by Sandi Durell

The prestigious OCC Award Dinner Party was standing room only at the famous theatre district eatery Sardis, as presenters Judy Kaye, Michael McGrath, Donna Murphy, Audra McDonald and Tonya Pinkins gave out awards. “Pippin” scored big with 7 Awards, “Kinky Boots” took 3. The most heart-warming moment was seeing 88 year old Cicely Tyson, who could pass for 60, accepting her award for her role in the revival of “A Trip to Bountiful”

Here’s the complete list.

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY

“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL

“Kinky Boots”

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY

“My Name is Asher Lev”

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL

“Here Lies Love”

OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

“Matilda the Musical”

OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

“Kinky Boots”

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

“Pippin”

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY

Jack O’Brien   “The Nance”

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL

Diane Paulus   “Pippin”

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER

Chet Walker   “Pippin”

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN

(Play or Musical)

Rob Howell   “Matilda the Musical”

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN

William Ivey Long   “Cinderella”

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN

(Play or Musical)

Kenneth Posner   “Pippin”

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY

Nathan Lane   “The Nance”

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Cicely Tyson   “The Trip to Bountiful”

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Billy Porter   “Kinky Boots”

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Patina Miller   “Pippin”

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY

Tom Sturridge   “Orphans”

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Kristine Nielsen   “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Terrence Mann   “Pippin”

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Andrea Martin   “Pippin”

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE

Holland Taylor   “Ann”

JOHN GASSNER AWARD

(Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)

Aaron Posner  “My Name is Asher Lev”

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Irish Repertory Theater

Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director and Ciaran O’Reilly, Producing Director

in recognition of 25 years of producing outstanding theater

Curry was on Broadway playing Mozart in “Amadaeus” in the 1980s, Alan Swann in “My Favorite Year” in the 1990s and most recently King Arthur in the 2005 production of “Spamalot.” He received several Tony nominations. In film he was Rooster in “Annie,” and “In the Hunt For Red October, but his voice led him to several character voices in children’s TV series, including “The Wild Thornberrys,” “Voltron: The Third Dimension,” “Mighty Ducks” and “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.”  In 2011, the actor was supposed to appear in Tom Stoppard’s U.K. production of “Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead” but pulled out because of poor health, citing asthma attacks and a chest infection. In 2012, he appeared as a preacher in Eric Idle’s play “What About Dick?” at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles with Russell Brand, Eddie Izzard and Tracey Ullman.

Curry has been going to physical therapy and is doing well. T2C is sure he will be up and about and doing the “Tome Warp” again.

This endeavor took 32 lego builders, 17,000 hours working around the clock in the Czech Republic. The display includes life-sized Lego models of Darth Vader, Yoda, and R2D2. New Yorkers and tourists have until Saturday before it permanently flies to LegoLand California. Promote an array of Star Wars productions, which also include the animated series “Rebels,” and the J.J. Abrams film set to hit theaters in 2015.  Lego teamed up with Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise in 1999. The Danish toy company went bankruptcy in 2003, but this match was made in licensing heaven.

With at least 250,000 Adult Fans of Lego, 60 percent identify Star Wars as their biggest Lego passion, or who would say that Lego Star Wars reignited their passion for Lego building in general. My son would agree with this since he would fall in this category.

Sirius XM listeners will be the first to hear the new Kinky Boots recording before its Tuesday, May 28 release, and they’ll get the scoop on the 13-time Tony® nominated musical with in-studio conversations from Cyndi Lauper, Harvey Fierstein, Jerry Mitchell and the show’s stars, Billy Porter, Stark Sands, and Annaleigh Ashford. They’ll take over Sirius XM’s ‘On Broadway’ channel all weekend long to play songs from the new album and some of their own favorite showtune picks. The Kinky Boots takeover weekend will have its grand finale on Monday night on the ‘Showtime’ channel, which will offer listeners the chance to hear the entire show, complete and uninterrupted, for the very first time.

Kinky Boots has been nominated for thirteen 2013 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, making it the most Tony-nominated show of the season. Already, the Outer Critics Circle and Drama League have named it Best Musical, and it won the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite New Musical, among many other accolades.

