Let’s Talk the 2023 Tony Awards

0:06 Hey everybody. How you doing? This is Ray Renati and you have reached Green Room on Air, my little place in the corner of the various Internets edge. George W used to say, hope you're doing well. It's a beautiful day here in Palo Alto, California, south of San Francisco on the peninsula of the Bay Area in Deedee Rooney. Well, what a week it's been. What? A week it's been. We had Donald Trump on C n n. Doing his thing that he does so well. Yeah, Donald Trump wooo. It, it's very simple that you're a nasty person. I'll tell you, you know, it's, it's good for CNN because as much as they try to show how they are the nemesis, the, the truthsayers around.

0:50 Our failed former president. They are also a company that makes very much millions because of him, so it's also to their benefit to make sure. That he stays in the news and that if he does a town hall, that it's filled with his sink offense, clapping and cheering over all of his insanity. We live in a strange world, folks. Part of the downside of a free economy, I suppose, although I wouldn't want it any other way. Hey, today I want to talk about the Tony Awards, which are scheduled to happen a month from today or around, but may not because of the writer's strike.

1:32 So what I'd like to do is take a look at some articles in the press from New York City, in the New York Post and The New York Times, and comment on them regarding the Tony Awards. Hey, if you don't know what the Tony Awards are, get out from under the rock that you've been sleeping under and pull your head out if you're bute. No, I'm kidding. The Tony Awards are the awards given to. Live theater mostly on Broadway theaters that are part of the organizations that host the Tony Awards the American Theater Wing being the main one. And also some regional theaters. Large regional theaters throughout the country are members of the American Theater Wing, which is the organization that hosts the Tony Awards.

2:18 It's one, it's my favorite award show by far. It's the, the people receiving the awards that people nominated are usually extremely grateful because a lot of them aren't big stars like you, you have in on your Oscars. And the talent is quite incredible because these are, you know, real stage actors who have studied their craft. They're not necessarily just movie stars. And the music is always good, of course, because of the Musical theater aspect. So anyway in the New York post, an article from today why the 2023 Tony Awards are hanging by a thread and may not happen chances that the 2023 Tony Awards telecast will go on is planned a month from now, are slipping away fast.

3:05 Multiple sources told the post, the complexities of the writer strike, which is still in its early days. Have made it virtually impossible for the show. Broadway's biggest promotional push of the year to air on June 11th, cbs B. So in case you didn't know, there's been a writer's strike, a huge writer's strike in all of entertainment LA and New York and Chicago mostly where most of the riders are cuz they're not getting paid fairly. And unions in this industry tend to stick together. So it's causing a lot of political problems in terms of whether or not the Tonys should continue.

3:48 The Tonys are hanging on by the fingernails set of source. It's a mess. The American Theater Wing and the Broadway League, two trig organizations that put on the ceremony are voting Friday. That's tomorrow to decide how to move forward. The wing, I'm told, would prefer to postpone the broadcast, which is still set to take place at the United Palace in Washington Heights. Until the strike is over. That option would look something like when the 2020 Tony Awards finally went on in September, 2021 after theaters reopened from Covid shutdowns. So the Tony Awards last year were postponed because they just didn't wanna have a bunch of people in a room with masks on trying to have an award show.

4:33 The last writer's strike was in 2007, 2008, and lasted a little more than three months. I remember that. God. That was a long time ago already. I feel old. I feel old. Let's make a musical out of that. I feel old, my darling. How do you feel? I feel wonderful. Okay. I don't know what musical that's from, but I'm going to write it. The weight would be an eternity for struggling musicals and plays, and frankly, many would make it when he wouldn't make it until then. Multiple doc. Oh my god, I can't even hear. Multiple productions are bleeding money in the lead up to the award show.

5:15 In hopes the visibility might give them a boost at the box office. So since Covid, a lot of these shows are having trouble getting audience and they're actually losing money, and then they're hoping that the Tony Awards would help g give them, bring in audience, but, and so they're losing even more money assuming that the Tony Awards are gonna happen. And yet they may not. And if they don't, these people will have wasted. The producers of these shows will have wasted a ton of money, and they may have to close. In case you didn't know, theater in the United States is not a big money-making proposition. I'll have, you know, I'm sure you knew that already though.

