Rosemary Harris* came and loved it!
* NOTE: For those of you under 30 and/or a geek, Rosemary Harris played the Aunt in the Spiderman movies. For those of you over 30 and artsy-fartsy, Rosemary Harris is the Tony and Emmy Award winning actress (Tony for Best Actress in The Lion in Winter; Emmy for her role in the classic miniseries The Holocaust). More from wikipedia.
BBC, for example
I don't know what it is.
But I bought it anyway.
I went to this site, the SomethingStore:
SomethingStore is a fun new website that operates simply: We will send you something, an item selected randomly among many things from our inventory, for $10 (free shipping) and you will find out what your something is when you receive it. What will yours be?
Your Something May Be Anything
It maybe something you need, something you want or something you desire. Yours may be a cool gadget, rare book, table game, handmade necklace, reverse clock, box of gourmet chocolates, set of shiny shower curtains, popular video game, big-box retailer gift card, the latest version of a software, a set of kitchen knives, a pair of designer jeans, garden tool, kitchen appliance, unique home decor item, electronic equipment, magazine subscription, office supply item, or...
Your something will most likely be brand new, though it may also be refurbished or antique.
I'll let you know what it is....
RELATED POST: What Is It That P.T. Barmun Used To Say?
Just one day into the 2008 legislative session, Sen. Jim Forrester (R-Gaston) once again filed an anti-LGBT, anti-marriage state constitutional amendment. A similar bill is expected in the state House. Equality North Carolina is working to defeat these attempts to write discrimination into our state constitution.
The proposed bill mirrors those introduced in the last four sessions, which Equality North Carolina and our allies have successfully blocked.
"We can't let our guard down this year," said Ian Palmquist, Executive Director. "The far right would like nothing better than to put this amendment on the ballot and turn out radical conservative voters for the 2008 elections. We can't let Sen. Forrester and his cronies play politics with our lives, our rights, and our families."
The amendment would not only prohibit same-sex marriage—which is already not recognized in the state under current law—but would also ban any other form of relationship recognition for same-sex couples. In fact, the language is so broad it could prevent private companies from offering partner health benefits.
Equality North Carolina is actively lobbying against the amendment and is calling on supporters to contact their legislators.
You can send a message to legislators through Equality North Carolina's web site.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, the California Supreme Court placed that state in the same situation as Massachusetts -- it struck down the ban on gay marriage. And here’s the ruling. Quote from the controlling opinion:
Our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibility to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.
We conclude that, under this state’s Constitution, the constitutionally based right to marry properly must be understood to encompass the core set of basic substantive legal rights and attributes traditionally associated with marriage that are so integral to an individual’s liberty and personal autonomy that they may not be eliminated or abrogated by the Legislature or by the electorate through the statutory initiative process. These core substantive rights include, most fundamentally, the opportunity of an individual to establish — with the person with whom the individual has chosen to share his or her life — an officially recognized and protected family possessing mutual rights and responsibilities and entitled to the same respect and dignity according a union traditionally designated as marriage.
Okay, then.
Glenn Greewald has a nice analysis of the California Supreme Court decision -- what it means and what it doesn't mean.
This hasn't stopped the hardcore wingnuts from going insane, as evidenced by these actual quotes from commenter at the Free Republic (courtesy of Pam Spaulding)
…and the country continues its downward spiral toward oblivion.
Caligula would be proud of this decision. What next, animals?
There is a constitutional amendment in the works for voters to vote on in November, which could overturn this ruling. But California may be too socially liberal to overturn this court order. Stay tuned.
Unfortunately I”m unable to listen to Rush, has he mentioned this? And more importantly has he commented on this?
The militant homosexualists and their communist allies have now forced us to go to the labor and expense of amending the California constitution to make it absolutely clear that marriage will not be redefined out of existence in this state.
So be it. The amendment will pass in a landslide.
Here come the polygamists over the border to win their “rights” via the courts too…just wait a couple weeks.
California is beyond hope; let the Mexicans have it
In the years past this would be a big event. National Coverage, huge battle, Major Protests……now it even bare got covered in evening news.
Disastrous turn of events. Maybe the Religious Base would get motivated now.
Doesn’t look like it. We are doomed.
