Well, I don’t know about you, but now that we’ve heard the Oscar nominations, I’d like to see Morgan Freeman win Best Actor. For Best Supporting Actor, I’d be happy with Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, or Christopher Plummer. Any of three – be she Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick or Maggie Gyllenhaal – is fine by me for Best Supporting Actress. As for Best Actress, let's have any of the five nominees but Gabourey Sidibe.

Why? Because each of the 11 I've cited at least once chose to appear in a Broadway or off-Broadway show.

But then again, aside from 2007, every year can boast at least one winner in the four Oscar acting categories who had appeared – or would later appear – in a professional New York production.

Just wondering: If I simply gave you the year the person won the Oscar – and the name of the play or musical in which he did or would later appear -- could you provide the name of the Oscar-winner and the name of the film for which s/he won?

For example if I said, “1964 – Photo Finish,” I’d mean that the person won the Oscar in 1964, and either before or after appeared in New York in a stage play called Photo Finish. Would you know the answer is “Peter Ustinov, Topkapi” -- because he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1964, and had appeared in Photo Finish on Broadway in 1963?

Then again, I might have said, “1950 -- The Solid Gold Cadillac.” In this case, the person -- Josephine Hull, who’d won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Harvey in 1950 -- later appeared in The Solid Gold Cadillac in 1953.

The person in your answer would have always originated the role in the cited stage production. Thus, none of the given clues involves revivals, and none of the performers was a replacement. Each and every one was the first person to ever play the role in New York.

While many of us don’t know much about Broadway and Hollywood before 1936, in a way, the first eight years are really easier to research. After all, in those days, Oscars were only given out for Best Actor and Best Actress. The two Best Supporting categories didn’t start until 1936. So from 1928-1935, the person who appeared in the cited play or musical was either a Best Actor of Best Actress.

Finally, one person is the answer to two years, though a different play is given for each year of the Oscar win.

You have until Sunday, March 7 to give your answers – the same night, incidentally, that the Oscars will be bestowed at the Kodak Theatre. The only difference is that my deadline is 11:59 p.m.; don’t bet on the televised Oscars being through by then.

Shall we try?

2008 – Slab Boys
2006 – Enter Laughing
2005 – The Shape of Things
2004 – Driving Miss Daisy
2003 – Heartland
2002 – The Blue Room
2001 – Checkmates
2000 – God of Carnage
1999 -- Lost in Yonkers
1998 – Amy’s View
1997 – Life (x) 3
1996 – The Sisters Rosensweig
1995 – An Evening with Richard Nixon
1994 – Third
1993 – Four on a Garden
1992 – Any Wednesday
1991 – Equus
1990 – Impressionism
1989 – A Streetcar Named Desire
1988 – On the Twentieth Century
1987 – Social Security
1986 – Baby Want a Kiss
1985 – Silk Stockings
1984 – Triumph of Love
1983 – The Pajama Game
1982 – My Sweet Charlie
1981 – No Man’s Land
1980 – Cuba and His Teddy Bear
1979 – Juno
1978 – A Behanding in Spokane
1977 – Play It Again, Sam
1976 – After the Fall
1975 – The Prisoner of Second Avenue
1974 – More Stately Mansions
1973 – Marat / Sade
1972 – The Grand Tour
1971 – 33 Variations
1970 – Victoria Regina
1969 – New Faces of 1956
1968 – Another Evening with Harry Stoones
1967 – Whoop-Up
1966 – The Odd Couple
1965 – Nowhere to Go but Up
1964 – The Boy Friend
1963 – A Raisin in the Sun
1962 – Golda
1961 – The Ritz
1960 – Maggie Flynn
1959 – Minnie’s Boys
1958 – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1957 – Flower Drum Song
1956 – Home, Sweet Homer
1955 – Tribute
1954 – Truckline Café
1953 – Gigi
1952 – Look to the Lilies
1951 – Weekend
1950 – The Girl Who Came to Supper
1949 – A Gift of Time
1948 – The Entertainer
1947 – Oklahoma!
1946 – Noel Coward in Two Keys
1945 – Hostile Witness
1944 – The Corn Is Green
1943 – Call Me Madam
1942 – I Never Sang for My Father
1941 – The Littlest Millionaire
1940 – Carry Nation
1939 -- Tovarich
1938 – The Rugged Path
1937 – The Diary of Anne Frank
1936 – Inherit the Wind
1935 -- Two’s Company
1934 – A Kiss in a Taxi
1933 – Coco
1932 – Long Day’s Journey into Night
1931 – The Mummy and the Hummingbird
1930 – Old English
1929 – Lombardi, Ltd.
1928 – Harold and Maude

