Author: Chris Van Patten

2008-2009 Drama Desk Nominations

Outstanding Play:
Annie Baker, Body Awareness
Gina Gionfriddo, Becky Shaw
Neil LaBute, reasons to be pretty
Lynn Nottage, Ruined
Michael Weller, Fifty Words
Craig Wright, Lady

Outstanding Musical:
9 to 5
Billy Elliot The Musical
Fela!
Liza’s at the Palace….
Shrek The Musical
The Story of My Life

Outstanding Revival of a Play:
Blithe Spirit
Exit the King
Mary Stuart
The Cripple of Inishmaan
The Norman Conquests
Waiting for Godot

Outstanding Revival of a Musical:
Enter Laughing The Musical
Hair
Pal Joey
West Side Story

Outstanding Actor in a Play:
Simon Russell Beale, The Winter’s Tale
Reed Birney, Blasted
Raúl Esparza, Speed-The-Plow
Bill Irwin, Waiting for Godot
Daniel Radcliffe, Equus
Geoffrey Rush, Exit the King
Thomas Sadoski, reasons to be pretty

Outstanding Actress in a Play:
Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Ruined
Jane Fonda, 33 Variations
Marcia Gay Harden, God of Carnage
Elizabeth Marvel, Fifty Words
Jan Maxwell, Scenes From an Execution
Janet McTeer, Mary Stuart

Outstanding Actor in a Musical:
James Barbour, A Tale of Two Cities
Daniel Breaker, Shrek The Musical
Brian d’Arcy James, Shrek The Musical
Josh Grisetti, Enter Laughing The Musical
Sahr Ngaujah, Fela!
Will Swenson, Hair

Outstanding Actress in a Musical:
Stephanie J. Block, 9 to 5
Stockard Channing, Pal Joey
Sutton Foster, Shrek The Musical
Megan Hilty, 9 to 5
Allison Janney, 9 to 5
Karen Murphy, My Vaudeville Man!

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play:
Brian d’Arcy James, Port Authority
Jeremy Davidson, Back Back Back
Peter Friedman, Body Awareness
Ethan Hawke, The Winter’s Tale
Pablo Schreiber, reasons to be pretty (Off-Broadway)
Jeremy Shamos, Animals Out of Paper

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play:
Rebecca Hall, The Cherry Orchard
Zoe Kazan, The Seagull
Angela Lansbury, Blithe Spirit
Andrea Martin, Exit the King
Carey Mulligan, The Seagull
Condola Rashad, Ruined

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical:
Hunter Foster, Happiness
Demond Green, The Toxic Avenger
Gregory Jbara, Billy Elliot The Musical
Marc Kudisch, 9 to 5
Bryce Ryness, Hair
Christopher Sieber, Shrek The Musical

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical:
Farah Alvin, The Marvelous Wonderettes
Christina Bianco, Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab
Haydn Gwynne, Billy Elliot The Musical
Karen Olivo, West Side Story
Nancy Opel, The Toxic Avenger
Martha Plimpton, Pal Joey

Outstanding Director of a Play:
Sarah Benson, Blasted
Michael Blakemore, Blithe Spirit
Garry Hynes, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Terry Kinney, reasons to be pretty
Matthew Warchus, The Norman Conquests
Kate Whoriskey, Ruined

Outstanding Director of a Musical:
Walter Bobbie, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
Stephen Daldry, Billy Elliot The Musical
Joe Mantello, 9 to 5
Jason Moore, Shrek The Musical
Diane Paulus, Hair
Stuart Ross, Enter Laughing The Musical

Outstanding Choreography:
Karole Armitage, Hair
Andy Blankenbuehler, 9 to 5
Peter Darling, Billy Elliot The Musical
Bill T. Jones, Fela!
Randy Skinner, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
Lynne Taylor-Corbett and Shonn Wiley, My Vaudeville Man!

