The Tony Awards aka A Promise To Hollywood Actors That If They Come To Broadway They Will Win An Award

As Jenna Maroney who watches over me from my desk at work (not kidding there's a giant poster from The Girlie Show staring at me right now) says, "I've been petitioning for a Tony category for living theatrically in normal life." I'm still waiting. Anyways, this weekend was like Tonys to the extreme. I had some problems with this years awards that I will get out on the front end so I can move on to the things that I enjoyed.

Angela Lansbury at the Dress Rehearsal

1. The Tonys are not the Oscars. Exhibit A. Tony presenters: Daniel Radcliffe, Paula Abdul, Katie Holmes, Will Smith. Exhibit B. Tony winners: Denzel Washington, Scarlett Johanssen, Catherine Zeta Jones, Viola Davis. Who out of these names is known for their relationship with Broadway? None. Where was Cheyenne Jackson, Patti LuPone, Gavin Creel, Sutton Foster, just to name a few of the big Broadway names. Ugh. Tonys are about the theater not about star power. I understand that the Tonys have to get good ratings and make money in order to stay on the air, but still. I am very disappointed by the lengths producers will go to in order to make a dime. It's disheartening how shallow American Theater can be just out fear that a show won't turn a profit. And if you absolutely HAVE to stunt cast the show, they should not win unless they are the best in their category. I digress...

Dan Radcliffe (and Katie Holmes' stand in) at Dress Rehearsal

2. Glee was not a Broadway show this season. Why did they get to perform? Why didn't we hear a mash up from the 30 Rock cast? They have Broadway performers who are regulars on the show. That show takes places in NYC. Come on. It's not fair to the other Broadway shows who didn't get to perform. Performing at the Tonys should be an honor because you get to perform if you are nominated for best musical. Matt Morrison and Lea Michele had their Tony moments for South Pacific(And Light in the Piazza and Hairspray?) and Spring Awakening. I love Glee as much as the next person, but its no Broadway show.

Matt Morrison at Dress Rehearsal

3. Green Day? Oh my gosh, there aren't even words for that.

All that to say, I still enjoy the Tonys. A lot! So I was over the moon when my friend got me a ticket to the dress rehearsal! It was amazing. It was surreal. I've watched the awards at home for years but actually being there...unreal. The dress rehearsal was almost more fun than the actual awards. The stars were relaxed, they messed up. Bernadette Peters came out with her hair in pin curls and couldn't read the teleprompter. We got to see all the commercial entertainment that the actual Tony audience would see.

Bernadette in some kind of pin curls?

That night I went and watched the actual Tonys ceremony in Times Square. They had a giant screen set up and chairs and everything. It's fun to watch them with a giant group of people who actually care about the awards. Except for the crazies next to me who screamed every time American Idiot or a cast member from that show was mentioned. Ugh.

My favorite moments: the uncessant promotion of the city of Memphis (obviously for "Memphis" but also "Million Dollar Quartet"). I do feel like Memphis is really getting stereotyped as thick accented racists who all love rock 'n roll. Whatever. I love the opening number, it was really cool. Also I love Doug Hodge in his La Cage performance. SO FUNNY!

I could rant and rave about the people who won who shouldn't have or more on how Hollywood took over. Hunter Foster has covered that for me (thank goodness). I love the Tony's and this year was so much fun because I got to actually be right in the heart of New York during the ceremony!

Nerd Weekend

Well...what a weekend! I think I'm gonna have to do two blog posts one to cover everything Tonys and one for the rest of my weekend!

Let's see, Friday I went to an off-broadway musical called The Burnt Part Boys. I got $5 tickets so I figured, why not? I really enjoyed it. It follows the journey of 3 kids who are trying to visit the "Burnt Part" of the town where their fathers died in a mine collapse 10 years previous. It's set in West Virginia so the music was really bluegrassy and the harmonies were just gorgeous! It was all male voices (well, there was one girl, but mostly men) and the music was just soulful or something.

I was disappointed with the ending though. I won't spoil it, but the way the story was set up, neither possible ending would have satisfied me. I would recommend the show though (although it closed Sunday...) and Off-Broadway is a cheaper (and sometimes better) alternative to an expensive Broadway show. The houses are much more intimate and they are presenting something new. It's fun to be a part of a new show taking form.

