"Best Musical" 2007 TONY Contenders — Page 3

Right now all I can say is;

Mary Poppins
Curtains
Spring Awakening
Grey Gardens

Those will be the nominations unless something steals a spot, or if Curtains or Spring Awakening gets bad reveiws, both of which is unlikely. Legally Blonde is a maybe, I would call that The Wedding Singer of this season, and I'm guessing it will suffer a similar fate. The Pirate Queen is sinking, but they've brought people in to make major revisions, but so did Lestat. High Fidelity looks like it is going to flop big time, this would be the suprise of the season if it took anything. Martin Short: Fame Become Me, while good, might be too close to a Special Event to be nominated, if its considered a musical. LoveMusik is one to watch, it could be a megahit with the critics and steal a spot (possibly from Spring Awakening). Its also possible that it will get good reveiws, but may not be big enough to get a nomination.

---

Here's a little of what I mean from Charles Isherwood's NY Times review of Spring Awakening.

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/theater/reviews/16awak.html

While he opens with this, clearly admiring the show's energy, craft and existence:

"A fresh breeze of true inspiration blows steadily through this ambitious if imperfect show, which features alluringly melancholy music by the pop singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater."

He goes on to say:

"Despite the craft and integrity of much of their work, Mr. Sheik and Mr. Sater's musical falls into some of the usual traps accompanying attempts to translate a work of art from one medium into another. It tends to simplify the emotional textures in the play."

"The central trio — the anxious misfit Moritz (John Gallagher Jr.), the good-student Melchior (Jonathan Groff) and Melchior's sweetly curious girlfriend, Wendla (Lea Michele) — do not really emerge as fully human figures. They're more like singing vessels for general adolescent anxieties, so it is possible to follow them to their individual dooms with entirely dry eyes."

"Problems also arise from the challenge of making pop music function as theater music. Pop and rock are best at evoking moods and emotions or announcing attitudes, not heightening a narrative point or defining a specific character. Mr. Sheik's music, orchestrated for a small rock band supported by cello and bass, is often gorgeous in its soaring melodies and gentle rhythms, but its lushness can overwhelm Mr. Sater's moody lyrics, artful and evocative though they often are."

"And we often seem to be hearing the same notes — yearning, tempestuousness, anger — repeated in song after song; the show becomes saturated in a general plaintiveness that can be enervating."

But Isherwood returns to praise the production again near the end of this review.

"Still, the propulsive staging by Mr. Mayer infuses it with energy as it blends the informal atmosphere of a rock concert with ritualistic elements." etc...

---

Updated On: 11/25/06 at 03:43 PM

Here's Joe Dziemanowicz in the Daily News:

"If the production, guided with gusto—and endless energy—by director Michael Mayer, isn't entirely successful (it's not), it's at least partly so because most of the characters remain too sketchy for too long. It's hard to know a whole lot, or for that matter care a whole lot, about them… [Sheik] delivers some nifty melodies, ranging from acoustic-guitar ballads to hard-driving rock."

---

GREY GARDENS
LEGALLY BLONDE (hopefully)
CURTAINS
SPRING AWAKENING (possibly)


but i think CURTAINS and GREY GARDENS are locks

Lovemusik
Spring Awakening
Curtains
Pirate Queen

Good question. Heh!

I figure with everyone seemingly going on to bill it as 'a revival', we should more or less go with the majority on this one. I guess we'll wait and see what happens...

Right now, GREY GARDENS and SPRING AWAKENING are locks.

MARY POPPINS has a chance, but it depends upon the quality of LEGALLY BLONDE, LOVEMUSIK, and/or PIRATE QUEEN.

CURTAINS will probably be nominated.

I think, realistically, we're looking at:

CURTAINS
GREY GARDENS
SPRING AWAKENING

With one slot left for LOVEMUSIK, THE PIRATE QUEEN, LEGALLY BLONDE. My gut is telling me LOVEMUSIK, but LEGALLY BLONDE wouldn't shock me.

I think we can rule THE PIRATE QUEEN out.

---

Ok, this may be a pointless post but:

Curtains
Grey Gardens
Spring Awakening
Mary Poppins

We know already that Curtains will get the nomination, being the LAST Kander and Ebb show ever, out of respect, and it will probably get score for the same reason.
Grey Gardens is probably going to be this year's artistically and musically brilliant with low tourability.
Mary Poppins is a shoe in, because it's Disney, it's Poppins, and it tours well.
Spring Awakening will probably get it due to the MTV hype, although I just wanna get rid of the show.

---

Rath-
Oh, totally, but the cynical side of me had to say what I did.

---

Mary Poppins is all I ask

---

"Spring Awakening will probably get it due to the MTV hype, although I just wanna get rid of the show."
....why does the show need to be gotten rid of? and since when does MTV factor into Tony nom.s?

---

Grey Gardens
Spring Awakening
Curtains

LoveMusik and Legally Blonde are up for the last slot. LoveMusik has a high-end art advantage, but Legally Blonde also may be able to snag a spot on the idea of it being a well crafted movie musical. Unless of course The Pirate Queen comes sailing out of the blue on a wave of good reveiws. I think all of these would have to tank pretty badly (Like "Carrie" badly) for Mary Poppins to get a nomination. Its mixed reveiws, and the fact that the committee should realize a nomination means a win, should keep it shut out. They would rather give the last spot to one of the other three for any number of reasons . . .

Legally Blonde: Though commercial, it got a slew of great reveiws in SF, and is stocked with legit personalities such as Jerry Mitchell, Laurence O'Keefe, Laura Bell Bundy, Orfeh, Christian Borle, and Michael Rupert.

The Pirate Queen: A show that wishes it opened in 89, but it still has Boublil and Schönberg, Stephanie J. Block, and Frank Galati. Not to mention the great write-ups for brit Hadley Fraser. And with the extensive re-writes, could be decent.

LoveMusik: Not a new score, but Harold Prince, Michael Cerveris, Donna Murphy, and Kurt Weill? Come on. We'll just have to see if the show lives up to the sum of its parts.

---

the only locks i can think of for this moment are:

spring awakening
grey gardens
curtains?

and i am mixed about pirate queen, lovemusik, legally blonde, mary poppins, etc. we shall see!
but if spring awakening doesn't win, someone is seriously disturbed. that is my opinion, whether you like it or not. and i could really care less.
happy thursday all. =)

---