Outstanding Music:
Neil Bartram, The Story of My Life
Zina Goldrich, Dear Edwina
Elton John, Billy Elliot The Musical
Dolly Parton, 9 to 5
Stephen Sondheim, Road Show
Jeanine Tesori, Shrek The Musical

Outstanding Lyrics:
Neil Bartram, The Story of My Life
Jason Robert Brown, 13
Marcy Heisler, Dear Edwina
David Lindsay-Abaire, Shrek The Musical
Dolly Parton, 9 to 5
Stephen Sondheim, Road Show

Outstanding Book of a Musical:
Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis, This Beautiful City
Joe DiPietro, The Toxic Avenger
Lee Hall, Billy Elliot The Musical
Brian Hill, The Story of My Life
David Lindsay-Abaire, Shrek The Musical
Patricia Resnick, 9 to 5

Outstanding Orchestrations:
Larry Blank, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
Bruce Coughlin, 9 to 5
Aaron Johnson and Antibalas, Fela!
Edward B. Kessel, A Tale of Two Cities
Martin Koch, Billy Elliot The Musical
Danny Troob, Shrek The Musical

Outstanding Music in a Play:
Mark Bennett, The Cherry Orchard
Mark Bennett, The Winter’s Tale
Dominic Kanza, Ruined
DJ Rekha, Rafta, Rafta…
Richard Woodbury, Desire Under the Elms
Gary Yershon, The Norman Conquests

Outstanding Set Design of a Play:
Dale Ferguson, Exit the King
Rob Howell, The Norman Conquests
David Korins, Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them
Derek McLane, 33 Variations
Neil Patel, Fifty Words
Walt Spangler, Desire Under the Elms

Outstanding Set Design of a Musical:
Tim Hatley, Shrek The Musical
Anna Louizos, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
Thomas Lynch, Happiness
Scott Pask, 9 to 5
Scott Pask, Hair
Basil Twist, Arias With a Twist

Outstanding Costume Design:
Tim Hatley, Shrek The Musical
Rob Howell, The Norman Conquests
William Ivey Long, 9 to 5
Michael McDonald, Hair
Martin Pakledinaz, Blithe Spirit
Carrie Robbins, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas

Outstanding Lighting Design in a Play:
Marcus Doshi, Hamlet (Theatre for a New Audience)
David Hersey, Equus
Ben Kato, Washing Machine
R. Lee Kennedy, Bury the Dead
Paul Pyant, The Winter’s Tale
Hugh Vanstone, Mary Stuart

Outstanding Lighting Design in a Musical:
Kevin Adams, Hair
Jules Fisher and Kenneth Posner, 9 to 5
Rick Fisher, Billy Elliot The Musical
Jason Lyons, Clay
Sinéad McKenna, Improbable Frequency
Richard Pilbrow, A Tale of Two Cities

Outstanding Sound Design:
Acme Sound Partners, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
Paul Arditti, Billy Elliot The Musical
Gregory Clarke, Equus
John Gromada, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself)
André J. Pluess, 33 Variations
John H. Shivers, 9 to 5

Outstanding Solo Performance:
Mike Birbiglia, Sleepwalk With Me
Frank Blocker, Southern Gothic Novel
Michael Laurence, Krapp, 39
Lorenzo Pisoni, Humor Abuse
Matt Sax, Clay
Campbell Scott, The Atheist

Unique Theatrical Experience:
Absinthe (2008 Edition)
Arias With a Twist
Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words
Désir
Soul of Shaolin
Surrender

Outstanding Ensemble Performances
The Cripple of Inishmaan
The Norman Conquests

Special Awards
To Liza Minnelli, a “beloved American musical theater icon, for her enduring career of sustained excellence, and her glorious performance in Liza’s at the Palace.
To Forbidden Broadway at the end of its nearly three-decade run and “the creators, casts and designers who made it an unparalleled New York institution cherished for its satire and celebration of Broadway.”
To Atlantic Theater Company and artistic director Neil Pepe for “exceptional craftsmanship, dedication to excellence and productions that engage, inspire and enlighten.”
To TADA! Youth Theater for “providing an invaluable contribution to the future of the theater. The company makes outstanding training and experience accessible and affordable to young people and mounts productions remarkable for their quality and professionalism.”

