things i never thought would really happen

two things i never thought would happen in real life...

1. being crushed by a fat man. read it again... and let it sink in. :) more details to come...

2. cj going to bed with a girl and having her gone when he woke up. yep. special. details to come...

A new obsession...

i am only 3 episodes in to season 1 at this point... and already i am OBSESSED with LOST.

yes, that's right... i jumped on the band wagon and i am not looking back. i am little late, i know... but I LOVE THIS SHOW. it ridiculously delicious and addictive...

more to come later... probably after i watch a few more episodes tonight after the MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS run. i always need something to get me out of St. Louis in 1903. :)

peace.

TONY AWARDS 2006

Ok, so... these are a few days late... but DEAL WITH IT!
(Sorry this was late... but...for those of you that don't know, I am working at Summer Music Theatre (original name, huh?), WIU's professional summer stock company which keeps me FREAKIN' BUSY!)

Here are my official 2006 Tony Predictions... complete with limited commentary, list of winners, and random articles from playbill.com. :)

TONY PREDICTIONS:
(You will see the nominees listed first, followed by my pick and the actual winner)

Special Note: I watched the TONY AWARDS at Marcus Olson's house, an original Broadway member of the Tony Award winning PASSION. :) So, yeah... he performed at the Tony's... :) Exciting, eh?

Moving ON....


BEST MUSICAL
The Color Purple
The Drowsy Chaperone
Jersey Boys
The Wedding Singer

MY PICK: JERSEY BOYS
WINNER: JERSEY BOYS

I think this was an obvious choise... although I was doubting myself throughout the ceremony. DROWSY looks and sounds like a hit... but BOYS' music has been legendary for years. :) That, and their cast sounds amazing...


LEADING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Sutton Foster, The Drowsy Chaperone
La Chanze, The Color Purple
Patti LuPone, Sweeney Todd
Kelli O'Hara, The Pajama Game
Chita Rivera, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life

MY PICK: PATTI LUPONE
WINNER: LACHANZE

One of the bigger upsets of the evening... but well deserved. LaChanze is FANTASTIC...


LEADING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Michael Cerveris, Sweeney Todd
Harry Connick, Jr., The Pajama Game
Stephen Lynch, The Wedding Singer
Bob Martin, The Drowsy Chaperone
John Lloyd Young, Jersey Boys

MY PICK: MICHAEL CERVERIS
WINNER: YOUNG

I called Young's win early on in the game... but I assumed the award would be given to Broadway icon Cerveris for his brilliant Sweeney. I was wrong. No harm, though... Young's voice is SIMPLY AMAZING! If you don't have the BOYS cast recording, get off your computer and go buy it... NOW! Young's voice is amazing...


BEST PLAY
The History Boys
The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Rabbit Hole
Shining City

MY PICK: HISTORY BOYS
WINNER: HISTORY BOYS

Though I am HUGE fan of McDonagh and INISHMORE (brilliant script, read it)... HISTORY BOYS was a huge hit in London and recouped its investment on Broadway in six weeks. They must be doing something right...


REVIVAL - MUSICAL
The Pajama Game
Sweeney Todd
The Threepenny Opera

MY PICK: SWEENEY
WINNER: GAME

Perhaps the biggest upset of the night... I never though GAME would end up winning this one. I thought SWEENEY has this award in the bag. It's new, inventive...
Of course, GAME is a classic show with catchy music... and come on, it starred Connick, Jr. and O'Hara. They're good people...


LEADING ACTOR - PLAY
Ralph Fiennes, Faith Healer
Richard Griffiths, The History Boys
Zeljko Ivanek, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Oliver Platt, Shining City
David Wilmot, The Lieutenant of Inishmore

MY PICK: RICHARD GRIFFITHS
WINNER: RICHARD GRIFFITHS

Called that one... no doubt in my mind. This dude really commands a stage... and has been lauded by critics world wide for years. But... what a category, huh? It really could have been given to any of them...


LEADING ACTRESS - PLAY
Kate Burton, The Constant Wife
Judy Kaye, Souvenir
Lisa Kron, Well
Cynthia Nixon, Rabbit Hole
Lynn Redgrave, The Constant Wife

MY PICK: CYNTHIA NIXON
WINNER: NIXON

Obivous choice... :)


FEATURED ACTOR - MUSICAL
Danny Burstein, The Drowsy Chaperone
Jim Dale, The Threepenny Opera
Brandon Victor Dixon, The Color Purple
Manoel Felciano, Sweeney Todd
Christian Hoff, Jersey Boys

MY PICK: JIM DALE
WINNER: CHRISTIAN HOFF

Wow. Newcomer beats out legend... good for him! This was the point in the night where I began to wonder if BOYS was going to take home more than I expected...
:) ...and they did!


