It’s an intentional disconnect with the material. You have an older performer singing a song about dreaming of being a big star on Broadway when her career is already over. She flirts with the audience and approaches the material in a way that worked when she was 40 years younger, but not now. Houdyshell really played this up to great effect in the production.

A cast recording of the Follies revival has been available for a while. However, “Broadway Baby” is preserved in the same format as the show. Reprises of “Ah, Paris” and “Rain on the Roof” pop up at the end.

This did not serve the needs of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum is compiling a collection of showtunes set in NYC and wanted Houdyshell’s “Broadway Baby” without the other songs. So, Jane Houdyshell graciously went into the studio and recorded a new version of “Broadway Baby.” It’s sensational.

It is available to download for free right now. Thank Playbill for letting us all know about it.

It always feels like Susan is best friends forever with whoever sits next to her. Capturing non-performers right after receiving the highest award in theater is a great way to make them drop their guard. Sure, you find out that Susan actually does know Christian Borle. We already know she’s spent time with Audra McDonald.

But what about getting food for Jeff Croiter or helping Paloma Young dish about high school disappointments? Susan Blackwell’s ability to put seemingly anyone at ease and make them laugh with her is admirable. This video is a must watch montage of super happy people laughing at the absurdity of awards season while being cheered on by a big theater supporter.

And when I said “seemingly anyone,” I meant anyone but Sutton Foster. Not a fan of being licked on the cheek, that one.

Favorite moments from the video? I never thought I’d see Judy Kaye call herself a blithering idiot when she wasn’t in character. Sound off below with your thoughts.

The Henry Krieger/Bill Russell musical is coming back. Playbill reports that La Jolla Playhouse in California and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. will be hosting the updated version of Side Show next season. This is quite exciting. There’s so much to this story and so many ways to go about telling it. Who know what ideas director Bill Condon came up with to restructure the show?

And not to get ahead of ourselves, but The Kennedy Center and La Jolla Playhouse have a history of transferring productions to Broadway. La Jolla hosted Memphis, Jersey Boys, and Thoroughly Modern Millie before their Broadway runs. The Kennedy Center did the same for the recent revivals of Follies, Master Class, and Ragtime. Could Side Show really be coming back to New York? A guy can dream.

In conclusion, here’s Alice Ripley’s most rage-inducing stage failure. Watch for when the wind during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade knocks her out of sync with Emily Skinner. Flames on the side of her face, people.

What do you think? Sound off below.

No, this is referring to touring productions taking a Broadway house for a few weeks over the summer. Playbill announces the newest beneficiary of the trend is Fela!. This was one of my favorite new shows a few years ago when it popped up off-Broadway. The musical recreation of a Fela Kuti concert where he tells his life story while announcing his retirement (due to political opposition) is a thrilling show.

Hair came back after a brief absence from Broadway to lukewarm sales.

The Hair revival that won all the Tonys a few years back did the same thing after it closed. I seem to recall the box off receipts weren’t that great, either. The show hadn’t even been closed for two years and the same production was thrown back on the Great White Way.

These rumors pop up occasionally but don’t always come through. There was hope of this happening last year with The Scottsboro Boys and this year with the Follies revival. And we’re still waiting for that limited return of the Ragtime revival.

I understand the business of it. You have a tour that can go anywhere in North America. A theater is vacant for the summer in NYC. You can easily squeeze in a three, four, five, or six week run in between longer sit downs without much effort. Your tour is selling well enough to allow you to take the hit if the Broadway stop doesn’t sell out. I just question what it does for the brand of the show in NYC if it comes back and doesn’t sell well.

Thoughts on this phenomenon? Love to hear from you. Sound off below.

Unlike last year, the 2012 Tony Awards ceremony was very unpredictable. The musical prizes were going to mostly be swept by either Newsies or Once depending on who you talked to. Both had huge support from the community after a season that started off on very shaky ground.

Play categories were even more unpredictable. There seemed to be a scenario where–tech categories aside–any of the nominees in the categories had a good chance of winning. How do you choose between Stockard Channing as a tortured mother, Cynthia Nixon as a cynical cancer patient, Linda Lavins as a woman slowly losing her husband to cancer, Tracie Bennett singing, dancing, and acting as Judy Garland eight shows a week, and Nina Arianda vamping her way through the is it or isn’t real S&M fantasy of a scholar? This was a strong season for play productions and the voters had a wealth of great shows to choose from.

Here are some of the highlights that you might have missed out on last night.

Steve Kazee wins Best Actor in a Musical for Once

Steve Kazee had a rough go with Once. For all the critical and commercial success, Kazee had far more pressing issues on his mind during the run. His mother was battling cancer back home in Kentucky. She passed away a few weeks after the show opened. Suddenly, Kazee was starring in a musical about love, loss, and regret while grieving the loss of his mother.

He still went on eight shows a week and gave himself to the audience in a very powerful role. Glen Hansard, the original Guy in the film, made my Best Actor shortlist in 2006. It’s a deceptively simple role that could so easily swing into boring if the performer doesn’t grab you. Kazee does. He deserved this on the merits of his performance alone. That he was struggling with such a tremendous loss just proves how committed he was to this role.