You may e-mail Peter at pfilichia@aol.com. Check out Peter's weekly column, with a new one each Tuesday, at www.masterworksbroadway.com

Congratulations to Fred Abramowitz; Peter Alfano; AnyaToes; Steven and Joanna Bell; Susan Berlin; Brigadude; Jason Flum; Laura Frankos; Barb Gowans; John Griffin; Cathy Jones; David Kanter; Claudine R. Kastner; Jack Lechner; Robert LoBiondo; Alex Mallory; Scott Miller; Daryl, Sheri, Zach and Becca Orts; Christopher Pazdernik; Michael Rhaney; Arthur Robinson; Steve Rosenthal; Ron Schroeder; Troy Segal; Ron Spivak; teacher Jefferson Turner and his class at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts; and Ted Zoldan. They’re the ones who scored the highest on the recent 2010 Broadway University Mid-Term Exam.

The theme of the quiz was lyrics and lines that involve color – and I got some pretty purple language from some people who thought the quiz was too hard. I’m sorry! It’s not as if I gave you “A lady of leisure wears peach; a lady of leisure wears plum” from “A Lady of Leisure” from The Athenian Touch, that 1964 off-Broadway musical that ran for a single performance. More than a third of the lyrics and lines I gave were either from Tony-winning musicals and/or Tony-winning scores; almost a third were heard on Broadway in the last 12 months.

But, yes, I’ll admit it IS hard to recognize these things out of context. Nevertheless you wouldn’t want a diploma from Broadway University without having worked hard for it, right? Of course right!

For better or worse, here are the clues and the answers:

1. “When skies are gray, and you say you are blue.” (“I Want to be Happy” – No, No, Nanette)

2. “I love your eyes, but I wouldn’t know the color. Aquamarine or emerald green?” (“It’s Got to Be Love” – On Your Toes)

3. “Is her Pierce-Arrow light blue?” (“Don’t Let Me Keep You” – The Cradle Will Rock)

4. “I’m green with envy when you meet a dame, but you burn my heart up with an orange flame.” (“That Terrific Rainbow” – Pal Joey)

5. “But a little brown mav’rick is winking her eye.” (“Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” – Oklahoma!)

6. “Red cabbage and sweet potatoes don’t easily skeer.” (“This Time of the Year” – Finian’s Rainbow)

7. “When the sky is a bright canary yellow, I forget ev’ry cloud I’ve ever seen.” (“A Cockeyed Optimist” – South Pacific)

8. “There’s no red carpet at your feet. If you’re not tough, they’ll try to beat you down.” (“A New Town Is a Blue Town” – The Pajama Game)

9. “We’ll round the world enjoying high life, all bubbly pink champagne and gold.” (“Oh, Happy We” -- Candide)

10. “You’re the gold-medal kid with the heavyweight crown.” (“Jet Song” – West Side Story)

11. “She loves a man cow, a tan cow who can cow her with a glance.” (“Dainty June and Her Farmboys” – Gypsy)

12. “Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudel.” (“My Favorite Things” – The Sound of Music)

13. “You can talk and talk ‘till your face is blue.” (“Kids!” – Bye Bye Birdie)

14. “If you’re up with the people who can pick and choose, here he is, in rainbow hues: Rose-petal pinks, and sea-bottom blues.” (“Penny Plain, Twopence Colored” – Kean)

15. “Paint your face bright blue?” (“I’d Do Anything” – Oliver!)

16. “Three cheers for the red, white and blue-ooooh.” (“Simple” – Anyone Can Whistle)

17. “A powder blue Norfolk suit; a silver-plated wah-wah mute.” (“Cornet Man” – Funny Girl)

18. “Yes, black -- not kelly green -- but black -- not tangerine.” (“Colorful” – Golden Boy)

19. “Such lovely Blue Danube-y music, how can you be still?” (“Do I Hear a Waltz?” – Do I Hear a Waltz?)