Saturday morning I got up and went to the NY Public Library! Nerdfest! It's a really cool place. The building alone is gorgeous marble which was from the same quarry as the marble from the Parthenon. They have tons of reading rooms and special collections. The best part is that it is a public library. Anybody can use it. I mean anybody. It's not a lending library so you can't take the books with you, but you can request (almost) any of the books they have to read while you're there.

I took a free tour and learned more than I ever wanted to know about the place, but I spent most of my time in the US History reading room. Confession: I trace my family's genealogy. But come on, with a name like "Overcast" can you really blame me? Basically I've gotten as far back as the early 1780s but somewhere in there my idiot ancestors changed their name. One guy can be found in 3 different places as George Overcast, George Overcash, and George Overcarsh. So I'm stuck. Luckily the NY Public Library has access to all kinds of records and all of the censuses, so I'm going to have to spend a Saturday there exploring.

Saturday night I went to see the revival of A Little Night Music starring Angela Lansbury (!) and Catherin Zeta-Jones. I got to the box office at 8 and waited 2 hours to get standing room tickets for this show. Well, I'm glad I didn't spend anymore money than I did on it. I don't know if it's because I was standing or what, but I didn't like it. The production itself was dark and I was confused for the majority of the 1st Act.

Also, I am a snob. I get a little upset when producers put in movie stars just to sell tickets. Zeta Jones has never been on Broadway and she's headlining the show. I was prejudiced against her coming in. However, her entrance was the first thing to grab my attention. It was like there was finally a spark of life on that stage. Now do I think she should have won the Tony Award, absolutely not. Her voice isn't great, but it was fine since Desire doesn't need to have much of a range anyways. She over acted the role but at least she was alive up there as opposed to the rest of the cast. Excepting Angela Lansbury who shone through the entire performance. What a lady. And she's 84 years old. COME ON!

I think one of the big problems with the show besides the bland acting was the orchestra/orchestrations. The entire score of A Little Night Music (composed by Sondheim) was written in the form of a waltz. After listening to the original cast album I could finally hear the beautiful music Sondheim had composed. However, in the revival I felt like the orchestra being suffocated by a pillow or something. The orchestrations were flat. I found out later that they only used a 10 piece orchestra (as opposed to a 26 piece) and that really makes a huge difference for me. I'm very musically driven, so I would have liked to hear a fuller sound in the theater. Not that that would have made up for the other faults in the production but what they did didn't do justice to Sondheim's score. But hey, producers will do anything to save money.

But in about 3 weeks Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch will be replacing Angela and Catherine! Crap, I'll have to go back. I'm hoping maybe this cast switch will give this show the energy and new direction that it needs. Maybe they'll work out some of the problems when they're back in rehearsal. All in all, it was still worth it to see legendary Angela Lansbury on stage. She is an amazing woman and performer.

NYC: So many song lyrics I could use as a title

Hello all!

Well, if you didn't know already, I am spending my summer interning in New York City! So I figured why not get the blog back up and keep tabs on what I do while I'm here in NYC. I've only been here a week and I LOVE it. So much is happening in this city. There's always stuff to do and people rushing around. It's always been a dream of mine to live in NYC ever since I was like 10, so it's just kinda surreal actually being able to spend an extended amount of time here.

I'm staying in a dorm that's not like fancy or anything but it works for everything I need. I basically only sleep there anyways, but I get my own room and 2 meals a day! Besides, I think it's the cheapest place to stay in New York. Since I've been getting acclimated to everything (working full time por ejemplo) I haven't gotten to do that much fun stuff yet, but hopefully this weekend I can get into my enormous NYC to do list.

Last week I went to the Empire State building. This is one of those things that I was thinking I would just skip, but my guide book said it was one of the best night views of the city so I figured what the heck. It's open until 2 am so I figured I could miss some of the crazy long tourist lines and get a fantastic view of the city. Well, I think every foreign tourist had the same idea as I did. Crazies. It was super crowded but I still got a cool view of the city.

Last Friday I went and saw Sondheim on Sondheim. It's a revue I guess you would say, or a tribute to the career of Stephen Sondheim and this opened in honor of his 80th birthday. There's no plot, so I can't really critique that or anything. Basically it went through his career and the actors sand some of his songs while a Stephen Sondheim would offer his own information about how he wrote it or how it evolved or whatever on a screen that was on the stage. It was really cool getting to hear how certain songs developed. For example, "Being Alive" from Company went through 3 different revisions, radically changing the ending 3 different times to be what it is now. Being somewhat (but not really) a musician, it was cool to hear how Sondheim writes and hear directly from him about his music and shows.

