The 71st Annual Tony Awards: My Great Disappointment

So… the 71st Annual Tony Awards have come and gone and I have to say, I generally found it to be a tedious evening. Nothing used to get me more excited than tuning in each year to the Tony Awards and being blown away by some amazing performances. Somewhere around the time when the awards ceremony left the intimacy of a Broadway theatre and instead began being held at larger venues such as Radio Music Hall did it lose something for me. Ah, yes, I suppose I am showing my age by saying this, but there was a time when the awards actually felt intimate. For reasons of space and economy, it was decided somewhere along the way that barns were the better place to celebrate theatre. This still remains an unfortunate shift in my book as I long for the days when musicals like Big River, Grand Hotel, Me and My Girl, The Secret Garden, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, City of Angels, Once on this Island, and Jelly’s Last Jam charmed me on a stage that didn’t dwarf their efforts. The Broadway of today looks very different than the one I remember of the 80s and early 90s, so I suppose nostalgia can cloud one’s judgment, but this Tony Awards in particular left me feeling very disconnected.

Nunsense: The TV Series — A Review

If you have ever attended a production of the 1985 Dan Goggin musical Nunsense (or any of its myriad sequels), you are going to approach a TV series based on the property with certain expectations (or lack of expectations, maybe). Nunsense has always been a bit of a one-joke musical, irreverent behavior and tired religious jokes enacted by a posse of fun and feisty nuns who are trying to raise money for one of their causes. The musical trades in B-grade humor, peppy (if forgettable) melodies, and our delight in feeling slightly naughty for laughing at such serious stuff as the holy spirit and communion wine.

Predicting the Tony Awards’ Musical Categories

I’m about as good at predicting Tony winners as I am picking lottery numbers, so take this article for what it is worth (I do better with the Oscars for some reason). That being said, it has been an exciting Broadway season and this year’s awards are looking like they will be spread over several musicals (Unlike last-year’s tedious Tony Awards where Hamilton clinched most of the accolades). I think that there will be some surprises, but the betting man in me chooses these nominees as the winners on Tony Sunday.