5:56 And there's not much government support like there are for the theater companies in Europe. Yeah, boy. So the league meanwhile is said to want the winners to be announced in some other manner on schedule. Like the Golden Globes did with a press conference due to the writer's strike in 2008. Oh my God, how boring is that? No. Telecast means it's meaningless. An insider said it will be the end of all these shows that are running at big losses to get to the Tony's. Wow, that is sad.

6:38 God, they're running at big losses because they don't have an audience. All these people backstage, the producers, the crew, the actors out of a job. If this doesn't happen, cuz of the writer's strike, I'm not making a judgment here. The writers need to make a living too. But why should the workers in the musical industry or in the stage industry, straight place too, you know, lose their, their income. Best musical front runner, Kimberly Akimbo. There's actually a play called Kimberly Akimbo as well, which I helped produce at the Para theater many years ago.

7:19 But this is a new musical version and la likely best play winner Leopold stat. I don't know that yet. I'm gonna go to New York though in a little while. Couple months and go see these sh shows are both posting troubling weekly grosses. Spokespeople for the Tony Awards and American Theater Wing did not respond to the post request for comment, of course. Hmm. Although a source said a script for the Tony's was written long ago, for every contingency avoiding one major roadblock, playwrights who penned the nominated plays and musicals are members of the W G A and likely wouldn't show up for the big night.

8:03 The W G A is expected to picket the event. That's the writer's Union, I believe, writer's Guild of America and most other entertainment industry Union SAG aftra, which I'm a member of, actors Equity, which I'm a member of, and the Director's Guild are all standing lockstep behind the striking writers. And that's what always happens in our world here. The Insider said, They have to, can it? Nobody will participate. No actors will do it. Oh boy. Multiple sources have said they doubt. Tony's host Ariana Debos, who won the Oscar for playing Anita in West Side Story.

8:45 Did you see that? That was great. She was wonderful. And was the mc last year would go through with the gig? Hmm? Would go through. Would go through. Oh, okay. So she wouldn't strike in a similar situation. Last week, drew Barrymore pulled out of hosting the MTV Awards in solidarity, but I guess Debose wouldn't show solidarity with the writers. Do I have that right? Multiple sources said they doubt. Tony's host Ariana Debos, who won the Oscar for playing Anita in West Side Story, and was the mc last year. Would go through with the gig. Oh, I read that wrong.

9:26 Okay. They doubt she would. Okay. Yeah, she would look pretty bad if she were to do that. And everybody else was striking actors equity. The union representing Broadway performers recently encouraged its members to join the picket lines outside H B O and Amazon's offices in Manhattan. And that union's President Kate Shindel. Told deadline this week, equity stands unequivocally with the Writer's Guild of America in their pursuit of a fair contract. But she added, it's too soon to predict whether this will impact the Tony Awards, which are extremely important to our community as we continue to rebuild.

10:08 Wow. What a conundrum. I mean, you wanna support your fellow artists, the writers, as as a performer. Because all of us are underpaid, really underpaid. I mean, especially Hollywood stuff and tv. I mean, they make ton of money and most of the actors are not making money. I mean, your big stars are making money, but the rest of us are not getting paid well and the writers aren't paid well and they need to be, there needs to be some oversight on this, and there needs to be, there needs to be solidarity in all the. All of the unions involved. So I'm for that.

10:49 But it causes a problem. And as Kate Shindel added here, it's too soon to predict whether this will impact the Tony Awards, which are extremely important to our community as we continue to rebuild. Yep. So there is still a a spark of hope that the show could go on. The producers of the Tony's have requested a waiver from the Director's Guild to go forward with the re telecast. That possible exemption is going to be discussed Thursday if the waiver is shut down. It's a heat show. She said. I sort that. Wow.

