Stephen Dillane

From Mitchell Fink's gossip column in the NY Daily News today: The Broadway opening of Tom Stoppard's play "The Real Thing" is set to welcome George Stephanopoulos and Bebe Neuwirth, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Ivana Trump, Mira Sorvino, Gabriel Byrne, Heidi Klum and Liev Schreiber to the Barrymore Theater. The opening-night party is at Tavern on the Green. I guess this means I'm going to have a busy night. ~~~~~~~~~ Guess they didn't have room for Donna's name or her quivering lips. ;-)

And from the NY Post, a little blasphemy: Party central TOO much is happening tonight. While some culture vultures flock to the opening night of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" at the Barrymore, Miramax's first-ever stage production, other high-minded types will gather at Lincoln Center for the doling out of the National Arts Awards to the likes of Uma Thurman [yadda yadda yadda....]

According to Playbill.com, the Outer Critics' Circle Award Nominations have been announced and TRT has 4 nominations, SD for Oustanding Actor in a Play, JE, Outstanding Featured Actress in a play, DL. Best Director and TRT for best Revival. Also JE's Mum, has been nominated in the Best Actress category. Is Best Featured Actress the same as Best Supporting Actress?

Yes, Best Featured appears to be the equivalent of "Supporting"; however, there must be something wrong. How can Rosemary Harris be nominated as Best Actress for Waiting in the Wings, when I'm told her part is very small? Perhaps, they got the info backwards and Jennifer is in the Best Actress category and mom is in Featured? That would make far more sense.

On the Rosie Show Lauren Bacall said that the Waiting in the Wings cast was considered ensemble casting.... Thanks Ann for finding this.... The Outer Critics Awards are given by NY area critics for publications beyond Manhattan. They are the first to analyze the 1999-2000 season. They nominate shows that are still in previews. BTW Waiting in the Wings was nominated for Best Play. Winners will be announced May 1st and will be bestowed May 25 at a gala at Sardi's theatrical restaurant off Times Square. Thanks Karen for setting up this new topic.... And I'll be there then;-))

Is there a pic of Stephen Dillane, I'ven't a clue what he looks like!

Laura - here's a web site. http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/dillane.htm

I should have added, go to the Dateline page for the latest pic of SD and JE that was in Talk magazine. http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/dillane3.htm

Does anyone know if the TRT reviews will be in tomorrow's papers, in which case they'll be online shortly, or in Wednesday's? I guess what I'm really asking is should I put another pot of coffee on.;-) SD page looks terrific, Hot Lips, er . . . Donna.;-) ;-)

Am going to post one right now, from the AP Wire: Tom Stoppard's potent reminder of this thing called love NEW YORK (AP) _ As Cole Porter once wrote, "What is this thing called love?" It is a question that keeps coming back again and again to haunt the discombobulated characters in "The Real Thing," Tom Stoppard's generous meditation on fidelity and faithlessness that remains as potent today as when the play first opened on Broadway in 1984. In fact, the current revival, which arrived Monday at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, seems even more vibrant, particularly under David Leveaux's careful, cinematic but not fussy direction. Stephen Dillane and the rest of a fine British cast from London's Donmar Warehouse mine Stoppard's brilliant wordplay with such intensity that "The Real Thing" feels freshly minted, spontaneous and not at all dated, as do so many dramas from the not-so-distant past. Dillane portrays a romantically challenged English playwright named Henry, a sardonic intellectual, too smart for his own good and a man who uses his intelligence to keep women at bay. It prevents him from making a commitment, not only, as the play opens, to his actress-wife, Charlotte, but to his lover, Annie. Annie, in turn, is cheating on husband Max, who is appearing with Charlotte in Henry's new comedy about adultery, "House of Cards." Life and art get thoroughly mixed up _ and more than a bit messy _ in Stoppard's world of London artists. When Henry and Annie finally settle down together, strains begin to show. Annie becomes enamored of a young actor, forcing Henry to rethink what his relationship to her really means. Love, he learns, is more than lust and the banalities uttered in the beloved pop songs of his youth. It also makes him reexamine his life as a playwright, particularly when he has to learn how to come to terms with Annie's most persistent charity case _ a loutish leftist, who happens to be a terrible writer. And that, according to Henry, is the worst sin of all. Henry, originally played on Broadway by Jeremy Irons, is a marathon role. Dillane, a wiry guy with an ingratiating stage presence, goes the course without tiring. He's funny and charming, but he gets the pain behind the writer's glibness and cutting retorts, too. By the end of the play, Henry has grown, and so has Dillane's remarkable performance. Jennifer Ehle has less to work with as the socially committed Annie, yet she projects a passion that is not always suggested by the script. Sarah Woodward brings a tart, acerbic quality to the role of Henry's first wife, while Nigel Lindsay, as Max, perfectly captures a wronged mate's overwhelming self-pity. Even the smallest roles make impressions, particularly Oscar Pearce's flirtatious young actor and Charlotte Parry's portrait of Henry's practical and sexually precocious daughter. The production design is spare, almost bare bones, with a few tables, chairs and a record player suggesting Henry's living room. Yet the feeling of this revival is anything but minimal. Leveaux, who worked wonders with his Broadway reexaminations of "Anna Christie" and "Electra," has done it again here. "The Real Thing" rates as real, adult entertainment, wise, witty and full of compassion for the foibles of the human heart.