Tovah as Irena

The other evening I went to the Walter Kerr Theatre to see Irena’s Vow, which transferred to Broadway after playing downtown at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. Tovah Feldshuh’s dynamic turn as the unlikely heroine Irena Gut Opdyke is one of the biggest star turns I’ve seen all season and the reason for the Broadway transfer. Tovah is Irena as an elderly woman and in a drop of a hairpin, is Irena as a teenager. Only onstage could an actress of her incredible range and formidable talent make such a vivid and believable transformation, finding such rich layering to the characterization without ever once losing her endless warmth.

The story of the Polish Catholic housekeeper who successfully hid 12 Jews in the basement of her Nazi employer is a remarkable one, offering a moving portrait of an incredible human being. Irena was born and raised in Poland, and she endured unspeakable cruelties when the Russians made their way into her town. She was later forced to work for the Germans throughout the course of the war, finding herself witnessing atrocities first-hand and feeling helpless to do anything about it. She saves her friends (as she lovingly refers to them all evening) because she once witnessed a newborn baby smashed on the pavement and its mother shot by a Nazi soldier. Finding herself unable to do anything in that moment, she made a vow to herself that she would do whatever she could to save a person’s life, which brings us to the play at hand.

The memory play is established as one of Irena’s classroom lectures from the late 80s interspersed with a linear flashback recounting her experiences. When Feldshuh talks directly to us, the audience, as her class, is the piece at its most intimate and most riveting. Her sincere portrayal is worthy of many award accolades and nominations from the various parties, commanding the stage for the entire evening. However, the script leaves some to be desired. The play clocks in at an intermissionless ninety minutes, with a questionable structure and an undeniable lack of dimension in the supporting characters. Most frustratingly, the character of Irena’s Nazi employer, a most fascinating character, was only marginally given more scope than the rest. There are too many moments when the play feels a bit like paint by numbers history splashed out onstage. Careful rewrites and examining of characters could serve to flesh out the more two-dimensional moments in the play.

However, when it is Irena narrating the story to us, impersonating various characters with such vivid clarity and guiding the audience through the plot that the play finds some strength. It is at these moments that it seems that the story would be best served as a one woman solo show. The script as is would open well into a television movie.

Following the curtain call, Feldshuh took a moment to make a curtain speech on behalf of BC/EFA and also to remind us that it was William Shakespeare’s birthday, whom she quoted before introducing Irena’s daughter, Janina, who offers a brief question and answer period after most if not all performances. It was during this session we heard incredible stories of what became of Major Rugemer, Irena’s life in the US and her reunion with her sisters after about forty years separation from the war.

Irena’s Vow is worth seeing for two reasons: its story and its leading lady, giving a transcendent star turn in a play that could be and should be much better than it is. In spite of its flaws, the story still captivates and I could not help but be fascinated with the plot unfolding. There was scarcely a dry eye in the house by the time of the play’s conclusion, one celebrating the powers of forgiveness and redemption.

Quote of the Day: Angie Remembers Bea

“Bea Arthur and I first met when we did Mame together in 1965. She became and has remained ‘My Bosom Buddy’ ever since. I am deeply saddened by her passing, but also relieved that she is released from the pain. I spoke to Matt, her son, yesterday and I was aware that her time was imminent. She was a rare and unique performer and a dear, dear friend.”

– Angela Lansbury on the death of her beloved friend and former costar, Bea Arthur

Bea Arthur (1922-2009)

A legend of Broadway and television (and the master of droll comedy), Bea Arthur has died today at her home in California. The Emmy and Tony winning actress was 86 and the cause was cancer. Arthur, born Bernice Frankel in 1922, was distinctive for her height and bass-baritone voice, not to mention her incisive wit, and found a real niche in playing strong, sardonic women.