11:30 Boy, you know, there is so much. Arguing in this industry between people who are supposed to be cooperating with one another, and there's so much hate and distrust in this art that we call performance between the different factions, between producers and actors, between producers and writers, between actors and actors. Now, Actors of color versus actors of not color. And that, and I have grown to learn because I'm now 61 years old, that there is an unspoken one that used to be something that was in the lime line, but it isn't anymore, is ageist stuff.

12:16 I, it's so hard if you're an actor over 60 to get work. It's incredible. It's like once you pass 59, The amount of work available is incredibly low. And, and part of it is, and I was as guilty of this as anybody, when you're casting things and you're in your thirties and forties and even fifties, you have a prejudice against older people. I mean, you could cast older people in a lot of roles, and often I would put the age range of what I wanted like. 40 to 59. 40 to 55, I would do that myself. And now I, I regret that, you know, I can't believe I did that, but I did.

13:02 There's a lot of ageism in our society and it's not being dealt with because we're dealing with other things. Yeah. Yay. I found a really cool article here in the New York Times f five nominated Broadway shows and Five Stagecraft Secrets. Oh, I love this. So this is a lot more fun, a little more popular. This is an article by Michael Paulson who reads theater at its best is a form of magic. En chance us transforms us and often makes us wonder, how do they do that On Broadway where craft is polished and spectacle is heightened, there's much at which to marvel.

13:44 So this spring, now that all the 2022 and 2023 plays and musicals have opened, we have once again asked a few of the Tony nominated shows to let us speak behind the metaphorical curtain. Exploring how they came up with and pulled off some of the sensational stagecraft that caught our attention this season. Warning spoilers ahead. Now, I love this kind of stuff because when I was directing a lot, which I hope one day I do again some of the best ideas that come to you for a show are from the most mundane. Circumstances and you're sitting there and you and instead and a good director, instead of just throwing it away, we'll say, Hmm, that's interesting.

14:29 I love the fact that she's sitting that way in that chair and it doesn't really fit in the play, but it's extremely interesting to watch. Can we make that happen? And when you do things like that, ki things that seem kind of disjointed or not really. Part of the, the traditional way of doing a show, that's often where, where genius can manifest itself. So anyway, here a Doll's House they're talking about, which is, is on Broadway right now, a, a a. A re a revamp of the Ipson Play Doll's House. The show begins before the show begins before it begins.

15:11 20 minutes ahead of each performance of a Doll's House. As ticket holders are taking their seats at the Hudson Theater, a curtain rises to reveal the star Jessica Chastain, the movie star slumped. In an escrow stacking chair, slowly revolving around the bear stage. Now, see how cool that is? This is a doll's house. She's just sitting in a regular old chair, you know, the kind you have in the auditorium, just sitting there on a revolving stage for 20 minutes, and, and that's, that's incredible for Doll's House, if you know the play you know, she's pondering her future.

15:52 The wordless pre-show, a big Hollywood star silently spinning was born of an impulse. Here we go. This is what I was talking about before the revivals director, Jamie Lloyd, had long thought. He wanted to restrict Chastain's movement in some way as a visual metaphor for the way her character Nora Hemmer, feels stuck as a woman and a wife. Now in an early read through in Chastain's apartment planted the seed of this idea, so the, the actors got together with the director and they all met at her apartment. This is for a Broadway show. Don't you love that? Theater is always just theater.

16:33 I mean, I've done that so many times. The first reading you just do at somebody's house. Cool. It was at Jessica Chastain's apartment. Now she did the reading from her armchair prompting a transfixed Lloyd to suggest she considered performing the play that way. Now his, to his surprise, she agreed and the one, and, and then one upped him with a joke. That turned serious. Perhaps she could already be in the chair as if Nora had long been there when the audience arrived. Cool. So this was a collaboration between the director and the actor. The only thing that I see here that is different from what would normally happen is that because of Jessica Chastain's celebrity The director had to suggest she consider performing the play that way.