Glad I stayed up--the New York Times loves the play, SD and JE! (Thanks for the AP review, Karen--another winner.) `Real Thing': He's So Clever, So Glib ... So Vulnerable By BEN BRANTLEY Now here is a man you would surely love to have at your table at one of those insufferably self-important dinner parties. He speaks in sentences that might have been cut by a jeweler; he banishes conversational clich�s by merely cocking an eyebrow, and he has somehow turned undergraduate self-consciousness into a highly evolved form of charm. What's more, when he describes himself as a romantic, you believe him, just as you believe that he suffers for it. That makes him easier to take when he seems a little, well, superior. There is much to be said for the aesthetic value of shadow in a bright presence. Such are the attributes of Henry, the playwright who wrote that West End hit "House of Cards," or at least Henry as he is represented by Stephen Dillane, the immensely appealing center of the immensely appealing revival of Tom Stoppard's "Real Thing," which opened last night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. Under the accomplished direction of David Leveaux, who brought a very different kind of finesse to last season's "Electra," this is a production that should lure those New Yorkers who say they rarely go to the theater because it's too juvenile or too vulgar or too ponderous, usually opting instead for yet another dinner party. And with the delectable Jennifer Ehle playing self-confident body to Mr. Dilane's self-questioning mind, the show has a sensual sparkle that was less evident in the fine Tony-winning New York incarnation of 1984 with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close. "The Real Thing" -- an import from the Donmar Warehouse, the current epicenter of theatrical glamour in London ("Cabaret," "The Blue Room") -- is a rare thing even in what has been an exceptionally strong season for straight plays on Broadway: an elegant comedy of infidelity filled with the sort of comebacks that people only wish they were capable of themselves. True, this 1982 play from the author of "Jumpers" and "Arcadia" is also always subverting itself, pointing out how some things, love among them, defy glib articulation. But, ah, how articulately it manages to say so. If its structural game-playing seems a tad too clever this time around and its second act weaker than its first, the fact remains that few comedies have ever managed to have it so successfully both ways. When "The Real Thing" first opened, it was greeted with the kind of exclamations that heralded Garbo's debut in talking pictures. "Stoppard feels!" was the delighted implication of most of the reviews, a sense that the most dizzyingly cerebral of British playwrights had at last led with his heart instead of his head. What gave the play an extra savory twist was the fact that it was about a dizzyingly cerebral playwright who confesses at one point that he just doesn't know how to "write love." The title itself seemed a charming admission of the same defeat, using the sort of nonspecific noun that was anathema to its main character. Which isn't to say that Mr. Stoppard had forsaken his playful intellectualism or sure hand for form. "The Real Thing" begins with a sort of literary trompe l'oeil: a scene in which a husband confronts his wife with her presumed infidelity. This turns out to be a scene in a London play by Henry, performed by Charlotte (Sarah Woodward), an actress who is Henry's wife in real life, and Max (Nigel Lindsay), who is married to another actress, Annie (Ms. Ehle), with whom Henry is having an affair. The scene becomes a reference point for the rest of the evening, as two real-life marriages shatter, echoing and diverging from the play within the play. Other touchstones are provided by dialogue from such classic plays of passion as "Miss Julie" and " 'Tis Pity She's a Whore." And Henry, determined to conquer love on the page, comes down with writer's block. Although Charlotte early on observes that the difference between dialogue onstage and in life is that life demands "thinking time" between epigrams, the characters are still remarkably quick on the uptake: Henry, especially, of course, but so are Charlotte and Henry's teenage daughter, Debbie (Charlotte Parry), and Charlotte herself. It is a testament to the arbitrariness of love that Henry and Charlotte seem to be more naturally matched than Henry and Annie, who while obviously intelligent is less deft with the mot juste. She is also unswervingly headstrong and gets involved politically with an imprisoned Scottish soldier (Joshua Henderson) and sexually with a younger actor (Oscar Pearce). The distress these events cause Henry lead him to lively disquisitions on the virtues and limitations of language, including an unforgettable speech with a cricket bat as a visual aid. Mr. Dillane's Henry delivers this moment pricelessly to Ms. Ehle's Annie. As he tries to explain why a leaden script written by Annie's incarcerated soldier is no good, you can see him getting high on the combined delights of his sporting metaphor, his love of language and his love of the woman to whom he is speaking. Mr. Dillane, whose high and exposed forehead suggests both a temple of thought and an irresistible target, is never less than captivating. Even his brightly colored socks (the perfectly detailed costumes are by Vicki Mortimer, who also designed the sets) inspire affection. There's nary a trace of the snide superiority and remoteness that Jeremy Irons brought to his equally inspired but very different interpretation of the role, and it could be argued that his Henry is a tad too likable. It's hard to understand why he makes people so angry, and the character almost becomes a holy martyr to the causes of pure language and pure love. Fortunately, there is another side to be heard from, and it is ably embodied by Ms. Ehle. This rising star, best known as Elizabeth in the recent television adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," wears her character's sensuality, and her awareness of its effect on others, without coyness or irony. There is no smugness about her either (and there was, a bit, in Ms. Close's portrayal), but there is a remarkable self-possession, especially evident in the smile with which she covers discomfort. This Annie easily holds her own against the older Henry and his artillery of words. All the actors are good, however, especially the women, to whose characters Mr. Stoppard has tellingly devoted the greatest care. As Henry's wife (soon to be ex-) and daughter, Ms. Woodward and Ms. Parry incisively present figures who have both been shaped by Henry and somehow gotten beyond him, like Eliza Dolittle with Henry Higgins. Mr. Leaveaux's staging adroitly balances the boulevard comedy with an emotional gravity, an awareness that people are being seriously wounded here. The badinage feels natural precisely because directors and actors are so attentive to what bodies say that words don't. Watch, for example, Ms. Ehle's postures when Annie breaks off with Max (something to which Mr. Lindsay responds harrowingly); when she keeps trying to touch Henry during an argument and when she kisses Mr. Pearce's young actor in a way that unquestionably confirms her dominance in that relationship. This balancing of the cerebral and the emotional is almost perfectly realized in the first act. In the longer second act you become conscious of a script annotating itself, and the way the play scores off Mr. Pearce's character, the dubious object of Annie's political engagement, still feels entirely too easy. One other caveat: Ms. Mortimer's sets seem out of scale at the Barrymore, and when the performers climb that long upstage staircase, it's like a challenge out of "Pilgrim's Progress." These are minor objections, however, about a production that so expertly fills a vacuum on Broadway: the urbane comedy. "The Real Thing," of course, is something more than that as well. Throughout the evening, vintage pop songs are played, numbers like "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" It's a running joke that this is the only kind of music to which Henry responds. But the play takes the emotional pull of such music, and the varied feelings it addresses, seriously. As I was leaving "The Real Thing," I noticed a middle-aged member of the audience singing the Monkees hit "I'm a Believer," a recording of which ends the production. It's an upbeat song, but the man looked puzzled and just a bit melancholy. Mr. Stoppard, one imagines, would have been pleased by the response. THE REAL THING By Tom Stoppard; directed by David Leveaux; sets and costumes by Vicki Mortimer; lighting by Mark Henderson and David Weiner; sound by John A. Leonard, for Aura Sound Design Ltd.; production stage manager, Bonnie L. Becker; associate set designer, Nancy Thun; associate costume designer, Irene Bohan; technical supervisor, Peter Fulbright; general management, 101 Productions; associate producers, Act Productions/Randall L. Wreghitt. The Donmar Warehouse production presented by Anita Waxman, Elizabeth Williams, Ron Kastner and Miramax Films. At the Ethel Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, Manhattan.