You know what’s almost impossible to do? Showcase a straight play in the context of an awards show. Plays, by their nature, are meant to be seen in full. You can get a feel for a musical production by playing the sheet music selections or watching a video of a song. You can’t get a real feel for a play with a random out of context scene or even reading the text on the page.

The 66th Annual Tony Awards came very close to a workable solution for that. With the Best Play nominees, back-lit tableaux took the stage. Venus in Fur showed a man and a woman in a power struggle over a couch. Other Desert Cities showed a family circling each other in a living room. Peter and the Starcatcher showed a strange and wondrous contraption made of people and a bit of rope. Clybourne Park showed two couples, separated by time in the same living space. Jim Parsons read brief synopses of each nominee as the actors in the tableaux came to life and demonstrated the connections between characters. It was a really clever way of handling a big Tony problem.

However, three of the nominated shows lent themselves to isolated performances onstage. Peter and the Starcatcher is a silly fantasy with song, dance, and curious staging. They did a little montage of gags involving a trunk, a razor, and a man in a mermaid costume. One Man, Two Guvnors is a farce with music. Now Tony winner James Corden performed a big showy monologue with lots of physical comedy to the delight of the audience. End of the Rainbow is a show all about one of Judy Garland’s last concert appearances, backstage and onstage. Tony nominee Tracie Bennett performed selections frmo two Judy standards. These performances were used to break up a well-cut video montage of all the plays that performed on Broadway this season.

Neil Patrick Harris is Neil Patrick Harris

I’m warming up to Neil Patrick Harris as a Tony host. His Jimmy Fallon-like laugh at your own jokes presentation actually worked for me this year. I wish they had more time for his index card gags. Only one made it to air and it was great. I think his “My Left Footloose…think of the choreography” joke got the rest pulled.

That’s a minor blemish on a grand series of songs and gags. The absolute highlight was his post-opening number song about imagining a world that was like more like theater. The song was cute, the staging clever, and the guest appearances worth raving about. Sure, it was nice to see Amanda Seyfried camp it up onstage. Steffanie Leigh got to fly in as Mary Poppins for a Tony audience.

But where else will you see Patti Lupone push a lawn mower and say how much she loves the audience? Only in scripted theater. Not since she shook her tush while playing the tuba.

It’s amazing to think that someone could win four Tony Awards, practically be a household name, and not have picked up a win in a leading category. That has been the story of Audra McDonald’s amazing Tony history.

She’s won five of the seven Tonys she’s been nominated for: Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, and now The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. However, despite stellar work carrying Marie Christine and 110 in the Shade, the leading actress category had not been kind to her.

Who knew it would take playing one of the most iconic roles in the canon of musical theater to get McDonald an award for carrying a show on her shoulders? Her speech was kind and gracious. And no, she didn’t make a rape joke. Calm down, Internet. No one trivialized sexual assault victims last night. If thanking a scene partner for making an extremely upsetting moment in a script a pleasure to perform is considered a joke, we’re all in trouble.

What were your highlights from last night? Any category you wish went to someone else? Sound off below. I love to hear from you.

The BBC reports that archaeologists have discovered the remains of one of Shakespeare’s other performance venues. The Curtain Theatre opened in 1577 and housed Lord Chamberlain’s Men from 1597 until 1599. The performance space clearly meant a lot to the playwright as he referenced it in the prologue to Henry V. He describes the architecture and shape of the theater in order to draw the audience into the history they are about to watch.

Though archaeologists knew the general area of the Curtain Theatre, this discovery marks the first physical evidence of its exact location. The performance space may have been used for centuries. It might even have been the premiere location of Romeo & Juliet.

Now that archaeologists know the exactly location, they plan on continuing excavation efforts to see what else they can find. They also hope to one day open the remains for visits from tourists. I know I’d want to see it.

Thoughts? Love to hear them. Sound off below.

Could there be a better teaser for Taboo?

Even better is the size of the venue. The Brixton Club House is a small nightclub. The total capacity is limited to 1050 people and the largest room only holds 400.

Taboo is a musical about the 1980s British club kids. A small club is the perfect venue. The audience will feel like they’re part of the action and Renshaw could easily incorporate some more interactive elements if he wanted to. With a small crowd in a small venue, you can have a lot more fun.

Now will someone please do the same thing with a small NYC club? Make it an event with pre-show music and it could be a successful short run this time around.

Thoughts on Taboo? I remember it being quite polarizing in NYC. Sound off below.

The nominees for Best Original Score…are split down the middle this year. You have your two original musicals–Newsies and Bonnie & Clyde–which you can easily access by way of original cast recordings. Then you have your play nominees–One Man, Two Guvnors and Peter and the Starcatcher–that you normally have to see in theaters to get a feel for.

One Man, Two Guvnors clearly wants Best Original Score…attached to their play. They released a promotional video on Playbill featuring Grant Olding’s original skiffle songs from the play.

