Aside from all the awards presentations and winners' speeches, the 9-11 CBS broadcast of the Tony Awards will, as ever, include production numbers from nominated new musicals and revivals. This year's selections, just announced, will include:
€ Martin Short performing "Boom Boom" (Little Me)
€ Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat dueting on "Sun in the Morning" segueing into "Old Fashioned Wedding"
€ Cathy Rigby and the Peter Pan children singing "I'm Flying"
€ Kristin Chenoweth offering "My Philosophy," then being joined by co nominee and the rest of the You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown cast on "Happiness"
€ The Civil War ensemble singing "Freedom's Child"
€ The Fosse company dancing Sing Sing Sing
€ "Members Only," performed by the cast of It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues
€ Brent Carver and Carolee Carmello dueting on Parade's "This Is Not Over Yet."
As for the CBS Tony coverage, they couldn't find a hostess with the mostess, but a number of stars are lined up as presenters for the June 6 event, including such recently-added notables as Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Audra McDonald, Alan Cumming, William Hurt, Swoosie Kurtz, Elaine Stritch, Mario Cantone and playwright Terrence McNally.
Executive Producer Walter C. Miller said in a statement that this year's Tonys would open with a "special musical number" and, though hostless, group together presenters linked by their "theatrical ties." For example, Spacey and Robards, both Iceman Hickeys, will share the stage, as will Julie Andrews & Carol Burnett, Christine Baranski & David Hyde Pierce, Angela Lansbury & Bea Arthur, Broderick & Parker, McDonald & Cumming, Scott Wolf & Christian Slater, O'Donnell & Stritch, and Stockard Channing & Laurence Fishburne. Calista Flockhart, due Off-Broadway in Bash this summer, is also expected to present. *
Remember when the Tony Awards had to cram everything -- every award, every production number, every presentation -- into the 9-11 PM slot? That was before PBS came on the scene three years ago, giving the ceremony an extra hour of breathing room, including more time to learn about the nominees and the theatre season itself.
Ten awards will be distributed during the PBS hour, in the following order:
Choreography
Orchestrations
Book of a Musical
Original Score written for the theatre
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Scenic Design
Direction of a Play
Direction of a Musical
Special Tony for Regional Theatre (to Crossroads Theatre, NJ)
The PBS show will both open and close with live sequences by Fool Moon's Bill Irwin and David Shiner. Ragtime's Audra McDonald and Cabaret's Alan Cumming will co-present the first four awards.
The PBS broadcast will also feature a backstage warm-up at The Iceman Cometh, with Iceman designer Bob Crowley visiting the actual bar that inspired his set for the show. Also featured will be director Ann Reinking rehearsing the "Big Spender" number in Fosse, and a backstage tour with Richard Hoover explaining his set design for Not About Nightingales.
Interviewees include actress Elizabeth Franz and director Robert Falls (Death of a Salesman), and actress Kristin Chenoweth and director Michael Mayer (You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown). "This is more than just awards coverage," PBS broadcast producer Jeff Folmsbee said in a statement. "It's a total theatrical experience."
Segments devoted to the Tony-nominated new plays Side Man, Not About Nightingales, The Lonesome West and Closer will be shown on the CBS telecast, though Tony spokespersons weren't yet clear how the non-musicals would be represented on the CBS brodcast. Actual clips from the shows will be shown on the PBS hour.