Another good review for the play, SD & JE from VARIETY, here is a snipppet from it "But most welcome of all are Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, two English actors who are making terrific Broadway debuts in DL's intentionally muted, intensely thoughtful production of Stoppard's brilliant dissection of various truths and illusions of love and romance."

4stars for TRT at the New York Post, they loved it too.

David Leaveux's "superb production" of TRT, says the NY Daily News Yippee

Here's the full New York Post review. Doesn't get much better than this!:-) A SPLENDID 'THING' By DONALD LYONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE REAL THING 4 STARS At the Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th St.; (212) 239-6200. 'THE Real Thing" is the real thing - an exciting, hilarious and beautifully performed look at the terrain of art and heart. The Tom Stoppard play of 1984 received a fresh, brisk production at London's Donmar Warehouse this spring, and it is this show, with its cast intact, that has moved to Broadway's Barrymore Theatre. In the course of this teasingly tricky investigation of human relationships, we discover that the stage is and is not life. The look of the play's production is modern and abstract - the set and costumes by Vicki Mortimer suggest both the stage and reality. Director David Leveaux has thrust the action forward and made it more vivid than at the Donmar. As the play opens, architect Max (played by Nigel Lindsay in a solid, smugly comic job) is discovering what seems like adultery by his wife, Charlotte (Sarah Woodward in a debonair, droll vein.) This turns out to be a scene in a play, after which we're at home with Charlotte and her playwright husband, Henry (Stephen Dillane in a miraculous, masterful performance.) Henry slouches about their house in scruffy duds, playing Herman's Hermits and Procol Harum, working out his surprising destiny - which is largely connected to the young actress Annie, who is Max's real-life wife. Moments after they arrive, Annie expresses her passion for Henry - while Max and Charlotte are in the kitchen making crudites. Jennifer Ehle (seen here on TV in "Pride and Prejudice") plays Annie with a surprising sensuality and politically committed spirit. Gorgeous and fiery, Ehle is a thrill to watch. Two years later, Annie and Henry are still together. She's going up to Glasgow to do the Jacobean incest drama " 'Tis Pity She's a Whore." He's being nasty about a script she's interested in, written by a self-styled political prisoner, Brodie, who Henry thinks is a horrible writer. On the train to Scotland, Annie meets the young actor Billy (Oscar Pierce), who plays her brother in "Pity," and she warms to him, finding him ideal for the prisoner script. Henry, who has fixed up the script despite his objections, frets her absence. Eventually, Annie admits her attraction to Billy, but insists that this need not threaten the relationship she has with Henry. After a time, Henry accepts her point of view - after, among other things, talking to his 17-year-old daughter Debbie (a fine performance by Charlotte Parry). Dillane is hilarious and wrenchingly touching as the man who learns to blend his writing skills and his emotional life. Ehle achieves subtlety and sense as a woman who mixes art and life. This is an extraordinary presentation of a funny, smart play vibrating with contemporary concerns - art and life and sex and sacrifice and rock classics. It's the play in which Stoppard found the English - and, through the English, himself - approachable. And it's gorgeously performed by, above all, the witty and achingly vulnerable Dillane.

