JOSEFINA SCAGLIONE
Nominated for her performance as Maria in West Side Story at the Palace Theatre.
Not a bad way to make a Broadway debut!
Argentina native Josefina Scaglione, who made her Main Stem bow earlier this season in the revival of West Side Story at the Palace Theatre, scored a Tony nomination this week for Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Musical for her work as Maria in the classic American musical by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents.
"I was sleeping, and I [had] turned my cell phone off," Scaglione said the morning the nominations were announced. "I was so tired because last night I had, at the Met, the costume ball. My friend from Argentina is visiting me, so she woke me up like crazy and told me that I was nominated." The nomination, the young actress with the beautiful, soaring soprano said, "is really exciting. I'm thrilled to be nominated with such great actresses like the ones that are in the same category with me."
photo by Joan Marcus |
As for a favorite moment in the show, Scaglione says, "I love 'A Boy Like That' with Karen Olivo [also a 2009 Tony nominee]. It's a moment that's key, you know. It's the moment where [Maria] says, 'Okay, this is me, and this is what I want to do. If you like it or not, I don't care! I'm gonna do it again because I love [Tony].'"
The 21-year-old opera singer is scheduled to stay with West Side for a year. When asked whether she would like to do more Broadway, Scaglione answers, "I think so, yes. We'll see what life brings."
Nominated for her performance as Diana in Next to Normal at the Booth Theatre. Former Side Show and Sunset Boulevard star Alice Ripley is giving the performance of her career — and perhaps the year — in the emotional roller-coaster-ride of a musical that is Next to Normal , which boasts a thrilling, melodic rock score by composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Brian Yorkey.
Ripley — who plays Diana, a wife and mother who is struggling with her personal demons — says she was on her couch May 5 when she heard her name announced on CBS. "I've always held this belief of David Mamet that hard work doesn't pay off, but maybe he was just talking about Los Angeles," Ripley laughs. "I'm thinking I can take off my cynical hat [that] I've had on for a decade. That's kind of what this [nomination] means to me because I feel like this is a dream come true. There's no other way to describe it except that I'm humbled and so excited to be recognized for the work that I've put in."
That work includes two prior Next to Normal productions, first at Off-Broadway's Second Stage Theater in winter 2008, and then, following revisions, a limited engagement at Arena Stage in Arlington, VA, this past winter. In fact, Ripley won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production for her performance in the Arena Stage Normal.
photo by Joan Marcus |
Ripley has even more positive remarks about the Next to Normal audiences: "I think the audiences have been skilled at letting themselves be taken in by the show. That's something I admire. I'm not sure that I'm that good of an audience member. I really admire the audience's skill in coming into the theatre with an enthusiasm and the willingness to be taken in. There are no audiences that are better at that than our audiences."
The two-time Tony nominee is equally effusive about her fellow cast members, who include fellow 2009 Tony nominee, Jennifer Damiano. "I really feel like I've hit the jackpot," Ripley says. "The cast is so devoted to the work, and they're all so grown up. Even our 17-year-old, Tony nominee Jen, she's a grown-up. She's more grown up than a lot of grown-ups I know! But we all put the work first, and I think that that's the most satisfying way to do it."
Ripley also spoke about filming the edgy commercial for the new musical, which is playing the intimate Booth Theatre. "Oh, that was a long and fun day!" she enthuses. "We had a lot of different things going on that day. Upstairs they were doing still photos of us, downstairs they were filming us in front of a blank screen. Then we had a green square that we would hold in front of our faces to kind of green-screen out the middle of our faces. Then they filmed photos for the outside of the theatre, and they used video for the commercial. I think it looks fantastic."
As for Tony night, Ripley says, "I just hope that I don't have to be up for my award [wearing] my costume [from the Tony night performance] and that I can change and be glamorous!!"
Nominated for her performance as Violet Newstead in 9 to 5: The Musical at the Marquis Theatre. Is there anyone in a Broadway musical at the moment with better comic timing than Allison Janney?
The Emmy-winning "West Wing" star, who plays Violet Newstead in the new musical 9 to 5, says she was "glued to 'The Carol Burnett Show' every night of my life [that it aired]. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. That was what I grew up watching — 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' and all of those great people. But I'm not particularly 'funny ha-ha' [offstage]. I think I'm funny in spite of myself," she laughs.
Whatever the origin, Tony nominators certainly noticed Janney's comedic powers (and her extraordinary acting abilities) when they nominated her for a 2009 Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Musical earlier this week. The day the nominations were announced Janney says she was "kind of nervous because I knew they were coming out, and I just had to get out of the house. I decided to go walk my dog because I always feel grounded when I'm out walking her. I thought I'll just be prepared for whatever happens. I'm just gonna be outside and deal with it. I let out a scream in Riverside Park," she laughs.
"You try to keep these things in perspective," Janney adds, "but you just can't help but be incredibly excited and grateful for being recognized. This has been two years of my life working very hard at this [role]. It's just a complete thrill, and I couldn't be more excited to represent the show this way. . . . . I do wish it could be the three of us, [Megan Hilty, Stephanie J. Block and I], nominated like all of the three boys who play Billy Elliot! That would have made me happier, and, of course, [I wish] the show would have gotten nominated, too, because I think it's so deserving. It's just amazing to be out there every night and hear the audience just go crazy for it and really enjoy themselves."
photo by Joan Marcus |
And, what is Janney's favorite moment in the crowd-pleaser that is 9 to 5? "For me personally, 'One of the Boys' is just a dream. When you think about doing a musical, you dream about doing a number like that. Every time I get to that number I [think], 'Oh, my God, I can't believe I'm gonna do what I'm about to do.' It thrills me every time I get to do it, so that's pretty exciting. And, all of the scenes with the three of us, the girls. When we're going through the whole journey of getting to know each other, it's a great story arc to play every night. We have a ball. The pot-smoking scene also. We have a lot of fun in that!"
photo by Joan Marcus |
Nominated for her performance as Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical at the Broadway Theatre. Speaking of phenomenal comic timing, Tony Award winner Sutton Foster was also out walking her dog when the news of her fourth — yes, fourth! — Tony nomination was announced on TV.
"I was out getting coffee. I went out with my dog, so I was in the rain," Foster explains, "and then I came back and I turned [the TV] on, and I missed the [announcement]. But a friend of mine texted and said, 'Congratulations!' Then my agent called, and he told me. I asked, 'Did the show get nominated?' That was the first thing [I wanted to know], and he said yes, and I was like, 'Oh, yay!'"
Although she won a Tony for her dazzling performance in Thoroughly Modern Millie and was also Tony-nominated for her work in Little Women and The Drowsy Chaperone, Foster says a nomination is still an honor. "I grew up watching the Tony Awards," the Georgia native says. "To be a working actor on Broadway and to be recognized in this way and to be able to put on a pretty dress and to be invited to go to the Tony Awards and to be able to perform, hopefully, it really is a dream come true, and it never gets old. It's a beautiful, beautiful blessing, and I feel so proud to be a part of this show and so proud that it's been recognized."
photo by Joan Marcus |
Nominated for her performance as Vera Simpson in the recent Pal Joey revival at Studio 54. Stockard Channing is one of those extremely rare species: an actor who can stand still on stage, say nothing, and be completely riveting. Add to that her consummate acting skills, her intelligent delivery of a lyric — her "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" in the recent revival of Pal Joey was a mini-drama in itself — and it is no wonder that the Tony and Emmy winner received her sixth (!) Tony nomination earlier this week for her performance as the sophisticated "cougar" Vera Simpson in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of the Rodgers and Hart musical.
When reached the morning of the Tony announcements, Channing told Playbill.com's Robert Simonson, "I'm on a train going to Paris, where I will be in about ten minutes. So I may get cut off, because we're going into a tunnel. I'm literally in the suburbs of Paris. I've been on vacation. I'm going to Paris for a few days, then I go back to London then back to the States. Someone called me on the train, and then my British cell phone promptly died on me!"
While she was playing the role at Studio 54, Channing told me, "I think [Vera] is a pretty amoral person in many ways, but I think she's got ethics. They're two different things. She's a woman of the world. I think her feathers are definitely singed by this [experience with Joey]. I don't think she'll ever probably go as deep again [into another relationship]. I do think that she has her own comeuppance in this. That's about as much as I can say. I really leave that for the people watching Vera."
photo by Joan Marcus |
Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to [email protected].