. I fell in love with the story when I was a teenager (what a great time to come upon Sondheim) and had even auditioned for a local production when I was in the 11th grade (I didn't get cast as Little Red so I didn't take it), and then there's a lot of ITW mania after the movie came out earlier this year. With all the mainstream attention, I was a little worried that the story would be destroyed, the show would lose its gall, or some other theater catastrophe!

Upon entering the space, it felt very intimate. No curtain. The actors came onstage 5 minutes before they started. They broke the 4th wall. They jumped off the stage to say hi to their friends. We were not in an ordinary theater setting. The show has been stripped. No longer is there an entire orchestra. No, now it's a singular piano with occasional bassoon, cello, guitar, pretty much anything else that anyone in the cast could already play. 

We had great seats (row K off to the right). I'm starting to love this theater space as it is so small. I see everything and feel included!

 Actors were doubling characters, so depending on who was free to play the giant, that's who would take on the role. The actress who played Little Red also played Rapunzel, her different costumes being a red cape or a knitted wig. At times, it felt like "hipster Into the Woods". I really enjoyed the stepsisters, who were played by the two actors who played the Princes. They would stand behind a curtain rod to symbolize dresses. Very imaginative. It reminded me of seeing Peter and the Starcatcher only more chaotic. Aaron did mention that he was glad that he saw the movie before going because he would've been lost without previously knowing a little bit. He did say that he didn't like the 2nd act (bummer) because it was so contrasting from act 1 (that's the point, sweetie!) I enjoyed it.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

 I'm so happy that I returned to see this show a second time. I enjoyed myself the time before but left the theater with many questions, and while some questions STILL remain unanswered, I felt like I watched an entirely different show. Seeing John Cameron Mitchell play Hedwig as opposed to Michael C Hall was like night and day. Before, I had see Hedwig very angry, hostile, unloving towards her husband (still played by Lena Hall who was on her second to last performance before leaving). John was the original Hedwig from the film. His diction was so clear. Even the hardest of rock songs were understandable.

John had a spill on the street a while back which put him in a knee brace and sneakers as opposed to Hedwig's memorable heels. It was interesting to see her strut the stage in converse, but she did it well. She even made Ytsik put a crate under her foot anytime she sat anywhere. Way to run with what you've got. 

 We sat in the balcony which was a whole section above where I sat last time. We had row E which was second to last. Not too bad....as soon as the show started we moved down to row B, and it felt no different from the first row of the mezzanine. The best part of seeing the show on a Friday is that curtain time was at 10 PM, making it feel more like a concert. All the other theatergoers were super fans.

Here's the iconic sneakers. We waited outside to get autographs. We got autographed sugar daddy suckers and Lena signed everyone's playbills.

Aladdin

God this show was terrible, and I got my ticket for FREE! I wish I could get the time back. Let me explain:

My friend Diane and I went to the lottery today to try to win. Our dumb luck; we never win anything. The guys behind us were lucky enough to win. I overheard one of the them tell us "We already have tickets in the balcony..." As soon as the names were all called and we were ticketless, I turned to him and said "were you planning on selling the tickets?" to which he replied "we were going to give them to you." There was no catch. They honestly wanted to give them to us. We were overjoyed. Living in NYC so long does make you bitter and you begin to think that  no one is nice anymore. WRONG! (He's from San Antonio, so maybe that explains it) The seats were in the balcony but we didn't care. I figured that fly space would be used heavily in this show so it was going to be big. 

The acting was terrible. There's no other way around it. Jasmine's lines sounded like lines and like she was repeating something she did every day. Aladdin was ok, but his role was overall cheesy. Genie was so over the top. It was very apparent that the writers did not care about any role except Genie and wouldn't you know, it was the only damned thing about the show that was nominated for anything. Iago was turned into a short, scary sounding, annoying Oompa Loompa. We were excited to see Jonathan Freeman (Original Jafar in the movie) play Jafar but wouldn't you know, he was out tonight! Just our luck! As for Abu, he was butchered into 3 smaller roles and they were all Aladdin's friends. They all had 2 dimensional personalities; the boss when Aladdin wasn't around, the Nebbish lover, and the fat one obsessed with food. BORING BORING SNORE!

 Since it's a disney show, they used all the disney tricks. Kick line, tap dancing when unnecessary, and confetti guns at the end of a lackluster song. It was very sad that a show all about magic had virtually none in it. The best part of the whole show was the orchestra. They sounded flawless, though some of the arrangements sounded too "Broadway" and not enough "Aladdin".

 I did appreciate the people who imagined up some of the props. For the most part, nothing really excited me. I think even 10 year old Stina wouldn't be impressed. The tapping was some of the worst tapping I've ever seen on Broadway. There's never a reason to have 10 maxi fords in one number. Diane commented that the regular choreography was also sloppy and just plain bad. One of the chorus girls was pregnant. We could tell from the balcony! The flying carpet technology was neat because I honestly couldn't figure it out. I'm guessing it was a hovercraft that was directed from offstage. I didn't see any wires or arms. Right before they sang "A Whole New World" Aladdin jumped on the carpet and then broke the 4th wall to tell the audience that they were experiencing "technical difficulties", then took a 3 minute break, and when they came back Jasmine asked "Is it safe?" and some random audience member made the biggest laugh, which made the actors break character in laughter.

We sat 3rd row of the balcony and we were far away but we didn't care. Show was not good.