More Crowing and Complaining

Two weeks ago, when Matthew Murray and I led the most recent Bitch and Brag About Broadway session, I described Natasha Richardson’s performance as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire as “awfully good” — to which he responded, “I agree with your first two syllables.”

Actually, Matthew went on to say that he really didn’t think that Richardson was “awful” but that she was giving a perfectly decent, by-the-book performance but nothing we’d never seen before. I saw his point and couldn’t disagree. I can’t say that there was a moment when I said to myself, “Wow, I’ve never seen a Blanche do that.” On the other hand, Richardson totally involved me in Blanche’s plight. She may not have made a fresh move, but there was never a false one in the matinee I caught. And while I know that virtually every performer on Broadway who does a matinee must perform gain that evening, Richardson was one of the few who made me consciously think, “Oh, my God, she has to put herself through this again in three more hours!”

I told Matthew that I was now leaning to giving Richardson my vote when my Tony ballot arrived, because she has more hoops to jump through than does Cherry Jones in Doubt. I mused out loud whether or not the length of each role should be taken into consideration, too. Yes, there is a difference between quality and quantity — and a profound one at that — but I’m still impressed at the mental and physical workout that Richardson’s getting eight times a week. It turns out that I won’t be checking off “Natasha Richardson (A Streetcar Named Desire)” on my Tony ballot, for she wasn’t nominated. We’ll see if Matthew mocks me about that at this week’s Bitch and Brag about Broadway — our finale for the season — on Tuesday, May 17 at 6 p.m. at the ol’ Primary Stages site at 354 West 45th Street ($10 gets you in).

I’ll be interested to see which play Matthew thinks will win the Tony. Personally, I don’t think The Pillowman stands a chance against Doubt. I didn’t love The Pillowman, though I do love its theme: Art has the profound ability to influence people much more than they realize. Had this play not been about a children’s book author but about a hate-mongering heavy metal singer-songwriter, I would have been much more interested. I have noticed that whenever a kid commits one of those terrible in-school crimes, the authorities find that kind of music in their rooms — never cast albums.

We’ll surely talk about Monty Python’s Spamalot, and I’ll say that I don’t think it has a lock on any category. Mind you, I won’t take the pipe if Spamalot sweeps; it’s an entertaining show that’s bringing a lot of pleasure to a lot of people, even though it didn’t make me laugh out loud even once. What I find ironic is that the song that’s supposed to be an out-and-out spoof of musical theater — one that’s intended to mock how simple-minded and silly our music is — is one that I genuinely enjoy: “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” By the way, press agents are always sending the cast albums of the shows they represent to Tony voters in hopes of swaying our votes. I suspect that, in Spamalot’s case, the cast album will help Sara Ramirez quite a bit, for she comes across sensationally on disc. Let’s see if Matthew agrees.

After last year’s Avenue Q upset — wherein so many voters sold their souls because they’d been invited to a pizza party — I expect that this year’s voters will be courted much more aggressively than in the past. I expect cans of Spam from Spamalot, jars of honey from the Bee show, and great big stuff from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I’m hope we’re all going to be shuttled off to Florence so we can experience how The Light in the Piazza set designer Michael Yeargan and lighting designer Christopher Akerlind really captured the look and feel of that city. (Note to Piazza‘s producers: I prefer to fly out of Newark and not JFK.)

In the wake of the nominations, I’m sure that Mathew and I will discuss whether or not we’ll see any more songwriter-anthology book musicals. I don’t use the now-trendy term “jukebox musicals” because I think it’s wrongheaded; I’ve seen plenty of jukeboxes in my time — including the one that The Ginger Man restaurant had in 1964, where, for a dime, you could play the 45rpm record of Richard Burton’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy from
Hamlet — but none of them contained music by only one songwriter or artist.

Anyway, I don’t think the absence of Tony nods for All Shook Up and Good Vibrations (or the lousy out-of-town notices for Lennon) will mean that producers will now steer clear of developing these shows. They can always lull themselves into thinking that their songwriter anthology book musical is a good one and that everybody is going to swear that all those wonderful songs were originally written for it. To say that producers will avoid such shows in the future because this year’s dogs went nominationless is like saying that they’ll avoid original musicals and/or adaptations because Brooklyn and Dracula recived no noms. Producers notice that hit shows with no original music are still running at the Winter Garden and the Richard Rodgers; that’s what they’ll focus on.

On Tuesday, we’ll also talk about the Theatre World Awards, bestowed upon the “rookies of the year” — performers who made big splashes in their first real roles of substance on or off-Broadway. Matthew and I make up 28% of the votes; we’re two of the seven people who decide which six women and which six men will get the handsome marble trophies. Readers of this column are invited to attend the awards at no cost, next Monday, May 23 at 4 p.m. at Studio 54 (where A Streetcar Named Desire is now playing). Start practicing now what you’ll say to your bosses in order to leave work early. All together now, repeat after me: “Oh, my God, I must have had something for lunch that I shouldn’t have. I feel like I’m going to — whoops, excuse me.” Then grab a cab to 54th Street and 8th Avenue.

Of course, we’ll also talk about many other things. Maybe Matthew and I will predict who’ll present awards on Tony night. Will Richardson be gracious enough to show up? Will John C. Reilly? Jessica Lange? Denzel Washington? We’ll cover everything from “Isn’t the new typeface on The Sondheim Review awfully hard to read?” to “Should John Simon have been canned?” Hope to see you there!

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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@theatermania.com]