No, I wasn't sitting there Sunday night blogging, although maybe I should have been.

You saw what happened, most of it predictable. "Spring Awakening" and "The Coast of Utopia" cleaning up. Nearly everything else an also ran.

First the casualties: "Company" which took Best Musical Revival and August Wilson's "Radio Golf" have announced closing notices. Hopefully "Company" will follow the path of John Doyle's production of "Sweeney Todd" and tour. It's pie in the sky to hope that Raul Esparza might travel with it. Still, I suppose stranger things could happen.

I don't know how he would have fared in a category with more than one other entry, but it was cool to see ventriloquist Jay Johnson take the Best Special Theatrical Event Tony. Johnson's from the Valley, and a helluva nice guy. I interviewed him and his producers/director over lunch at Art's Deli before he opened "The Two and Only" at the Brentwood Theatre. It later played the Colony, and now he wants to tour it.

I also got the warm fuzzies over David Hyde Pierce's upset Best Actor in a musical victory, largely because the guy worked his rear off to turn himself into a musical comedy leading man.

The evening's best acceptance speeches: Pierce, Jack O'Brien, Julie White and Mary Louise Wilson.

Posted by Evan Henerson at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saw a great documentary last night: Dori Berinstein's "ShowBusiness: the Road to Broadway." Berinstein basically interviewed everybody she could get her hands on involved in four high profile musicals during the 2003-04 Broadway season: "Wicked," "Caroline, Or Change," "Taboo," and "Avenue Q."

Now, I'm not sure how impartial I could be about the content of "ShowBusiness" given that I'm into its subject. I had seen three of the four shows, had interviewed most of the same people who Berinstein interviewed, knew a lot of the back stories. I mean, if you like this world, you'll be in hog heaven because that's where the filmmaker places you. Rose and Boy George vs the world? "Q" bests the witches of Oz? Bring it on!!

I confess I felt like a bit of a super geek given that I was sitting in a very expensive frou-frou theater (Landmark's new Westside Pavilion) watching a work intended for, ahem! a rather specialized audience. I've seen "ShowBusiness: The road to Broadway" but not the latest "Pirates of the Caribbean."

I wasn't however as embarrassed as some my east coast critical brethren should be. The cream of NY's theatre reviewing crop were filmed sitting around restaurant tables dissecting _ at great lengths and with huge amounts of pomposity _ the works in question. Yeah, I guess it must be nice to be a little splufricated with your own perceived power.

It doesn't work that way here in L.A. We critics don't close shows. They do that all by themselves, usually after about 4-6 weeks.

Posted by Evan Henerson at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More new season tidings, this time from the Geffen Playhouse which has bumped the previously scheduled Cy Coleman musical revue "The Best is Yet to Come" -- apparently it still is -- and subbed in a rather interesting musical world premiere with Grammy winner Marcus Hummon.

It's called "Atlanta," is set during the Civil War, and involves blue grass, country music and the soliloquies of Shakespeare. "Heroes" star Adrian Pasdar is the project's writer, and, one would think star.

In 2007-08, the Geffen has Christine Lahti, Annette Bening and Laurie Metcalf. It's also got a new commissioned piece by playwright Donald Margulies (who, busy beaver that he is, will have a world premiere at South Coast Repertory in 07-08.

Lahti ("Chicago Hope") stars in Wendy Wasserstein's final play, "Third," concerning a lit professor's attempt to bring down a jock who she thinks has plagiarized. (Sept. 19 to Oct. 21).

Next up, the previously referenced "Atlanta" (Nov. 28 to Dec. 30).

Mrs Warren Beatty plays another academic in the US premiere of "The Female of the Species" by Australian author Joanna Murray-Smith. She plays a feminist literary giant, with writer's block, visited at home by an adoring fan. Comedy ensues. (Feb. 13 to March 16, 2008).

Side note: We do love our movie stars in this town. Some eight or nine years ago, Bening's turn as Hedda Gabler at the Geffen was a near impossible ticket. Her work in last season's "The Cherry Orchard" at the Mark Taper Forum was rather in demand as well, although I'd like to think as many people queued up for Alfred Molina as for Bening.

Yes, yes, back to the Geffen. Margulies's "The Elephant in the Room," about a lady photojournalist wounded while covering a war trying to resume a normal life at home. Margulies is the author of "Collected Stories," "Dinner with Friends," "Sight Unseen," etc. (June 25 to July 27, 2008).

