The Tonys Part Deux...
By some cosmic twist of fate, I was invited to the Tonys for a second time in a row. Last year on May 20th, I won the Sing for your Tony tickets contest sponsored by Macy's and the American Theatre Wing. This year on May 24, I won the IBDB.com online Tonys Quiz contest sponsored by the League of American Theatres & Producers, Inc.
I thought it was a joke. I received an email from Neal Freedman saying “We would like to congratulate you as the GRAND PRIZE WINNER of our IBDB.com Tonys Quiz contest!” I didn’t believe it. I thought it was spam. But I responded with a short email: “You’ve got to be kidding.” Neal wrote back, “Believe it! I am assuming by your e-mail that you are accepting the prize and are available to travel to New York on Sunday June 11 for the Tonys. Please confirm.” The Tonys… twice… in a row! This is ridiculous luck! I’m not lucky like this. Before last year, I had never even won a prize before. My friends just smiled and told me it was fate. We arrived in New York City on Sunday afternoon. This year, we were given a yellow room on the top floor of the Time Hotel on 49th street next door to Sweeney Todd and Chicago. We set down our things in the room and opened the envelope left for us at the desk. Inside, was a dark green pouch closed with the silver Tony medallion seal that held our tickets. Wow. What a feeling. Even though I had lived this moment before last year, it still was very much as exciting… but there was much to do!
I didn’t have long in NYC this trip so with only a few hours before the show, I ran to Century 21 to do some bargain shopping. Century 21 is not a real estate office but rather the best bargain outlet for couture clothes, shoes and accessories in New York. Like most discount stores, you can’t go in search of something specific. But you can find the most unique and fabulous things at affordable prices. Usually, I wear my most comfortable sneakers and shop for a minimum of 3 hours. But this time, I had only 1.5 hours to power shop. I started in the fantabulous shoe department and bought $100 sneakers and sandals at $30 a piece. Next, I ran to the men’s department to buy my husband the dress socks he forgot to bring with his tux. A quick trip through the accessories department didn’t turn up the brown or black purse I was hoping to find, so I ran upstairs because I always find time for the lingerie department. Running now with only 15 minutes left, I quickly scanned the top floor and found the most gorgeous and flattering bathing suit ever. I was making great time when I left for the subway, unfortunately there was a tunnel fire on the A line so I sat at the West 4th station for 20 minutes. By the time, I got back to our hotel it was 5pm and I had only an hour to get ready before Neal from the Theatre League would be waiting in the lobby for our pictures.
Amazingly, I was having a perfect hair day. Thanks to my hair dresser, Alice, I have an awesome cut that looks amazing with very little work. And over the years I’ve become adept at applying my makeup in 10 minutes or less, so we were ready in time and looking fabulous in the lobby by 6pm.
Neal has been my contact regarding my contest prize for the past couple weeks. And I was looking forward to meeting him since he had been so lovely over email. He was there ready with his camera when we arrived downstairs. He was headed to the Tony’s himself and the gala afterwards. …We did ask about the after party held by the American Theatre Wing every year, but unfortunately tickets to the gala were not part of my prize package. Ah, well. Anyway, the photos are going to appear on IBDB.com and I’ll provide a link when they do.
This year, we weren’t able to enjoy the red carpet. We walked to the Tonys. But we still had fun waiting in line outside while folks watched behind the barricades hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the 60 stars set to host the event this year. We certainly did feel special though, all dressed up with our silver tickets.
Once through the door, we walked towards the theatre as we mingled with other theatre professionals invited because of their affiliation with nominated shows. I wish everyone was wearing a “HELLO, I AM…” sticker since (other than the bigger stars like Carolee Carmelo and Norman Leo Butz) many of the faces in the Broadway theatre are still unknown to me but I had fun trying to guess who was who. Behind us, I caught a glimpse of Harry Connick, Jr. walking through the door. He’s very tall with big hair and very hard to miss. And I also recognized Zoe Wanamaker (best known in the states as Harry Potter’s Quidditch teacher) who was nominated for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Awake and Sing!
Once at our seat, we marveled at our luck since all around us we saw recognizable Broadway folks and television and film stars. And it became obvious later that the cast of History Boys (Tony winner for Best Play) was sitting behind us. I looked up to the balcony where we were sitting last year. I tried to pick out the winners since my friend Maryanne was sitting in my seat after winning the singing contest in Boston this year. But I couldn’t step out far enough to see anyone in the mezzanine. And we never ended up finding each other.
Sitting down, I recognized Dana Ivey right away sitting to my left. My husband urged me to say hello to our neighbor since we’d be sitting next to one another for the next three hours. We exchanged cordial hellos but after that she was incredibly unfriendly. We didn’t exchange another word the rest of the evening. I wish I could have thought of something interesting to say… after all, the woman has worked with Stephen Sondheim! But I’m just terrible at small talk and she didn’t seem to want to chat anyway. Last year, I watched her win the Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for The Rivals, and I was surprised that she wasn’t asked to present the award this year… especially since her face is quite recognizable from numerous television appearances and movies including The Color Purple. But I did find out later that she was on The 2006 Tony Award Nominating Committee, so perhaps she was frosty because she didn’t want me to bug her about nominating me next year.
Not having been back to New York since last year’s Tony awards, I was not well educated regarding this years nominees. Perhaps that’s why the show didn’t seem as enjoyable as last year. Although I have to admit that I truly missed Hugh Jackman. Not just because he’s hot but because his charming personality made the commercial breaks worth waiting for… I loved how he chatted with the audience and invited random people to join him onstage. This year, the show clipped along at a speedy pace so I don’t really have very many amusing anecdotes for you regarding the backstage antics during the commercial breaks. There were no antics. Everything was very businesslike and I was grateful that the evening didn’t seem overly long but I missed the charm of a gracious host who invites you into their world for a few hours.
We weren’t invited to any glamorous after-parties, so the end of the evening found us at Don't Tell Mamas. Funny how quickly you go from feeling like Cinderella as you literally rub elbows with Broadway royalty (and pretending if only for a few hours that you are a part of such a talented and amazing community of people) to feeling wilted and sadly common as you walk into an empty piano bar a few blocks away. Mark prodded me to sing a few songs at the open mic, but Dana Ivey isn’t going to nominate me next year for my performance of Someone Like You at a cabaret bar. But who knows… year after year I do seem to be getting closer to the stage.