Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

The winners for the 69th Tony Awards have been announced and honored! I thought hosts Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth were marvelous. (I especially liked Cumming's fake freak outs over Josh Groban.) The broadcast left something to be desired, though, namely all the design and "creative" (rather than performance) categories. It is unacceptable to be honoring excellence on Broadway and not show, in full, acceptance speeches from the people who created the shows—the book and songwriters; the choreographers; the lighting, scenic and costume designers. And the Tony Awards Administration Committee MUST reinstate the Sound Design categories. Finally, all shows that are nominated for Best Musical, Best Revival of a Musical and Best Score should perform, and only those shows. Without any further ado, here is the full list of winners, with winners in bold typeface and notated with an asterisk. (First the plays, then the musicals.) Best Play The Curious Incident of...

I was late to Fun Home . I don’t mean I arrived late to the Public Theater, where Fun Home is having its world premiere (perish the thought); I mean I saw Fun Home late in its run, once critics and artists had lavished praise on the new Jeanine Tesori-Lisa Kron musical (often in the form of inclusion on best-of-the-year lists). It’s good, but I wouldn’t add to the superlatives. Based on Alison Bechdel’s book, Fun Home focuses on Alison’s life. We meet three Alisons, noted in the Playbill as Alison (Beth Malone), Medium Alison (Emily Skeggs) and Small Alison (Sydney Lucas). (That would be Alison at about 43, in college and as a kid, 7 or 8 years old.) Alison is a lesbian and a cartoon artist, neither of which ever sat right with her parents, Bruce (Michael Cerveris), and Helen (Judy Kuhn). Alison’s home is like a museum, much to the delight of her father and chagrin of her mother. Mom is an actress and trying to keep things together for Bruce. Dad is a little bit of everythi...