June 11, 2006

More Predictions for Tonight’s Tonys

June 11th, 2006

There are just a few hours until the telecast of the 60th Annual Tony Awards begin–and last-minute theatre critic predictions keep popping up on the Internet. Here are just a few more:

Columbus Dispatch theatre critic Michael Grossberg says Boys’ should walk like men at tonight’s Tony Awards. The History Boys, the best play of the 2005-06 Broadway season, and Jersey Boys, the most electrifying and moving new musical, deserve recognition tonight. No doubt they will get it — although Jersey Boys could lose the Tony for best musical to The Drowsy Chaperone, a small but ingenious spoof that ranks among the funniest new musicals in years.

The blockbuster, though, is Jersey Boys, a jukebox musical that substitutes Top 40 hits for an original score. It offers a gutsy and honest blue collar portrait of the Four Seasons, the 1960s male quartet that overcame New Jersey roots, debts and conflicts.

Grossberg also thinks John Lloyd Young should be honored for his incarnation of Frankie Valli.

NJ.com thinks the Boys look hard to beat for Broadway’s top prizes tonight. Jersey Boys and The History Boys are expected to nab the best musical and best drama titles. Still, wicked surprises have shocked many a likely winner over the Tony Awards’ 60-year history. This season’s contests should be no exception.

Since musicals dominate Broadway both in dollars and profile, the face-off between Jersey Boys and The Drowsy Chaperone arouses the most speculation. A bold bio-musical about the Four Seasons’ rise to rock ‘n’ roll glory that spins the group’s greatest hits, Jersey Boys is gritty and dynamic. A loving tribute to the insane charm of 1920s musical comedies, The Drowsy Chaperone is giddy and adorable.

Purists sniff that the Jersey Boys stack of pop classics does not an original Broadway musical make. Perfectionists gripe that The Drowsy Chaperone is not a top-drawer spoof of antique tuners.

Jay Handelman of the Herald Tribune states that Jersey Boys is the musical biography of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, and faces stiff competition from the late-season entry The Drowsy Chaperone.
If Handelman were voting, he’d give the award to Jersey Boys, which was the must joyful, ebullient musical of the season. It brought new life to the despised jukebox musical format, which repackages familiar hits. Jersey packaged it in an often thrilling way.

As for the Best Actor category, Handelman says John Lloyd Young is so good playing Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys that you quickly forget he’s not the real one.

1 Comment »

  1. John Lloyd Young was Awesome! but I hope when he’s interviewed he mentions the real Frankie Valli.

    Comment by Patti — June 11, 2006 @ 11:05 pm

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