What A Shock — Page 7

I saw both Raul and DHP and was surprised but not shocked. Raul was great as Bobby, but the show and his performance were only average/above-average until we got toward the end. Yes, he was absolutely amazing in his interaction with Joanne after Ladies Who Lunch and his Being Alive gave me tingles, but before that, it wasn't exactly off-the-charts. As for Curtains, no, that's not off-the-charts either, but DHP is the glue and the heart of that show. He was funny, charming, touching and engaging. People acting like Tony-voters gave the award to some tone-deaf twit off the street is absurd. And assuming that something is lacking in DHP because he didn't bring some grand melodrama to a part that didn't call for it is equally absurd. He played the material.

No, this isn't a popularity contest but I'm sure that enters people's minds -- as does lots of other things. Will a show tour and can the adverstisement of "Tony-winning" help with that? Do we want to reward a show and need to find one of its nominated categories to choose? Do we want to add one more honor for Kander and Ebb? And, yes, the obvious -- Raul had his voting contingent and the "I'm voting for anyone affiliated with Spring Awakening" crowd was voting for Groff, so that left a split vote for DHP to emerge from. It happens all the time.

DHP was clearly shocked and very humbled by the honor. Why can't people just be happy for him, look forward to Raul's next amazing role (whatever that may be) and move on from here? (It's not like when the voting occurs the year of Raul's next nomination the behind-the-scenes thoughts won't be "well, he was amazing in Company, so we owe him now, even if _____ was also amazing this year")

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I seriously don't see what the fuss is about. Raul Esparza's performance didn't seem like anything special, I mean how many times have we seen actors get emotional during songs to the point where they were are screaming and reaching for some sort of angst to project to the audience? IMO, I actually thought his Tony performance was trying too hard. Maybe it was a lack of trust in the material (blasphemy because it's Sondheim, I know.)

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I dunno Robbie. I mean, 75% of the audience in a NY theatre don't know who the actors are and certainly don't know about their personal lives-they are just folks off the street. The 25% percent who are die-hards and know about the incident are, I imagine, intelligent enough to separate the two. Maybe I'm off, but I saw Anne Heche perform many times after the Ellen "incident" and after her book (which I read) was published. I was drawn into her performances and never thought "Is she acting or am I watching Celestia?". I assume people could extend the same suspension of disbelief to Raul.

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I thought Raul brought a whole new level of meaning to the phrase, "MOCK ME WITH PRAISE!!!!".

I was like...oh! Um, ok...let me think...

YOU GO, GIRL?!?!

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I thought they were both deserving. I think a basic reason why voters selected Pierce over Esparza was to give a Tony Award to CURTAINS. Now COMPANY has a Tony for its whole production and CURTAINS has a Tony for its one saving grace, its star. Seems pretty fair to me.

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I just... can't really imagine what the Tony voters are looking for if they overlook Esparza's performance. Perhaps politics, but Esparza deserved it. I wonder how this will affect the show - Esparza's Tony seemed far more certain than Company winning best revival.

If you play it back, he shows all of his hopes and dreams go done in one slow "gulp."

When did he die?

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You played it back?

Sweet wounded Jesus.

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Yeah, this is the first time it's ever happened.

I'm surprised you had the courage and strength to type today.

"It was all because they didn't give the Book award to Rupert Holmes; the one award that could have gone to them and it wouldn't have felt like a snub. But they didn't, and now they were stuck in the situation where they had to snub Raul just to give 'the very LAST Kander and Ebb show EVER' an award SOMEHOW."

Ok, that's just funny. Yes, I'm sure that exactly how it went down. They all got together and discussed their votes and the outcome of all the awards, and then the possibility of backlash and then discussed their votes again, adjusted accordingly, and then cast their votes openly just so everyone would be on the same page. Just to make it fair. That is what you can expect from theatre people.

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Updated On: 6/11/07 at 12:39 PM

This will be the new Bernadette losing for GYPSY scenario.

And MAYBE people will stop talking and whining about that now! 4 years later.

Disapointment in a show biz career. It's up there with depression after 24 hours in jail.

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ljay, somehow I don't think the bitching will be about Bernadette and Marissa anymore. From what I've read, the indication is that this one has the potential to drag on until people are ready to (continuously) announce "END OF STORY!"

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