More bad timing for David Yazbek?

I feel bad.

<---the full monty score is awesome, as is DRS (well, of what i have heard)...

i dunno

i hope both are great - but i dunno - spamalot doesn't have the original Monty Pythons - we'll see

I agree, maybethistime.

But the Tony Award voters are notoriously shifty about this sort of thing.

Last year was the perfect example: AVENUE Q won best book over WICKED. I love AVENUE Q. It's smart, it's funny, I think it was a good choice for Best Musical. But Best Book??? It barely has one. The book for WICKED is one of the best adaptations of a literary source ever. I know that many people had problems with the WICKED score, and I can understand them. But the book for WICKED deserved that award.

Tony voters are notoriously single-minded, and they tend to go with the flow, rather than judge each show on its own individual merits. Hence my fear for Yazbek. Good example there, as well. Even though I liked THE FULL MONTY more than THE PRODUCERS, I can understand why THE PRODUCERS was voted Best Musical. I don't understand how in any version of reality the SCORE of THE PRODUCERS can be considered superior to the score of THE FULL MONTY. And yet the Tony voters voted differently -- they weren't able to separate and compartmentalize different aspects of a single show and judge them on their own merits.

I think they're all still stinging from the stupid press that was floated after INTO THE WOODS won best score and best book, while PHANTOM took best musical. Everyone said (stupidly, in my opinion) that well, if you have the best score, and the best book, why isn't it voted the best musical? That's a dumb argument. A Best Musical award should take into considering everything, not just its book and score, but its direction, its choreography, its costumes, its sets, and its cast. If you're going to give out individual awards, then judge a show on its individual components.

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Yazbek didn't help himself when he was seen intentionally picking his nose when they read his name as a nominee during the Tonys. It was as if he was saying "screw you - I know Mel Brooks is gonna win this thing!"

By the way, SPAMALOT does feature two of the original Pythons - Eric Idle (who wrote the book and co-wrote the score)is heard doing the very funny pre-show aanouncement ("please leave your cell phones and pagers ON - let them ring willy-nilly - but remember, there are temperamental actors on stage - with swords and armor..."). There is also another pre-recorded contribution by another famous Python - but I won't give it away...