Arthur was a staple of NY theatre of the 1950s, appearing in the original off-Broadway cast of Marc Blitzstein’s acclaimed production of The Threepenny Opera, standing by for Shirl Conway in Plain and Fancy and appearing in the original casts of Seventh Heaven and The Shoestring Revue. In the mid-60s, Arthur had back to back successes in two smash hit shows: as the original Yente, the matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof and her Tony-winning triumph as the booze-addled bosom buddy Vera Charles in the original cast of Mame, a role she’d repeat in the disastrous 1974 film adaptation. (I had just commented only the other day that she is the only reason to watch the film, shining where the rest of the production does not).

From her New York stage successes, her friend Norman Lear asked her to come to Los Angeles for a one-off guest spot on All in the Family playing the ultra-liberal cousin of Edith Bunker, named Maude. Her sparring with Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker over the presidency of FDR in that episode alone was enough for CBS executives to offer Bea her own spin-off series. Maude premiered the following season and became a controversial success, even more controversial than its original series in its willingness to tackle every taboo subject under the umbrella. In the sixth episode of the series, her character had an abortion, an entire year before the Roe v. Wade decision marking a television first. There was considerable outrage, which only added to the series’s success. Maude had six successful years on CBS, ending only because Bea was ready to move on.

Her other successful series came in 1985 with The Golden Girls, in which Arthur was top-billed as divorced substitute teacher Dorothy Zbornak, living with her two best friends and sassy mother in Miami. The second series broke ground as it took a comic look at older women living in contemporary America, with Arthur playing perfectly off her costars Betty White, Rue McClanahan and the late Estelle Getty. It ran for seven years, again ending when Bea decided to move on. A spin-off series putting the remaining three women in a hotel The Golden Palace lasted one season. Bea was awarded with Emmys for her turns on both series. Arthur also starred in the failed series Amanda, an Americanization of the popular Fawlty Towers series from the UK. (And more obscurely, she also appeared in the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special). Her film appearances included Lovers and Other Strangers and The History of the World, Part I.

Bea grew up in Maryland, finding confidence and friends in her ability to make wisecracks. Originally, attended college and got a degree as a medical technician, but hated the work. Arthur signed up for acting classes at the New School for Social Research (where everyone seemed to flock, including the similarly deadpan Elaine Stritch, who tells of a failed Golden Girls audition in her one woman show). She got her stage name from her shortlived marriage to writer Robert Alan Aurthur. Arthur was married to director Gene Saks, with whom they had two sons. Bea was also an ardent animal rights activist and a member of PETA. She continued making appearances well into her eighties, with guest spots on Malcolm in the Middle and Curb Your Enthusiasm. There was also touring one woman show And Then There’s Bea which came to New York as Bea Arthur on Broadway, earning her a Tony nomination for Best Theatrical Event. Arthur was also a staple on various awards shows, most notably the TV Land awards spoof of Sex and the City with Arthur playing Carrie Bradshaw, as well as the Pam Anderson roast on Comedy Central where Arthur delivered a deadpan reading of Anderson’s ribald novel. Arthur is survived by her two sons and two granddaughters.

Thankfully all seasons of The Golden Girls and her film appearances are available on DVD. However, only the first season of Maude has been issued on DVD – and that was two years ago. Sony should seriously consider bringing the remaining five seasons out on DVD, especially for her fans. Here are a couple videos with which we can celebrate Arthur’s life and talent. First up is from her first appearance as Maude on All in the Family:

Maude’s telethon has turned into an on-air disaster and she has to save it:

This is from Bea’s favorite bit on The Golden Girls where Dorothy and Sophia dressed up as Sonny and Cher for a mother-daughter competition.

And this is the hilarious Sex and the City parody:

And finally, here is Bea and her good friend and costar Angela Lansbury reprising their showstopping “Bosom Buddies” from Mame on the 1987 Tony awards.

Will Barbara Cook star in iSondheim?