The schedule for Sirius XM’s Kinky Boots Takeover is as follows, and be sure to check www.siriusxm.com/onbroadway for more information:

‘On Broadway’

Friday, May 24: 8:00 – 11:00 PM

Saturday, May 25: 7:00 – 10:00 AM, 4:00 – 7:00 PM

Sunday, May 26: 9:00 – 11:00 AM, 2:00 – 5:00 PM, 7:00 – 10:00 PM

Monday, May 27: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM, 3:00 – 6:00 PM, 8:00 – 11:00 PM

Broadway Names with Julie James

Saturday, May 25 at 8:00 PM

Sunday, May 26 at 12:00 PM

Showtime

Monday, May 27, at 11:00 PM

Kinky Boots is produced on Broadway by Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig, James L. Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer, Independent Presenters Network, CJ E&M, Jayne Baron Sherman, Just for Laughs Theatricals/Judith Ann Abrams, Yasuhiro Kawana, Jane Bergere, Allan S. Gordon & Adam S. Gordon, Ken Davenport, Hunter Arnold, Lucy and Phil Suarez, Bryan Bantry, Ron Fierstein and Dorsey Regal, Jim Kierstead/Gregory Rae, BB Group/Christina Papagjika, Michael DeSantis/Patrick Baugh, Brian Smith/Tom and Connie Walsh, Warren Trepp, and Jujamcyn Theaters.

Bynes was a child actress, who starred in the sitcoms “What I Like About You,” “All That” and in her own sketch comedy show, “The Amanda Show.” She also appeared in numerous films including “Hairspray.”

One has to winder what makes someone so talented go off the deep end into crazy?

Alec Baldwin: “I got my Equity Card in a “Six-Degrees-of Kevin-Bacon” way. Kevin appeared in Joe Orton’s Loot at Manhattan Theatre Club and was unable to go to Broadway. So I auditioned for Joey Tillinger to work with Joe Maher, Zelijko Ivanek, Charlie Keating and Zoe Wannamaker. I got the job, my first Broadway show and my card.”

Andrea Martin: “I received a B.S. in Speech Theatre from Emerson College in June, 1969, took a bus from Boston to New York, bought a newspaper called Back Stage, and saw that You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown was holding open call auditions that afternoon for the First National Tour. I still had my bags as I waited in a hallway in a building somewhere on 8th Avenue and 50th Street along with 50 other girls, all under 5’3”. I sang Mati Hari from Little Mary Sunshine. I was asked to return the next day. I did. I got the part of Lucy. I got my Equity Card. I toured the United Stated for six months. It’s been 34 years. I’m still waiting for another audition to go that well.”

At 66, Andrea Martin is up and we predict will win the Tony Award for her outstanding performance in a supporting role as Bertha the feisty Grandmother in Pippin. Getting standing ovations after her number will earn her a second Tony in the same category. Her first was for My Favorite Year. Someone needs to give this tiny dynamo a leading role.

Harvey Fierstein: “It was 1975 and I’d been a fixture on the Off Off Broadway theater scene for years when director Neil Flanagan offered me the lead roles to be performed in rotating rep out on Cape Cod. They were the classic O.O.B plays, The Madness of Lady Bright by Lanford Wison and Robert Patrick’s The Haunted Host.
But it was an Equity contract and that worried me. My first love was experimental theatre and I was afraid that, once unionized, I’d be unable to work in the shows I loved. Still, these were roles I could really sink my teeth into, the money was fantastic and I could escape Brooklyn for the summer.

The offer was too good to turn down, so I joined the Union. We played the summer in Provincetown and even transferred The Haunted Host to Boston’s Charles Playhouse. Coming home to NYC I had surprisingly little trouble adjusting to Equity approved experimental theater. Go figure.”

The visuals are easily the most striking aspect of the movie. Luhrmann uses camera movement that pans from down and in to up and out. In the title sequence, the Gatsby monogram pulls back from the surrounding art-deco trappings, as we first see 1920s New York. The camera then flies down the side of a building until we reach street level. It goes without saying how cool this seems in 3D, but shots like these show that Luhrmann is aware of one of the novel’s biggest themes—insider vs. outsider. Luhrmann is  careful to include the novel’s weighty symbolism; as Nick walks through the Buchanan mansion, the camera is drowned in white drapes, Daisy never wears anything darker than mauve, and the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg are as present as ever. The use of color throughout the movie is nothing short of dazzling. However, Luhrmann sometimes goes overboard, throwing so much saturation in your face that you end up distanced from the reality of the story.

