War 2008

Earlier this week I posted how I voted for this season's Outer Critics Circle Awards, so now here are the picks from my ballot for the Drama Desk Awards, which will be presented Sunday night.

I will leave it to you, dear readers, if you decide to take in a performance of Jerry Mayer's Dietrich and Chevalier, to determine for yourselves if it's better off being a play peppered with just a few musical moments or a full-out concert with just a smattering of narrative.  As it stands now, the two-act piece with a plot that continually gets halted to present its collection of fifteen musical hits trudges along without much purpose.

The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's web site sports an unusual parental warning for their upcoming production of Jersey Boys: Jersey Boys is not recommended for children under the age of 16 due to strong 'authentic Jersey' language. Catherine Skidmore, who brought the warning to my attention, says, 'I'm still trying to figure out if 'profanity' is a dialect.'

You know it's all heading in this direction, don't you? So why delay the inevitable and let's make 2010 the first year where America Votes For The Tony Awards!

In the latest edition of Opera News, Michael Portantiere asks Stephen Schwartz, Adam Guettel, Jason Robert Brown, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michael John LaChiusa, Stephen Flaherty and Stew for their opinions on the difference between opera and musical theatre.