The pre-Broadway production of this technologically based Sondheim revue by James Lapine was scrapped this past summer due to a lack of capital. Now it seems that Roundabout is considering it as a part of its season next year, as per Michael Riedel in today’s NY Post. The big rumor seems to be that Barbara Cook will headline. Cook has made several appearances on Broadway in her one-woman concerts/cabarets over the years, but has not starred in a musical since The Grass Harp folded in 1971. Riedel also mentions that Cook and Elaine Stritch were being sought, while disclosing the tidbit that the two legends do not get along. He cites an insider who knows both stars: if you put them in the same rehearsal hall, “no one would come out alive.” Stritch joined Cook onstage for her Metropolitan debut, duetting on “The Grass is Always Greener” from Woman of the Year, but Stritch’s work was left off the CD issue of that evening, with nary a mention of her participation.

While I’m not thrilled about the prospect of yet Sondheim revue (have we not exhausted that yet with Side by Side by Sondheim, You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow (A Stephen Sondheim Evening), Putting it Together and Marry Me a Little?), I will jump at the opportunity to see Cook back on a Broadway stage.

The article also discusses some interesting offstage drama regarding Irena’s Vow. I will be reporting on my experiences with Tovah Feldhuh at the Walter Kerr Theatre in the near future.

A lyric you probably don’t know…

This is the opening number from the woefully unrecorded Broadway disaster 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as I posted earlier one of the few shattered remains of the original theatrical concept of a show-within-a-show… (they went through several tries with this slot before arriving on this one for NY). Now just imagine it with a syncopated, distinctively Bernsteinian sound (the melody was recycled as the second theme for Bernstein’s “Slava: A Political Overture”).

Seriously, I obsess so much about this one, I should write a book about it… or maybe just unearth press photos of Patricia Routledge mid “Duet for One.”

“Rehearse!” – 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Alan Jay Lerner (m. Leonard Bernstein)
Let’s start looking alive
When we arrive
It’s gonna be great.
Keep that fervor ablaze
And one of these days
It’s gonna be great.

In the course of human events,
There’s only one event that makes sense
Rehearse and rehearse
Rehearse and don’t stop
And if we do and if we don’t drop,
It’s gonna be great.

Grindstone under your nose
Up on your toes,
It’s gonna be great.
Keep that fervor ablaze
And one of these days
It’s gonna be great.

If we all have plenty of grit
And if we don’t fall into the pit
Of gloom and
Rehearse, rehearse and don’t stop
And if we do and if we don’t drop
It’s gonna be great.

Don’t let go of the thread
Way up ahead
It’s gonna be great.
Stitch wipe stitch
And you’ll see eventually
It’s gonna be great.

Pray to God as much as you please
He’ll only say,
“Get off of your knees.”
Rise up and rehearse
Rehearse and don’t stop
And if we do and if we don’t drop
It’s gonna be great!

Let’s start knockin’ them dead
Looking ahead
It’s gonna be great.
Let’s make everything pop
For up at the top
It’s gonna be great.

Pray to God as much as you please
He’ll only say,
“Get off of your knees.”
Rise up and rehearse,
Rehearse and don’t stop
And if we do and if we don’t drop
It’s gonna be great!

Let’s start looking alive
When we arrive
It’s gonna be great
Keep that fervor ablaze
And one of these days
It’s gonna be great.

In the course of human events
There’s only one event that makes sense
Rise up and rehearse,
Rehearse and don’t stop
And if we do and if we don’t drop
It’s gonna be great.
Gonna be great!
Gonna be great!
If we rehearse!
If we rehearse!
Rehearse!
Rehearse!
It’s gonna be great!

At Large Elsewhere: Kiley vs. Lansbury

I posted a few days ago that Peter Filichia recently pitted the winners of Actor and Actress Tonys against each other after discussing whether or not women should be called actors or actresses. According to Filichia, there was a three to one landslide in favor of Lansbury. Here was my response, which is surprisingly posted in its entirety:

This really IS a tough call! Both were giving career-defining performances. Kiley was anchoring the Best Musical winning juggernaut. Lansbury was a revelation as the star-turn diva carrying the latest Jerry Herman vehicle. Wow, I wouldn’t want to have had to choose!

