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NOTE: This is an archived version of this newsletter. Not all shows and offers still apply. Some links may no longer be accessible. |
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Gearing Up for Broadway’s Biggest Night The nominations for the American Theatre Wing’s 61st annual Tony Awards® will be announced next Tuesday, May 15, at 8:30 a.m. See TonyAwards.com for more info, and to sign up to get regular Tony updates. Keep your fingers crossed for your favorite shows and performers! More Tony news: |
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Stars in the Alley Broadway gives its regards to the fans when its biggest stars come together as Continental Airlines presents Stars in the Alley®, the League’s annual free outdoor concert held in historic Shubert Alley in the heart of Manhattan’s Theatre District. On June 6, come join us for performances from Broadway's hottest shows. Vote for Your Favorite Show This year the event will include a new Internet-based "Fan Favorite" promotion. Fans will be able to vote for their favorite play and musical that performed on Broadway during the 2006-2007 season. Log on to StarsintheAlley.com beginning May 20 to cast your vote. Stars in the Alley is presented by Continental with The New York Times and Visa. Additional support is provided by Junior’s restaurant. Get VIP seating for Stars in the Alley! |
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| Terrence McNally's new play, Deuce, is now playing at the Music Box Theatre. The comedy features two of Broadway's most distinguished and decorated performers: Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes. Broadway veteran Michael Blakemore directs. These four individuals have together accumulated 61 Broadway credits and 11 Tony Awards®. Howard Sherman, executive director of the American Theatre Wing, interviewed the quartet at the League's recent Spring Road Conference. | |||||||
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Howard Sherman: Terrence, when you create a play with two major roles for two major actresses, what qualities are you looking for, and what do you think you've gotten in this case? Terrence McNally: Well, it's not so much what you think about but who you dream about, and it certainly came true with these two wonderful actresses. I had to create roles that Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes were going to want to play. I guess I succeeded because they are sitting here beside me, and that's a very great compliment. Sherman: To the actresses, what drew you to these roles? Marian Seldes: I've seen almost every play Terrence has ever written. You do have daydreams about the playwrights you'd like to work with, and then when it happened two years ago with Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams, it was like it was fated to be. While we were still doing that, Terrence told me he was going to write another play with that smiling look in his eye. I would have done it without reading it just to work with him again. |
Angela Lansbury: Terrence is an infinitely careful writer who understands women in an extraordinary way. His insight and understanding of these two women are so on the nose and so marvelous that it is the joy of my life to have the opportunity to play this role. I can never be more thankful than I am to you, Terrence, for creating that individual. It's very special. |
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Sherman: Marian, Angela, how does it feel at your ages being able to come out and command the stage and be as celebrated as you are today? Lansbury: Theatre is illusion. I believe that I can sell you on the idea that I'm any age, thanks to the glory of the proscenium. This is the wonderful, wonderful thing about theater. I'll never forget when I was a kid seeing Fay Compton play Ophelia opposite John Giulgud when she was probably 55, and I believed it. Seldes: That's absolutely true. Except that once when I was in my 30s, I was playing a part in New York and the character had to say her age as 25, and at matinees I could hear people saying, “I don't think so.” Lansbury: I must say that from the minute I wake up in the morning, I'm thinking about preparing myself for that 8:00 curtain or the 2:00 matinee. It requires an extraordinary discipline. You either have it or you don't. I have a terrible, ridiculous sense of responsibility. Other people can go on, give a show, and maybe not be quite all there--but they do it and they get away with it. I can't do that. Am I a goody-goody? I guess I am. That's the nature of the beast. We're all different, but I think those of us who have remained in the theatre are prepared to make that effort. Sherman: Michael, what are the special challenges of opening a new play directly on Broadway? |
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Michael Blakemore: We have a considerable period of previews to get it right, and we're working very hard to do so. Putting plays on is the same anywhere. The fact that you're doing it on Broadway doesn't mean it's different from doing it in a small town. It's always the same matter of creating, as Angela says, an illusion, which will delight and amuse and move people, and presenting it to bunch of strangers. The strangers are always the same and in a way the actors are always the same. We're trying to achieve a standard of excellence and we will try to do that wherever we do it. McNally: I'm always amazed how hard it is to put on a play. There are so many unexpected obstacles, as well as joy that you can't anticipate when you finish a script and send it off. |
