2014 Tonys a winner, bountiful ‘Bloomsday’ reinaugurated!
If you weren’t among the multitude of folk who chose to watch the 2014 Tony Awards rather than the NBA finals on the same Sunday time slot I thought I’d share the glowing news that this year’s awards — start to finish — were a thrilling class act.
From the evening’s opening moments when irrepressible host Hugh Jackman led the TV audience on a rousing “backstage” tour of events to come, the awards had a glow that will surely translate into long stays for the winning shows. It was especially heartening that, this time out, the Tonys were spread among a number of shows that might not have, to date, been theatergoer “musts.”
Even topping the evening’s parade of numbers from the cream of this Broadway season’s limited crop of standout musicals, was the long standing ovation — richly deserved — for Audra McDonald, a youthful 43. Accepting a record-breaking sixth Tony for her haunting portrayal of troubled blues singer Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” this gracious, down-to-earth trooper, wept as she credited her parents for “ignoring doctor’s recommendations to medicate her hyperactivity in childhood — instead encouraging their daughter to try acting instead!” McDonald’s acceptance was equally memorable for its tribute to “all the shoulders of the strong and brave and courageous women I’m standing on”— naming Ruby Dee, Lena Horne and Holiday: of whom she said “you deserved so much more than you were given when you were on this planet.” (Holiday died at 44 of alcohol and drug abuse along a perilous career path).
In what loomed as a dead heat between the moving, magnificently performed “Beautiful-The Carole King Musical” and Robert L Freedman’s uniquely constructed “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”— the stars of both new musicals shared their glorious wares: Broadway new-comer Jessie Mueller, who took home the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical, joined with her inspiration, the wondrous Carole King in a sublime, soaring rendition of “I Feel the Earth Move.” Jefferson Mays — who lost out to an equally madcap turn by Neil Patrick Harris in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” (for Best Actor in a Musical) — did a quick comic change into the eight murdered characters he played in “Murder”— which won for Best new Musical while “Inch” took the Tony for “Musical Revival.”
In an evening with enough highlights to power a jet, and what seemed like enough uber-celebrities in the audience to fill one — Harris roamed, in a standout moment among them — singing “Sugar daddy” and even giving Sting an impromptu lap dance among his greetings. If frivolity set the tone for this Tony show the glowing appreciation of the winners was equally memorable. Special standouts here were an awestruck Bryan Cranston, whose stunning portrait of LBJ in “All the Way” deservedly won Best Actor in a Play — as did “All the Way” for Best Play.
Blooms ‘Bloomsday Breakfast’
If there’s Irish in you — hereditary or spiritual — the place you’ll want to be Monday, June 16 is the brand-new Blooms Tavern at 208 E. 58th Street. Re-inaugurating the past long-time tradition “Bloomsday” tradition of yore, where the stars of Broadway and beyond came out to shine reading passages and enacting scenes from James Joyce’s classic novel “Ulysses,” the restaurant will be serving an “Irish breakfast” all day long. And from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m., and then on-going guests will be entertained by a bevy of famed Irish actors, author and activists, including a special visit with outgoing Consul General in America Noel Kilkenny.
Staged by the Origin Theatre Company, just a few hors d’oeuvres on the performance menu of celebrities include Conor Mac Neill (currently “The Cripple of Inishman”) Jo Kinsella, Fiona Walsh, Terry Donnelly, beloved actor, author, activist Malachy McCourt and Irish folk star Allen Gogarty.
The new “Bloom’s Bloomsday Breakfast” is a reservations only event so you’ll want to start celebrating now by writing to info@origintheatre.org. To score one of a limited number of free tickets to the event. Origin produces European plays as well as the vaunted first Irish Festival each September. The tradition of the June 16 observances of Bloomsday dates back to 1924. In decades past it was a most special annual New York West Side bookstore event. Blooms Tavern owner John Mahon plans to reinaugurate that tradition-and he’s wished “The luck of the Irish!
