Tony Award ballots online!

TonyAwards.com has a printable ballot.

You may not be able to vote yourself, but you can have fun pretending or at least "play the home game" on the big night.

-dj

NYTimes Tony Picks

Check out this graph of where the Tony Awards would go if the NYT theater critics picked the winners.

The risky business of Broadway

Producing and investing in a Broadway show is always a risky proposition. Even when a show does gang-busters there's no guarantee that anyone will profit. After all of the expenses are taken care of, perhaps everyone just breaks even. But as the 2006-2007 touring Broadway seasons wrap up around the county, New York's Broadway shows closed their season this past Sunday with a sunny financial outlook. Bloomberg.com reports that the 06-07 NYC Broadway season realized a 8.9% revenue increase from last season to $939 million and attendance increased 2.6% to 12.3 million folks.

There are quite a few factors that could have contributed to this pretty substantial increase but it all starts with a fantastic product. Of the 35 shows that opened this season, 25 have received at least one Tony nomination (the Tonys are June 10... make sure you watch). From "Grey Gardens" and "Spring Awakening" to the family-friendly "Mary Poppins" and revival of "A Chorus Line" there is truly something for everyone. Heck there are also 16 dramatic plays in the mix for you non-musical folks.

Adding to the revenue increase were a bunch of block busters including "Jersey Boys", "The Color Purple", "The Lion King", "Wicked" and now "Mary Poppins" whose last week box-office weekly grossing total broke the $1 million mark for the first time!

But as I mention at the beginning of this blog, producing and investing is often a risky situation. Unfortunately a few shows didn't perform to expectations and ultimately cost producers and investors around $60 million. Two of those unfortunately shows were Twyla Tharp/Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A Changin' " and "High Fidelity." I'll be honest, I don't like Bob Dylan but I was really interested in seeing "Times" since I loved "Movin' Out" (Twyla Tharp also did that one). Sadly that opportunity has come and gone.

2007 Tony Awards nominations annouced

The 2007 Tony Awards nominations were announced today. Nominees for the two big categories, Best Musical and Best Play, are as follows:

Best Musical
- Curtains
- Grey Gardens
- Mary Poppins
- Spring Awakening

Best Play
- The Coast of Utopia
- Frost/Nixon
- The Little Dog Laughed
- Radio Golf

Spring Awakening leads the pack with 11 nominations. For a complete list, visit The American Theatre Wing's Tony Award website. The Tony Award ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, June 10, at 8 p.m. on CBS.

Tony nominations are in!

Check them out today in the New York Times.

Things for me to be excited about:

• 10 nominations for Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia
• 11 nominations for the Duncan Sheik-tuned new adaptation of Spring Awakening
• Actor nominations for Billy Crudup, Ethan Hawke, Liev Schrieber and Brian O'Byrne
• Actress nominations for Martha Plimpton, Angela Lansbury and Swoozie Kurtz

I know a lot of people get about as excited over the Tony's as most people frankly get over the Oscars - it seems like a lot of insider stroking - but it really is one of the only times our industry appears somewhat mainstream as all the recognizable faces gather to celebrate the best of any given year.

There's a lot to be excited about in the theater, on Broadway or far-far off (like, you know, Tampa ...), we just need to find more effective ways of turning people on to what we do.

EW's Tony speculation

The Tony nominations come out May 15, EW has taken a stab at who they think will be tapped for the 2007 awards.