2004 Tony Awards - Year of the Non-Profits

How interesting that all four winners - Avenue Q for Best Musical, I Am My Own Wife for Best Play, Assassins for Best Revival of a Musical and Henry IV for Best Revival of a Play - were developed or produced in the non-profit theatre world. Avenue Q, after workshops elsewhere, originally premiered at the non-profit Vineyard Theatre. I Am My Own Wife, after many regional productions, was further honed at the non-profit Playwrights Horizons. Both Avenue Q and I Am My Own Wife are now on Broadway in commercial productions, but their roots are in the non-profit world. Assassins and Henry IV were productions by Broadway non-profits, Roundabout Theatre Company and Lincoln Center Theatre, respectively.

Now a good show is a good show, no matter how it gets developed, but the triumph of the non-profits on Broadway this season just might send a message to commercial producers, no?

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I must say I also really enjoyed the "Henry IV" director giving such a nice reference to regional theatre.

Actually, my post is not about whether the shows that won deserved to or not, though I like them all ... The point is that the climate on Broadway has changed when the four winning shows are all products of the non-profit world.

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Corine has a tendency to wander from the topic. But to her credit, it took 14 hours for her first mention of wishing for a tie.

Magru, I hope the producers do take a message away. Less is more. Heart is good. Creativity over bombast. Excellent theater is about actors and moments and truth and beauty and laughter and tears. There's really no need for a million dollar vestigial dragon looming over the proceedings.

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yeah, namo, i agree with all of that, but, c'mon, that dragon was cool! it's my favorite dragon since the fire breathing one at the mgm in vegas. of course i still do love that cartoon dragon from spirited away.

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How could you fail to mention the dragon in Shrek? If there was a dragon contest I would want her to tie with Puff the Magic.

ANYHOO, back to the topic, let the message go out to producers this year in light of Jefferson Mays and Ave Q: ya gotta have heart. Miles and miles and miles of heart.

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Jack O'Brien of Henry IV has such nice things to say about regional theatre because he's the head of one himself -- the Old Globe In San Diego. He spends most of his year producing and directing work there and comes here once a year to do a show (next up in NY, he's directing the mammoth Stoppard trilogy "The Coast Of Utopia" for Lincoln Center fall of 2005).

I've written a lot about this before, but just to reiterate, the not-fot-profit world of Off-Broadway and regional theatre is truly where all of the creativity and interesting, challenging, groundbreaking work of the American Theatre comes from. Commercial Broadway can write the big checks, but that's about it -- the not-for-profits are where the quality work is being done and the Tony Awards have once again reflected that.

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Count me in on this opinion, Margo Channing! Last night's entries and performances are sending out strong signals as to the direction of future Broadway shows. I have no crystal ball, but I do have an opinion on this.

Soon there may be wall to wall Vegas acts, with sensationalism replacing talent and screaming tenors/sopranos jocking for position with the stars they are stunt casting that's been all too common in the past. Many of the shows are coming in with weak componets, whether it's the plot, the score, the direction whatever. For one reason or another investors are getting more skeptical as the shows come through that revolving door.

I don't any anwers. But I do feel that many of the professional theaters around the country are becomming the birthplace for creative theater and truly remarkable performances. Theaters such as The Old Globe, LaJolla Playhouse and many, many others are a striving to reach new levels of culture in theater.

That 5 or 6 block area around the Hudson called Broadway is just a calling card to say they've played there. It's getting very hard for me to recommend shows that I feel confident that people will enjoy for $100.

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