17:28 Oh, Jessica Queen Jessica, would you please consider this? Normally, a director would say, what I would like you to do is this. How do you feel about it? And you better say, yeah, I like that. But it's Jessica Chastain. She can do whatever she wants. I wanted to feel like I've been sitting there for years, she said, and haven't fully woken up to the possibilities and why does she rotate? So she rotates on the stage. Lloyd said that concept was central to the show's design. It's a very political play, that's why it's endured, but it's also very psychological about someone spiraling out of control, he said.

18:10 There is something disorienting about the experience she goes on. Now, in case you don't know, the Dolls House. A Doll's House. So there's a controversy about the actual title, whether it's a Doll's House. The Doll's House. Doll's House, whatever. Nora and her husband live in a house and they have some kids and Nora's disgruntled and she's sort of a feminist. When there was no feminism, which makes Ipson a genius. And at the end, and this is a spoiler, so if you don't want to hear it, press pause and fast forward, okay. I'm giving you the chance right now. Okay.

18:51 And she abandons her children at the end of the play, just walks out and that's the end of the show. That was a huge deal way back in the late 18 hundreds when this play was written and still kind of is when you think about it. All right. Yeah. The sh the, the pre-show sit and spin, they called it conceived as a metaphor has also paid tangible dividends. It has a for stalled entrance applause, and it has allowed fans to get their Instagramming out of the way photography is permitted until the show begins. Oh, cool. Yeah. So what they're talking about there is a lot of times if a big movie star is in a play or a musical, When they enter for the first time in the play, the audience stands and applauds them, which is so stupid, but it happens all the time.

19:45 So it's not gonna happen in this play because she's already on stage when they walk in. So there's no opportunity for them to do that. And it also you know, they can take their pictures of her, which they're gonna want to do and put up on the internet in Instagram or Facebook or whatever. And get up that out of the way because people would just sneak and do it anyway during the play and they didn't want 'em to do that. And this was a way of get getting that out of the way so people wouldn't do it. During the show Genius, everyone has their moment of looking at Jessica Chastain and, and taking pictures and, and then that dissipates. So by the end of the pre-show, they see Nora, not the movie Star Chastain said.

20:28 I'm adding my own commentary on here. I have to for copyright laws and also I just don't wanna read an article to you. I want them to let go of the celebrity baggage they are carrying. Love that She has a lot of self-awareness. I like that there is admittedly some discomfort and not just because Chastain Fi finds the chair uncomfortable. I feel like I can't hide. She said people can film and take pictures and see every part of me, and it takes me and it makes me feel like an object. They are studying. Meanwhile, she is studying them back. The second it starts, I start making eye contact with people and I really connect to them and I actually send them messages.

21:14 She says, oh, that is cool. I love that. So she as the actor for 20 minutes is on stage. Making eye contact and communicating with people in the audience. That is so cool. On occasion, she'll see someone she recognizes, or someone who tries to get her attention. Tr she tries hard not to react, at least not visibly. I don't wave. I don't change my body position and I don't smile. She said, I don't do things separate from Nora, but I connect to them. Well, that's good. If you see your mom or your sister or your, your neighbor, if she sees her apartment mate or floor mate or somebody in her reading, Oprah reading club, she doesn't wave at them.

21:59 Hey, how you doing? I, I fill myself up with the energy that I'm receiving, and by the end of the pre-show, I am completely open. She added, I feel so open to the room. I, I feel so open to the emotions that show up and I feel. That's because we are all on this psychological journey together. Very cool. I, I've done this in a couple of plays that I've directed. I learned it when I was in London going to Royal Academy in Dramatic Art. It was a big thing to do there in theater at the time. In fact, I can't even remember a play that I went to there where that wasn't done. It was the end thing.

22:39 So when I came back to the United States, I did it. And I remember I directed a, a Fool for Love by Sam Shepherd. And I had the father sitting on the stage doing exactly what she's doing for like 20 minutes before and in a rocking chair. And it really, it really for certain plays, it really adds a lot to the experience for the audience. And so I love this. I hope I get the chance to see it. I hope they don't close or anything like that. And now let's talk about my favorite musical of all time, the Sweeney Todd, Sweeney Todd, the Work of Genius by Steven Sondheim.

