Best Featured Actor in a musical?- Page 2

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/18/07 at 3:35pm

McMartin SHOULD have had Cullum's spot. McMartin deserves a frickin Tony by now. The man is so talented, and I don't know how many more shows he will do.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 5/18/07 at 3:36pm

David Pittu is taking this one home! He's a great talent and is perfectly wonderful in LOVEMUSIK!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/18/07 at 3:41pm

You can always count on LaCageAuxFollesFan, LaCageAuxFollesFan2, LaCageAuxFollesFan3, LaCageAuxFollesFan4, and his buddies LaCageAuxFollesFan5 and LaCageAuxFollesFan6 to provide some logical reasoning.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/18/07 at 3:46pm

Everyone watch out! Foster's gonna BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 5/18/07 at 3:50pm

Yeah, LaCageAuxFollesFan2, that's a really specific answer. Seriously, is his performance more dramatic than John Gallagher Jr. Is there something about his performance that sets him apart from the performance of a horny, repressed, angst-stricken, self-destructive German teenager with the kookiest hairdo I've ever seen in my life?

[MungoGypsy8232]

Posted: 5/18/07 at 3:58pm

I think Gallagher has the best chance though because he can ride the Spring Awakening wave. He easily gave the best performance this season in the featured actor category IMO. I don't really like LoveMusik so I can't comment on Pittu because my opinion is compromised. Can someone who's seen both give an impartial analysis of both characters and their performer's tke on them?

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 5/18/07 at 4:01pm

David Pittu, plays an enjoyably egotistical and unhygienic Bertolt Brecht. A man who invented his own genre of drama and performance style. Writer of such well known plays as THE THREEPENNY OPERA and MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN. A figurehead in both German and American theatre.

The NYTimes actually singled him out, along with Murphy and Cerveris as one of the more truthful and wonderful performances.

But I guess a kooky hairdo is more TONY worthy.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 5/18/07 at 4:08pm

LaCageAuxFollesFan2 is not the first person to say Pittu.

I think it is a toss up between Pittu and Gallagher - which means Borle will win, of course.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/18/07 at 4:10pm

Is Gallagher the one with the weird hairdo?

[Craww]

Posted: 5/19/07 at 2:22am

David Pittu, plays an enjoyably egotistical and unhygienic Bertolt Brecht. A man who invented his own genre of drama and performance style. Writer of such well known plays as THE THREEPENNY OPERA and MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN. A figurehead in both German and American theatre.

One sentence for the performance, and three for the man he portrays. Basically, this reads to me like "David Pittu should win because he's playing Brecht." Which is an assessment as wrong headed and dismissive as "I guess a kooky hairdo is more TONY worthy."

Any other logical reason for why you guys say Pittu will win?

Pittu gives a charming and natural performance in a show with more immediate credibility (if worse reviews) than Gallagher's. Even with two wonderful performances in the frontground, he may be the only one who didn't suffer through long sluggish moments during a scene. By contrast, Gallagher could seem the over-the-top contrast to a couple of dull leads, in an easily melodramatic role.

I'm just playing devil's advocate, though. I want John Gallgher Jr. to win. Pittu would be worthy, but I think what John Gallagher Jr. adds to Spring Awakening is more essential and creates more of a distinction.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/19/07 at 3:18am

I want Gallagher to win, I would vote for Gallagher, and I think that Gallagher will win.

His only competition is Pittu - and while I wouldn't be shocked to see Pittu win, I do think Gallagher has it in the bag this year.

I wasn't crazy about Pittu. I wouldn't have even nominated him, actually.

[toomeytwopiece]

Posted: 5/19/07 at 5:19am

I have to agree that Borle is going to take this.

Remember, everyone, the Tonys are about business, and LEGALLY BLONDE has touring potential. It needs one or two Tony wins.

Borle is also an incredibly talented actor. He has proven himself. While I liked Gallagher in SPRING AWAKENING, I wasn't as impressed by his performance as I was by Jonathan B Wright's, for example, which says a lot, since Wright's role is smaller. I also tend to think that the solo songs in SPRING AWAKENING, for the most part, are just that, songs. They aren't really musical monologues, and that may cause Tony voters not to vote for him, because it's more of a rock-singer performance, as opposed to an acting performance. Borle's Broadway record is much stronger in this town than Gallagher's as well (in the sense that Borle's previous efforts garnered more critical praise).

It also comes down to who campaigns the most. Being nominated is about campaigning, and so is winning. Often, lesser-known actors will personally invite Tony voters to their shows, to see their performance, in hopes that they will be remembered come nomination time. That certainly carries over to the actual voting for a winner. It's all legal, but it's politics. If an actor up for a featured nom has good council, a good agent, and maybe a good manager (and in some cases a producer that is pulling for them - which is usually only the case with commercial producers, not non-profits, which limit their budgets), he or she may have a better shot at a nomination, and subsequently a victory.