As a long time California resident, I knew this disgusting day was coming. California was once a model state, the model in every respect for the other states of this country — fiscally, in education, and its politics. It was clean state, free from mega-perverison, copious numbers of illegal immigrants, and we had politicians that gave a damn about something other than their personal empowerment obtained through pandering and runaway spending.
Actually, I am surprised the vote was so close, given the runaway PC crap and liberalism that has turned California into a socialist dung heap. All this done too, without the regard for the legal nightmare that this move is going to make — as usual, ONLY LAWYERS WILL PROFIT from this. Meanwhile you will have to explain to your young children, how Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith can be man and “wife” — Actually, I am headed for San Francisco now, to marry my dog.
No, little boys and girls in public schools, that’s who’s next. And polygamy,.. and anything else until the word marriage has no meaning at all.
God instituted marriage way back at the “beginning”. And, satan’s been trying to destroy it ever sense. But, we all know (or should) who wins in the end.
This is probably the worst thing that could have happened for the liberals in this election. While it may not have the same deep impact as it did in 2004, there’s no way this helps Obama or the Dems in this election and it provides fuel for such constitutional amendments in both California and Arizona and Florida that will be before the voters this year. Any conservative fuel on the fire will make the Dems worry.
As for that fruitcake judge Ronald George, you’ve been living in Frisco, too long, Mr. Judicial Activist. You’re such a fruit.
Once again a few fruitcakes in black robes have overturned the will of the people.
I no longer wonder if their will be a revolution to save America but when.
Amazing!! You know why the gays fight so hard for “gay marriage”, right? Now every school must teach that this is an alternate lifestyle included with all others….that is the main reason. Your 6 year child will now be brainwashed into thinking this is “ok”….what a sick group of people. They won’t let 16 year old kids drink, smoke or drive, but they’ll let or support them having sex and risk getting all sexually transmitted diseases including HIV!!
BTW, did you know that 95% of civil unions end up separated before 3 years!!! 95%!!!!!
It was inevitable. Never mind what the majority of California citizens want. The narcissistic judges follow the money showered by narcissistic gays who are so enamoured of their own bodily orifices and appendages that they crave others built exactly like themselves to play with, like toddlers. I recently read that the gay market has $60 billion in disposable income, which is why they are pandered to by politicians, media, and corporations. And you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, wait ‘til Obama is president. Can we just find a state and secede NOW?
Any Constitutional Amendment is dead in the water because the GOP are milquetoast.
Much of “conservative” talk radio is in the back pocket of militant homo lobby due to their preponderant status in entertainment and advertising.
Now, more than ever, we need Alan Keyes for President. Before it’s too late. http://alankeyes.com He’s the complete Reagan conservative who has been right all along. The McCain GOP will do little more than wink at this travesty.
This is painful to watch:
CNN:
The video is hard to turn away from. A sobbing 16-year-old sits in her bedroom and, staring into a camera, says she has been raped.
"Hi, my name is Crystal ... I need some help. I didn't want to do it this way, but it's the only way I know that's going to work, that someone out there in the world is gonna listen to me."
The teen, whom CNN interviewed but is not identifying by her last name, is among dozens of young people who are turning to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to talk about sexual assault.
For an online generation, the Web offers what traditional counseling does not. It's a chance to communicate without having to face someone or fear their judgment. Some people are seeking legal advice and medical information, and many younger victims believe they can warn others about their accused attacker, counselors say.
There also are people like Crystal, whose case was dropped by the Orange County, Florida, state attorney's office, who feel slighted by the justice system.
I hope this is not a hoax. Then again....
You may feel differently, but I'm not about to bid on an Air Guitar owned by JFK.
Origin of the phrase "Logging On"
This phrase’s predecessor was "logging in" (sometimes still used interchangeably). Back when mainframe computer operators used to go on shifts, they’d have to write everything they did in a paper log, beginning when they arrived. So when you log on to a computer today, you’re signing in.
They're comparing it to the Willie Mays catch. Video here.
Liff, Olivo, Ashford and Scott Win Fred & Adele Astaire Awards
Regrettably but understandably, not this Ashford. Details here.
Olbermann laid into Bush last night about the "no golfing while we're in Iraq" sacrifice that Bush is making.
Full transcript below the fold.