The two songs shown are quite catchy, which is the point. Skiffle is ear candy. It’s proto-rock and roll as interpreted by Brits exploring traditional American music. Who doesn’t like a good washboard percussionist?

If the rest of the songs are like that, there’s a chance that One Man, Two Guvnors could win the category. Newsies has new songs but the best songs are re-orchestrated from the movie. Bonnie & Clyde is a Frank Wildhorn show and NYC doesn’t care for him too much. If voters are willing to award a non-musical here (and the he said, she said gossip that spreads like wildfire around here swings back and forth like a pendulum), One Man, Two Guvnors might be victorious.

Prove me wrong, Peter and the Starcatcher. Put out your own video of your original songs and join in the fun. I mean, I’m going to see you anyway because OMG Celia Keenan-Bolger and Peter Pan and cast doubling as crew onstage! But it would be nice to hear what you’re working with before the Tonys have come and gone.

What do you think? Can a play actually win this category? Or will it take a year with no score nominees from musicals to guarantee that result? Sound off below.

When someone comes up with a great angle for selling Shakespeare’s work, I like to applaud them. The Great River Shakespeare Festival have done just that.

Their original comedy sketch called “The Real Housewives of Shakespeare” is funny. Take the terrible NJ cast’s disastrous first season dinner party and recast it with some of Shakespeare’s most memorable wives and lovers. Titania (feuding with lover Oberon over an orphan), Goneril (conniving married daughter of doomed King Lear), Queen Gertrude (Hamlet’s mother and the new king’s trophy wife), Juliet (of your worst two weeks of HS English class), and Lady MacBeth (of could have done it better without her husband fame) are all present. The blend works well and builds to a nice comedic climax before the credits roll.

The video has just under 4000 views right now. It’s also a promotional video for a two play Shakespeare summer season in Minnesota and only got published yesterday. That’s pretty good for reaching a small market. Let’s see if we can build more of an audience for it.

Shakespeare fans of the world unite. The only thing you have to lose is the silly notion that Shakespeare is stuffy and inaccessible. Share the video with your friends and family and convert some new fans. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be transcribing this for students to perform at a local Shakespeare festival next school year.

What do you think? Is The Real Housewives of Shakespeare a keeper? I’d love to see a short run web series, to be honest. Then they can bring in Ophelia and Desdemona and really stir up trouble. Sound off below with your own thoughts.

Everyday Rapture played with stardom, faith, and the history of musicals

Yet Everyday Rapture is when I really noticed Sherie for the first time. Every word of dialogue, every note, every song, every move on stage played to what she does best. I guess that’s the advantage of writing your own star vehicle. You get to control how it goes, for better or worse.

Everyday Rapture was not revolutionary theater. The sets were not mind-blowing, the costumes were minimal, and the lighting was adequate. Even the story being told was–broad strokes–similar to other rise to fame/success stories.

What gave the show its power was Sherie Rene Scott’s voice. Not her singing voice, either. Her writing voice.

Scott collaborated with Daniel Scanlan to bring a highly fictionalized version of her story to life. The goal was to fabricate the little things and stay as true as possible to the big things. For example, it’s hard to know for sure if some boys from her Mennonite church really did try to burn down a temple, but Scott gave quite a few interviews stating that most of the moments people thought were made up were actually the truth. Similarly, those interviews made me think that some of the more mundane x to y exposition was a device to get to the next nutty moment based in reality.

The result is a book that gave Scott laugh lines at every turn. She didn’t need to oversell anything. Her naturally dry wit came through. The framing of the story and the fictionalized elements allowed her to create a caricature of herself that felt as real as the one person productions of actors like John Leguizamo or Chita Rivera. Everyone takes liberties when they stage their life story. The trick is to find the angle of truth.

Sherie Rene Scott's voice sparkled in Everyday Rapture

Though Everyday Rapture did not have the greatest grosses, it was very well received. Critics gave it strong reviews, zeroing in on the strength of the book and Scott’s presence onstage. Awards followed suit, climaxing with a surprise Best Book of a Musical nomination at the Tony Awards (in addition to the expected Best Actress nomination). Of course, if I had my way, it would have received a Best Musical nomination, as well, but I might be in the minority on that one.

For an artist, the takeaway from Everyday Rapture is to know your voice. Make bold choices but choose elements that go with the tone and style of the piece. If you find the right angle and stay honest to that approach, you’ll produce something that people will remember.

An even greater lesson is the element of chance. Everyday Rapture wouldn’t have played at all that season if Lips Together, Teeth Apart didn’t get pulled after Megan Mullally dropped out. Scott’s show was quick to mount and left a big impression. A show this tight only had a chance to be recognized when a big shiny production failed to come through at the last minute. The only way to plan for that kind of chance is to create a good product and be prepared to move with it.

I always wonder where YouTube will lead me on these random voyages. Today was a happy accident. Now I get to share a show I’ll always remember fondly for the impact it’s had on me as a writer.

Thoughts? Love to hear them.