I have an interesting chore ahead of me this afternoon. I’ll be attending my first meeting as a newly elected member of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, which is not a social club: we convene each May to vote on the annual Drama Critics’ Circle awards, which will be announced May 24 at a bash to be held at the Algonquin, with Edward Albee as our special guest. Don’t expect any blogging about our double-secret conclave, though, unless a fistfight breaks out, in which case I’m on it like a bonnet.
Coincidentally, this year’s Tony nominations were announced yesterday. (For a complete list, go here.) According to Jesse McKinley of the New York Times, the big story
was who didn’t get asked to the party:
In the competition for leading actor in a play, Denzel Washington, appearing at the Belasco as Brutus in “Julius Caesar,” was left off the list, as was Jeff Goldblum, who plays a curious cop in Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy “The Pillowman.” In the leading-actress category, meanwhile, Jessica Lange was passed over for her performance as the mother in a revival of “The Glass Menagerie,” and Natasha Richardson was overlooked for her work in another Tennessee Williams revival, “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
None of this, of course, was at all surprising to anyone who keeps a reasonably close eye on theater in New York. The real surprises will come when the awards are handed out on June 5. In the meantime, I thought it might be amusing to do a little preliminary handicapping, so here are my personal picks for the major prizes, accompanied by a smattering of cynical who’s-really-gonna-win commentary