FEATURED ACTRESS - MUSICAL
Carolee Carmello, Lestat
Felicia P. Fields, The Color Purple
Megan Lawrence, The Pajama Game
Beth Leavel, The Drowsy Chaperone
Elisabeth Withers-Mendes, The Color Purple

MY PICK: First... it was BETH LEAVEL but I went with FIELDS
WINNER: LEAVEL

Should have stuck with Leavel. I changed my pick because I figured PURPLE would at least winner one thing... and Fields is fabulous. Leavel it is...


PLAY - REVIVAL
Awake and Sing!
The Constant Wife
Edward Albee's Seascape
Faith Healer

MY PICK: AWAKE AND SING
WINNER: AWAKE AND SING

Odets is genius... PERIOD!


DIRECTOR - MUSICAL
John Doyle, Sweeney Todd
Kathleen Marshall, The Pajama Game
Des McAnuff, Jersey Boys
Casey Nicholaw, The Drowsy Chaperone

MY PICK: JOHN DOYLE
WINNER: DOYLE

Do I even have to go into this with you?


BEST SCORE (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
The Color Purple
The Drowsy Chaperone
The Wedding Singer
The Woman in White

MY PICK: DROWSY
WINNER: DROWSY

After seeing clips and their performance at the ceremony... there was no doubt in my mind. :)


Best Book of a Musical
Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy, The Wedding Singer
Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, Jersey Boys
Bob Martin and Don McKellar, The Drowsy Chaperone
Marsha Norman, The Color Purple

MY PICK: DROWSY
WINNER: DROWSY

DROWSY has some funny stuff going on...
Their bit on the Tony's where Martin was watching the last speech on TV was priceless.


DIRECTOR - PLAY
Nicholas Hytner, History Boys
Wilson Milam, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Bartlett Sher, Awake and Sing!
Daniel Sullivan, Rabbit Hole

MY PICK: HYTNER
WINNER: HYTNER

Again, BOYS is really getting BRILLIANT press... :)


CHOREOGRAPHY
Rob Ashford, The Wedding Singer
Donald Byrd, The Color Purple
Kathleen Marshall, The Pajama Game
Casey Nicholaw, The Drowsy Chaperone

MY PICK: NICHOLAW
WINNER: MARSHALL

Go ahead, Kathleen, I guess you're talented! Just kidding... you're fabulous... well deserved!


FEATURED ACTRESS - PLAY
Tyne Daly, Rabbit Hole
Frances de la Tour, History Boys
Jayne Houdyshell, Well
Alison Pill, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Zoë Wanamaker, Awake and Sing!

MY PICK: de la TOUR
WINNER: de la TOUR

Again, the reviews... :)


FEATURED ACTOR - PLAY
Samuel Barnett, The History Boys
Domhnall Gleeson, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Ian McDiarmid, Faith Healer
Mark Ruffalo, Awake and Sing!
Pablo Schreiber, Awake and Sing!

MY PICK: MCDIARMID
WINNER: MCDIARMID

I watched several clips that featured this guy... he's captivating...

All in all, I was pretty close...
Definitely bagged BEST PLAY and MUSICAL categories. :)

Until next year....

****************

FROM PLAYBILL.COM

The History Boys, Jersey Boys, Awake and Sing! and The Pajama Game won 2006 Tony Awards in production categories June 11.

The 60th annual awards, representing excellence in Broadway theatre for the 2005-06 season, were presented at Radio City Music Hall. In lieu of a single host, multiple presenters introduced portions of the show and handed out the awards.

Jersey Boys, the pop-hit-filled backstage tale of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons snagged the Best Musical Tony Award, one design award and two acting nods.

The History Boys, Alan Bennett's comic and dramatic rumination on education, history and ambition, won a record six Tonys. Nicholas Hytner earned the Tony for Best Direction of Play for his work with the ensemble of History Boys. The play freely shifts time and place, includes film sequences, a scene in French, a couple of cabaret numbers and soliloquies from its main characters.

Richard Griffiths, the British actor whose career has included classics, films and new works, was named Best Leading Actor in a Play for essaying Hector, an inspirational yet emotionally-closeted high school teacher in The History Boys. He created the role at the National Theatre in England (as did the entire company). The cast reunited for the world tour that culminated in the current Broadway run. They will also appear in the film version, due out later this year.

The one Tony for The Color Purple went to LaChanze, as Best Leading Actress in a Musical, for playing Celie in the musical inspired by the novel by Alice Walker.

The Roundabout Theatre Company revival of The Pajama Game, which boasted a revised script and included songs not in the original run 50 years ago, won as Revival of a Musical.