Here's the NY Daily News review (tabloid--least important of the three dailies in terms of the arts) 'Real Thing' Is Back on B'way By Fintan O'Toole THE REAL THING. By Tom Stoppard. With Stephen Dillane, Jennifer Ehle, Nigel Lindsay, Sarah Woodward and others. Directed by David Leveaux. Designed by Vicki Mortimer. At the Ethel Barrymore. Tickets: (212) 239-6200. One of the intriguing things about theater is the way that plays sometimes say the exact opposite of what their author intended. This is what happens in David Leveaux' superb production of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing." Of all the English playwrights who came to prominence in the 1960s, only two were so distinctive that their names came to sum up a whole style. If critics wanted to indicate clipped phrases and an air of menace, they called a play Pinteresque. If they wanted to indicate verbal wit and intellectual games, it was Stoppardian. Tom Stoppard's reputation for dashing repartee and dazzling ingenuity was well-earned. But it carried with it a feeling that the cleverness was just a fireworks display � colorful, entertaining, at times awesomely impressive, but without real emotion. "The Real Thing," returning to Broadway for the first time since Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons played the leads in 1984, is meant to refute this notion. Its central character, Henry, is an English playwright rather like Stoppard himself: brilliant, witty, arrogant and intolerant of those he regards as stupid. The play is steeped in all things theatrical. The opening scene is an episode from Henry's latest play. One of the stars, Charlotte, is his wife. The other, Max, is the husband of the woman with whom Henry is having an affair. By the second half of "The Real Thing," Henry is living with Max' ex-wife, Annie. Because she, too, is an actress, the dialogue and the action are saturated with theatrical references and in-jokes. But Henry, despite being an intellectual, turns out to be a passionate romantic. And through him, Stoppard wants us to know that he can write a play about that most basic of all emotions, love. The irony, though, is that "The Real Thing" remains stubbornly Stoppardian. There's less to all the stuff about love than meets the eye. What works is the verbal energy and the clever game-playing. This isn't the fault of the production; on the contrary, Stephen Dillane as Henry and Jennifer Ehle as Annie are a playwright's dream. Dillane strikes a skillful balance between Henry's arrogance, sarcasm and impatience on the one hand and his yearning for love on the other. Without softening the character too much, he makes us understand why Henry is attractive to women. Ehle, meanwhile, glows with life, intelligence and sensuality. Her Annie is both kind and dangerous, so open and compassionate that she seems doomed to break hearts. So if there's something abstract about the play, it's not because the actors fail to put flesh on Stoppard's ideas. Or because the web of loyalties and betrayals is not spun by a writer of extraordinary dexterity and invention. Maybe it's just that, like Henry, Stoppard finds it hard to "write love" without it coming out "embarrassing � either childish or rude." And because he's far too dignified to write embarrassing lines, he prefers to write "about" love than to run the risk of sentimentality. The result may not be completely satisfying or convincing. But it does suggest that there are far worse things a playwright can be called than "Stoppardian."

Newsday Review below: More glowing words, and look at the last paragraph!! Rumor has it there was a pic in the Sunday Daily News. Does anyone have??? Stoppard's Searing Reality Gimmickry's dropped in a moving, literary dissection of love By Linda Winer. STAFF WRITER BROADWAY REVIEW THE REAL THING. By Tom Stoppard, directed by David Leveaux. With Stephen Dillane, Jennifer Ehle, Nigel Lindsay, Sarah Woodward, Charlotte Parry, Joshua Henderson, Oscar Pearce. Sets and costumes by Vicki Mortimer, lights by Mark Henderson and David Weiner. Barrymore Theatre, 47th Street west of Broadway. Seen at Friday's preview. THE SUCCESSFUL playwright in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" insists that "loving and being loved" are "unliterary" conditions-"happiness expressed in banality and lust." That this theory is being declared at the precise time Stoppard is defying it, of course, is just one daredevil profundity in one of the most gloriously articulate, least banal love stories that modern theater knows enough to cherish. At the end of the first major revival of his 1982 work, which opened at the Barrymore Theatre last night in David Leveaux' burning yet cool London production, we find ourselves fantasizing that Stoppard wrote his most personal and accessible play to counter tiresome accusations of brainy gimmickry: "You want boulevard comedy?" we imagine him snarling. "You want aching heart? Well, watch this one." Without breaking a sweat, he turned around and gave the world a romantic serio-comedy that uses a dizzying Chinese box of literary devices to express devastating compassion for the most basic of elusive human emotions. The result, then and now, plays with reality and illusion with the unlikely grace of Noel Coward partying for keeps with Pirandello. The play-which Mike Nichols memorably directed on Broadway in 1984 with Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Christine Baranski, Peter Gallagher and a teen named Cynthia Nixon-remains a dazzling dissection of adultery, the theater, radical politics and other so-called real things. Where that version had a more lush American realism than the flintier British original with Roger Rees and Felicity Kendal, this new import has a strangely touching trust in our ability to be reached in deep places without stars to guide us to the box office. The trust should pay off. Leveaux, who directed Broadway's flammable Natasha Richardson-Liam Neeson "Anna Chris- tie" and the carnivorous Zoe Caldwell "Electra," has a lean, clean, eerily transparent way with the most unruly feelings of lust, loyalty, love and independence. His expert actors-assembled at the same Donmar Warehouse that has sent us "Cabaret," "The Blue Room," "Electra," "True West" and Sam Mendes -play ambivalence and passion with a self-effacing vibrancy that makes us lean into the action so as not to miss a nuance. Stephen Dillane plays playwright Henry, whose debonair view of adultery is Stoppard's opening scene. Henry cheats on his own actress wife, Charlotte (Sarah Woodward), with Annie (Jennifer Ehle), the wife of his own play's actor. By the time he must face the way he feels when new wife Annie may be cheating on him, Henry's intellectual contempt for the banalities of love and celebration of the power of words have been shredded into an unforgettable primal cry of helpless obsession. Is this raging possessiveness the real thing? Or, more likely, does the real thing include what Annie says about Henry needing "to find the part of yourself where I am not important or you won't be worth loving?" But dear, paradoxical Henry is an intellectual writer who perceives his own reality through the lyrics and rhythms of the sort of pop music that "it's not OK" for trendy people to worship-think Neil Sedaka and Herman's Hermits. Obviously, there is a simple dishrag of a soul somewhere deep inside all the high-flown and equally touching rhapsodies about the importance of words. Henry has contempt for the cliched writings of a political prisoner whom Annie has adopted, and insists-we trust with the voice of Stoppard himself-that "Words are sacred...If you get the words in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." Dillane is a master of emotional underplaying as Henry, whose transformations are more believable than when the showier Irons had them about Close's wrongheadedly earthbound Annie. Ehle, in contrast, crinkles with the complexities of happiness and self-reliance. Sarah Woodward is all shrewd cookie, and its opposite, as Henry's first wife. Nigel Lindsay is both pathetic and honest as Annie's first husband. When he and Annie awkwardly hug one another's heads in the loving brutality of their breakup, we know Leveaux understands how banality can hurt. Vickie Mortimer's sets go back to the sliding panels and industrial chic of the original London production, when we were not quite so used to playwrights using pop songs as metaphors during scene changes. The production is the first Broadway venture of Miramax, producers of Stoppard's "Shakespeare in Love," and there are rumors of Gwyneth Paltrow or Julianne Moore taking over when the London cast ends its 20-week run. Really.

