A rollicking good Tony Awards this year with "Hadestown" dominating

by Nathaniel R

The Tony Awards are -- very generally speaking -- the best produced awards show of the majors. Though their Emmy category keeps changing consider this: In the past 12 years of the Emmys, the Tony Awards have won their category 8 times from 11 nominations, missing a nomination only once. The Oscars and the Globes and the Grammys could never; Their combined total of wins and nominations in that same 12 year time frame is 0 out of 20. Last night at the 73rd annual Tony Awards, the American Theatre Wing demonstrating again why they're always a threat as "Best" with a remarkably sincere but funny and entertaining show with a plethora of fantastic acceptance speeches and exciting musical performances. The musical Hadestown and the epic play The Ferryman were the big winners with 8 and 4 wins respectively.

After the jump some of our own 'Best' proclamations of the night, the full winners list, and awards trivia...

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Would you rather?

Our silly celebrity-gawking weekly poll. Would you rather...

...hit the opening of new hot spot "Best Friend" in Vegas with Marisa Tomei?
...wait for a train with Henry Golding?
...take a swim with Salma Hayek?
...get a new trendy facial with Audra McDonald?
...spend some quality time at the piano with Mindy Kaling?
...do yoga with Rossy dePalma?
...take up a retro hobby with Alex Borstein?
...geek out over Angela Lansbury cast recordings with cabaret star Molly Pope?
... build a snowman with Milla Jovovich?
... makeout with seals with Ben Platt?
     ... OR harmonize in the hot tub with Ben Platt?

The pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

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Months of Meryl: Ricki & The Flash (2015)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

 

#49 —Ricki Randazzo, a rock singer who returns home to the family she abandoned.

MATTHEW: Throughout his eclectic and gloriously unpredictable career, the late Jonathan Demme paved the way for peak performances from actresses as disparate as Mary Steenburgen, Melanie Griffith, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jodie Foster, Oprah Winfrey, Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Debra Winger. Like George Cukor before him, Demme was devoted to telling stories about women, which comprise the bulk of his narrative output. The director committed to shaping these narratives with the same heady, inquisitive vigor and nonjudgmental consideration that electrified all of his subjects, from Anthony Hopkins’ lip-licking Hannibal Lecter to David Byrne, who indelibly bopped around the stage in a business suit at least six sizes too big during Demme’s landmark concert documentary Stop Making Sense.

Ricki and the Flash, Demme’s final narrative feature, sometimes conjures the capricious, loop-the-loop feeling of a concert documentary in its depiction of the type of story that Demme loved to tell, that of an unorthodox woman shouldering her burdens and confronting any and all perils as she forges ahead with the life she has chosen to lead...

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Showbiz History: Robert Preston Centennial, Audra's Sixth and More

Happy Robert Preston Centennial! He was born on this day in 1918 and went on to  screen immortality via The Music Man (1962, Tony win for the stage version) and Victor / Victoria (1982, Oscar nomination). Other famous films include: Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), Mame (1974) and his last feature film The Last Starfighter (1984). We had planned a whole thing but this week has been bu-sy.

Here's what else was happening on this day in showbiz history...

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Drag Race S10: "Snatch Game"

by Nathaniel R

S10E7 Behold the ever-divisive power of the "Snatch Game". It tends to totally shake the chess board and upend expectations about who the final three or four will be. Though some fans have called for a moratorium on the signature challenge, after diminishing returns each season, others claim that it's always been thus: half terrific, half abysmal. We used to belong to Camp A but we're back with Camp B. And if you can't hack it in the Snatch Game, you're often next on the chopping block. But the episode didn't begin with the game but with the Reading Challenge. The library opened and Eureka, still on a roll, took yet another win.

Here's a funny visual example of how divisive these episodes are. Check out these competing headlines that popped up when I was searching for images from the show...

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