I say Borle. He's great, AND a nice guy (which actually counts in my book

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/19/07 at 6:08am

I have to agree that Borle is going to take this.

Remember, everyone, the Tonys are about business, and LEGALLY BLONDE has touring potential. It needs one or two Tony wins.

Are you expecting Borle to go on tour with LEGALLY BLONDE? Because if not, his victory will mean nothing for touring potential. The Tony Award for Best Musical is the only Award that means anything to a road voter. Even if Borle were to win and go on tour with the show, Emmett is not the selling point for LEGALLY BLONDE. Elle is. If Bundy won and went on tour, well -- even if Bundy won and went on tour, I don't think it would make a difference either, honestly. She is not a name. It's all about Best Musical, which LEGALLY BLONDE did not get a nomination for. "Best Musical" is the phrase the road presenters like to be able to flash before the public. To get people out in the country to drop $70 on a piece of theatre when they could just as easily drop $8 to go to a movie, advertising "Winner! Best Featured Actor in a Musical!" isn't going to be a selling point. Road voters make up approximately 15% of the Tony voters anyway, and they are the only ones who vote their wallets. There is very little at this point that voting for any of the Tony Awards that LEGALLY BLONDE is nominated for will do for touring potential.

Personally, I would love to see Christian Borle take home a Tony Award. I thought he deserved one for SPAMALOT. But I believe his performance in LEGALLY BLONDE is well-rounded and beautifully executed. So I wouldn't take issue with him winning. But in terms of the Best Featured Actor in a Musical Tony Award making a difference to the show's touring potential, it will make no difference.

[Craww]

Posted: 5/19/07 at 6:10am

I can see Borle taking it, and he's pleasant enough, but I honestly don't think anyone in Legally Blonde is deserving of a Tony win. It's sort of implicit in the show, and not even Borle's good natured turn is enough to rise above that material.

I've officially run out of actors in this category I can comment on, though. Watch, one of the others will win, and my 'Baby's First Tonys - Predictions Round' will be a bust.

[toomeytwopiece]

Posted: 5/20/07 at 4:05am

I don't know whether or not Borle will go on the road with the show (I had hoped he would be cast as Igor in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN... when I saw the breakdown for it, and knew I was too tall I thought HE'S PERFECT - but ah well).

Having producer friends with successful Tony winning shows, I have heard all the dirt about the whole shebang. A Tony win for Borle WOULD help it on the road - a little - because then they can say: "LEGALLY BLONDE" - ___ Tony Noms & ____ Tony Wins... or TONY WINNING LEGALLY BLONDE, which is a stretch, but don't think that doesn't happen

Bobby Steggart should have been nominated - but he's suffering the same fate I did last year... he's really great in that show. I didn't care for Pittu's depiction of Brecht, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve the nomination. Cullum, I think, deserves the nomination more than McMartin. I LOVE John McMartin's performance in GG, but Cullum's character is just more fleshed out.

It's a toss up.

[FutureAladdinOnB'Way]

Posted: 5/20/07 at 4:23am

Seriously Wanna Be A Foster, are you John Gallagher Jr? because you've posted in this about 7 times saying John Gallagher Jr this and John Gallagher Jr that and how everyone is crazy not picking John Gallagher Jr!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/20/07 at 5:19am

Brian, that's a good point about how a win for Borle could assist in labeling the show as "Tony Award Winning." I agree that Bobby Steggert should have been nominated. His performance is a true old fashioned display of musical theatre talent. He puts his all into this role and as a result, he adds sunshine to the production every moment he's on stage. It's funny -- in the Playbill interview that Steggert did, he said that he doesn't consider himself a musical theatre actor, but he could have fooled me.

FutureAladdinOnB'Way, any of the the many people on this board who have met me in person can tell you that I am not John Gallagher, Jr. But thanks for the compliment!

Updated On: 5/20/07 at 05:19 AM

[Weez]

Posted: 5/20/07 at 6:54am

I'm less impressed with the Featured In A Musical categories than I wanted to be this year. I think if any cast member from 'Spring Awakening' could pick up an acting award, it'd be Gallagher. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he took home the Tony.

And no, I'm not John Gallagher Jr either. :P

[bially0822]

Posted: 6/5/07 at 2:48am

it's john jr.'s hands down. and i'm saying that as a spring awakening......non-fan.

[bially082]

Posted: 6/5/07 at 2:59am

i'm not sure what just happened with my account, but somehow i got logged in under another screen name. the above comment is mine....strange

[B3TA07]

Posted: 6/5/07 at 3:07am

Foster, people who have met you dislike you more than the people you have stood up.