"Carousel" and "Spongebob" lead the Drama Desk Nominations

by Nathaniel R

Jessie Mueller and Joshua Henry in Rodges & Hammerstein's revived "CAROUSEL" which led the nominations

As discussed in a previous recent post, most theatrical awards don't have as direct a correlation to the Tony Awards as film awards do to the Oscars. At the Drama Desk Awards, which have been around almost as long as the Tonys, Off Broadway is also considered so their nominations naturally differ quite a lot. Expected Tony frontrunner The Band's Visit received zero nominations due to its previous Off Broadway run (i.e. eligible last season instead with the Drama Desk)

The nominations are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Stage Door: The Complex Web of Theater Awards

by Nathaniel R

Andrew Garfield in "Angels in America"

Oscar fanatics have it easy. Each year roughly 300 movies are eligible for the Oscar race and those same titles (with very few exceptions) are also eligible for all the other movie awards on this continent. They're even (with a few more exceptions) the same slate of movies that are eligible ACROSS the ocean at the other major English language film awards (the BAFTAs). Not so with theater!

Theater awards, a nichier beast altogether, are ultra territorial and when there is crossover it can feel accidental or play out like an echo rather than a harmonic convergence. The Olivier Awards, for example, just honored Lin Manuel Miranda's blockbuster "Hamilton"  which the Tony Awards honored two years prior but the only real crossover for this year's Tony Awards is likely to be Angels in America which just transferred here with most of its London cast intact...

Click to read more ...

Stage Door: Broadway's Beach Vacations

by Dancin' Dan

It may be April, but New York City is once again covered in a blanket of snow in a winter that won't stop. But thankfully, Broadway is providing not one, but two beach vacations you can take for (slightly) less than a plane ticket to somewhere warm. Escape to Margaritaville and Spongebob Squarepants could not be more different on the surface (although both feature a volcanic explosion as an important plot point), but they do provide some pretty wonderful escapism for anyone longing for warmer climes...

Click to read more ...

Stage Door: Glenda Jackson in "Three Tall Women"

by Eric Blume

The Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s 1994 play Three Tall Women opens on Thursday. It stars Alison Pill, freshly Oscar nominated Laurie Metcalf, and two-time Oscar winner Glenda Jackson, who hasn’t been on an American stage in 32 years.  

Director Joe Mantello builds a stunning production.  Albee’s play, which won the Pulitzer Prize when it debuted off-Broadway in 1994, holds up beautifully, as all of his major plays do.  Albee writes in a theatrical, controlled, but go-for-broke language that soars in the way only the best theater can. Three Tall Women is a major play, like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Seascape and The Zoo Story and A Delicate Balance and The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia?.  It’s mind-boggling when you think of this man’s contribution to the theater, and the deep and compelling issues and emotions he tackled during his long career.

rehearsing Three Tall Women

Act One of Three Tall Women deals with a rich, dying old woman (Jackson), her caretaker (Metcalf), and her legal representative (Pill)... 

Click to read more ...

Stage Door: The Hilarious Cast of "Desperate Measures"

by Nathaniel R

Before we plunge into the deep end of movie awards season, which tends to consume our every waking moment from right now through Oscar night each year, a wee theater break.

Though we love movies with all our hearts, the one thing live-action movies don't really have an equivalent of is the grand theatrical tradition of the musical comedy. I'm talking inspired silliness as goddamn raison d'etre. I recently fell hard for Desperate Measures, a hilarious wild west riff on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. The show has now been extended three times at the York Theatre in Manhattan and will close on New Year's Eve so get to it! (The York specializes in helping develop new musicals and I'm happy to call attention to this noble cause as a bonafide fanatic of the genre.)

I sat down recently to talk to with two of the musical's stars, strapping Peter Saide and rockstar feisty Lauren Molina, who both really "outta be in pictures" as they say though we're happy they're killing it on stage, don't misunderstand! The interviews are after the jump... 

Click to read more ...