The performances are on point for the most part. Carey Mulligan brings a hardness to Daisy—for example, in her delivery of the “beautiful little fool” speech. After Mia Farrow’s fragility, this is somewhat unexpected. It’s closer to Fitzgerald’s Daisy though, and Mulligan transitions between this biting quality and her character’s vulnerability seamlessly. Elizabeth Debicki is absolutely terrific as Jordan Baker. She’s cool enough to get the audience admiring her and cold enough to get us wonderinging why. Toby Maguire is what he’s supposed to be as Nick Carraway—something of a prop, a plot device. He does a good job of capturing Carraway’s frustration with his wealthy friends, but, besides that, there isn’t much there. DiCaprio is definitely an ideal choice for Gatsby. There’s almost a meta quality to his casting. Consider how many times he’s played the outsider, lovestruck over a girl he can’t have, even though she wants him too (Titanic, Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet). The result works; it’s as if DiCaprio’s background in similar roles lends another layer of mythology to Gatsby. The only times DiCaprio falters is when he portrays Gatsby at his most desperate and deluded. As Gatsby rationalizes how he and Daisy will share a happy future, DiCaprio forgoes vulnerability and his Gatsby just ends up seeming manic.

To my surprise, the soundtrack is decently incorporated into the main action of the film. There aren’t many moments where you’re taken aback by Jay-Z or Fergie playing in the middle of the 1920s. And shocker: Lana Del Rey, with the gorgeously crafted “Young and Beautiful,” her first song in a major film, finally seems to have legitimized herself.

The only major problem I had with the film was the frame narrative that sees Nick Carraway typing up the story in a mental hospital. It’s a rehashing of a plot device Luhrmann already used in Moulin Rouge! and it’s not necessary. That being said, I enjoyed Luhrmann’s Gatsby more than I thought I would. Is it an authoritative adaptation? No, but it doesn’t claim to be. Does it still try to honor key elements of the novel? Yes and in many ways, succeeds. Is it good summer fun? Completely. It’s a wild, intoxicating ride.

The partnership will commence at the annual Tony Eve Cocktail Party which will take place on Saturday, June 8th, hosted by the Paramount Hotel’s food and beverage partner, LDV Hospitality, at their Midtown restaurant, Lugo Caffé (One Penn Plaza).   At the event, the Tony Awards will present the Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre to: Career Transition for Dancers; William Craver; Peter Lawrence, The Lost Colony and the actresses who share the role of “Matilda” in Matilda the Musical: Sophia Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Baily Ryan and Milly Shapiro.  They will also present the Huntington Theatre Company with the Regional Theatre Award.   The evening will also celebrate the 2013 Special Award Recipients; Isabelle Stevenson Award honoree Larry Kramer; and the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award – Bernard Gersten, Ming Cho Lee and Paul Libin.

The event will celebrate this year’s Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre and Special Tony Awards.

The Paramount Hotel will also have a presence a the 2013 Tony Awards on Sunday, June 9th, when they host the official “Winner’s Circle Lounge” – the first location where Tony winners will be whisked away to, to celebrate their newly minted statuette with a glass of champagne.

The partnership will expand next season, as the Paramount Hotel will host the 2014 Live Tony Awards Nominations Announcement, the 2014 Meet the Nominees Press Reception, the 2014 Tony Nominees Luncheon and the 2014 Tony Honors Cocktail Reception.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with the Paramount Hotel – a historic Times Square landmark.  The Paramount has been part of Times Square and the Theatre District’s history for many years and we look forward to many years to come!” said Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director of The Broadway League and Heather Hitchens, Executive Director of the American Theatre Wing.

“Supporting the arts and recognizing the accomplishments of the artists and players whose creative work enriches all of our lives is important to me. It is befitting that Paramount Hotel who shares a similar creative imagination is the new Tony awards official hotel partner,” says Aby Rosen, Co-founder of RFR Holding LLC. “Our partnership brings two iconic brands together to further strengthen and support our thriving Broadway and Times Square community. We couldn’t be more excited.”

The 2013 Tony Awards will broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City, on CBS, on Sunday, June 9th 8:00 – 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT time delay) and are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

By: Sandi Durell

Ms. Salonga returned to the Café Carlyle for the third time in a new, well-crafted show that reveals the personal influences of Ella and Barbra on her career, and more importantly, the pangs of discrimination she has dealt with.

When you’ve been a Tony Award winner at a young tender age of 20, having played Kim in “Miss Saigon” on Broadway, and turned away from playing the role of Eliza Doolittle because you’re “not white,” that leaves a lasting impression. And so did her rendition of “I Could Have Danced All Night” paired with the title song “Back to Before.”

