Sing For Your Tony Tickets...

On May 20, I won the Sing for your Tony tickets contest sponsored by Macy's and the American Theatre Wing. We had a choice of one of eight songs from the Tony Awards songbook. I had 45 seconds to sing my best rendition of Cabaret. I couldn't believe it when I realized that I was going to be attending the Tony's!!! Whoo hooo!

Saturday afternoon June 4th, we arrived in New York. We were staying at the Time Hotel, a boutique (which means small) hotel in Times Square.

I got a manicure/pedicure (ahhhhhhhhhhh, at last) and we met friends, Dodie and Michael, for drinks in the hotel lobby. My husband was wearing his new suit from Macy's since he planned to wear the tuxedo I got him for Christmas to the show. He looked so fab…. And so did I actually, cause I had a reason to pull out a fab Kenneth Cole dress I’ve been saving. Our friends also arrived looking fab. And since we were all looking fab and talking theater… and since written all over my hotel reservations were “Tony Awards Winner” (Oh, sure… I wish!)… I think the hotel restaurant folks thought we were somebody because they brought over $100 worth of shi-shi appetizers. Steak tar-tar and tuna and salmon and oysters. Yum! Then we went to Maria Pia’s where we were given a gift certificate for a free three course dinner (part of the Macy’s prize package) which was fantastic!

Sunday, we went for a walk in Central Park. The day was hot and gorgeous. We walked for two hours through the zoo. I was hoping to see The Gates, but apparently they’re up near 72nd and we didn’t get that far. Even though we were tired, I think the walk did us good to get our nerves out. When we got back, I jumped in the shower and got ready for Alice, my hairdresser to arrive.

Alice just happened to be in the city with her sister visiting the Nomadic Museum on the Hudson that day and insisted that she do my hair. Thanks Alice!

We met my friend Eric downstairs (who had been invited by his friend Kelly who was nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Light in the Piazza). We met him downstairs with the other Macy’s winners (NY, Boston, San Francisco, LA). The winner from San Francisco was 10 years old. Found out later that this kid has worked with Disney twice and has a bi-coastal agent. She was cute as can be and her mother was not an annoying theatre mom at all. Northern Californians rock.

The best part of the whole entire thing was the limo ride over. We rode with the three other winners and their dates… And Eric came along too. We drove through crowds behind barriers with cameras. When we stepped out of the limo, we found Christina Applegate talking with reporters and there were lights and cameras everywhere. We stood there for a little while not sure what to do next. We hadn’t really been given any instruction and no one was bothering with us at all since we weren’t famous.

At this point, we were rather surprised that there was no one from Macy’s there to guide us or take publicity shots for their store or anything. Once we all had won the prize they kind of dropped the whole thing. Not sure why they would want to spend over $2K a piece on each couple and then not pursue the advertising opportunity. Seems like a big waste of almost $10K!! Besides… I really wanted SOMEBODY to take my picture! We weren’t allowed to bring our cameras with us and now I realized that there would be no red carpet pictures. Poo!

So, we kind of stood there with confusion on our faces not knowing what to do. But we would have to move to make way for the really important people so my husband took charge and led us down the carpet toward the door and we followed. We ended up behind Philip Bosco who was nominated for best featured actor in 12 Angry Men. And even though the photographers couldn’t even be bothered with looking at us, we enjoyed watching the attention being lavished on Philip and his wife Nancy. And since we had to wait for them to get through, it made the trip down the carpet last much longer.

Once inside, we milled around the lobby looking for famous people. Everyone else was covertly doing the same. But they must lead the famous people to another lobby or area before the show because they weren’t where we were. Although you knew that you were hobnobbing with industry professionals who I may have been sending my headshot to for years but didn’t recognize because I don’t know what these people look like. Still, you could tell by the clothes who was somebody and who wasn’t. The fabrics were exquisite. It was really easy to tell the $100 dresses from the mall versus the silk and organza dresses that flowed and swayed and clung to these other women. I was happy that I chose to wear the bridesmaid dress from my wedding because it was made from silk-shantung…. But even though *I* think it was very elegant, it still didn’t look anywhere near as gorgeous as many of the gowns I saw and sighed over that night.

We took our seats in the front row of the first mezzanine. Other than being a nominee sitting in the Orchestra, these were the best seats in the house. I learned that past Macy’s winners have always had these great seats. Secretly I was hoping that perhaps during the show or on a commercial break there would be an announcement as to who we were and why we were sitting there, but it never happened.