23:25 I fill myself up with energy that I'm receiving, and by the end of the pre-show I am completely open. Oh, wait a second. That was from the other one. That was from Doll's House. Okay. Sweeney Todd, I've murdered many, many people on Broadway. Jeremy Chair. Nick says before clarifying, fake, murdered chair, Nick is the special effects designer for Sweeney Todd. In which The Vengeful Barber played by Josh Groin. You know Josh Groin? What a voice that guy has. You know, I think he did musical theater when he was like high school and college, but he hasn't done it since. I don't believe. So this is a cool thing for him.

24:06 So Josh Groin kills a bunch of people. His bodies were then baked into pies by his loving land lady. Played by Angel Ashford. Yes. That's one of the main themes of this musical. In case you didn't know the gruesome homicides, most of the show's nine deaths are by throat slitting. These are people who've come in to get a shave and a haircut from Sweeney, and he slits their throats and they go down a shoot, get thrown in an oven for meat pies. Yeah. That's right. The Gruesome Homicides most of the shows nine deaths are by Throat Sledding, provide a series of logistical challenges for any team that stages this classic show, which features songs by Stephen Sondheim.

24:51 Here's how this production's creative team address them. The Chair Sweeney kills his customers and a barber chair then dumps their bodies into a chute that leads to the Pie Shop Oven. The Revival Set Designer Mimi Land. Said her top priority was safety because in some earlier productions of the classic musical actors have been injured while being ejected from the chair. Yes. That is always a possibility. I have been in this show and yeah, we had a chair that ejected people into a shoot and then they fell down to the bottom and yeah, it's not always perfectly safe. I've seen productions where they don't do it that way and it kind of takes away from the, the whole thing.

25:34 I mean, it's, it's, it's something to see. So it, I love it when they do it cuz that's how it was designed to be done and it's the way it should be done. Leanne designed, oh, let me say one thing though. I did see a production of it where the actors were on stage doing the show and also playing the instruments and singing. So they couldn't do that. But that was amazing in another way. And that was like 15 years ago. And I saw it with Judy K here in San Francisco, and she played Mrs. Lovett. Loved that show. Anyway, let's get back to this lean, designed, a Victorian cast iron chair upholstered in ox blood, red sy synthetic leather. Many of her aesthetic choices were driven by functional concerns.

26:16 The fabric needed to be smooth and slippery so the bodies would slide easily, and both the fabric and arms of the chair needed to be simple. No tufting, for example, or textured leathers to avoid creating opportunities for costumes to snag or blood to pool. The chair has hinges and levers that allow it to flatten like a gurney. Each time a customer is killed, Groen flattens the chair, swivels it into place. The creative team thought body dumping would look best in profile. I agree. Otherwise you just see someone falling backwards. But I like the profile thing cuz you could see the whole body like slide and the bleeding neck into the.

27:02 Oven of despair, so yeah. Swivels into place and raises it to a 45 degree angle. Releasing the actor through an open trap door, they go feet first. Leanne thought a headfirst maneuver would look more dramatic, but abandon the idea over safety concerns. Yeah, good idea. Yeah. Feet first is the way it should be done cuz. Otherwise an actor might land on their head. The actors fall about four or five feet into a padded area. Ooh, no wonder. Okay, that's a big one. Well, it's Broadway, so it has to be big not visible to the audience where there are crew members waiting to help them off stage and if necessary out of their costumes. The blood chair neck chose Nick Dud.

27:43 Man's pigs might fly a sugar based washable stage blood. Chair, Nick said he, he liked that the blood is sticky rather than slippery To reduce stage hazards. A huge part of my job is figuring out how the show goes on after blood is everywhere. So years ago, before you could buy this kind of stuff, that was any good, or if you couldn't afford it, what we used to do was use carro syrup. If you don't know what that is, it's like, Syrup that some of us used to put on our pancakes as children before we realized that it was so full of a sugar that we would be guaranteed of getting diabetes. But it's clear syrup. I know that's gross.

