I Couldn't Get Tony! Isn't This Guy Great?!

We spent a lazy, wonderful weekend doing absolutely nothing.

Sunday evening after not doing laundry, not doing dishes, not mowing the lawn, and not doing much of anything else, I turned on the TV to watch the Tony Awards. As they rolled through the opening credits, I told Critter that some of the musicals mentioned tonight might come to the city in the next year or two and we'd probably go to see them.

She joined me on the couch and I oohed and aaahhed over some of the celebrities featured. "Oh, Ralph Fienes. Mmmmm." She shook her head. "Julie Andrews... Tyne Daly..." Harry Connick, Jr. emerged and sang a quick song from The Pajama Game, his soulful New Orleans drawl melting the audience.

They presented a few awards and then performed the first song nominated for a Tony, a rousing dance number from The Drowsy Chaperone A sweatered man in a lonely apartment told of his love of vinyl recordings, and how he could almost picture himself in the musical. He placed the record on the phonograph and up from the floor emerged singers and dancers in colorful 20's costumes. The beautiful starlet stated that she was leaving showbiz to marry and that she wasn't "gonna show off no more," launching into song and vibrant dance. At the conclusion Critter announced, "We should see that."

The next Tony was awarded to Bob Martin, the man on stage with the treasured vinyl album. Critter slapped her knee, "Of course!" she cried, her proclamation that the musical did indeed deserve the honor.

Following this Tony, The Drowsy Chaperone was nominated again. "Of course!" Critter exclaimed and the musical won another honor.

The camera panned the audience and there sat another beloved actor. "Ah, it's Peter Ustinov!"

"Isn't he dead?" CrafterKat asked.

I shrugged. "Well, it sure looked like him."

Another musical number, this time from the dark comedy Sweeney Todd. "Are they supposed to look like that?" asked Critter. I tried to explain that Sweeney Todd was a rather dark play and left it in general terms as to the atrocities committed by the half-mad, er, three-quarters mad barber. I didn't have the heart to tell her that the actress who played the beloved Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast had won a Tony for this musical.

When the macabre number finished, they announced that The Drowsy Chaperone was nominated again for Best Direction of a Musical. "Of course!" John Doyle then won for Sweeney Todd. Critter frowned, "I don't understand..." We watched as a 60-something walked up the aisle to claim his award, the network commentator stating this was his first Tony ever.

"...and that's why he won," I said. "He's a director that has never won a Tony and everyone probably felt he was due." I left out that it was also probably a chilling interpretation of the play that hasn't been seen on stage in a number of years.

"Do they all have to memorize speeches?"

I nodded. "Well, it's like the Academy Awards for movies. You are honored to even be a part of it and so you usually make a speech in case you win." She wrinkled her nose at the thought of memorizing something that you might never have to speak aloud.

More presenters ("That's the lady who played Rogue in X-Men, Critter") and winners ("Is that the lady who was the Headmaster Lady for Fleur Delacour?"). Critter went off to bed after a number from Jersey Boys had finished.

Best Performance for a Leading Actor...the camera panned to... Peter Ustinov! "Hey, he is alive!" Imagine our surprise when the dead actor did not win but Richard Griffiths did! "Well, he sure looks like Peter Ustinov..." We eventually figured out that he had played Harry Potter's villainous uncle, Vernon.

I do hope that some of the musicals make it to Portland. Especially The Drowsy Chaperone.

Of course!