In the Heights lead the Tony nominations with thirteen nominations. I'm so pleased because I thought the show was marvelous. It was followed closely by Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific with eleven nominations. See who else was nominated for the 2008 Tonys.
Image of the cast of In the Heights.
Photo Credit: © Joan Marcus

Tomorrow morning, Tuesday, May 13, at 8:30 AM David Hyde Pierce and Sara Ramirez will announce the nominees for this year's Tony Awards at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. CBS will broadcast portions of the announcement live during “The Early Show.” In New York City, NY1 News will provide live cable TV coverage of the event. This year's Tonys will be hosted by Whoopi Goldberg on June 15, 2008 at Radio City Music Hall, and will be broadcast live that evening on CBS at 8 PM. Tickets to the Tonys will on sale at 9 AM on Tuesday, May 13.

Why are they called the Tonys? Read here to find out.

Who won last year?

The new Broadway musical Glory Days, closed today after only one performance. I saw the show and it was fine, but that was all. Producers John O'Boyle and Ricky Stevens announced, "We adore Glory Days and everyone connected with this production. Sadly, given the over-night reviews and our low advance sales, we believe it is prudent to close the show on Broadway immediately." (I think part of the problem is that with the title Glory Days, people expect Bruce Springsteen music.)

Glory Days began performances on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 and officially played seventeen previews and one regular performance, for a total of eighteen performances. This makes its entire run shorter than Suzanne Summers' one-woman show, The Blonde in the Thunderbird, which totaled nineteen performances on Broadway in 2005 and the Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, another one woman show that ran twenty performances in 2003.

Read full review of Glory Days.
What do you do when you have tickets to a show that closes? Read this article.

Cry-Baby was fantastic. I really like the original movie, and I enjoyed the Broadway version of Hairspray, so I had high hopes for this show and I wasn't disappointed. From the opening when we were told to turn our cell phones off to the final number, the show kept me smiling.
Image of James Snyder and Elizabeth Stanley as Cry-Baby and Allison.
Photo Credit: © Joan Marcus

Read full Cry-Baby review.

The Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were announced at a ceremony on Monday, May 5th at the Union Square Theatre. The Adding Machine was the big winner, winning four of its six nominations. One of last year's winners, In the Heights, is now on Broadway. The Adding Machine runs through August 31, 2008 at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Who knows? This could move to Broadway and be next year's Tony winner. Why not go it see it now at Off-Broadway prices?

See the rest of the winners of the Lucille Lortel Awards.

MTV's long-running series, True Life, employs first-person narrative storytelling to provide a window into the lives of young Americans. To date, the series has explored topics as complex as living with a disorder such as autism or obsessive-compulsive disorder; living in extreme poverty; and being deployed to and returning from military service in Iraq. They are now doing a casting call for a show about competition. Theater is an incredibly competitive field. I know that they say, "There are no small parts, only small actors," but I have to say it didn't feel like that to me when I didn't get the role I was hoping for in my high school musical. (And I should point out that was over 20 years ago and it still stings.)

So here is the casting call from MTV:
Do you feel like you’re in constant competition with a friend or friends, and it’s all coming down to one final contest in the near future? Is every outing, game, exam, or party another chance to one-up each other? Are other people always comparing you to each other? Read more...

New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest is accepting scripts through June 30, 2008 for new works that:
1) Enhance self-realization
2) Support peace and social justice
3) Foster new understanding of minority issues that focus on racial, ethnic and gender discrimination both in the United States and abroad
4) Empower youth to build healthy inner foundations
5) Educate to gain further insight into healthy social/emotional living
6) Shed new light on religious, spiritual, and cultural differences and issues
7) Build respect for cultural expression and identity in a world that is experiencing rapid globalization
8) Explore the widening gap between the values this country was founded on and the values we present to the world today
For Guidelines and Application Form: www.PlaywritingContest.cjb.net

The Drama Desk Awards honor excellence in theater for Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway during the season. They are the only awards in which all three tiers (Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway) actually compete against each other. This year's nominations for the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced this morning at the New York Friars Club. Leading the nominations was A Catered Affair with twelve nominations followed by The Adding Machine with nine. Read the complete list of the 53rd Annual Drama Desk Award Nominations.

The New York Times has a great article this week about theater students auditioning for colleges. Old musicals and movies show some kid getting off the bus in Times Square and becoming a star, but that's not the way it works today. Most actors not only have a degree in theater, but have all sorts of other training. This article follows Adam Pelta-Pauls, a high school student, to a couple of his auditions. The article is really interesting, especially if you have a kid who wants to become an actor. Read Tryouts for the Rest of Your Life

The 58th Annual Outer Critics Circle Award nominees were announced on April 21, 2008. (They are called the Outer Critics Circle Awards because they are decided by a group that includes theater writers who review New York theater productions for out-of-town publications.) Heading up the nominations were Young Frankenstein with ten nominations, Les Liaisons Dangereuses with nine, and the revival of South Pacific with eight nominations.
Image of Roger Bart as Dr. Frankenstein.
Photo Credit: © Paul Kolnik
See full list of Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations.