Tony Fever

After getting back from Case's wedding reception, I had a momentary urge to bang my head on the wall for forgetting it was the TONY'S!!! Pakshet. But, thank God for Arvin's HD comcast cable with recording features, alas! nothing is missed. He already recorded it save for the first few minutes of the TONY'S. God, I love technology and my friends who appreciate it. So we sat down and view it before midnight.

I must say that the sound system is terrible. Some songs are distorted because of feedback and loss of fidelity on higher decibels. I wish the sound engineers are now on their knees in St. Patrick's, atoning for last night's folly.

It was an interesting season because there are a lot of unexpected nominees. In the Heights, a Broadway musical about the upper west latino village, obtained 13 nominations, while Cry-Baby had 11. I haven't seen these shows, since the season started after I went back to Manila, save for the revival of Gypsy. The show was initially a 2-week gig at the NYC City Theater, but later on, somebody produced it to go with these season's show in Broadway. I watched it with Arvin, Marialena, Cindy, Jong and of course, Alex. I should be thankful to Alex for dragging me to this show; although, I was interested from the start. Patty Lupone and a classic Broadway show is nothing to be missed.

And I am super surprised that Patti Lupone won Best Actress!! She truly deserved it! She delivered a very heart warming and super funny acceptance speech last night, which really cracked me up that I had to watch it again this morning. I was crying and chuckling at the same time.

Of course, I got emotional with the performance of the original cast of Rent. It was dedicated to Jonathan Larson, the playwright of the play who died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm while they were rehearsing. Rent started my Broadway frenzy long after I was a bit fascinated on Miss Saigon. For me, RENT was the epitome of a cool, hip Broadway play: minimal drama, less boring cadences of the usual Broadway songs and the rich, colorful, unconventional characters. It was my choice of Broadway, so I feel for it.

I had to shed a tear for Sondheim, this years' recepient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. He's terribly brilliant. The Stephen King of the Broadway stage. If I ever chose to get a Ph.D. in Broadway studies, I would be a Sondheim scholar. I could rave for hours of his brilliance. This year's revival of Sunday in The Park With George has a very interesting, technologically advanced, stage production. Gotta see that one.

In The Heights won Best Musical and I must say, I have to take the hat off to Lin-Manuel Miranda, the lyricist, composer AND lead actor of the play. He is one talented dude! Their performace looks fun and I am surely going to see that one.

I'm still burning with Tony fever and it will be tough to cool off in this hot summer day. It's almost 85 degrees here.