Salonga’s voice has ripened and enriched, filled with warmth, pathos and delight as she offered up a combination of songs, sweet, smooth and vibrant, that took her away from Broadway to more jazzy influences in some originally unique arrangements by Larry Yurman.  Sondheim-esque in its feeling were “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” paired with “Morning Has Broken” and a very thoughtfully passionate “How Long Has This Been Going on.”

Explaining that “mama needs help tonight,” she relied upon music on a stand, from time to time, this mama giving a comparison of the political significance of Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret” and “Miss Saigon” in a lively “Don’t Tell Mama.”

She shared many personal stories about her growing up years, her mother and especially her seven-year-old daughter Nicole (who is in New York with her), tidbits of  New York and her personal love of pastrami at the Carnegie Deli. Salonga was actually thinking about being a doctor, when the big break came when she was cast in “Miss Saigon.” After all, she had been on stage since the age of 7!

Bacharach/David’s socio-political “Be Aware” (written for Barbra Streisand) was a heartfelt reminder of not taking life for granted and remembering those less fortunate.   “. . . And somewhere in the world someone is cold, be aware! And while you’re feeling young someone is old, be aware! . . . and while your children sleep somewhere in this world a child is homeless, when there is so much should any child be homeless? . . .” (teary moments)

She tackled “The Greatest Love of All” (difficult at best, especially when it’s always being compared to Whitney Houston) and really got down on the pop jazz Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind.” She is slated to star in Allegiance, the story of a Japanese-American family during WW II and the internment years (coming to Broadway next season), and chose “Higher” (from that show) as a resonating encore.

Lea Salonga appears at Café Carlyle thru June 8^th. www.thecarlyle.com.  She is accompanied by Jeff Harris on piano, John Miller on bass and Jack Cabari on guitar. The show is directed by Victor Lirio.

By: Sandi Durell

With a sparkle in her eye, a happy heart and a soprano range capable of anything, Laura Benanti makes you sit up, take notice and ask for more. 

This latest endeavor in the cabaret world called “In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention,” yields more attention than one could rightly expect.  A Tony winner for her role in “Gypsy,” as Louise, she is a combination of down on the farm – big city girl who knows just how much ditziness she can get away with – - – - plenty!

When you’re opening with “I’m Old Fashioned,” in a seemingly legit aria-like rendition and suddenly take out your cell phone to tweet, well, now you see what I mean.

She grew up nearby on West 54^th Street & 7^th Avenue where, as a kid, she’d tricycle through the halls singing songs from “Annie” – - insane about musical theatre so that by the time she was 11, she was singing the score from “Follies.”

The set was eclectic as she segued into some pop rock, a medley by Ellie Goulding & Lana Del Rey “Starry. . .Eyed/Video Games.”  There isn’t anything that doesn’t work for her because her vocal abilities sail and soar with ease as she brings her well-established brand of acting technique to whatever is on her vocal plate at the time.

That edgy humor that is hers showed up in what she called an “inappropriate medley (many songs, many composers)” – - maybe 8 – 16 bars of each of the songs she loves that included “Single Ladies,” “Ol’ Man River,”  “Fat Bottomed Girls,” “Baby Got Back,” “Proud Mary,” I Got You Babe,” “Respect” and more.

Least effective were songs written by her musical director Todd Almond, and most successful were theater songs, namely “Unusual Way,” sung with great depth and warmth, which she performed in “Nine” with Antonio Banderas, leading into a story about learning to bow properly, taught to her by her Madonna, Chita Rivera who played Lilliane La Fleur (and was in the audience the evening I attended).

Benanti is a good storyteller utilizing Harry Chapin’s “Mister Tanner,” but really scored big recreating the song from her role in “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” – “Model Behavior.” Never a more glorious and comical quirky broad could one hope to encounter.  This is a gal who very much is a what you see is what you get – - both on and off stage. She doesn’t take herself seriously and has the ability to make fun of herself. A treat in the world of theatre and cabaret.

Laura Benanti appears at 54 Below May 23, 24, 25 together with Todd Almond on piano and also as arranger; Ann Klein on guitars; Brian Ellingsen on bass and Rich Mercurio on drums.

Maitre D’ & Reservations: (646) 476-3551
To purchase tickets visit TicketWeb.com or call (866) 468-7619

54 Below – 254 W 54th St, Cellar – New York, NY 10019