Lot of stories covering this, but this one spells it out nicely:
They said the first was an outlier. The second, a fluke. But after losing their third seat this year in a special election, House Republicans faced the possibility on Wednesday that if they don't repair their image with voters, they could be in for another rough November.
A Democratic pick-up streak that started with Rep. Bill Foster's upset victory in the March election to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) crested Tuesday night, when Democrat Travis Childers won a solidly Republican open seat in Mississippi.
The GOP spent one-fifth of its available national party cash for House races on the Mississippi seat. Vice President Dick Cheney campaigned there. President George W. Bush and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain pitched in with automated phone calls. Their candidate lost anyway. Meanwhile, reeling House Republicans unveiled a new slogan this week--"Change you deserve" --only to watch Democrats gleefully note that it is already used to market an antidepressant.
Several House Republicans say the losses reveal a voter disconnect with their party, rooted in dissatisfaction with Bush, which GOP candidates will have to repair district-by-district this fall. Some, including McCain and several members of the Illinois congressional delegation, appear to believe that to "re-brand" the Republican Party, they must first distance themselves from it.
"What we've got right now is a deficiency in our message and a loss of confidence by the American people that we will do what we say we are going to do," Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a conference call with reporters.
Freshman Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) likened the climate to 2006, when Democrats surged to control of the House and Senate. "There's a lot of dissatisfaction with the direction of the country," he said. "No incumbent should underestimate the attitude of the American people, Republican or Democrat."
The parties share power in Washington. Polls show Bush and Congress faring dismally in voter approval ratings, driven by anxieties from a slowing economy and continued dissatisfaction with the Iraq War. But politicians and analysts say it appears, at least at this point in the campaign, that voter frustration is hurting Republicans more.
Chalk up part of that to recruiting, analysts say. The three House seats to flip to Democratic this spring all lie in districts Bush carried in 2004. The Democrats who won them all ran as moderate agents of change who support troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The New York Times adds this morning
Representative Tom Davis, Republican of Virginia and former leader of his party’s Congressional campaign committee, issued a dire warning that the Republican Party had been severely damaged, in no small part because of its identification with President Bush. Mr. Davis said that, unless Republican candidates changed course, they could lose 20 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate.
“They are canaries in the coal mine, warning of far greater losses in the fall, if steps are not taken to remedy the current climate,” Mr. Davis said in a memorandum. “The political atmosphere facing House Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than it was in 2006.”
Cry me a river.
NYT:
At a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Wednesday evening, John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama, who was on the stage with him, to be the Democratic nominee for president.
Sounding a theme of a nation divided into parts by walls, Mr. Edwards said, “The reason I am here tonight is that Democratic voters in America have made their choice and so have I.”
Mr. Edwards then went on to say, “There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to tear down that wall and make one America, Barack Obama.”
Mr. Obama, who had introduced Mr. Edwards as “one of the great leaders we have in the Democratic Party, ” responded by saying he was grateful to him for coming to Michigan and giving his endorsement.
Mr. Obama also noted how Mr. Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, had emphasized health care as an issue that is of primary concern, then said it would be a major issue in his administration.
The endorsement comes at a time when the appeal of Mr. Obama appears to be lagging among white, blue-collar voters, a group to which Mr. Edwards openly appealed.
Mr. Edwards’s endorsement also brings in tow 19 convention delegates he won in early party selections. He could certainly urge them to give their support to Mr. Obama, though they would not be obligated by party rules to do so.
Maybe not a knockout blow to Hillary, but damn close....
C'mon Gore -- you're next....
President Bush finally admitted today that he has been touched by the true cost of war:
For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families: He has given up golf.
"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."
UPDATE: Warren Street at Blue Girl, Red State says that Bush is lying about why he quit golf:
Actually, it is far more likely that Bush quit playing golf because he was suffering from knee problems throughout the latter half of 2003.
Street then links to a CBS News article published in December 2003:
Bush, 57, will have an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) test on Thursday, Dec. 18. The body-scanning device enables doctors to see internal organs in 3D.
The MRI is being performed on the advice of the President's regular White House physician. Last summer, Bush suffered a minor muscle tear in his right calf and that injury, along with aching knees, forced him to abandon his running routine. The calf strain healed by August when he had his annual physical, but the president said in September that he suspected he had a meniscus tear.