From Robert Osborne's column today (about the Tonys in general but check out the end): NEW YORK -- Previews begin tonight at the Helen Hayes on "Dirty Blonde," the new comedy by Claudia Shea transferring to the Main Stem after an off-Broadway run that began in January at the New York Theatre Workshop. As fitting any play in which the late Mae West is part of the mix, its official opening night will be "Mae Day," May 1, just ahead of the May 3 cutoff for Tony eligibility. Thus, "Blonde" could be, depending on its success with the Tony nominating committee, running for the prize in the best new play category alongside such other hopefuls as "Copenhagen," "The Green Bird," "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan," "Rose," "Taller Than a Dwarf" and, now that the Tony committee has decided they should be judged as new plays since they hadn't been presented on Broadway before, Sam Shepard's "True West," written in 1980, and Noel Coward's "Waiting in the Wings," written in 1960. The one to beat: Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen," the most literate and inventive play of the season, like a juicy Agatha Christie mystery nd, though about the physics formulas that led to the atomic bomb, easily within the grasp of anyone willing to go to the theater and listen for a change. ... The least likely to make that nomination list: "Rose" and "Waiting," both of which depend almost entirely on the voltage of their stars to make them worth watching, namely Olympia Dukakis in the former, and Lauren Bacall, Rosemary Harris, Simon Jones and a stageful of other pros in the latter. ... Most overrated new play of the season: the Arthur Miller drama with Patrick Stewart. One wonders why Miller, at this stage of his brilliant writing career, would have chosen to spend his time writing about characters and a situation as banal, uninvolving and tedious as the acreage his "Mt. Morgan" covers. ... Among the eligible candidates in the Tony category for best revival of a play, Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten" seemed the front-runner -- until Monday's opening of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" at the Barrymore. It now moves to the forefront, along with "The Lion King," as the ticket that should be on the top of anyone's list upon setting foot in Manhattan. It's unlikely that Stoppard's 1984 play has ever produced the sparks it's generating in its current incarnation, aided by David Leveaux's magnificent direction and the performances of a flawless all-British cast headed by Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle. You're unlikely to find a better reason for going to the theater this season. Its only glitch: an ad campaign that makes "Real" look commonplace and colorless. It is quite the opposite.

...and nothing in any of the gossip columns about the party. Probably couldn't get it in before the cutoff.

