Tony Award Predictions. Are you watching this Sunday?

by Patrick Ball and Nathaniel R

Will SLAVE PLAY emerge as the big winner?

The first leaves of Autumn 2021 will soon fall and we're finally wrapping up the ‘19/'20 Broadway season. The long-awaited Tony Awards are here this weekend from 7-9 PM EST on Paramount+ (where they will hand out most of the statues including the acting prizes) followed by a concert celebration of sorts from 9-11 PM EST on CBS where they will hand out the final few awards. These pandemic postponed awards will be divided among a smaller slate of shows than usual, as the Broadway shutdown instituted in March of 2020 cut the eligibility window off early. Broadway shows are only now in the process of reopening. All this affected the way we awards enthusiasts are able to predict this year’s show as well. The normal circuit of precursor awards happened a year and a half ago, if they even happened at all, and final voting took place last March (!) well before any shows had reopening dates. So there isn’t much in the way of narratives or momentum to consider. But, hey, the odd and unprecedented nature of this awards cycle presents a challenge, and who doesn’t love a challenge? Follow along below as we try to make sense of it all and be sure to tune in on Sunday to see how it all pans out... 

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The Tonys Return: A Year and a Half Late, But Right OnTime

by Patrick Ball

Hamilton, just celebrated at the Emmys, swept the Tonys six years ago.

Eighteen months after Broadway’s curtains dropped due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, they finally rose again last week as New Yorkers and theater lovers across the country welcomed their favorite witches, lions, and founding fathers back to Broadway. Correspondingly, The American Theater Wing and The Broadway League have set the 74th annual Tony Awards for the curtailed 2019-2020 Broadway season for this Sunday. Yes, you read that right, this weekend awards are finally being handed out for productions from an eligibility window that ran from the literal *summer* of 2019 to February 2020 -- a lifetime ago! (It's been two years and three months since the 73rd annual Tony Awards were held.)

Luckily, theater-related talent and content has been gracing our screens in abundance over the past year to help ease the wait...

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Doc Corner: 'Tina' on HBO

By Glenn Dunks

Tina Turner does not like to talk about herself and her life with abusive ex-husband and artistic collaborator Ike Turner. She notes this in Tina, a new HBO documentary about her life. But she is aware that public interest in it, which is why she has to keep on telling us all about it. This is show business after all, and if she doesn’t, somebody else will. First it was People magazine. Then it was Kurt Loder’s I, Tina. That was followed by a film adaptation, What’s Love Got to Do With It?

One would have hoped that that film would have been the end of it for Turner, her story of abuse and late career triumph captured on film to great acclaim and with an Oscar-worthy performance by Angela Bassett. Nearly 30 years later, however, Tina is back as the subject of T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay’s documentary. Whatever the directors’ reasons for doing so, I am unsure. But for Turner herself at least, she has decided to take this opportunity to bid farewell to her fans and to (hopefully) put her story to bed.

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We Got the Link

• The Guardian Vanessa Redgrave and Miriam Margoyes in conversation. Wow, love them both
• Variety this year's nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame... The Go-Gos, the most success female rock band of all time, FINALLY make the list -- the recent documentary surely helped -- but who knows if they'll actually get voted in because the competition is pretty fierce: Tina Turner, Carole King, Dionne Warwick, Iron Maiden, Kate Bush, LL Cool J, etcetera and only 5 will be chosen
• People Halle Berry putting the trolls commenting on her love life in their place. Queen.

Tina Turner, Priyanka Chopra, and bad news for an animated film we were looking forward to after the jump...

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Stage Door: Where are the original musicals?

by Nathaniel R

Uh-oh... The Tony Awards last month wrapped up the 2018/2019 season with a reminder that original musicals were doing just fine (The Prom is getting a film version,  Hadestown remains a very hot ticket, and Tootsie has its diehard fans). Strangely, then, the 2019/2020 Broadway season is looking troubling from this distance. Of the six new musicals currently scheduled for the season NONE have original scores....

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