Kathleen Marshall's choreography for The Pajama Game was also embraced by Tony voters (many fans of the show regard "Hernando's Hideaway," with Harry Connick Jr. playing jazz piano in a nightclub, as the cast struts around him, as one of the season's musical high points).

Cynthia Nixon, a New York theatre actress since her childhood, won her first Tony this year, for Best Leading Actress in a Play for playing a grieving mother in Rabbit Hole. Beth Leavel, who plays the delicious, and often drunk, title character in The Drowsy Chaperone snagged the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Leavel previously told Playbill.com she never played ingénue roles, not even when she was in school. Blowsy, been-around and jaded suited her just fine from the beginning of her career, she said.

Christian Hoff was rewarded in the category of Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his muscular, tough turn at mob-linked Tommy DeVito in The Jersey Boys. Playing falsetto-happy Frankie Valli, John Lloyd Young won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical.

Lincoln Center Theater's production of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing!, a rarely-performed naturalistic slice of Depression life that was a product of the famed Group Theatre in the 1930s, was named Best Revival of a Play. The staging is currently playing the Belasco Theatre, where the work was first performed 70 years ago.

LCT producer Andre Bishop called the play "not only worth reviving, but in need of reviving…"

John Doyle, the British director known for creating musical productions in which actors create characters and play their own instruments on stage, won the Tony for Best Direction of a Musical for Sweeney Todd. His work for the revival of the Sondheim classic is widely considered to be a directorial masterstroke. (His version of Sondheim's Company, with the cast playing its own accompaniment, is due on Broadway this coming fall.)

The Drowsy Chaperone, the only nominated Best Musical this year that is not based on history or existing source material (like a book or film) was rewarded for its ambition to be fresh: Bob Martin and Don McKellar won the Best Book of a Musical Tony, and Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison won for Best Original Score (they share music and lyric credit).

The musical has its roots in an evening of entertainment created by Lambert, Morrison, McKellar and others to celebrate the wedding of Bob Martin and Janet van de Graaf, their friends in the Toronto comedy and theatre community. They wrote a spoof of a '20s show, with characters named Bob and Janet. The idea was too good to not expand into a full, commercial evening. The Drowsy Chaperone, with a choice leading role added for Martin, was the result.

Drowsy won five 2006 Tony Awards.

In the design categories, Howell Binkley won the Lighting Design of a Musical Tony for his potent work on The Jersey Boys, which shows dimly lit back rooms and flashy concert appearances in the lives and times of the pop group The Four Seasons. The Best Lighting (Play) Tony went to Mark Henderson, whose work included fluorescent fixtures for the institutional British high school setting (Bob Crowley won for Best Scenic Design of a Play for History Boys).

The 1920s-set The Drowsy Chaperone earned musical design awards for costumes (Gregg Barnes) and scenic design (David Gallo).

The Depression era, working-class costumes of Awake and Sing! won Catherine Zuber a Tony for Best Costume Design of a Play.

Sarah Travis, who created the unique, intimate orchestrations for the chamber-sized Sweeney Todd, won the Best Orchestrations Tony.

Sarah Jones, Harold Prince and The Intiman Theatre in Seattle were among the early recipients of 2006 Tony Awards. Their awards were announced in early May. Their three respective non-competitive categories are Special Tony Award, Special Tony for Lifetime Achievement and Regional Theatre Award.

Actress-writer Jones created Bride & Tunnel, a collection of solo pieces in which she portrays immigrant characters who are performing at an open-mike night at a venue in Queens, NY. The lauded Off-Broadway staging jumped to Broadway in 2005-06, and performances continue to Aug. 6 at the Helen Hayes Theatre.

Legendary Broadway producer-director Prince, whose career includes producing The Pajama Game, West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, and directing Company, Follies, Sweeney Todd and Evita, was not at the Tony ceremony in Manhattan. He was too busy overseeing final rehearsals for a new Las Vegas version of his triumph, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Re-dubbed Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular, the production begins June 12 in Nevada.

The Intiman Theatre is the respected resident theatre in Seattle. Under the leadership of artistic director Bartlett Sher (The Light in the Piazza) and managing director Laura Penn, the company is committed to reinterpreting the classics, staging contemporary plays and developing new works. Founded by Margaret Booker in 1972, Intiman takes its name from a playhouse started by August Strindberg in Stockholm. The name translates as "the intimate."

MY VERONA'S `THE PILLOWMAN' IS A MUST-SEE SHOW!

THE CRITICS ARE UNANIMOUS: MY VERONA'S `THE PILLOWMAN' IS A MUST-SEE SHOW!

TWO PERFORMANCES LEFT! 10 P.M. FRIDAY AND SATURDAY AT COMEDY SPORTZ

The reviews are in and the critics are unanimous in their praise of My Verona's ``The Pillowman!''