UPDATE II: Bush actually played his last round of golf on October 13, 2003. We started bombing in August 2003.
UPDATE III: One might well ask why golfing during wartime sends "the wrong signal", but recreational boating and fishing with the familly at Kennebunkport is just fine....
UPDATE IV: Rude Pundit says:
Sure, it's easy to knock President Bush for his "If I play golf, soldiers' families will cry" remark to Politico. That foolishness is easily disposed of with this from a year ago:
Seriously, dude, just fuckin' golf. And don't use the war as an excuse for your weak-ass follow-through.
Monty Python meets Hillary Clinton
Here's the sad part:
2:57 p.m., Yeager Airport, Charleston, W.Va.: A steep descent brings Clinton’s plane to Charleston’s hilltop airport. After an appropriate wait, she steps from the plane and pretends to wave to a crowd of supporters; in fact, she is waving to 10 photographers underneath the airplane’s wing. She pretends to spot an old friend in the crowd, points and gives another wave; in fact, she is waving at an aide she had been talking with on the plane minutes earlier.
It happened last night. Only happened 13 times before in the 100+ history of Major League Baseball. Enjoy.
Hmmmm. The Jimmy Smits character on The West Wing, who ran for president against a moderate Republican, was based on a then-unknown young charismatic minority soon-to-be Senator from Illinois named.... Barack Obama:
Devotees of the West Wing have been talking about it for weeks: the uncanny similarity between the fictional presidential contest that dominated the final seasons of the acclaimed TV show and the real-life drama of this year's election.
Both the real and imagined campaigns have centred on a young, charismatic candidate from an ethnic minority, daring to take on an establishment workhorse with a promise to transcend race and heal America's partisan divide.
But there's a twist.
For what those West Wing fans stunned by the similarity between the fictitious Matthew Santos and the real-life Barack Obama have not known is that the resemblance is no coincidence. When the West Wing scriptwriters first devised their fictitious presidential candidate in the late summer of 2004, they modelled him in part on a young Illinois politician - not yet even a US senator - by the name of Barack Obama.
"I drew inspiration from him in drawing this character," West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie told the Guardian. "When I had to write, Obama was just appearing on the national scene. He had done a great speech at the convention [which nominated John Kerry] and people were beginning to talk about him."
Attie, who served as chief speechwriter to Al Gore during the ill-fated 2000 campaign and who wrote many of the key Santos episodes of the West Wing, put in a call to Obama aide David Axelrod.
"I said, 'Tell me about this guy Barack Obama.'"
With the Latino actor Jimmy Smits already cast for the show, Attie was especially keen to know how rising star Obama approached the question of his race. Axelrod's answers helped inform Santos's approach to his own Hispanic identity.
"Some of Santos's insistence on not being defined by his race, his pride in it even as he rises above it, came from that," Attie said.
The scriptwriter also borrowed from Obama's life the notion of a superstar candidate. "After that convention speech, Obama's life changed. He was mobbed wherever he went. He was more than a candidate seeking votes: people were seeking him. Some of Santos's celebrity aura came from that."
The result is a bizarre case of art imitating life - only for life to imitate art back again.
In the TV show, Santos begins as the rank outsider up against a national figure famous for standing at the side of a popular Democratic president. There are doubts about Santos's inexperience, having served just a few years in Congress, and about his ability to persuade voters to back an ethnic minority candidate - even as his own ethnic group harbour suspicions that he might not identify with them sufficiently.
But the soaring power of his rhetoric, his declaration that the old divisions belong in the past and his sheer magnetism, ensure that he comes from behind in a fiercely close primary campaign and draws level with his once all-commanding opponent. Every aspect of that storyline has come true for Barack Obama. Axelrod, now chief strategist for the Obama campaign, recently joked in an email to Attie: "We're living your scripts!"
What's more, the West Wing had the Republicans choose between a Christian preacher - a pre-echo of Mike Huckabee - and an older, maverick senator from the American west whose liberal positions on some issues had earned the distrust of the party's conservative base: a dead ringer for John McCain.
In the West Wing, the McCain figure emerges comfortably as the party's choice. Apparently the character was not based on the current Republican frontrunner, but was simply a function of the casting of Alan Alda.
"It was always an inside joke on the West Wing that the show had a prophetic quality," recalls Attie, now a writer and producer of House, starring Hugh Laurie.
