TONY AWARD disgrace!!!- Page 6

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 4:09pm

I totally agree with you, Morosco. Marie Christine and Aida weren't even NOMINATED for Best Musical! And both (as well as Wild Party and James Joyce's The Dead, which were) are more deserving than Contact! Blech.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 4:29pm

I thought MARIE CHRISTINE and AIDA were lacking -especially AIDA, and I disagree.....CONTACT deserved that award over any other show that year, it's brilliant.

If it's the whole "dance" thing, I feel that PARADE should have won best musical over FOSSE.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 4:51pm

I'm not a fan of "Contact", but it was better than "Aida".

"Marie Christine" and "The Dead" should have been nominated.

[morosco]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 5:18pm

"...CONTACT deserved that award over any other show that year, it's brilliant."

Brilliant? Yes. Musical? No.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 5:24pm

Tovah Feldshuh remains Tony-less. That's as big a disgrace as any.

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 7:05pm

Heck, I knew that ANNIE was a shoo-in to win the Tony in 1977...and I was 2 years old at the time!

If there was a "Special Theatrical Event" category the year CONTACT came to Broadway, it would have never won a Best Musical Tony. Not a chance.

Weirdest Tony nomination ever: Lauri Peters and the Children for Best Featured Actress in THE SOUND OF MUSIC...never mind the fact that two of the children were BOYS!

My pick for the biggest Tony disgrace: BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS was NOT EVEN NOMINATED for a Best Play Tony! That might have been Neil Simon's finest work!

Updated On: 2/6/05 at 07:05 PM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 10:42pm

That IS strange, I didn't know that! THE VON TRAPP CHILDREN as best supporting ACTRESS? It's kind of funny. Can you imagine those two boys' bios if they still act? "James was nominated for a tony award for best supporting actress." That's funny.

Anyway.

I don't know what you're saying about ANNIE, but despite all the bad things people say about it, I think it's an amazingly well written show with timeless music. It really is a show I hold close to my heart...I know...cliche.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 10:44pm

Munk, what did you think of "A Number"?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 10:50pm

Wonderful! Dallas Roberts is brilliant.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 10:52pm

Still haven't seen Arliss. I'm thinking of going next week. Is it still selling the way it was selling when Sam was in it, or will I be able to get a good seat?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 11:04pm

It was sold out - I bought my ticket at 1 PM today, and it was the last one, so I imagine it's doing pretty well. The box office opens at 1 PM, so if you get there then you probably have a good chance - it really is worth seeing. I thought Arliss was okay - a little weak at points (but Churchill's dialogue is difficult,) but Roberts was just WONDERFUL.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 11:10pm

Cool. Thanks for the info. I loved Sam in it; I'm sure Arliss will be fine.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 11:44pm

It's a very hard role and Shepard struggled to bring much life and dimension to it as well. The father spends much of the play on the defensive, befuddled, shamed into silence and unsure how to react to all of the emotions the "sons" are expressing. Not sure how any actor makes too great of an impression in the role, but I dearly wish I could have seen the great Sir Michael Gambon do it in London (he got very favorable notices, so I take he found some nuances that Shepard and Howard never did).

But, yes, Roberts is outstanding (in the much showier roles). Glad you seemed to enjoy it.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 11:49pm

Two Question.....

1) Describe Contact, if it's not a musical, what is it?

2) I don't understand the whole thing about the kids in the Sound of Music.....were they nominated as a group???? I need clarification....

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 11:52pm

1) I say yes, it's a musical.

2.) Yes.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 12:13am

Contact was an evening of modern dance and, evaluated as that, it was pretty good. Had it played at the Joyce for $40 or City Center for $70, there would be no controversy, since it is very typical for modern dance troupes -- Graham, Ailey, Tharp, Morris, Taylor, Cunningham, Smuin et al -- to put together programs of three or four dances (each of which telling its own story, unrelated to the others) performed to prerecorded music with no live singing or dialogue. To those of us who attend evenings of modern dance regularly at The Joyce, Dance Theatre Workshop, BAM, The Kitchen et al, there was nothing new, original or different about Contact -- it was EXACTLY the kind of evening of modern dance we see all the time and that occurs every single week in dance venues all around the city.

But, putting such a show into a Broadway theatre doesn't magically turn it into a Broadway musical. To call a show with no original music, no live musicians, no live singing and little dialogue, a work of "musical theatre" is questionable at best and utterly ridicuous at worst. Well done as Stroman's work was, Contact had no business being nominated in the Best Musical category. Stroman and the show should have simply been honored with a Special Tony Award, rather than competing in categories it wasn't appropriate for.

Updated On: 2/6/05 at 12:13 AM

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 12:14am

Can I have an AAAAAMEN!?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 12:40am

Although it was correctly nominated for and honored with the Best Featured Actress Tony. Quite correctly.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 1:14am

I, of course, completely concede that point to you (and agree), Rath

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 1:26am

I hated the tony people when LITTLE SHOP was not nominated for best revival! Arrrr....

[SallyBrown]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 1:59am

Little Shop wasnt even NOMINATED? jeesum

who votes for the Tonys anyway?

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 2:40am

OK the Tony awards would be best served if the awards were given out strictly based on talent and the work gone into it. Not when the show closed or who got snubbed for what. Tony voters would do the Tony's a service by living in the now. Also Jerry Herman said himself that his comment was directed at the critics who panned the scored that got him the Tony. You can read anything you want into body language, but I think the man probably wasn't even thinking about Sondheim at that point. That being said SUNDAY IN THE PARK should have won best score at the very least. Ohh and Arthur Laurents needs to take a look at the entire book of Anyone Can Whistle before he scolds anybody about any acts of anything. Now...for the real reason why I posted.

How about Elton John's Aida winning best score over both Marie Christine and The Wild Party. Now THat's foolishness. Scores have themes and motives that get developed. That's certainly not Aida which is a string of pop tunes that don't always work for a given moment Updated On: 2/6/05 at 02:40 AM

[wickedfan]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 12:36pm

I didn't like the Little Shop of Horros revival. And after JUSt reading the first post about Alan Cumming in CABARET. He absoutely deserved it.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 1:21pm

I looked on IBDB.com and all those Van Trapp kids getting nominated for Best featured actress is really funny and a bit ridiculous, and the fact that two were boys only adds to that.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 2/6/05 at 1:36pm

Hunter Foster deserves a Tony - eventually. I don't think the role of Seyemore is very Tony worthy. It is a shame LSOH didn't receive more noms.

Hugh Jackman may not have given a better performance than Moliona (I think he probably did though), but Hugh was getting people to fill in the seats at the Imperial every night.

I have said this many times, the Tony audience BOO'd when Avenue Q won over Wicked....