Ruby Nancy of the Quad-City Times gave the show high praise in her rave review, calling ``Pillowman'' ``a riveting, often very funny drama that is unlike anything else you will see this year'' and said it was a ``must see show!''

Mike Schulz of the River Cities Reader also raved about the show, calling it a ``stunning achievement'' and ``invigorating, hugely entertaining theatre!''

Jason Tanamor of the Dispatch and Rock Island Argus also gave it a positive review, and called the show ``intense,'' ``dramatic'' and full of ``twists and turns,'' saying it kept the audience ``intrigued and captivated.''

My Verona is only the SIXTH THEATER GROUP IN THE WORLD to produce the Tony and Olivier Award winning thriller by Martin McDonagh, debuting it before theaters in Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, among others. The show, rated R for violence and language, has been described as ``Quentin Tarantino meets Stephen King.'' It is set in a totalitarian state where a horror writer, Katurian, has been taken into custody for a series of child murders that bear an eerie resemblance to his grim short stories. But did Katurian do it? How does his mentally-unbalanced brother fit into the crimes? And what is the chilling secret of The Pillowman?

Directed and produced by Sean Leary, My Verona's ``Pillowman'' stars Adam Michael Lewis, Tom Walljasper, Chris Browne, Tristan Tapscott, Carrie Clark and Gary Baker.

There are only TWO PERFORMANCES LEFT of My Verona's ``The Pillowman'' -- at 10 p.m. Friday, June 2 and 10 p.m. Saturday, June 3 at Comedy Sportz, 1818 3rd Ave., Rock Island, IL. Tickets ($12) are available at the door, at the Circa '21 box office and by phone at (309) 786-7733, ext. 2.

For more information, see www.seanleary.com and www.myveronaproductions.com.

PILLOWMAN Review - Quad City Times

PILLOWMAN Review - Quad City Times
My Verona's `Pillowman' a must-see show

By Ruby Nancy
Quad City Times

Martin McDonagh's 'The Pillowman' is as unsettling as it is unusual, but anyone familiar with his other work -- such as his finely-written, disturbing 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane' -- won't be surprised to find themselves both touched and creeped out by this startlingly funny, often discomfiting play.

Set in a totalitarian state (which, hilariously, is described as such in a line delivered by a police detective), 'Pillowman' centers on the experiences and imagination of a writer named Katurian, whose stories have landed him in a dank, oppressive interrogation room. There's a detective and a cop who are looking for answers in their investigation of a series of child murders, and Katurian's mentally challenged brother is in a holding cell just down the hall, but it is the writer's experience that resonates throughout.

Adam Michael Lewis, who plays Katurian, is absolutely brilliant in the role -- a virtual case study for any budding actor -- and his deeply emotional, fundamentally passionate performance is a stunning work that will burn into the consciousness of every audience member who sees this show. His development over the arc of the play -- from a cowering mass of fear who is willing to cut almost anything from his stories in case it has offended the government in some way, providing that the editing saves his hide -- into an impassioned defender of his work's worth is a thoroughly satisfying dramatic performance. Likewise, Lewis delivers the slivers of wry and sometimes caustic humor that slip out of Katurian with an easy naturalness, and he makes the emotional and intellectual shifts required in this performance with a seamless, spare, earnest elegance that is a thrill to watch.

The show itself is something of a thriller, and I assure you that anyone not already familiar with the story will have no idea what direction the story will take -- a way refreshing change in what can sometimes be a too-predictable genre. Even the sections of script comprised of Katurian's fiction are fascinating, especially as delivered by the multi-faceted Lewis, and director Sean Leary has wisely opted to let the words of the text unfold without a heavy-handed visual style that would have competed with the great work done by the show's star.

The balance of the cast also turns in first-rate portrayals. Chris Browne is droll and understated as Tupolski, the totally dry detective who deadpans lines you can hardly believe he actually said. As Ariel, the uber-aggressive cop charged with beating a confession out of suspects, Tom Walljasper is rough and vicious -- an animalistic force of anger barely contained.

Tristan Layne Tapscott (who also co-produces the show with Leary) gives a subtle performance as Katurian's brother, Michal, and he lends the character a gentle indifference that is wonderfully done. Carrie Clark enlivens several cameo roles and Gary Baker (who is also the show's stage manager, lighting designer and bartender) does great work providing a range of off-stage voices (and not boring ones, either).

Long by modern theater standards -- but with two intermissions -- this is a riveting, often very funny drama that is unlike anything else you will see this year. Though it might not be everyone's cup of tea, it's a must-see for anyone (at least who isn't easily frightened) who craves the chance to experience a new play.

copyright 2006 The Quad City Times