Tony Award nominations announcement on Tuesday
The 2023 Tony Award Nominations will be announced on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. by Lea Michele and Myles Frost (who won a Tony Award last year for “MJ”). The announcement will be streamed live on the Tony Awards YouTube Channel.
It has already been confirmed that this year’s Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award (which recognizes community volunteer work) will go to director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell. Three decades ago, Mitchell, as a young dancer, conceived and organized the first edition of Broadway Bares, which went on to become a popular burlesque event that raises money each year for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Last week, several other theater awards organizations announced their slates of nominations, including the Drama Desk (with “Shucked” leading with 12 nominations) and Outer Critics Circle (with “New York, New York” receiving 12 nominations). Unlike the Tony Awards, the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle recognize both Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. This year, both groups began using gender-neutral nominations.
‘Harmony’ will finally play Broadway
After a quarter of a century of development, various regional productions, and an Off-Broadway premiere one year ago, Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s bio musical “Harmony” will open on Broadway in the fall at the Barrymore Theatre. “Harmony” celebrates the real-life story of the Comedian Harmonists, an all-male German musical group made up of three Jews and three gentiles that enjoyed international fame up until Hitler’s rise to power. In my review of the Off-Broadway production (which was presented by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage), I noted that it resembled a combination of “Cabaret,” “The Sound of Music,” and “Jersey Boys.”
Comedy about the making of ‘Jaws’ set for summer
“The Shark is Broken,” a behind-the-scenes comedy about the making of the film “Jaws” which previously played London, will receive a limited run at Broadway’s Golden Theatre beginning July 25. Among the cast is co-writer Ian Shaw, who will play his father, Robert Shaw, who played the shark hunter Quint in “Jaws.” Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss also appear as characters in the play. Last year, a musical about the making of “Jaws,” titled “Bruce” (in honor of the mechanical shark used during filming), premiered in Seattle.
Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘Iolanthe’ to play Carnegie Hall
With the exception of the annual productions of the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players, the 19th century English operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan are rarely performed nowadays. On Wednesday, the MasterVoices chorus and orchestra will present a one-night concert production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Iolanthe” (a romantic satire featuring fairies and government officials) with David Garrison (“Wicked”), Christine Ebersole (“Grey Gardens”), Santino Fontana (“Tootsie”), Shereen Ahmed (“My Fair Lady”), and Philip Boykin (“Porgy and Bess”).
Immediately following “Iolanthe,” Fontana will join Sierra Boggess (“School of Rock”) in a two-week Off-Broadway revival of the 1993 musical comedy “The Goodbye Girl,” which will be directed by its lyricist, David Zippel (“City of Angels,” “Bad Cinderella”). This will mark the New York premiere of a revised version created after the Broadway run by Zippel and the late Neil Simon and Marvin Hamlisch. It will be produced by J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company (which has also recently presented the musicals “Woman of the Year” and “Sugar”) at Theater Row beginning May 11.
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