This is an amazingly long import from my myspace blog.

I had the pleasure of going to the Tony Awards again this year. Although I was far away from the stage, in the second balcony, it was pretty damn thrilling.

This year I got to see a lot more shows than I did last year in New York. Here's what they were:

*Grey Gardens (mah favorite, love Christine Ebersole)
*Spring Awakening (Over-rated but still good)
*The Apple Tree (Revival of an old musical nobody really cares about, notable only because of Kristen Chenoweth from Wicked)
*Heartbreak House (Revival of a George Bernard Shaw play, starring the great Swoosie Kurtz)
*High Fidelity (RIP, sadly under-rated, great pop score)
*Lovemusik  (A musical about the songwriter Kurt Weill and singer/actress Lotte Lenya. Pretty much a misfire but still entertaining)
*The Little Dog Laughed (Bad except for the hilarious Julie White as a bitchy agent)
*The Drowsy Chaperone (holdover from 2006, loved John Glover in the Bob Martin role)
*Avenue Q (holdover from 2003. Awesome, especially w/ Rob McClure from camp)
*Spamalot (holdover from...2005, I believe? Hilarious)
*Pig Farm (Off-Broadway, kinda weak)
*Howard Katz (Off-Broadway, amazing Alfred Molina performance)

And I'll be seeing 110 in The Shade (and hopefully Frost/Nixon) next week.

This is a lot more than what I saw last year, including a lot more Tony-nominated shows, so it was a lot more fun to be at than last year, when the few things I did see and liked barely won anything.

First of all, Radio City is the most beautiful theatre on earth. It's so sad that most of the time it's reduced to crap like Lyle Lovett concerts. However, it's a perfect location for a big show like The Tonys. I always went to the Rockettes show at Christmas time when I was little and I loved it then and I love it even more now that I can appreciate the amazing art deco architecture and sheer scale of the damn thing. Nothing like it could ever be built today.

Anyway, the show itself…Like I said, I was at the second balcony and it's a very well-designed house so that you have a pretty good view no matter where you sit. Although it was far away, I could see the whole stage and there are two huge screens hung on either side to show what the audience at home was seeing.

The show started with the technical awards, which the TV audience doesn't get to see except for a brief recap (in this case flashed over a performance by the Jersey Boys. Ugh). No big surprises here, mostly wins for Spring Awakening (some deserved, some given just because voters liked the show over-all) and The Coast of Utopia (which I wish I saw but never did). I was glad, though, that Grey Gardens picked up a well-deserved Tony for costume design. That was a bit of a surprise.

The televised show began with a performance from A Chorus Line, which I have never seen, but it was pretty cool. The section which takes place outside Radio City was pre-filmed. Here is that performance:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KbKJolByom4&mode=related&search=

Then Angela Lansbury did the welcome speech (I love Angela Lansbury). They gave out the best supporting actor award (Billy Crudup), then the best supporting actor in a musical award. John Gallagher Jr. of Spring Awakening, the Brandywine High drop-out, won that one, probably deservedly.

I really couldn't care less about most of the play awards since they mostly went to Coast of Utopia, which, again, I didn't see. There was a big surprise, though, when Julie White, from The Little Dog Laughed, won best actress over amazing competition. I saw that show and I have to say she was the only good thing about it. She was hilarious; the rest of it was some really melodramatic thing about a gay actor's private life. Even the full frontal nudity was boring. I was glad for her, though, she seemed genuinely shocked during her hilarious acceptance speech. Here's one of the worst quality videos of all time of that speech, but you can still hear her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CQ5XmJUQtY

Best actor in a play went to Frank Langella as Nixon. I can't wait to see him, he gave a wonderful speech which I wish I could find a youtube video of.

Curtains, which I have not seen yet, performed the song Show People. It looks okay. David Hyde Pierce surprised everyone when he won over Raul Esparza, of Company, in the best actor in a musical category for this show. I do hope to catch it eventually.

Raul Esparza performed Company's song Being Alive (they won for best musical revival). I've been wanting to see this show for a long time now and now I really want to after catching this incredible performance:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BwDnQB1FbCE

Mary Poppins' cast did a pretty disappointing number in my opinion. The "Step in Time" scene from the movie where all the chimney sweeps dance was never one of my favorite parts and it looks like it won't be onstage, either. Still, I do want to see the show. Can't find a youtube video of that performance.

110 in the Shade performed a funny little number called Raunchy. It stars Audra McDonald, who has an amazing voice. I have tickets for that one coming up. They went home empty-handed.

Grey Gardens had Christine Ebersole performing The Revolutionary Costume For Today. Now, this was my favorite musical this year and I was a little disappointed that they decided to do this song. I guess it sets up the story for the TV audience that the producers want to come see the show, but there are much better songs in the show. Around the World and especially Another Winter in a Summer Town are also sung by Christine Ebersole and I think they are much better songs. Still, it was exciting to see her perform again! Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTzrAS5KJi8

Grey Gardens went home with three awards. Besides costumes, it won awards for its two amazing leading ladies, Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. Christine Ebersole was the surest bet of the night, people have been raving about her performance for a year now. It's honestly the best performance I've ever seen on a stage. Mary Louise Wilson gave a funny speech. Here's a horrible quality video of it which someone actually filmed off their TV:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=I5kqrkx6Ip0

Then, of course, there's Spring Awakening. They did something truly bizarre. They did this medley of songs, and completely changed the lyrics to The Bitch of Living to make it acceptable for TV, but they still said "bitch" many times and the lyric changes really do much, they were just irritating. When they got to Totally Fucked, the cast put their hands over their mouths every time the F word came up. It was pretty funny. I can't find a video of the performance, but here's a bootleg of a rehearsal for it:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JorWtL75V34

S.A. pretty much swept the major artistic categories—score, book, choreography, and finally best musical. They lost for leading actor, costume design, and set design.

