Profile for Ravenclaw

This year's Tony nominees? Which roles in Jagged Little Pill, Moulin Rouge, and Tina would you consider to be sopranos? And how are you defining soprano to find such roles in these shows?

I'm curious to know what rock musicals you think have soprano singing in them? You listed singers in the rock world who I'm not familiar with, but in the realm of rock musicals, I'm hard-pressed to think of any written for soprano voices, at least in the soprano-belter dichotomy of musical theatre. If you take "soprano" to include belting in the traditionally soprano range, that's another matter, and therein might light the discrepancy?

I would love to see The Rink, The Act, Woman of the Year, The Goodbye Girl, Romance/Romance, Rags, Baby, A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, The Rothschilds, Coco, Seesaw, Shenandoah, Raisin, and Little Me, to name a few. These are not musicals I know terribly much about, but they are musicals

Honestly? I admire the effort, but OnStage doesn't have the same clout (or quality reporting) as the New York Times and I don't have faith in them to do the story well. I hope they do, but their track record hasn't done much. Their story about Tyce a couple years ago was swept under the rug and mostly scrubbed from the internet; I don't know the behind the scenes details of that story or what led to its being removed from the site, but that ordeal doesn't make me think tha

Because there are just too many great roles for women of a certain age and not enough roles for men?

And what would the text gain? It seems like an experiment that wouldn't pay off in any kind of storytelling sense. In Company, when Bobby became Bobbi, themes in the show resonated differently, as a woman's experience being told she needs to settle down and get married before she becomes too old is different from that of a man in our culture, and the text was able

Well, rather expectedly, I stayed up until this ridiculous hour to watch it, and I found it every bit as moving as the two times I was fortunate enough to see it live (once on Broadway and once on tour). I am so glad that this is available for everyone to watch, and I am so glad that that this came out now--not just because of the upcoming election, but also because things have been so hard lately, it feels like a blessing to reencounter a piece of art that is so inspiring.

I will say

I'm surprised more people aren't talking about Zawe Ashton--I thought she was a lock for a nomination and had a good shot at winning. Shows how much I know.

As for Tveit, I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but this is why they should have de-gendered the acting categories this year. Is the work he did in Moulin Rouge really so different that it can't be compared to the three leading ladies who were nominated? 

And which of these plays do peo

Lately, a lot of the newer studio recordings just sound a little dead and lifeless to me. These days, when everyone is in a separate booth, often playing and singing to a click track, with pitch correction and perfectly balanced mixing, there's often an energy missing from the raw live recordings where everyone is much more connected in the music making. Last year's Oklahoma album was a disappointment to me--what sounded thrilling in the theatre felt a little too cl

Even though time-wise, far more than half the season elapsed, we all know that the last two months before the Tony eligibility cutoff are typically packed with openings, and the planned 2020 spring season was no exception. In the Best Musical category, for instance, only four musicals are eligible out of eight that would otherwise be eligible had the season carried on as usual. None of the three musical revivals are eligible. So, while not a half-season in terms of length, it's certainly

What makes you think that people in Austria, Africa, and Brazil are deprived of theatre just because they're not near New York? There is great theatre all over the world, and most plays don't need a worldwide audience to consider themselves successes. I think that in general, preservation of theatre is an important practice which is, unfortunately, often prohibitively expensive, and the problem of access is notoriously difficult to solve, but framing the issue as a service from N

I know it's been said before, but they really should be taking this opportunity to de-gender the acting categories. This year, with only a half-season, is the perfect time to try that out. It doesn't look like that's what they'll be doing, but it makes far more sense to nominate all lead performers in the same category than force lead roles to compete against supporting roles. As more and more people come out as nonbinary, it's important to give them an avenue through whic

I've seen Titanic performed live three times--the first at Baldwin-Wallace in 2012, the second from Griffin Theatre in 2014, and the third at Northwestern in 2015. Were there not a pandemic, I would likely be seeing it twice more this year, once at Milwaukee Rep and once at Porchlight Music Theatre. Titanic is a favorite of mine, and it's performed rarely enough that it's a show I will travel for. 

Of the three productions I've seen, though the two college producti

Unfortunately (or, perhaps, quite fortunately), Scott Rudin does not have any inside info on the state of the pandemic that he's keeping from us all. He doesn't know anything more about infectious diseases than anyone else. The fact that The Music Man is moving forward with a dance lab doesn't do anything to help theatre return any sooner.

As for why they would do a lab now if they're likely to postpone again, there are plenty of reasons--namely, it i

After all the comments Spielberg has made about streaming platforms (particularly that Netflix films shouldn't be eligible for Oscars, and his ensuing anti-Roma, pro-Green Book Oscar campaign) there was no way he would let his newest film skip a theatrical release. And after Tenet bombed in theaters, it wasn't gonna happen this year.

But I have to doubt the people decrying the end of the movie theatre when much of the nation is begging

There were a lot of musical revivals that season, but they all had their individual strengths and weaknesses. From what I remember, the Tony that year was competitive because the consensus was that the two closed revivals (Ragtime and Finian's Rainbow) were much stronger than the two nominees still running (Night Music and La Cage).

Bye Bye Birdie opened first and was pretty universally disliked. Gershon and Stam

The new Charlie Kaufman on Netflix, I'm Thinking of Ending Things has a references to Oklahoma! scattered throughout, including in the final sequence, which would be criminal to spoil.

Anyone else catch this film? It surely won't be everyone's cup of tea here, especially if you're not already on board with what Kaufman likes to do. I really enjoyed it, though I know I'm far from understanding how everything in the film fits toge

I love Julianne Moore so much. I hope she can sing, though. She was dubbed for Bel Canto, but in that film she played an international opera star, which is a different matter. 

For me, it's Chenoweth--no competition. Not only was the role tailored to her vocal talents (nobody has sung the soprano sections better, in my opinion), but she lit up the stage with a true star energy. Brantley's review was tepid for the show on the whole but a love letter to her performance. Many Glindas get big laughs but lose the stakes of the story, while others land the emotional arc but miss some of the humor. Chenoweth delivered on both fronts and created a model that others

I agree with everyone saying the finale of Six Feet Under--maybe the best TV finale of all time.

I'll also add:

Doctor Who s03e10: "Blink"

Please Like Me s03e02: "Simple Carbohydrates"

30 Rock s03e05: "Reunion"

Veep s01e07: "Full Disclosure"

Will & Grace s06e19: "No Sex 'n' the City"

The Ameri

They actually did add a couple inches to the size of the award about 10 years ago. They could go back to the old size.

Or they could, you know, just give out fewer of them this year.