<p>Total trivia time while we wait for the Tony's tonight. </p>
<p>I think it is always interesting to see how and where the nominees have trained, especially since kids in the upcoming senior class tend to be so focused on getting into that one "dream school."</p>
<p>I'll start with the nominees for Best Actress in a Musical:</p>
<p>Christiane Noll, vocal performance, Carnegie Mellon
Kate Baldwin, started in VP and switched to theater at Northwestern (rec'd their MT certif.)
Montego Glover, BFA MT at Florida State University
Catherine Zeta-Jones, ZIP
Sherie Renee Scott, ZIP</p>
<p>Best Featured Actress in a Musical:</p>
<p>Katie Finneran, CMU for one year only (like Sutton Foster)</p>
<p>Couldn't find info on the others, so probably, ZIP. Anyone interested, please add the guys!</p>
<p>Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was raised in England…attended The Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick, West London, for a full-time three-year course in musical theatre.</p>
<p>Sherie Renee Scott trained at Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC which is a two year program.</p>
<p>While I agree that those who make it on Broadway come from a wide spectrum of backgrounds…BFA, BM, BA, no major in theater/MT, or no college at all…I think it is sometimes a different scenario for older actors than the younger ones today. Many of the younger ones do seem to have degrees in the field.</p>
<p>Agreed. I still think all the kids applying to college–MT or not–tend to get too focused and stressed out about getting into a particular school. It can only be encouraging to see that there are many different paths to success.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info about Zeta-Jones. I thought she left school at 15.</p>
<p>Agree that many kids focus too much on getting into specific schools as a path to success when you can go to any school and become a success. I will add that too many kids who are going into MT define success/goals too narrowly…to be on Broadway. Yes, that is the ultimate but few will be on Broadway and one can be successful in MT without being on Bdway.</p>
<p>Excellent point. But speaking of C Z-J, she just sang on the Tony’s and was TERRIBLE! Anybody know if she is sick? It sounded more like vocal damage. And what was all that head jerking about? I loved her on Chicago, but this performance was truly dreadful. (In decided contrast, Christiane Noll is now singing…)</p>
<p>re: C Z-J
anne1244, I completely agree that all the head jerking was extremely annoying and commented so to my D when she first began singing. My D was more annoyed by her vowels (?), but she did later say she had lost her voice, so that explains the dreadful singing, but not the head jerking.</p>
<p>Vocally she wasn’t much better in the show, her acting was great but not her singing. It kind of upsets me that she won, given that it was best actress in a MUSICAL.</p>
<p>CZJ has been sick and out of the show for at least two weeks, last time I checked. I can’t believe they still made her sing that song, of everything they could’ve performed from the show…!</p>
<p>I was thinking that it would have been an unselfish and charming choice if CZJ had come on stage to report her ill health and then introduced her understudy to perform the song. I don’t imagine the Tony show producers would have gone for that, but inflicting that horrible rendition of a wonderful song on the viewers there and at home was pretty cruel. </p>
<p>Seems like the Tony voters were darn star struck, given that Denzel, CZJ and Scarlett J. all won. I saw View from the Bridge and Scarlett was perfectly adequate, but only that. I think she was unduly lauded because everyone expected her to be a disappointment, like so many stunt-cast performers, and she wasn’t.</p>
<p>I actually think it is all about $$$$$$–the Californication of Broadway, so to speak. They need the star power to attract producers and theater goers and, accordingly, want to anoint the stars. It is better publicity for Broadway to do so. </p>
<p>I am eager to hear the viewership number of the Tony’s this year. I wonder if it went up appreciably since it seemed that half of Hollywood was in attendance.</p>
<p>We saw –C-Z-J perform her role in the show and felt that her acting was good; she is obviously a beauty, but that she was VOCALLY the weak link in the show. It was apparent that she was cast for her star power. (In fact, when we saw her in NY, it seemed then that she was in poor vocal health and our thinking at the time was that she lacked proper training and thus hurt herself…. Just shows that proper vocal training is very important!) There are so many worthy and talented people who could have performed this role and done it justice, apparently business is business and she was felt to be a box office necessity. Has anyone heard that Bernadette Peters is to replace her? Is this true?</p>
<p>Don’t know about Bernadette Peters replacing her - she’s a bit old for that isn’t she? But in response to her being ill for the last few weeks; we saw her in the winter and she was vocally weak then, not as bad as last night but certainly not worthy of the musical award.</p>
<p>We’re seeing Fences next week but I do believe Denzel is a remarkable actor and that his Tony might be justified.</p>
<p>Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury will give their final performance of A Little Night Music on June 20. There had been announcements of the show closing. However…now…</p>
<p>Performances will resume July 13 with Bernadette Peters playing Desiree Armfeldt and Elaine Stritch as Madam Armfeldt.</p>
<p>This is not rumor. It has been in various theater publications as official.</p>
<p>regarding C-Z-J’s “distracting” performance…my D’s comment was “does she think she’s Alice Ripley?” Very unnecessary with the head bobbing and facial expressions… to be perfectly honest, we were not thrilled this year with the show. Did not match up to the caliber of the last few years!! Musical numbers were just so-so…but doesn’t mean we won’t continue to watch!!! We love us some Broadway!</p>
<p>The Tonys are rife with controversy every year! It’s the nature of the beast when the nominees are decided by such a very small number of individuals. This year is no exception but maybe it’s even more evident because it’s such an extraordinarily weak year.</p>
<p>I saw Catherine when she was healthy and her performance was a delight. She has been very sick for several weeks now with very bad bronchitis and near pneumonia. Her vocal issues are not as a result of poor training. I think it was very obvious last night that she had a fever and probably should have been home in bed. No one expects her to resemble Linda Eder with her vocals. Her acting choices were somewhat strange and I wonder if the director asked her to exaggerate her movement due to the size of the venue. Whether she deserves the Tony or not, who knows. She was clearly very surprised when her name was called. </p>
<p>Denzel Washington was very good in Fences but my choice would have been Alfred Molina. Viola Davis deserved her award without a doubt, in my opinion.</p>
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<p>Who expected her to be a disappointment? Scarlet is a very talented actor who has been praised for many of her roles. I don’t know anyone in the theatre community who expected her to be a disappointment. This was not a case of stunt-casting. Melanie Griffiths, and the many others that the Weisslers have had troop through Chicago are examples of stunt-casting, but Scarlet in Bridge? No more than Liev Schreiber is stunt-casting. In my opinion, this production was not nearly as good as the revival in the 90’s. Anthony LaPaglia and Brittany Murphy interpreted the material in a much more believable way.</p>
<p>I always enjoy watching the Tonys and find the show to be the most entertaining of the awards shows, which I guess is no surprise. It’s fun to see kids that I know onstage and see what everyone’s wearing, the good and the bad (come on Kristin, you’re 42 and shouldn’t be wearing dresses meant for 16 year olds). I liked how they ended the show with the winning show performing. That was a nice touch. One thing that was a shame was the very bad sound throughout the show. Come on, Radio City, you should have the best sound people available for the Tonys!</p>