<p>I will be the first to admit that I'm (somewhat pleasantly) surprised by the critical acclaim for Spring Awakening and the resultant nominations. It still, as I predicted back in the fall, has had difficulty in filling its seats eight shows a week. Perhaps if some of those nominations turn into wins, ticket sales will increase.</p>
<p>Biggest disappointment for me: lack of a nomination for Jason Tam from A Chorus Line. He should definitely have been in that Featured Actor in a Musical category over one or more that were chosen.</p>
<p>Everyone mark June 10 on your calendars! :)</p>
<p>I saw Spring Awakening a week ago. It was pretty full in the theater. I thought that Jonathon Groff and Jon Gallagher did an excellent job and am not surprised by each of their nominations. I'm not saying this in comparison to anyone else nominated, only that I thought they were very good in their respective roles.</p>
<p>The show is different and I appreciated the creative vision of it not fitting a mold. I enjoyed it. I can see how it would not appeal to certain people....like my parents!</p>
<p>there are a lot of 'tragedies' that came with these nominations. </p>
<p>laura bell bundy getting a nomination over kristin chenoweth
no orchestration nomination for mary mitchell campbell (company)
spring awakening being nominated for choreography and set design
charlotte getting nominated for a chorus line
legally blonde for best book
brooks ashmanakas for featured actor
mary poppins for best musical </p>
<p>haha im not happy :)</p>
<p>im rooting for audra and 110 for best revival and set plus raul for actor. and of those nominees, grey gardens for best musical.</p>
<p>I was not suprised at the way Spring Awakening racked up the nominations.
One thing that did suprise me was Laura Bell Bundy over Kristin Chenoweth. I was also suprised that Charlotte was nominated for A Chorus Line...I didn't like her in that part at all.</p>
<p>I thought that the set design for Spring Awakening was wonderful. Creative, simple, interesting, useful in terms of playing spaces for actors. I am glad that a design heavy on creativity and lacking in huge spectacle was nominated. </p>
<p>I too was surprised that Charlotte d'Amboise was nominated in the featured, rather than leading category, but maybe it is because Chorus Line is more of an ensemble piece?</p>
<p>Wow.... umm anyone else think that Legally Blonde should not have been nominated for anything? It was terrible. Also, spring awakening did really not deserve that many nominations.</p>
<p>There will always be controversy about the nominations. They are chosen by 15-30 individuals, so it's unlikely that everyone will be pleased. :)</p>
<p>I LOVE Audra..... she does however have four Tony's! If Christine Ebersole doesn't win for "Grey Gardens" I will never watch the Tony's again. I will have lost all faith in theatre awards. First of all, she has been doing the role for almost three years.... she INHABITS the character.... you do not think you are watching an actress...If you haven't seen GREY GARDENS.......GO!</p>
<p>I still haven't gotten over Alan Cummings winning in Cabaret over Brian Stokes Mitchell in Ragtime.</p>
<p>I also noticed Pirate Queen got nothing. Not choreography, lighting, set... etc....</p>
<p>As far as Plays.... if you get a chance to see "Journey's End"... go... it is great theatre.. Hugh Dancy SHOULD have been nominated... "Talk Radio" was really good too. </p>
<p>I saw Laura Bundy in "Ruthless" about 15 years ago..... she was the little girl in the original cast....
I saw that production about 8 times. I still love that show, and thought that production was one of the most fun pieces of theatre I ever saw. Did you know Britney Spears was her understudy?! </p>
<p>I also saw Apple Tree this year... I was shocked that Kristin was NOT nominated! She
seems to be one of those people that are nominated for everything they do... besides she was really good... She should have gotten a nomination and so should have Brian d'arcy James.....</p>
<p>John Doyle Best Director for "Company"??? Yuk... After watching his Sweeney... and going to Company... I will never make the mistake of going to one of his musicals again... Fool Me Once Shame on you, Fool me twice Shame on Me. What a mess Company was. Pass that one if you are in NYC, although Raul was great.</p>
<p>I think a big factor in Tony nominations (and all award nominations) is the business of the business. It's to generate buzz, get people buying tickets, keep the industry going--I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing--I just think that we can't expect the nods to be soley (soley? that looks weird!) to talent, merit, entertainment value, hard work, whatever. . . the bottom lines are parts and parcels of the awards organizations. Rather, in a perfect world, they should be based entirely on art, but in this world, they're based on other things as well. And politics, of course.</p>
<p>AlwaysAMom....hmm, I now have to remember where I read that yesterday online! It may have been on a message board to do with Broadway/theater. Maybe it isn't true, I don't know! Let me see if I can find it again.</p>
<p>AlwaysAMom, I feel so terrible to have posted that. I have just gone to look at various theater message boards I had read yesterday to find the thread that I believe even had as a subject heading about Pirate Queen closing and now I can't find it. It is not in the news so this is obviously wrong information and I am quite sorry! What it may have been is that on a message board, a person creates their own subject heading when starting a thread and while the subject heading may have read as a factual statement, it may have been more of a "prediction" as in "no nominations, it is likely to close." I didn't read through all of it and only saw the subject wording about Pirate closing and a post about it closing on the weekend. I wonder if that has since been taken down as it doesn't appear on the various boards I read yesterday. </p>
<p>So.....please ignore what I wrote about Pirate Queen. Oy! It is still running. </p>
<p>It just goes to show not to believe all you read on a message board as it can be rumor, not fact. I regret repeating what I read elsewhere as it seems to not be true. So sorry.</p>
<p>I thouroughly enjoyed Legally Blonde...didn't look at the clock once, well maybe just during the actual "Legally Blonde" song, didn't care for that one so much. Otherwise I thought it was Fun and Funny, OMIGOD U GUYS! It's the only show I saw on the list though I hope to get to Spring Awakening soon. The Apple Tree & Chenowith in particular got rave reviews in all my magazines, maybe they want to share the award with up and comings?</p>
<p>I'm totally on the same page about Company.
I LOVE Sondheim,and think Sweeney Todd is a masterpiece, if not the finest opera/musical of the 20th century. So it would be hard to spoil S.T for me, & I went last year with high expectations. I mean, Patti Lapone, come on! Well, you can imagine. It was SOOOO pretentious. (Patti Lapone was great though.) If I hadn't known the plot and music inside out (from having listened to the excellent Len Cariou/Angela Lansbury recording about 500 times!), I would have had absolutely no idea what the heck was going on. It was SUCH a gimmick. The soul was sucked out of it. And all the performer besides Patti (even Michael Chevaris) were second rate--how could they be top notch when they all had to be proficient in a musical instrument? Can you imagine the casting call? Soprano, 20s, ability to play clarinet, sing and act at the same time.... So when I heard Company was going to be put on, I said to myself: I HOPE they don't do that super-pretentious thing again. AND THEY DID! So I didn't go--fool me once..... :) But I heard Raul was great.</p>