However, I think that the votes would have had to go to Lansbury, as she had the bigger challenge, the bigger star turn, and the most to prove. Kiley was already renowned for his musical theatre work, but Lansbury only had nine performances as the third-billed star in Anyone Can Whistle, which wouldn’t have been seen by enough of the populace to make a lasting impression. For Lansbury, it was a total transformation from respected character actress into leading lady. Both roles are hard: Kiley had to enchant an audience while making up for a libretto and lyrics that fall short of the mark, comedy and pathos. Kiley’s transformation was incredible, too. However, Lansbury, sliding down the banister with a bugle, became the toast of New York with the magazine covers and spreads, and the incredible press and audience buzz. It was the start of Lansbury’s Act Two as a musical theatre star/legend.

Looking back on it, La Mancha was the musical apex for Kiley, who would never have another successful musical performance after it, while Lansbury as Mame was the first of so many diverse star turns. (Even Prettybelle in its out-of-town flopping, was important enough to warrant a cast album, and Lansbury cannot herself be faulted in the least for that show’s failure).

From a voting perspective, if you were going to vote Man of La Mancha Best Musical, you might be more inclined to vote for Lansbury in an attempt to honor her hard work, discipline, unexpected total triumph and also not let Mame go home without a major Tony. Thank God it’s merely speculation and that there is such a thing as an ‘actress’ or we’d have so much more agita than necessary in choosing the apples and oranges of who is the best of the best.

Marilyn Cooper (1936-2009)

“What’s so wonderful?”

That’s the line most closely associated with character actress Marilyn Cooper. Her distinctive delivery of that line in “The Grass is Always Greener,” the eleven o’clock showstopper from Woman of the Year was enough for her to win the Tony award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Cooper, a regular supporting actress in countless shows, died yesterday at the age of 72 in the Actor’s Fund Home in New Jersey.

Cooper made her Broadway debut in Mr. Wonderful, a vehicle for Sammy Davis Jr, in 1956. The following year she was part of history as Rosalia in the original cast of West Side Story, or the leader of the pro-Puerto Rican faction in “America.” It’s been reported that Arthur Laurents liked her so much, he wrote the role of Agnes/Amanda in Gypsy specifically for her. (She would also play a variety of roles in Hallelujah, Baby!) Cooper appeared in I Can Get it for You Wholesale, replaced Jane Connell as Gooch in the original Broadway production of Mame (that must have been nothing short of riotous), standing by for Eydie Gorme in Golden Rainbow and understudying Bernadette Peters in the 1971 revival of On the Town (in which she appeared as Lucy Schmeeler), Two by Two, Working and Ballroom. She also made appearances in the all-female Odd Couple revival and Broadway Bound. Her TV appearances included Lilith’s mother on Cheers and Fran’s paternal grandmother on The Nanny. She was also Mae Peterson in the Tommy Tune national tour of Bye Bye Birdie.

However, it is really the role of Jan Donovan, the frumpy housewife married to Lauren Bacall’s ex-husband in Woman of the Year that garnered her what is probably the biggest critical success of her career. The musical was carried by Bacall throughout the entire evening. However, late in the second act Cooper entered in a bathrobe and curlers, with her entire high pitched nasal deadpan delivery. The hilarity grew out of the incredible dichotomy of the women’s lives: one a successful career woman, the other a housewife and mother – and a friendly expression of their envy for each other. Suffice it to say, Cooper walked away with the show. Cooper took home the Drama Desk and Tony awards for her work. To see the scene and song in all its glory, click here.

The cast album performance of the song captures every nuance of humor, making it one of the most enjoyable cuts on a theater album (which is out of print for whatever reason). A comic talent like Ms. Cooper’s doesn’t come around so often. Though never a star, she was one of the most reliable professionals in the NY theatre scene and her death is definitely a big loss to musical comedy fans.