Various political scenarios sketched out on the programme would often materialise within weeks of airing. But the 2008 campaign, Attie concedes, is in an entirely different league.
There are small differences of course. Santos had a white wife - stressing, says Attie, Santos's standing as a "post-racial figure" - while Michelle Obama is African-American. Ms Obama is the more outspoken, but with two young children each, both are equally photogenic.
Obama aides will be hoping that the West Wing's prophetic streak holds: Santos eventually emerged as the Democratic nominee from a brokered convention - and went on to win the presidency.
Oh, Sue...
She apologized today.
A website devoted to pictures of men and babies with their heads switched.
GET MORE AT ManBabies.com
Speaking to voters in the Appalachian state, she said: “All the kitchen table issues that everybody talks to me about are ones that the next president can actually do something about, if he actually cares about it.” Realising her faux pas, she added: “More likely if she cares about it!”
The GOP has unveiled a new slogan. They are branding their party can candidates as offering "THE CHANGE YOU DESERVE".
Nice going, morons. Your campaign slogan is already copyrighted as an advertisement for an anti-depressant:
What the GOP doesn't seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that "the change you deserve" is the registered advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug that many of you might have started taking as a result of all the...you know -- terrorism.
Effexor, also known as Venlafaxine, is approved for the treatment "of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults." Its common side effects are very much in keeping with the world the House Republicans have striven to build: nausea, apathy, constipation, fatigue, vertigo, sexual dysfunction, sweating, memory loss, and - and I swear I am not making this up - "electric shock-like sensations also called 'brain zaps."
My predictions are in blue, although I'm really just guessing for most of them [UPDATE: Bill Cissna rightfully chastizes me in the comments section for writing "Oh, who cares" under lighting design. Bill, 100% correct. To be honest, I was frustrated about my ignorance about the nominees by that point in the post. I too would like to see August win.]
Best Play
August: Osage County
Author: Tracy Letts
Rock 'n' Roll
Author: Tom Stoppard
The Seafarer
Author: Conor McPherson
The 39 Steps
Author: Patrick Barlow
This one is easy. Tracy Letts' play was triumphant.
Best Musical
Cry-Baby
In The Heights
Passing Strange
Xanadu
Okay. The important thing to note here is that the absence of Young Frankenstein, which has the obnoxious official title "The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein". Also, no Disney musicals (Take that, Walt!). In other words, The Little Mermaid got stiffed.
I have absolutely no idea about Passing Strange other than its a jazz showpiece. I'm not familiar with Cry-Baby (save the general plot). I don't think an "ethnic" musical like In The Heights will win. So that leaves Xanadu, which I saw and loved more than I expected. Xanadu shared the Outer Critic Circle Award for Best Musical with Young Frankenstein.
Best Book of a Musical
Cry-Baby
Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan
In The Heights
Quiara Alegría Hudes
Passing Strange
Stew
Xanadu
Douglas Carter Beane
Well, I liked the book of Xanadu, but I just have a feeling it'll go to Cry-Baby.
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Cry-Baby
Music & Lyrics: David Javerbaum & Adam Schlesinger
In The Heights
Music & Lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda
The Little Mermaid
Music: Alan Menken
Lyrics: Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater
Passing Strange
Music: Stew and Heidi Rodewald
Lyrics: Stew
A guess....
Best Revival of a Play
Boeing-Boeing
The Homecoming
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Macbeth
I've heard good things about Boeing Boeing and MacBeth, but The Homecoming got great reviews.
Best Revival of a Musical
Grease
Gypsy
Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Sunday in the Park with George
Definitly NOT Grease, probably not Gypsy. I think South Pacific, which hasn't graced Broadway in decades will edge out Sunday in the Park with George which seems to be revived every 4 years.
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Ben Daniels, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Laurence Fishburne, Thurgood
Mark Rylance, Boeing-Boeing
Rufus Sewell, Rock 'n' Roll
Patrick Stewart, Macbeth
I'm going to give it to Fishburne. It's a one-man play. Gotta respect that.
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Eve Best, The Homecoming
Deanna Dunagan, August: Osage County
Kate Fleetwood, Macbeth
S. Epatha Merkerson, Come Back, Little Sheba
Amy Morton, August: Osage County
Another easy one, assuming that Dunagan and Morton don't split the vote.
