#1
Posted: 6/23/06 at 7:56am
We'll that was a waste of an idea.
From Riedel:
"JONATHAN Pryce, the acclaimed star of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," has won the day: The Tony Award for Best Performance in a Re-Created Role, a new prize this year, has been scrapped.
Pryce savaged the replacement Tony last month in The Post after Tony officials announced that, while both he and Harvey Fierstein ("Fiddler on the Roof") had been nominated, no award would be made.
"I found it ultimately insulting to all of us who were eligible," Pryce said at the time.
Fierstein called it a "creepy award" because it was "a backhanded slap at the person you replaced."
The Tony Award Administration Committee last week voted unanimously to abandon it.
"What was intended as something positive turned out to be negative," says a member of the committee. "And the theater does not need a negative award."
The prize was nicknamed the Reba McEntire Award after the country star who took over for Bernadette Peters in "Annie Get Your Gun" in 1999 and elevated a mediocre revival into a smash hit.
Producers thought the possibility of winning a Tony would entice big stars into joining long-running shows. But Tony officials struggled to come up with a mechanism for awarding the prize, finally deciding to leave it up to the 24-member administration committee.
Pryce was furious to learn that only 16 of the 24 administrators bothered to see his performance.
A person on the committee said: "Jonathan's unhappiness certainly had something to do with our decision. His performance was highly valued, and the award should have been presented to him. It was our mistake that it was not."
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/hail_king_kevin_entertainment_michael_riedel.htm
From Riedel:
"JONATHAN Pryce, the acclaimed star of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," has won the day: The Tony Award for Best Performance in a Re-Created Role, a new prize this year, has been scrapped.
Pryce savaged the replacement Tony last month in The Post after Tony officials announced that, while both he and Harvey Fierstein ("Fiddler on the Roof") had been nominated, no award would be made.
"I found it ultimately insulting to all of us who were eligible," Pryce said at the time.
Fierstein called it a "creepy award" because it was "a backhanded slap at the person you replaced."
The Tony Award Administration Committee last week voted unanimously to abandon it.
"What was intended as something positive turned out to be negative," says a member of the committee. "And the theater does not need a negative award."
The prize was nicknamed the Reba McEntire Award after the country star who took over for Bernadette Peters in "Annie Get Your Gun" in 1999 and elevated a mediocre revival into a smash hit.
Producers thought the possibility of winning a Tony would entice big stars into joining long-running shows. But Tony officials struggled to come up with a mechanism for awarding the prize, finally deciding to leave it up to the 24-member administration committee.
Pryce was furious to learn that only 16 of the 24 administrators bothered to see his performance.
A person on the committee said: "Jonathan's unhappiness certainly had something to do with our decision. His performance was highly valued, and the award should have been presented to him. It was our mistake that it was not."
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/hail_king_kevin_entertainment_michael_riedel.htm
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
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