28:24 I don't know what it's made out of. It's very sweet. And you put red dye number two and use Caro syrup and that's what we used to do. And it's gross and sticky though. So this stuff sounds like it's a lot easier to clean up. Okay. Many productions of Sweeney Todd have furnished the tidal character with a razor blade that squirts blood. But Chernik said the modern audience wants more blood than can fit in a razor blade. So he chose instead to build a blood vessel into the barber capes worn by the customers. Oh, that's a good idea. And the actors triggered the. The spurt of blood as their characters are killed, each death requires about a tennis balls, volume of blood.

29:09 Oh, that's a lot of blood. Oh, that must be, I can't wait to see this. I love blood on stage. It's so cool. Oh, if you wanna see blood on stage, oh, you gotta see this Irish play by McDonough. What's it called? Oh, what is the name of that? Oh yes, I remember the Lieutenant of Inish Moore. Oh. You ever get a chance to see that play? See it if you like blood on stage as I do. Yeah. Cool. So let's see. We worked on quantity through previews, so quantity of blood churn said to thread the needle between what gets a reaction from the audience and what is distracting and gross.

29:52 And gross, distracting and gross. We don't want distracting and gross and people aren't paying attention anymore. They're just getting sick and walking out the cleanup. Once the actors are off stage, their bloody clothing is removed and brought to a laundry room. In the theater basement, there are three washing machines, three dryers, a slop sink. What is it? Slop sink. Hmm. I guess it's one of those big sinks that you have in a basement, you know, that you throw like paint in and stuff like that. And tubs where cotton garments are soaked, the blood comes out of the polyester items more easily.

30:33 Some of the clothing is hosed down as soon as it comes off of a performer's body. There are spares for two show days. Oh yeah, yeah. You have to have two costumes on Like on Sundays or Saturdays, when or Wednesdays when you have two shows. Cuz if they're all soaked and getting wet and drying, you're gonna have to have other stuff. Yeah, I've done many, many Broadway shows, but this is my first show dealing with blood on this scale. So Jess Galvin, the wardrobe supervisor, it does create some challenges. Blood splatters. So we're always on the lookout for blood on costumes in random places.

31:16 Gro, when the show stars said the effects are key to making the show work, I agree with him. Sweeney Todd needs effects and it needs blood and it needs violence. The thing is, the reason it needs blood is because most of the time you see a lot of blood like that When he is slitting throats. He's also singing this, this beautiful ballad. And the, the, the contrast is hilarious. It really, it's funny because he's slitting their throats while he's singing this beautiful song. And the more blood there is, the more contrast there is. And, and the funnier it is. It, it's, it's incredible.

31:58 I know it doesn't sound funny, but it's funny. Yeah, so Groin, the show Star said the effects are key to making the show work. It's such an amazing reaction when people see the chair happening for the first time. See, this is what I was saying, or the blood coming out for the first time, he said, and it's a lot of fun for me. My hands are doing these dark, twisted things while this singing is pretty romantic. Hey, am I a genius? I didn't even read this before. See? That's why this is my job. And I think that's the rub that Sondheim had in mind. Thank you Josh. Grin. Oh my God. See, I didn't even read that, and that's exactly what I said, isn't it? You heard it for yourself and I swear to God I didn't read it.

32:43 And there's a couple other plays on here, but I think that's good for today. That was a lot of fun. I wanna do that more often. I, I really enjoy doing this because I, I get to. Read something I find interesting and then I get to give you my little takes on it, given my incredibly vast experience in the theater. Ah, all righty folks, thank you so much for listening, and if you enjoyed this show, please tell your friends. It really, I'm not kidding. I mean, it, it, it really helps if you tell people about this show. Forward link, a link to them, to the webpage or a link from your favorite podcasting platform. And if you could give me a review, it would really help. Just go into Apple Podcast.

33:24 If you're on your phone, you just go down to the bottom of the podcast page and you can leave a review or just give it five stars or four or three or two or one. But don't do that, just five. And yeah, please, please do that when you get a chance. And if you would like to correspond with me, just send me an email to greenroom OnAir gmail.com and I'd be happy to to chat with you. All right, folks. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great week, UN and until next time, as always, I will see you on the boards. Take care everybody.