Metcalf takes the stage in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theatre in writer/director Jane Anderson's "Quality of Life." This one, another world premiere, involves a Midwestern Christian couple mourning the death of their daughter electing to visit their lefty cousins who lost everything THEY owned in a fire. (Oct. 10 to Nov. 18) . Metcalf was powerful in Anderson's "Looking for Normal" at the Geffen. She was even better in Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" a couple of years ago.

And Daniel Beaty plays 40 people who respond to the emergence of a slave ship that rises out of the ocean by the Statue of Liberty in his solo show "Emergence-See!" Dates TBA.

What the Geffen still does not have: a scheduled work for Artistic Director Randall Arney. Hope is not lost. The Geffen season has at least one TBA slot and a couple of projects without directors.

What the Geffen also does not have: a media representative. This may not mean much to you, but the departure of Sabrina Skacan means another liaison for a theater that is frequently interfacing the press with its star performers/directors et al.

I did a tally: since I took over this beat in the summer of 2000, I have now worked with six different Geffen publicists and an interim person or two, some of whom have moved on to leave the business entirely. Some of whom SHOULD have left the business entirely.

(Who said that?)

Good luck, Sabrina. Hope the newbie -- whoever he or she turns out to be _ has got the stuff.

For more information on the Geffen season, check out www.Geffenplayhouse.com

Posted by Evan Henerson at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know summer has genuinely arrived when the Troubadour Theatre Co. comes in with a new show. And, lucky lucky us, we'll get two.

The family friendly "Alice in One-Hit Wonderland" -- starts previews July 12 for a July 20 opening. Joining "One-Hit" in repertory with be "OthE.L.O." opening Aug. 4. That's Shakespeare's "Othello" set to the music of E.L.O. (Electric Light Orchestra). So maybe Iago will try to convince the Moor of Venice about his wife Desdemona's infidelity by telling him what an "Evil Woman" she is.

Both shows will play at the Troubie's regular venue, Burbank's Falcon Theatre. Tickets figure to be snapped up quickly.

I'm kind of an unabashed Troubie fan, although I've dinged a few of their productions. What they do is comic, heavy on farce, and surprisingly faithful to the Shakespeare they so gleefully butcher. Last summer, the company did "Much a-Doobie Brothers About Nothing." And, during the holidays, "JACKson Frost."

Tickets range from $20 to $32.50. Information: (818) 955-8101 or www.falcontheatre.com or www.troubie.com.

Posted by Evan Henerson at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sure everybody who is anybody was at the opening of the national tour of "Jersey Boys" Sunday at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Three of the Four Seasons were there, which was kinda cool. They brought Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio and Tommy DeVito on stage during the curtain call to give the obligatory hugs all around to the actors who played them. Which meant, alas, that they had to walk through the aisles during the finale, "Who Loves You" in order to be able to get back stage. (Original Four Seasons bassist Nick Massi died in 2000). Actor Joe Pesci, who introduced Gaudio to DeVito, was there as well. He also came on stage wearing a slightly "What am I doing here?" look.

Valli and Gaudio are longtime business partners as well as friends and I don't actually know how close they still are to DeVito. If the musical is to believed, there was a rift.

You tend to see plenty of celebs on opening night/day performances. Which made it kind of cool to watch Valli having a chat with Eddie Murphy who was seated one row behind him. I somehow suspect Mr Murphy isn't usually found at theaters or Four Seasons events.

Here's the other thing about opening nights...the audiences _ which include the critics _ are largely built to appreciate. There are ALWAYS standing ovations, and thunderous applause, and cameras, and late seating. Really, it's glitzy but kind of a pain. And if you rag on an opening night performance, you invariably get some yo-yo writing back saying, "Didn't you see how much everybody loved it?"

"Jersey Boys" took the first night buzz to new heights. They went nuts from the first bars of "Oh, What a Night" pretty much straight through. They even gave Christopher Kale Jones _ who plays Valli in the musical _ a mid performance standing O after his rendition of "Can't Take my Eyes Off You."

Tix sales will be brisk for "JB." Still, I suspect the company's next performance Tuesday may be a bit of a letdown.

Posted by Evan Henerson at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)