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Here's the complete list of Tony nominations:
Best New Play:
Closer by Patrick Marber
Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh
Not About Nightingales by Tennessee Williams
Side Man by Warren Leight
Best New Musical:
The Civil War
Fosse
It Ain't Nothing But the Blues
Parade
Best Revival of a Musical:
Annie Get Your Gun
Little Me
Peter Pan
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Best Revival of a Play:
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Electra by Euripides
The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Best Book of a Musical
Footloose, Dean Pitchford & Walter Bobbie
It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues, Charles Bevel, Lita Gaithers, Randal Myler, Ron Taylor & Dan Wheetman
Marlene, Pam Gems
Parade, Alfred Uhry
Best Original Score
Footloose, Tom Snow, Eric Carmen, Dean Pitchford, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins & Jim Steinman
Parade, Jason Robert Brown
The Civil War, Frank Wildhorn & Jack Murphy
Twelfth Night, Jeanine Tesori
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Brian Dennehy, Death of a Salesman
Brían O'Byrne, The Lonesome West
Corin Redgrave, Not About Nightingales
Kevin Spacey, The Iceman Cometh
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Stockard Channing, The Lion in Winter
Judi Dench, Amy's View
Marian Seldes, Ring Round the Moon
Zoë Wanamaker, Electra
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Brent Carver, Parade
Adam Cooper, Swan Lake
Martin Short, Little Me
Tom Wopat, Annie Get Your Gun
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Carolee Carmello, Parade
Dee Hoty, Footloose
Bernadette Peters, Annie Get Your Gun
Siân Phillips, Marlene
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
Kevin Anderson, Death of a Salesman
Finbar Lynch, Not About Nightingales
Howard Witt, Death of a Salesman
Frank Wood, Side Man
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Claire Bloom, Electra
Samantha Bond, Amy's View
Dawn Bradfield, The Lonesome West
Elizabeth Franz, Death of a Salesman
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Roger Bart, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Desmond Richardson, Fosse
Ron Taylor, It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues
Scott Wise, Fosse
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Gretha Boston, It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues
Kristin Chenoweth, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Valarie Pettiford, Fosse
Mary Testa, On the Town
Best Scenic Design
Bob Crowley, The Iceman Cometh
Bob Crowley, Twelfth Night
Riccardo Hernandez, Parade
Richard Hoover, Not About Nightingales
Best Costume Design
Lez Brotherston, Swan Lake
Santo Loquasto, Fosse
John David Ridge, Ring Round the Moon
Catherine Zuber, Twelfth Night
Best Lighting Design
Andrew Bridge, Fosse
Mark Henderson, The Iceman Cometh
Natasha Katz, Twelfth Night
Chris Parry, Not About Nightingales
Best Choreography
Patricia Birch, Parade
Matthew Bourne, Swan Lake
A.C. Ciulla, Footloose
Rob Marshall, Little Me
Best Direction Of A Play
Howard Davies, The Iceman Cometh
Robert Falls, Death of a Salesman
Garry Hynes, The Lonesome West
Trevor Nunn, Not About Nightingales
Best Direction Of A Musical
Matthew Bourne, Swan Lake
Richard Maltby, Jr. & Ann Reinking, Fosse
Michael Mayer, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Harold Prince, Parade
Best Orchestrations
Ralph Burns & Douglas Besterman, Fosse
David Cullen, Swan Lake
Don Sebesky, Parade
Harold Wheeler, Little Me
Special Tony - Regional Theatre
* Crossroads Theatre, NJ
Special Tony - Lifetime Achievement
* Uta Hagen, * Arthur Miller, * Isabelle Stevenson
Special Tony for Live Theatrical Event
* Fool Moon
[For more information about the four Special Tonys being given, please see the news story, "Hagen, Miller, Stevenson and Fool Moon To Receive Special Tonys."]
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While Broadway runs helter-skelter in anticipation of this year's Tony Awards, the Tony Administration Committee is already looking towards the 1999-2000 season. As such, the Committee met May 17 and decided on two major changes:
€ The newly-refurbished Selwyn Theatre in midtown Manhattan will count as a Broadway venue.
€ All the performing categories, including Best Actor, Actress, Featured Actor and Actress, in both Plays and Musicals, will offer five nomination slots instead of the current four. The Selwyn will be the new home of the Roundabout Theatre Company, which has been evicted from its Criterion Center home, will use the Gramercy Theatre this summer, and then move to the Selwyn in 2000.
The Roundabout already received special consideration from the Tonys when Cabaret played at the Kit Kat Klub. That show proved Tony eligible though the space itself, Henry Miller's Theatre, was not. Nor was Rollin' On The T.O.B.A., a subsequent musical at that same venue, allowed to compete for a Tony this season.
Richard Greenberg's latest, Hurrah at Last, previously announced for the Laura Pels Theatre at the Criterion, will be mounted at the Gramercy this summer. David Warren will direct, with Peter Frechette in the lead. At the Gramercy in the fall, will be the American premiere of Brian's Friel's Give Me Your Answer, Do!. Artistic director Todd Haimes told Playbill On-Line there was a possibility of a second fall production at another New York theatre, but nothing definite was in place.
Otherwise, Haimes and company will wait for the completion of the restored Selwyn Theatre. There, said Haimes, the company plans a three show season for the year 2000. Haimes plans to see the Roundabout through their move to the Selwyn.
As for the change from four to five slots in acting nomination categories, the change was no doubt effectuated by the number of worthy omissions in this year's slate, what with the lauded supporting cast of The Iceman Cometh getting blanked, and the perception that two of this year's Featured Actress in a Play nominees -- Elizabeth Franz and Samantha Bond -- really belong in the Best Actress category. In fact, Franz's name is over the title for Death of a Salesman, traditionally the delineation between featured and star performers.
-- By Robert Simonson and David Lefkowitz
