BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SPELL MARKETA IRGLOVA WITHOUT AN E, G, O, AND T: Once, the Musical, will open on Broadway in March 2012.
Irglova and Hansard did not win the two Grammys for which Once (the film soundtrack) had been nominated; otherwise, they could have joined Mel Brooks in garnering three-fourths of the crown for multiple adaptations of the same work (in his case, G-O-T for The Producers). Nine actors have gone O-T for the same performance.
[Side EGOT question: Eminem's Super Bowl ad for Chrysler won a Creative Arts Emmy for Best Commercial, but it looks like the award goes to the ad agency and production company. Is he in fact only a Tony away from EGOT?]
1. Hansard/Irglova won't be eligible for anything at the Tonys, I think. The score isn't original, they're not listed as producers, and they're not performing.
ReplyDelete2. While the article rightly observes it's a soft year for musicals, it's an even softer year for original scores--"Ghost," "Rebecca," "Bonnie and Clyde," "Spider-Man," and "Lystriata Jones" look to be it.
3. Even though it's a soft year for new musicals, it's a tough year for performers in musicals. Harry Connick is a sight-unseen front-runner for Best Actor in "Clear Day" and if Jackman's show is deemed a "musical," he's another serious competitor. On the lead actress side, I would assume that Audra McDonald (who's 4/6 in Tony races) in "Porgy and Bess" has to be viewed as a leading candidate, and you also have to deal with Bernadette Peters.
4. For all the mockery, Spidey is a legit hit. Even though it's not selling out, because it's in such a huge theatre and because it's getting a lot of full-price foreign tourists for the spectacle, it was the fourth highest-grossing show on Broadway last week (behind Lion King, Wicked, and Hugh), and is consistently grossing over $1M/week.
5. If the Eminem song had been written for the commercial, I think he would have been eligible, but because it was not, I don't think so.
Jan Maxwell is a definite contender for Best Actress for Follies along with Bernadette Peters, and Ron Raines and Danny Burstein are possibilities for Best Actor.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely Jan Maxwell, who I'd love to see win. For the men, Burstein has maybe a slight edge on Raines, although I wouldn't be surprised if both got nominations.
ReplyDeleteI saw the stage production of "Once" a few weeks ago, and while I loved the music - from the pre-show performance and throughout the show it's clear that people enjoying playing music together is the heart of the story - the book lost something in the translation. It tried too hard to make a possible romance between Guy and Girl (when the movie makes it pretty clear early on that while there's romantic tension there, their hearts lie elsewhere), and while I think Cristin Millioti is great as Girl, the script makes her much more of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl than the much more subtle character in the movie. I'm happy to hear it's going to Broadway, as it's an interesting, intimate new musical (and I have a friend in the cast!), but it's not a slam dunk.
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