Casting Coup Month: The Night of the Iguana

NOMINATIONS

Best Supporting Actress - Grayson Hall

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Gabriel Figeuroa

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White - Stephen B. Grimes

Best Costume Design - Dorothy Jeakins (WON)

 

It has all led to this.

You're lovely, absolutely lovely...

Two years ago, when I had a Livejournal, I submitted a list of Ten Celebrity Crushes of the moment. It was one of those memes going around, and everyone else focused on the menfolks, so I thought I had to contribute a little something something. Well, two years is a long time, with new fixations and surprise crushes springing up. So while it used to look like this:

1. Drew Barrymore
2. Meryl Streep
3. Jenna Fischer
4. Maggie Gyllenhaal
5. Miley Cyrus
6. Joan Allen
7. Julianne Moore
8. Laura Linney
9. Helen Mirren
10. Allison Janney

...it may have changed substantially. For instance, it's been a while since I've loved Janney or Mirren in something, though I always look forward to their work. I mean, all these ladies will always be adored by me, but what Hollywood beauties have been haunting my dreams lately? Take a look:

10. Nancy Olson

Academy Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Sunset Blvd)

Purely because of Sunset Blvd. I don't think I've seen her in anything else, actually. But listening to ALW's "Too Much in Love to Care" and picturing Miss Olson singing it should be enough to do anybody in.

9. Kristen Stewart

Oh, I did not expect this, either. Then The Runaways came out and showed me that, hey, this girl can actually act! She's always kind of fallen into the trap of using her tics, but when she has a director willing to get a real performance out of her (Into the Wild), she's fantastic. And adorable. And I am totally going to the midnight of Eclipse.

8. Penelope Cruz

Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Nominee for Best Actress (Volver) and Best Supporting Actress (Nine)

When I first saw her in Gothika, I thought to myself, "Wow, why does everyone hate her? She's easily the best thing about this movie." For yes, there was a time when no one liked Penelope Cruz and thought her talentless. With an Oscar win and two additional nominations under her belt, she's hushed her critics. She's got a body that won't quit and an unusual beauty that is instantly bewitching.

7. Laura Linney

Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (The Nanny Diaries)

Academy Award Nominee for Best Actress (You Can Count On Me, The Savages) and Best Supporting Actress (Kinsey)

Can you believe she used to be one my least favorite actresses? Oh, the folly of youth! I don't get Showtime, so I'll have to find some other way to catch The Big C. When the hell is she going to win an Oscar? Or even a Tony? Anyway, she's a sophisticated kind of pretty, a high-class beauty, and clearly a smart woman. I like brains. Maybe not like zombies do, but I like them nonetheless.

6. Maggie Gyllenhaal

Academy Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Crazy Heart)

Sad though it may be that her least performance got her an Oscar nod, I still love Maggie. She seems like a feisty gal, one comfortable with her sexuality, yet equally comfortable in a Barnes & Noble cafe, know what I mean? That voice, too. That voice...

5. Julianne Moore

Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (A Single Man)

Academy Award Nominee for Best Actress (The End of the Affair, Far From Heaven) and Best Supporting Actress (Boogie Nights, The Hours)

Boy, she's moved up a bit, hasn't she? Is it her performance in A Single Man? The anticipation of The Kids Are All Right? Certain sequences in Chloe? She only grows more beautiful with each passing year.

4. Jessica Biel

Now here's a face that could launch a thousand ships. She shows up on-screen with the kind of gumption that reminds me of early Ashley Judd. And she can sing: not only does she show off her chanteuse skills in Easy Virtue, but she may be appearing on Broadway in a musical version of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, alongside Patti Lupone! Her additional assets also make her the living embodiment of Jessica Rabbit.

3. Glenn Close

Academy Award Nominee for Best Actress (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons) and Best Supporting Actress (The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural)

I blame Damages. An attractive older woman with confidence, intelligence and independence? Sexy. Her eyes bedazzle and her singing haunts. That she's become, at 63, the go-to gal for ball-busters on TV is awesome. Like Linney, she just emits this aura of Class, doesn't she?

2. Meryl Streep

Hollmann Award Winner for Best Supporting Actress (A Prairie Home Companion) and Nominee for Best Actress (Julie & Julia)

Academy Award Winner for Best Actress (Sophie's Choice) and Best Supporting Actress (Kramer vs. Kramer) and Nominee for Best Actress (The French Lieutenant's Woman, Silkwood, Out of Africa, Ironweed, A Cry in the Dark, Postcards from the Edge, The Bridges of Madison County, One True Thing, Music of the Heart, The Devil Wears Prada, Doubt, Julie & Julia) and Best Supporting Actress (The Deer Hunter, Adaptation)

Naturally, the Top Two are unchanged. Meryl will always be beautiful, always be talented, always give good interview. She's simply the best. Actress, that is.

1. Drew Barrymore

Remember the time everyone finally listened to me and recognized Drew Barrymore for her acting ability? That was a great couple of weeks. So much to admire about her: her bubbly demeanor, her openness to trying new things, her work ethic, the fact that she bounced back from a problematic childhood. A beautiful woman, inside and out, Drew will always be Number One.

Tony Award Nominees!

OK, and now the actual nominees:

BEST PLAY
In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play
Next Fall
Red
Time Stands Still
Hey, I got one! I did think I'd get Behanding in Spokane as well, but obviously, I was wrong.