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Blakemore: I think Broadway has an enormous glamour for everyone except those who are working in it. For us, it's the same exercise. It's a little group of human beings, getting together to block a much larger group and we hope we can do it. And block them in an interesting way, block them by appealing to their better instincts, block them according to their humor and their sense of fellowship. That is the thing about theatre. There are a few activities where a lot people in one space can feel the same things at the same time. Sherman: Terrence, are there things that you've learned about the play since it began previews? McNally: Not specifically, but to me the audience is a character you add to a play. There is a point when you can't go on rehearsing in a rehearsal hall. You need these people out there. They are our final collaborator. We're all finding out what Deuce is together. I don't know more about the play than Marian, Michael or Angela. We won't really know until May 6th when the play opens and we stop rehearsing. It's exciting and scary at the same time, but the audience is very much a part of that process, so as nervous as we are the first preview approaches, we're also very excited to invite them in and make them part in the process as we work through the definitive text, and Michael does his final work with the actresses and they hone their performances. Sherman: Marian and Angela, have you ever worked together before? Seldes: We were at a party together and Angela said, “Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could work together?” And here we are! It's thrilling to be on the stage with Angela. There is a tennis game going on in the play, but there's also a game going on between the two women. Playing it with her is like being in heaven - tennis heaven and theatre heaven. McNally: I'd like to add something. So many actor friends of mine who have had the pleasure of working with Michael have said to me "I hope once in your career, Terrence, you're lucky enough to work with Michael Blakemore." He has an incredible reputation among the acting community that not a lot of directors enjoy. Lansbury: One of the big reasons that I wanted to do the play was because Michael was directing it, Marian was in it, and Terrence had written it. It's the ideal package. Get information on and tickets to Deuce. View a list of Angela Lansbury's Broadway credits. |
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Spamalot took home this year's award for Best New Musical as well as prizes for Production Design and Direction, while Chicago earned recognition for maintaining high quality over its long run as the winner of the Best Long-Running Musical award. Doubt received the award for Best Play and thanks to YOUR votes, Wicked received the first ever Touring Broadway People's Choice Award. |
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The complete list of winners follows: Best New Musical |
Best Long-Running Musical Best Play |
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Best Production Design Best Musical Score Best Direction Best Choreography Touring Broadway Achievement Award (recognizing a performer, individual or organization that has shown exceptional dedication to Touring Broadway) Touring Broadway People’s Choice Award (chosen EXCLUSIVELY by members of the Broadway Fan Club!) For more information about the awards, visit www.touringbroadwayawards.com. |
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Let's Put On a Show! |
together and solutions to those little--and not so little--problems that occur in every show. Let's Put On a Show! gives novice and first-time theatre producers at all levels, but especially in community and regional theatre, a Broadway insider’s advice for successfully staging a performance--even when you don’t have a big Broadway budget. Visit MrBroadway.com for more information on Stewart F. Lane. |
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Playbills and Popcorn A crocodile is loose on an airplane. Nigerians get their first amusement park and overcome their initial fear of the Ferris wheel. An audience member bursts into song during a production of The Phantom of the Opera. This is the everyday life for Michael Jenkins, developer of amusement parks, producer of shows, and extraordinarily frequent flier. Weird and funny, warm and |
fuzzy, these are tales that could easily have found their way into plot lines for shows which only goes to prove that life is the most fascinating show of all. Michael Jenkins is the president and managing director of Dallas Summer Musicals. Check with your favorite bookseller for more information and to purchase these or other Broadway-themed publications. Have a Broadway-related book recommendation? Let us know by writing to ask@broadway.org! |
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| Show Business: The Road to Broadway |
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Direct from being named one of the Top 5 Documentary Films of 2006 by the International Documentary Association comes this landmark documentary tracing the historic Broadway season featuring Avenue Q and Wicked. From casting to staging, from previews to red carpet opening nights, from the announcement of Tony nominations to the suspense filled Tony Awards®, ShowBusiness provides a never-before-seen look at the inner workings of Broadway musicals. |
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Don't miss this spotlight on Broadway. Visit www.showbusiness-themovie.com for more information. |
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| Easter Bonnet Competition | ||
The 21st Annual Easter Bonnet Competition held in New York on April 23rd and 24th was a great success with more than 60 participating Broadway, Off-Broadway, and National Tour companies raising $3,345,997 to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA). Our thanks to everyone who donated to BC/EFA this season in New York or out on the road. This year’s fundraising award winner was the national tour of Jersey Boys ($236,844), marking the first time in the history of Easter Bonnets that a national tour has won the fundraising award. Runners-up were Wicked, The Color Purple, Mary Poppins, and The Lion King. |
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| Broadway Fan Club Photo Gallery | ||||
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Don't forget to submit pictures of yourself outside of a Broadway theatre in New York or across North America for our Broadway Fan Club photo gallery! |
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