Both Lovemusik and Legally Blonde were nominated in a number of categories but went home empty-handed. The flop High Fidelity, which I absolutely love, had the most amazing and clever set I have ever seen and it did get a nomination but lost to Mary Poppins, which was to be expected.

Of the famous people who presented, seeing Usher, Ben Vereen, Kevin Spacey, Harvey Fierstein, Anne Heche, Felicity Huffman, Bernadette Peters, and Dwight from the office was all pretty cool. I got to see a few of the presenters (Felicity Huffman and Jeff Daniels, among others) as I was leaving. And I practically walked home with Patrick Wilson. In a totally non-stalker sort of way. Seriously, we just happened to be going in the same direction, ok? OK?!

So, Spring Awakening swept the Tonys as expected. I sorta came to accept that going in. It's the fresh new thing that, like Rent, people think will change everything. At least I sincerely liked the musical, so it wasn't too bad, I just happened to like something better. It was a really exciting night and it's always awesome to be in the same room as all those freaky-talented people. Dream come true for a theatre nerd like myself.

I WON THE YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL AND THE DELAWARE THEATRE COMPANY is DOING MY SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

THE LIBRARIAN IS NO LONGER ALLOWED TO THROW OUT BOOKS (actually never WAS allowed to) and MY ANGRY, ARTICLE ABOUT HOW DISGUSTING SHE IS IS GOING TO BE IN B'wine Line NEXT WEEK (I'm sending it in to the News Journal also)

MILLIE IS NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!! FIRST AUDITION WITH THE PIT BAND WENT GREAT!!!!


WHAT A BIZZARELY GOOD DAY!!!!!


-dan

_________
/Obnoxious caps lock

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^That's my facebook. No photos yet.

MASSIVE update coming with a bunch of art projects and photos of New York coming soon.

Where is everyone? Why has everyone flocked to MySpace and deleted their Livejournals when LJ is so much better? Arg! It's really not worth posting here anymore because nobody's on these days. :(

Thank God for watching good movies in film class to take my mind off the fact that I should be crying hysterically during every class. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong in the past three days--has and then some. Good God. And the thing of it is, it's all my own damn fault and I know it and now I have to deal with what's happened. It's really time for me to grow up. Oh, well. In a way, I suppose I already have and in a way I never will. For one thing, I really need to get my act together in school, though, my grades are punishment enough. Frankly, I don't care what anyone thinks any more because I'm genuinely worried to death myself. My college situation is gonna be pretty damn bad if I don't start getting 100s on everything now. Psych test today was not a good start...

Also, due to yet an another enormous fuck-up that actually isn't my fault, I don't believe I will ever drive. Until I am seventy. By which time my eyes will be gone.

Then I turn on the news and see some starving kid and I want to slap myself in the face for being so selfish. I've done so little with so much.

hmm.

Today I saw Borat with Larissa. Holy God, that is one disgusting movie. I actually could not open my eyes for one extended scene because it was just so godawfully disgusting. But it's a great movie, it's not as stupid as it is on the surface, it's one of the most intelligent and clever movies this year. Not that that's saying much in the year of Jackass: The Movie. It's also potentially a terrible date movie and will probably put anyone off the very idea of sex for several months. In some ways, it's just an extended episode of Da Ali G Show, But it's definitely worth seeing. Can't wait to see what this guy does with the role of Pirelli in the upcoming Sweeney Todd movie. It probably deserves to be successful as it's been.  I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at a movie, Larissa was literally crying from laughter.

Borat:
Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
*** out of **** 

THURSDAY there was rehearsal for Little Women after school that went on for approximately 15,129 hours, and art club. 
Followed on Friday night by setting up for the haunted house, followed by the actual haunted house which slightly sucked that night, followed by me going to the Regal with people who were smart enough to get tickets for The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D in advance, looking like a moron with my backpack still with me and red tempra paint poured on my hands and face and shirt. Sooo, Nightmare was sold out for the whole night, and I saw Man of the Year instead, which was better than I thought it would be, got home at 1 AM. I really want to see The Prestige and Flags of Our Fathers sometime soon, though. 

Saturday: extra-long Little Women rehearsal, then went to see Nightmare Before Christmas with Teri, and it was still fairly packed at 2:30 PM though not sold out. Disney is going to make more money on this re-release than the original, I swear. By the way, it's really worth seeing. It's so much better than watching the DVD. The 3D isn't gimmicky and pop-outish or anything, it's exactly appropriate and realistic, and this new  "Digital 3D" process is amazing. No more ugly red-and-blue, headache-inducing picture. I noticed lots of little things I never noticed the seventy-five times around, unless I forgot them from when I saw the movie in a theater when I was three. Still a beautiful movie.

Um, so after that it was haunted house time again and we completely gutted and redid our room completely differently (and better), it was fun, stayed there until about 10. Saw Maggie briefly for the first time in several centuries, yet oddly had nothing to say.

Today I'm seeing Turn of the Screw at the Theater Company at 2.