BEST MUSICAL
American Idiot
Fela!
Memphis
Million Dollar Quartet
And here I got two! I should've gone with Memphis, at the very least. The Addams Family was not very loved, after all.

BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY
Fences
Lend Me a Tenor
The Royal Family
A View from the Bridge
Lend Me a Tenor got in instead of The Miracle Worker; I kind of thought it might.

BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
Finian's Rainbow
La Cage Aux Folles
A Little Night Music
Ragtime
Oh my God, they remembered Ragtime? Didn't that show close prematurely or something? This is awesome!

BEST ACTOR IN A PLAY
Jude Law, Hamlet
Alfred Molina, Red
Liev Schreiber, A View from the Bridge
Christopher Walken, A Behanding in Spokane
Denzel Washington, Fences
I guess one could make the argument that they're all movie stars...but one could hardly call Molina and Schreiber screen idols. They just happen to do films in between stage performances.

BEST ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Viola Davis, Fences
Valerie Harper, Looped
Linda Lavin, Collected Stories
Laura Linney, Time Stands Still
Jan Maxwell, The Royal Family

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Kesley Grammar, La Cage Aux Folles
Sean Hayes, Promises, Promises
Douglas Hodge, La Cage Aux Folles
Chad Kimball, Memphis
Sahr Ngaujah, Fela!
See? Everyone I thought would get in did get in! Except for Nathan Lane. I really overestimated how much they'd like that show.

BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Kate Baldwin, Finian's Rainbow
Sherie Rene Scott, Everyday Rapture
Montego Glover, Memphis
Christiane Noll, Ragtime
Catherine Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music
I haven't even heard of Everyday Rapture, but I did hear Sherie Rene Scott was in a musical this year. Oscar Winner Zeta-Jones must be overjoyed right now, though surely this nom was a given?

BEST FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY
David Alan Grier, Race
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Fences
Jon Michael Hill, Superior Donuts
Stephen Kunken, Enron
Eddie Redmayne, Red
And all I can think is that Julianne Moore's son from Savage Grace is a Tony Nominee.

BEST FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Maria Dizzia, In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play
Rosemary Harris, The Royal Family
Jessica Hecht, A View from the Bridge
Scarlett Johansson, A View from the Bridge
Jan Maxwell, Lend Me a Tenor
Ms. Maxwell, you've been a busy gal this year! I hope Scarlett's nom gives her detractors pause; the woman is a glorious actress, and now she's got a Tony nomination!

BEST FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Kevin Chamberlain, The Addams Family
Robin De Jesus, La Cage Aux Folles
Christopher Fitzgerald, Finian's Rainbow
Levi Kreis, Million Dollar Quartet
Bobby Steggert, Ragtime
Chamberlain got in! I am really excited that two shows that closed early, Finian's Rainbow and Ragtime, are doing so well.

BEST FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Barbara Cook, Sondheim on Sondheim
Katie Finneran, Promises, Promises
Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music
Karine Plantadit, Come Fly Away
Lillias White, Fela!

BEST BOOK OF A MUSICAL
Everyday Rapture
Fela!
Memphis
Million Dollar Quartet

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Addams Family
Enron
Fences
Memphis
Fences and Enron, two straight plays, have nominations for score? Have things changed that much? Perhaps the increase of jukebox musicals and the rise of scoring straight plays (these aren't movies, people) called for drastic measures. Le sigh.

BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY
Michael Grandage, Red
Sheryl Kaller, Next Fall
Kenny Leon, Fences
Gregory Mosher, A View from the Bridge

BEST DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL
Christopher Ashley, Memphis
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, Ragtime
Terry Johnson, La Cage Aux Folles
Bill T. Jones, Fela!

Last-Minute Tony Predix

I'm not looking at the Tony noms yet. Too nervous. I love the Tonys, and I never miss a show. Last year, I came back from set and watched the proceedings go down alone in my room, with a can of Dr Pepper my only company. This year, I plan on doing more or less the same thing.

My quick and dirty predix, the day of the noms. These are not based on anything I hear or follow, just random choosing. Incomplete, too, since my knowledge of the theatre world has significantly decreased since drama classes in high school:

BEST PLAY
A Behanding in Spokane
Enron
Superior Donuts
Time Stands Still

BEST MUSICAL
The Addams Family
American Idiot
Come Fly Away
Fela!

BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY
Fences
The Royal Family
The Miracle Worker
A View from the Bridge

BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
La Cage aux Folles
Finian's Rainbow
A Little Night Music
Promises, Promises

BEST ACTOR IN A PLAY
Daniel Craig, A Steady Rain
Liev Schreiber, A View from the Bridge
Christopher Walken, A Behanding in Spokane
Denzel Washington, Fences

BEST ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Viola Davis, Fences
Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking
Valerie Harper, Looped
Laura Linney, Time Stands Still

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Kelsey Grammar, La Cage aux Folles
Chad Kimbel, Memphis
Nathan Lane, The Addams Family
Sahr Ngaujah, Fela!

BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Bebe Neuwirth, The Addams Family
Catherine Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music

BEST FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Scarlett Johansson, A View from the Bridge
Alicia Silverstone, Time Stands Still

BEST FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Jackie Hoffman, The Addams Family
Angela Lansbury, A Little Night Music

BEST FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Kevin Chamberlain, The Addams Family