Here's the full Variety review. Ho, hum, another rave,;-);-) The Real Thing By CHARLES ISHERWOOD, April 18, 2000 An Anita Waxman, Elizabeth Williams, Ron Kastner and Miramax Films presentation of the Donmar Warehouse production of a play by Tom Stoppard. Directed by David Leveaux. Absent a new Tom Stoppard play on Broadway � �The Invention of Love,� anyone? � a revival of Stoppard�s 1984 hit �The Real Thing� is certainly welcome. Welcome, too, is the legit advent of Miramax Films, which joins the small cadre of Broadway�s filmland angels with this revival imported from London�s ever-hot Donmar Warehouse. But most welcome of all are Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, two English actors who are making terrific Broadway debuts in David Leveaux�s intentionally muted, intensely thoughtful production of Stoppard�s brilliant dissection of various truths and illusions of love and romance. Audiences who recall the starry, Tony-winning original Broadway production, with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, may be surprised � and even taken aback � at the cool, ruminative tone of Leveaux�s production. It�s built like a delicately balanced house of cards around the ineffably charismatic but extraordinarily subtle performance of Dillane as Henry, the playwright (and author of a play called �House of Cards,� of course) who departs one marriage to enter a blissful new one, only to have the romantic ideals that have defined all his emotional commitments called into question when his new marriage threatens to unravel. The chilly-chic sets of Vicki Mortimer recall her fine work on last season�s �Closer,� a play about love and infidelity that makes a savage contemporary companion piece to Stoppard�s. Her designs are dominated by moving panels of smoked glass that may be said to typify the production�s aesthetic. The surface sheen of Stoppard�s scintillating language is treated with casual respect here � it�s not buffed to a high polish and served gleamingly over the footlights, as it is in most productions of the play. Here the emphasis is on the feelings that glow dimly beneath the surface of the words, the darting glances that add a question mark to a witticism, the pauses that speak more eloquently than even the eloquent Stoppard, particularly when they�re being sculpted by an actor equipped with the amazing instincts of Dillane. Set changes are effected onstage with a decided lack of emphasis on speed, allowing the last moments of a scene to linger briefly in the audience�s mind. Leveaux�s deliberate pacing takes a while to get used to, and indeed the pulse of the first act is dangerously low, but when the rewards of this slow-fuse staging arrive in the second act, they are ample. Stoppard�s Henry is a serial romantic, the kind of highbrow guy who thinks pop songs can capture the essence of love in a way his own writing can�t, the �happiness expressed in banality and lust.� He leaves his first wife Charlotte (Sarah Woodward) with nary a regret when he falls in love with Annie (Ehle), also an actress. At the end of the first act, when Annie not-so-playfully teases him about his lack of jealousy, Henry responds by admitting it�s because he feels �superior� in his knowledge of loving and being loved. He relishes �the insularity of passion ... the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn�t one�s lover ... There�s you and there�s them.� Henry takes love, and its insularity, for granted � a telling detail of Mortimer�s subtle costume designs is Henry�s inveterately casual dress; he�s always in his socks, even when others aren�t. It�s a symbol of his cozy sureness of himself and of his love, the kind of presumption that can be mistaken � and is � for indifference and, yes, superiority. Henry lives in a world where words and emotions have cut-and-dried meanings � the play�s great cricket-bat speech is a beautiful, funny paean to the power of linguistic precision � but he fails to see that he�s alone there. Everyone else inhabits a less rarefied, more dimly lit place, the real world, where things cannot be defined quite as neatly as Henry might like, where love and commitment are loose and mutable things. Henry�s gradual descent into this sadder sphere is the core of the play, and it�s a moving progress to observe, thanks to Dillane�s deeply humane performance. He duly conveys all the linguistic delights of Stoppard�s writing, the moving ruminations on the pains and pleasures of love and of writing, but his performance has a strong, simple core of emotional truth, a softly shining tenderness, that makes his disillusioning a really heart-wrenching thing to watch. Dillane is wonderful with words, but just as wonderful without them: He is often most arresting when reacting, and the most wounding image in the play is simply the vision of Henry sitting in darkness, a hand on the phone on his lap, aching and defeated by the searing suspicion of Annie�s infidelity. Ehle�s performance as Annie is also intelligent, intensely felt and finely shaded. This character can seem to be on the wrong side of the moral battlefield at times, particularly since Henry alone is possessed of Stoppard�s soaring rhetorical gifts. Ehle, who at times bears an intriguing resemblance to Meryl Streep (and also, less surprisingly, recalls her mother Rosemary Harris), turns her into a woman of real integrity, who strays despite her better instincts and is in some ways far more emotionally sophisticated than her husband. When she says, �If I had an affair, it would be out of need,� it rings entirely and painfully true. The supporting roles are also nicely served by this all-English cast, imported whole from the West End run. Nigel Lindsay is tough and funny as a tougher-than-usual Max, Annie�s abandoned first husband, and Woodward is amusingly peevish in the first act and later touchingly, maternally affectionate as Henry�s abandoned Charlotte. Charlotte Parry is appealingly wry as Henry�s and Charlotte�s daughter, the wise-beyond-her-years Debbie. The second-act scene in which Charlotte and Debbie casually and tenderly dissect the flaws in Henry�s romanticism, while he defends it beautifully � to the death, as it happens � is marvelously played. Dillane signifies it subtly and touchingly as the turning point in Henry�s sentimental re-education. The clever correspondences of the play�s structure � the motifs and arrangements that recur with new and different meanings � are not as strongly etched as they have been before. That�s intentional: Leveaux�s production makes a point of downplaying the play�s cleverness and emphasizing its emotional veracity, and the payoff is rewarding. Stoppard�s intellectual sleight-of-hand in �The Real Thing� is certainly dazzling, but his sensitive evocation of the painful, hazy complexities of love is more lastingly impressive, and it shines powerfully in this production.

