2011 Tony Awards

[Doctor Hmmm?]

"Brotherhood of Man" -- probably my favorite number from one of my favorite musical comedies -- a sure fire showstopper if it's done right -- flopped around like a dying fish on the stage last night.

 

But this, my friends ... THIS is how you win a Tony. (The good stuff starts at about 40 seconds in.)

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Wait...wait...I loved that version last night.  I was still humming it this morning. 

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Were there any Spidey jokes ? Even indirect ones ?

  And , given what I've heard about " The Scottsboro Boys " - any blackface ( including " we-can't-say-it " ) references ?????????

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Doc Beechler (mod-MD) said:

Wait...wait...I loved that version last night.  I was still humming it this morning. 

Horse races, I guess. I just thought that everyone was doing the right stuff, but it didn't feel like anybody's heart was in it (except Radcliffe). By contrast, I thought "Don't Break the Rules" had all the energy "Brotherhood of Man" is supposed to have. But if it worked for you, that's a win.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Emerkeith Davyjack said:

...Were there any Spidey jokes ? Even indirect ones ?

 

There were several ... there was a line in the opening number about the threat of towering cost overruns ... and then at one point, host Neil Patrick Harris took to the stage and said doing Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark jokes would be too easy, but it's such a big story that they had to do something .... so he did a bit where he tried to tell as many Spider-Man jokes as he could in 60 seconds. He got in six (including "No fans were harmed in the making of this performance -- yet" and "This is the only show where the actors in the cast are in casts") but his seventh one was cut off.

Looky here: Tony Awards 2011 - Neil Patrick Harris Tells 'Spider-Man' Jokes"

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

The Scottsboro Boys is fashioned to be similar to an old minstrel show, but the actors are all black and the subject matter is all too real.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

Doc Beechler (mod-MD) said:

The Scottsboro Boys is fashioned to be similar to an old minstrel show, but the actors are all black and the subject matter is all too real.

 

 

...Yes , I know what the Scottsboro Boys case was , and that the short-lived show used minstrel imagery...BTW , African-American performers in the past worked in blackface as well , at times , even for African-American audiences...I recall reading that at least as recntly as the Sixties some " recreataons " of the African-American-style minstrel show were staged in NYC , with then still-living performers who'd been in them involved with them...I once had a memoir by Pigmeat Markham ( The A-A vaudeville performer whose routine the " Here Come The Judge ! " gag that Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In picked up was . ) in which he emntioned working in blackface til' about the late Forties...