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Daniel Evans, Sunday in the Park with George
Lin-Manuel Miranda, In The Heights
Stew, Passing Strange
Paulo Szot, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Tom Wopat, A Catered Affair
Oh, hell. A guess.
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Kerry Butler, Xanadu
Patti LuPone, Gypsy
Kelli O'Hara, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Faith Prince, A Catered Affair
Jenna Russell, Sunday in the Park with George
Love to give it to Kerry (sorry, Emily!), but I think it's between Patti and Faith. And I'll put my money on Patti.
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
Bobby Cannavale, Mauritius
Raúl Esparza, The Homecoming
Conleth Hill, The Seafarer
Jim Norton, The Seafarer
David Pittu, Is He Dead?
What? No James Earl Jones in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof? Oh, well. I'll guess Raul.
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Sinead Cusack, Rock 'n' Roll
Mary McCormack, Boeing-Boeing
Laurie Metcalf, November
Martha Plimpton, Top Girls
Rondi Reed, August: Osage County
You know, of all the great performances in August, I thought Rondi Reed's performance (as the sister of the main character, Violet) was not that stand-outish. I'm going to go with Laurie Metcalf.
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Daniel Breaker, Passing Strange
Danny Burstein, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Robin De Jesús, In The Heights
Christopher Fitzgerald, The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein
Boyd Gaines, Gypsy
Guess.
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
de'Adre Aziza, Passing Strange
Laura Benanti, Gypsy
Andrea Martin, The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein
Olga Merediz, In The Heights
Loretta Ables Sayre, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Guess.
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Peter McKintosh, The 39 Steps
Scott Pask, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Todd Rosenthal, August: Osage County
Anthony Ward, Macbeth
Guess. It's my sentimental favorite.
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
David Farley and Timothy Bird & The Knifedge Creative Network, Sunday in the Park with George
Anna Louizos, In The Heights
Robin Wagner, The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein
Michael Yeargan, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
A guess.
Best Costume Design of a Play
Gregory Gale, Cyrano de Bergerac
Rob Howell, Boeing-Boeing
Katrina Lindsay, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Peter McKintosh, The 39 Steps
Love 60's costumes.
Best Costume Design of a Musical
David Farley, Sunday in the Park with George
Martin Pakledinaz, Gypsy
Paul Tazewell, In The Heights
Catherine Zuber, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
A guess
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Kevin Adams, The 39 Steps
Howard Harrison, Macbeth
Donald Holder, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Ann G. Wrightson, August: Osage County
Oh, who cares...
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Ken Billington, Sunday in the Park with George
Howell Binkley, In The Heights
Donald Holder, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Natasha Katz, The Little Mermaid
Best Sound Design of a Play
Simon Baker, Boeing-Boeing
Adam Cork, Macbeth
Ian Dickinson, Rock 'n' Roll
Mic Pool, The 39 Steps
Best Sound Design of a Musical
Acme Sound Partners, In The Heights
Sebastian Frost, Sunday in the Park with George
Scott Lehrer, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Dan Moses Schreier, Gypsy
Best Direction of a Play
Maria Aitken, The 39 Steps
Conor McPherson, The Seafarer
Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County
Matthew Warchus, Boeing-Boeing
Best Direction of a Musical
Sam Buntrock, Sunday in the Park with George
Thomas Kail, In The Heights
Arthur Laurents, Gypsy
Bartlett Sher, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Best Choreography
Rob Ashford, Cry-Baby
Andy Blankenbuehler, In The Heights
Christopher Gattelli, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Dan Knechtges, Xanadu
Gotta go with my relative....
Best Orchestrations
Jason Carr, Sunday in the Park with George
Alex Lacamoire & Bill Sherman, In The Heights
Stew & Heidi Rodewald, Passing Strange
Jonathan Tunick, A Catered Affair
* * *
Regional Theatre Tony Award
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Special Tony Award
Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981), in recognition of his historic contribution to American musical theatre in the field of orchestrations, as represented on Broadway this season by Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific.
Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre
Stephen Sondheim
* * *
Tony Nominations by Production
In The Heights - 13
Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific - 11
Sunday in the Park with George - 9
August: Osage County - 7
Gypsy - 7
Passing Strange - 7
Boeing-Boeing - 6
Macbeth - 6
The 39 Steps - 6
Les Liaisons Dangereuses - 5
Cry-Baby - 4
Rock 'n' Roll - 4
The Seafarer - 4
Xanadu - 4
A Catered Affair - 3
The Homecoming - 3
The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein - 3
The Little Mermaid - 2
Come Back, Little Sheba - 1
Cyrano de Bergerac - 1
Grease - 1
Is He Dead? - 1
Mauritius - 1
November - 1
Thurgood - 1
Top Girls - 1
Sichuan University student takes video at 2:29pm in dorm.
Published: May 12, 2008
Its storyline practically guarantees the fun: A whorehouse in Texas, circa 1976, is about to be shut down through no fault of some of its own customers: a governor, a senator and longtime friend, Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd.
Affectionately called the Chicken Ranch, this particular establishment is also where most of the action unfolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, a musical being put on by the Winston-Salem Theatre Alliance that opened Friday night.
Best Little Whorehouse is a big-number production with snappy choreography and a large cast, most notably 15 or so prostitutes, their madam, some townspeople, various politicians, local choristers, the Texas Aggies football team and -- at the center of the storm -- troublemaker Melvin P. Thorpe, a flamboyant TV personality who is determined to shut down the Chicken Ranch and fulfill his destiny as "watchdog" for the local TV market.
According to the show's own admission, this whorehouse had been around for more than a century. Now, Miss Mona (a former prostitute and current madam) has inherited it, and people can remember the days when the "ladies" began accepting poultry for payment, "one bird, one lay."
And so the evening goes: Ribald language, profane language, partial nudity and some very suggestive vignettes of coupling in the chicken house. Laughs and live music also spark Best Little Whorehouse, even though the pacing is sometimes slow on a show that's known for its spitfire and rapid delivery.
This show opened on Broadway in 1978 with choreography by Tommy Tune. Its book by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson with music and lyrics by Carol Hall went on to garner multiple Tony nominations and won Drama Desk awards for music and lyrics.
In Theatre Alliance's show, the music can fill the house at times, with two numbers in particular. One is a solo in which Jaye Pierce plays a gum-snapping waitress named Doatsey Mae who wishes she'd had a more exciting life. When she sings a hauntingly beautiful ballad, "Doatsey Mae," we also wish she'd not been quite so respectable.
At the other end of the musical spectrum is one of the show's best big-ticket numbers. "The Aggie Song" is a robust, full-bodied press from a chorus of football players getting ready to visit the Chicken Ranch, their prize for winning the Thanksgiving game earlier that day. It's pure fun, and director Jamie Lawrence [sic] successfully pulls in other cast members to deliver the song's punch -- raunchy athletes and prostitutes dressed in long satin gowns and corsages.
Two standout roles include the Sheriff played by Mikey Wiseman and the TV anchorman played by Gray Smith. Smith is never at a loss when taking center stage, as he frequently does at Theatre Alliance productions, and Wiseman, last seen in The Little Theatre's production of The Foreigner, has another hit with his role as Ed Earl.
Best Little Whorehouse is a good-time ending for the Theatre Alliance's season and its home at SECCA. A new home is expected to be announced in the fall.
■ The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas presented by the Winston-Salem Theatre Alliance continues Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and May 18 at 2 p.m. at SECCA, 750 Marguerite Drive, Winston-Salem. Tickets are $14 for adults; seniors and students, $12. For more information, call 768-5655.
From First Read:
Barack Obama has overtaken Hillary Clinton in the NBC NEWS superdelegate count with the endorsement of Hawaii's Dolly Strazar. This is his second of the day and puts him now officially over the top, 277-276.5.
Obama has now picked up 21 superdelegates since last Tuesday's contests in North Carolina and Indiana. Clinton has picked up 1.5
The NBC NEWS delegate counts:
PLEDGED: Obama 1,590, Clinton 1,426
SUPERS: Obama 277, Clinton 276.5
TOTAL: Obama 1,867, Clinton 1,702.5
Bugs Bunny
The Polio Vaccine
Both of Obama's Parents
Mount Rushmore
McDonalds
Alaska
From thingsyoungerthanmccain.com
UPDATE:
Recent Comments