From Variety by Charles Isherwood (4/18/00) Absent a new Tom Stoppard play on Broadway � �The Invention of Love,� anyone? � a revival of Stoppard�s 1984 hit �The Real Thing� is certainly welcome. Welcome, too, is the legit advent of Miramax Films, which joins the small cadre of Broadway�s filmland angels with this revival imported from London�s ever-hot Donmar Warehouse. But most welcome of all are Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, two English actors who are making terrific Broadway debuts in David Leveaux�s intentionally muted, intensely thoughtful production of Stoppard�s brilliant dissection of various truths and illusions of love and romance. Audiences who recall the starry, Tony-winning original Broadway production, with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, may be surprised � and even taken aback � at the cool, ruminative tone of Leveaux�s production. It�s built like a delicately balanced house of cards around the ineffably charismatic but extraordinarily subtle performance of Dillane as Henry, the playwright (and author of a play called �House of Cards,� of course) who departs one marriage to enter a blissful new one, only to have the romantic ideals that have defined all his emotional commitments called into question when his new marriage threatens to unravel. The chilly-chic sets of Vicki Mortimer recall her fine work on last season�s �Closer,� a play about love and infidelity that makes a savage contemporary companion piece to Stoppard�s. Her designs are dominated by moving panels of smoked glass that may be said to typify the production�s aesthetic. The surface sheen of Stoppard�s scintillating language is treated with casual respect here � it�s not buffed to a high polish and served gleamingly over the footlights, as it is in most productions of the play. Here the emphasis is on the feelings that glow dimly beneath the surface of the words, the darting glances that add a question mark to a witticism, the pauses that speak more eloquently than even the eloquent Stoppard, particularly when they�re being sculpted by an actor equipped with the amazing instincts of Dillane. Set changes are effected onstage with a decided lack of emphasis on speed, allowing the last moments of a scene to linger briefly in the audience�s mind. Leveaux�s deliberate pacing takes a while to get used to, and indeed the pulse of the first act is dangerously low, but when the rewards of this slow-fuse staging arrive in the second act, they are ample. Stoppard�s Henry is a serial romantic, the kind of highbrow guy who thinks pop songs can capture the essence of love in a way his own writing can�t, the �happiness expressed in banality and lust.� He leaves his first wife Charlotte (Sarah Woodward) with nary a regret when he falls in love with Annie (Ehle), also an actress. At the end of the first act, when Annie not-so-playfully teases him about his lack of jealousy, Henry responds by admitting it�s because he feels �superior� in his knowledge of loving and being loved. He relishes �the insularity of passion ... the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn�t one�s lover ... There�s you and there�s them.� Henry takes love, and its insularity, for granted � a telling detail of Mortimer�s subtle costume designs is Henry�s inveterately casual dress; he�s always in his socks, even when others aren�t. It�s a symbol of his cozy sureness of himself and of his love, the kind of presumption that can be mistaken � and is � for indifference and, yes, superiority. Henry lives in a world where words and emotions have cut-and-dried meanings � the play�s great cricket-bat speech is a beautiful, funny paean to the power of linguistic precision � but he fails to see that he�s alone there. Everyone else inhabits a less rarefied, more dimly lit place, the real world, where things cannot be defined quite as neatly as Henry might like, where love and commitment are loose and mutable things. Henry�s gradual descent into this sadder sphere is the core of the play, and it�s a moving progress to observe, thanks to Dillane�s deeply humane performance. He duly conveys all the linguistic delights of Stoppard�s writing, the moving ruminations on the pains and pleasures of love and of writing, but his performance has a strong, simple core of emotional truth, a softly shining tenderness, that makes his disillusioning a really heart-wrenching thing to watch. Dillane is wonderful with words, but just as wonderful without them: He is often most arresting when reacting, and the most wounding image in the play is simply the vision of Henry sitting in darkness, a hand on the phone on his lap, aching and defeated by the searing suspicion of Annie�s infidelity. Ehle�s performance as Annie is also intelligent, intensely felt and finely shaded. This character can seem to be on the wrong side of the moral battlefield at times, particularly since Henry alone is possessed of Stoppard�s soaring rhetorical gifts. Ehle, who at times bears an intriguing resemblance to Meryl Streep (and also, less surprisingly, recalls her mother Rosemary Harris), turns her into a woman of real integrity, who strays despite her better instincts and is in some ways far more emotionally sophisticated than her husband. When she says, �If I had an affair, it would be out of need,� it rings entirely and painfully true. The supporting roles are also nicely served by this all-English cast, imported whole from the West End run. Nigel Lindsay is tough and funny as a tougher-than-usual Max, Annie�s abandoned first husband, and Woodward is touchingly, maternally affectionate as Henry�s abandoned Charlotte. Charlotte Parry is appealingly wry as Henry�s and Charlotte�s daughter, the wise-beyond-her-years Debbie. The second-act scene in which Charlotte and Debbie casually and tenderly dissect the flaws in Henry�s romanticism, while he defends it beautifully � to the death, as it happens � is marvelously played. Dillane signifies it subtly and touchingly as the turning point in Henry�s sentimental re-education. The clever correspondences of the play�s structure � the motifs and arrangements that recur with new and different meanings � are not as strongly etched as they have been before. That�s intentional: Leveaux�s production makes a point of downplaying the play�s cleverness and emphasizing its emotional veracity, and the payoff is rewarding. Stoppard�s intellectual sleight-of-hand in �The Real Thing� is certainly dazzling, but his sensitive evocation of the painful, hazy complexities of love is more lastingly impressive, and it shines powerfully in this production. ~~~~~~~~Have we got them all? ;-)

BRING ON THE BUBBLY!!! Mimosas , anyone?? Our guys are taking NY by storm..... Thanks K, M, D. and Ann for all the reviews.... And did you notice, when they mention JE's outstanding performances, they bring up P&P. Hoorah!! evelyn(hic)

Evelyn, I like the Meryl Streep mention. "That" is going to get her noticed. From the Press Association: BROADWAY HAILS TWO MORE BRITISH STARS Another British import is the toast of Broadway with US critics hailing actors Jennifer Ehle and Stephen Dillane as new stars. The revival of Sir Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing has been taken to New York by the Donmar Warehouse, the London company that produced Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room. Stoppard's comedy with dramatic overtones first ran on Broadway 16 years ago with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close in the leading roles.