20. “Blue is the color of the sky in summertime; Indigo is a Siamese cat's eyes.” (“The Beautiful Land” – The Roar of the Greasepaint – the Smell of the Crowd)

21. “The gold of the sun, the purple of the hills, the crimson-colored clouds in the skies.” (“Eve” – The Apple Tree)

22. “The branch of the linden is leafy and green.” (“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” – Cabaret)

23. “Then I saw her, this cute little red-headed girl I know.” (“T.E.A.M.” – You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown)

24. “Red-black. Blue-Brown. Yellow-Crimson. Green-Orange. Purple-pink. Violet-White. White-White. White-White.” (“Walking in Space” -- Hair)

25. “Voices in your closet saying, ‘Wear the fuchsia gloves and purple veil!’" (“Dickie” – Dear World)

26. “One of them was borrowed, and the other was blue.” (“Waiting around for the Girls Upstairs” – Follies)

27. “Wear your hair down, and a flower. Don’t use make-up; dress in white.” (“A Weekend in the Country” – A Little Night Music)

28. HE: “You wore a gown of gold.” SHE: “I was all in blue.” (“I Remember It Well” – Gigi)

29. “Place rose-colored glasses on your nose and you will see the robins, not the crows.” (“A Little Bit of Good” – Chicago)

30. “Graceful men lift lovely girls in white.” (“At the Ballet” – A Chorus Line)

31. “Open wide them golden doors and set my chair down next to yours.” (“Hey There, Good Times” – I Love My Wife)

32. “Plain as gray, respectable.” (“Doetsy Mae” – The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)

33. “Don’t talk of silver or violet or yellow, for you’ve never met” (“Marianne” – The Grand Tour)

34. “Oh, I can see us now -- in our bathing dresses -- you in a nice rich navy -- and me, stripes perhaps.” (“By the Sea” – Sweeney Todd)

35. “The amber of a wheatfield, the hazel of a seed.” (“The Colors of My Life” – Barnum)

36. “And there I am in California, talking deals and turning pink.” (“Franklin Shepard, Inc.” -- Merrily We Roll Along)

37. “Red and orange and gold and amber and pink and yellow and green.” (“Colored Lights” – The Rink)

38. “The cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, the slipper as pure as gold.” (“Prologue” – Into the Woods)

39. “When I say Chinese red, I mean Chinese red. I don’t mean orange, coral, rust or tangerine.” (“Mr. Stanley’s Verse” – Flora, the Red Menace off-Broadway revival)

40. “Three pairs of ankle straps in beige -- check! Two pairs of loafers trimmed in chrome – check!” (“Mr. Witherspoon’s Friday Night” – Lucky Stiff)

41. “So off he went with his hair of bronze to find a life like Khalil Gibran’s.” (“Life Story” – Closer Than Ever)

42. “The days were gently tinted lavender, pink, lemon and lime.” (“Ragtime” – Ragtime)

43. “Not to mention the hordes of brown shirts passing by.” (“In Old Bavaria” – The Producers)

44. “No, I’ll wear the purple shoes.” (“Fantasies Come True” – Avenue Q)

45. “And since folks here to an absurd degree seem fixated on your verdigris.” (“The Wizard and I” – Wicked)

46. HE: “I think perhaps it looks like rain.” SHE: “The sky gets bluer by the hour.” (“Small Umbrella in the Rain” – Little Women)

47. “The maple goes from crimson to brown.” (“Another Winter in a Summer Town” -- Grey Gardens)

48. “Yeah, green’s my fav’rite color and I don’t mean on the grass.” (“It’s a Business” – Curtains)

49. “You can spank me ‘til I’m red -- if it’s only in your head, but” (“Please Don’t Touch Me” – Young Frankenstein)

50. “When a world that once had color fades to white and grey and black.” (“You Don’t Know” – Next to Normal)

BONUS

“Red red red red red red orange red red orange pick up blue pick up red pick up orange from the blue-green blue-green blue-green circle on the violet diagonal di-ag-ag-ag-ag-ag-o-nal-nal yellow comma yellow comma numnum num numnumnum numnum num blue blue blue blue blue still sitting red that perfume blue all night blue-green.” (“Color and Light” -- Sunday in the Park with George)

You may e-mail Peter at pfilichia@aol.com. Check out his new column, too, at www.masterworksbroadway.com