The singers in it were pretty good. Mostly I think they just needed headliners for something like this since it focuses only on music and no plot. Some of the people in it were Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty), Tom Wopat (42nd Street, Guys and Dolls), Barbara Cook (Music Man, Oklahoma), Norm Lewis (Les Miserables, Little Mermaid) and Leslie Kritzer (Legally Blonde). PS Barbara Cook is older than Sondheim. And she did pretty well, all things considered. Anyways, it's closing soon, but I would recommend it for anybody who loves music in general or wants to learn more about Sondheim the man.

BIG NEWS. I am so excited, I can hardly stand it. My friend Whitney who has lived up here and worked in theater for a few years got me tickets to the TONY AWARDS DRESS REHEARSAL! Whitney, I love you. I'm am soooo excited! This is one of those things that I never in my life would have thought I would get to do. PS if you don't know what the Tony's are, quit reading my blog. I will get to see Kristen Chenoweth, Angela Lansbury, Sean Hayes, there's a TON of famous people performing and presenting. I'm so psyched! Will update more on that after Sunday.

PEACE!

Read this book!

This year I'm doing a small group for RUF that is reading through the book When People Are Big and God is Small. Could they have picked a more practically applicable and convicting book for my life right now?! Seriously, it's an interesting book that I would recommend to anyone whether they think they struggle with peer pressure or not.

Like many I was kinda thinking that this book addressed topics that are for insecure middle schoolers. This guy has brought to light many areas of my life where I don't even realize that I struggle with peer pressure.

His main point of the book is that too much of the time we have a needless fear of man which develops into a need for people. That's the big problem is that we need people for ourselves more than we love them. The aim of his book is to show us how to need people less and love them more. And the best treatment for the fear of man is having a fear of the Lord.

Way easier said than done, but if nothing else I'm beginning to grasp how much I let my life be controlled by my fear of man rather than the fear of the Lord.

SB'10!

As crazy as my life is right now, Spring Break this year is a welcome breath of fresh air (literally). Things I've been enjoying:

1. Playing with my puppies (that's Tebow mid-air)

2. Cheering on Sandra Bullock at the Oscars! I feel like I have been with this story from day one (almost). Michael Oher went to my rival high school, so I didn't like him then. Then he played for Ole Miss so he became my hero. I was so shocked when the book The Blind Side became popular and then the creation of a hit movie was unreal! And now look at Sandra Bullock! I like to hope that this will give Memphis some positive press.

3. The Friends of the Library Book Sale. I went with my neighbor Will and we had to fight the ebay sellers for the best pickins. I ended up with approxiamately 15 books for around 13 dollars. That's what I like to call A DEAL. And also as an English major that's kind of my heaven.

4. Spending some quality time with my sorely missed piano. And ATTEMPTING to learn this:

5. Reading books I want to read rather than have to read...Harry Potter anyone?

If only I could wear sandals right now, this week would be perfect...

Why I Love My Roommates...

The greatest thing about this year is the fact that I get to live in an apartment this year.

The next greatest thing is that I share it with these cats...

Yeah, dat's right. So we have an empty wall in our apartment. What on earth shall we fill it with?! Why serious glamour shots of course! Thanks to Alex's boyfriend, Stephen these lovely pieces of art will soon be adorning our walls. You're. Welcome. World.

Miss Lucy

My hot self

Miss Meg

Miss Alex

BAM.

My new favorite website!

So I realize that I never actually wrapped up my trip from England. Sorry I guess this one picture about sums up the amazingness of my independent travel.

I'll let you use your imagination to figure out what it is. Basically my last semester was life changing. It has been a little strange re-adjusting to life at Furman though. You know like actually going to class and doing work...I am so grateful though for the time I had in the British Isles. I really grew as a person and I feel that I can finally call myself an ADULT. Frightening, but true. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me while I was there, it was much appreciated, and God gave me a truly unique experience to remember for the rest of my life.

On a much more trivial note the thing that I really want to share with you is www.daytrotter.com (props to Patience for turning me on to this!).

It's this amazing website with loads of free music. This website has a recording studio where emerging bands and singers can come and record their music to be put up for download on this website. It's nice because it's legal free downloads of music for customers and free advertising for the bands. They have some well known bands like Death Cab for Cutie or Grizzly Bear, and some great obscure ones (at least obscure for me!). Check out "One Day" by Matisyahu, "LA" by Gabriel Kahane, and "Dying Is Fine" by Ra Ra Riot.