Hugh Jackman was fabulous!!!! He was just soooooo relaxed and easy. He was having such a good time himself that you just had to enjoy it with him. And so gracious! On the commercial breaks he pulled a couple people out of the audience and gave them a chance to sing. Every producer/agent in town is sitting there for the audition of a lifetime!!! I wanted to yell and scream like a high school girl… which most probably would have gotten me onstage. But my husband would have been embarrassed and I was too shy to make a fool of myself, so I stayed quiet. Still, Hugh didn’t pick anyone who could take advantage of the situation. And the audience always prefers when a non-actor gets up there. But looking back, I guess this was my big chance if I had been willing to stand up in my seat and scream "I Love You, Hugh!" Ah well. No Tony for me.

But this is what happens when you don't Carpe Diem people... Read the article below from the gossip column of the New York Post...

SPEAKING OF birth, was a star just born in Manhattan? On Sunday, at Radio City Music Hall during the Tony awards, one of those gen-u-ine New York theater moments occurred. At a commercial break, host Hugh Jackman asked the audience if they had any requests. Somebody shouted out, "The Boy Next Door!" Hugh asked, "Who said that?" In the audience, sitting between Anna Wintour and Anna's daughter, Bee, Matthew Hoffman raised his hand and tentatively replied, "I did." Jackman had him up onstage in a flash. He and Hoffman, who is (natch!) an aspiring singer-actor, began a duet of the famous song from "Meet Me in St. Louis." But young Matthew wasn't giving it his all. Jackman stopped and said, very much in the manner of a director at an audition, "So, what else have you got?" Matthew said, "I Can See It" (from "The Fantastiks.") Hugh then stepped aside and gave Matthew the stage. Matthew offered a true Broadway performance. He hit the last notes just as the back-on-air signal came. Big applause! Later, at the post-show parties, Matthew was stopped by many big names. He was congratulated on his impromptu moment in the spotlight. If he becomes a star, it'll be the best up-from-nowhere tale since Shirley MacLaine got lucky because of Carole Haney's broken ankle. For now, Matthew is a singing waiter at Ellen's Stardust Diner.

He wasn't that great. ...Damn it!

Anyway, it was great fun to see bits of all the musicals performed live. And we enjoyed seeing how the show worked when the cameras were off and they were on commercial break. There were cameramen in the aisles frantically flipped through stapled papers with names and photos so they could spot the nominees and film them. And if anyone left their seat in the orchestra, there were “seat-fillers” waiting off to the side whose job it was to sit in your seat while you were gone so that Radio City would appear completely filled at all times.

Now, if you saw the show you’d be as surprised as the rest of us that Spamalot won Best Musical. If Light in the Piazza won almost every single award for directing and book and lighting design and etc then I ask you, how is it that it’s not voted Best Musical? Sure Sara Ramirez was funny and has a powerful voice (what a dress, huh? Talk about boobalicious!)… but every time she came out to sing in the show, she did the same thing over and over. By the end of the musical, I was bored with her. And the TV actors just sucked outright.

My friend Eric had seen the matinee of Light in the Piazza that day, and he said that it was the most gorgeous thing he had ever seen. He said that it was hard to pull a good excerpt for a quick 5 minute taste on the Tony’s because the show wasn’t structured in that way. But since it got most of the awards, it must be a must-see. I also loved the number they chose for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. And I also want to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Apparently, Spelling Bee chooses people from the audience to sit with the actors and compete. They sing a song when folks mess up and are escorted off stage. The San Francisco winner told me that she had seen a young girl be selected from the audience. She was first given the word COW to spell. On her second try they gave her a very difficult word expecting her to misspell it and continue with the show. But she got it right! So, she got the chance to sit down for another round.

After the show, we met up with Eric again downstairs. He was sitting in row P of the orchestra. He had tried to get us invited to the Light in the Piazza party, but it didn’t work out in the end. Eric went off to meet another friend and we walked around Time Square looking for a bite to eat.

We passed a bunch of Tony folks getting off a shuttle bus to go to a party at the Marriott. We thought about crashing but we weren’t really feeling it at that moment. So, we just walked by. When we came around the corner we saw crowds lined up to see folks coming out of limos. Found out later that it was the Tony Ball hosted by the American Theatre League. We should have been invited as the Macy's winners. Don't you think?

Instead, we ended up in an outdoor café on Seventh and 53rd called "Maison". One of the waiters sat down with us and started a conversation because he thought we were somebody. So, I guess we can fool waiters but not photographers. And probably not the bouncers at the door to the Spamalot party either. But we had an amazing time. It really made us miss, miss, miss New York City and the business. Next time I go to the Tony’s, I’m going as a nominee!