Regis Philbin was just raving about TRT on Regis & Kathie Lee, holding up the program, praising SD and JE (ok, he forgot her name, but looked it up in the program, then sort of mispronounced it, but hey, it's the thought that counts;-) Good ole Reege. The Wall Street Journal should have a review, but you have to pay for it online (how typical of the WSJ is *that*?) If no one gets it, I'll pick it up at work tomorrow. Evelyn, I'll take a mimosa, please, but hold the orange juice!;-)

Re: WSJ (I'll go see if it's still on my neighbor's doorstep.) ;-p

and to think I had any doubts Evelyn,I am ashamed but very pleased, it couldn't happen to a nicer couple.Can't wait to see it in July. I'll take a mimosa as well, Evelyn, Cheers. I particularly like the bit from the PA, thanks Karen.

Thanks Mari, Karen and Donna for posting the reviews so quickly. Wow! The cast must be flying. Can an appearance on "Rosie" be far behind? ;-) The production is the first Broadway venture of Miramax, producers of Stoppard's "Shakespeare in Love," and there are rumors of Gwyneth Paltrow or Julianne Moore taking over when the London cast ends its 20-week run. ...and, no doubt, starring in the movie version as well. Gaahh:-(

From FOX-TV News: Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing By Roger Fiedman I've been to a lot of Broadway openings, but last night's premiere of The Real Thing was most memorable. Tom Stoppard's brilliant play, which first ran on Broadway in 1982 with Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close and Christine Baranski, is now the most impressive hit of the 1999-2000 season. This is a British production, presented on Broadway by Anita Waxman and Miramax Films. Miramax got involved because of Stoppard, who wrote Shakespeare in Love for them. As you know, everyone got Oscars on that deal. Come June 4, all involved will be receiving Tony Awards. The Real Thing is a comedy with dramatic overtones, set in London approximately 20 years ago. But even sticking with the original script, director David Laveaux has managed to make the story as contemporary and moving as ever. The real heroes though are the cast � all brought from London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre, the same company that gave us Nicole Kidman in The Blue Room last year. Without question the real star of The Real Thing is Stephen Dillane. Mostly unknown to American audiences, Dillane starred a couple of years ago in the little seen film Welcome to Sarajevo. As the conflicted, articulate, sardonic playwright Henry, Dillane turns in a starmaking performance that just crackles right through the house. Where Irons, who originated the role of Henry, was aloof and elegant, Dillane is so actively engaged in the material that the other actors seem pulled to him as if he were a magnet and they were metal. The other principals in the cast, Jennifer Ehle, Sarah Woodward and Nigel Lindsay are all impeccable. Ehle has the hard task of holding her own in scene after scene with Dillane, especially in lengthy, funny speeches. I think further viewings of this production will reveal that she is every bit as good as Dillane, but for right now, Broadway has a new star. The big question will be how to replace these British actors in August. That's when by contract American actors must take their roles. Producer Waxman told me she's already starting to consider some names. Expect the cr�me de la cr�me to be fighting for these parts � every major actor in the 35-to-45 range will want a chance at being part of The Real Thing. And here's a little trivia: Waxman, who's a dish with five adult children, bankrolled her first business with money she won on Hollywood Squares 27 years ago! She took home around $1500 � "and no refrigerators or appliances." The rest is history. This season she has four plays running on the Great White Way.

More from Fox News and Roger Friedman (with an "r") Sorry.;-) A New York Night of Stars The stars turned out Monday night, even though there was a steady rain falling and a real shortage of taxi cabs. At The Real Thing: actors Paul Rudd, Kyle Maclachlan, Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly from the play True West; Frasier and Cheers star Bebe Neuwirth with her beau, former Clinton adviser George Stephanopolous; talk show host Charlie Rose, as well as Talk magazine editor Tina Brown and husband Harold Evans, who just won the first ever lifetime achievement award for British journalists in London. (Harry was the editor of the Sunday Times before he came to the U.S. in 1982 to start Conde Nast Traveler and be the editor-in-chief of Random House.) Also spotted at The Real Thing: Jerry Seinfeld and pregnant wife Jessica Sklar, who sat with Regis and Joy Philbin, Donald Trump and model Melania Knauss, serious Broadway actress Lynn Thigpen, Linda Fiorentino from Where the Money Is and Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei. It was pointed out to me that the Seinfelds looked incredibly unhappy all evening � I'm sure it was a combination of morning sickness and the foul weather.

Thanx Mari, not wanting to tempt providence but I would say SD is a dead cert for Best Actor come June 4th, and fingers crossed for JE, DL & TRT. I can't imagaine any other actors in these parts, they have all made them their own.

Ann, you forget the anti-British bias that occurs with the Tonys. It's going to take all of Harvey's legendary wing-twisting and hyping to overcome.

Oh! Come on Harvey, get into shape! but then Jeremy Irons won the Tony in 1984.

A long time ago, and Jeremy Irons was was the only English actor in the cast. The rivalry and tit-for-tatediness (new word coined) has grown tremendously over the past few years. It may be way too much to hope for. British imports get ignored by the Tonys, and American imports get ignored by all the London awards organizations. There's somewhat of a balance.

Thanks Mari for all the Fox news....Hey, I'm flying too. The big question will be how to replace these British actors in August. That's when by contract American actors must take their roles. Shucks, now everyone will understand Brodie ;-) I do not think JE qualifies as an American actress despite dual citizenship. Nor would she do it IMO with another cast. ... you forget the anti-British bias that occurs with the Tonys On the other hand SD has a good chance esp. since he was skipped over for a BAFTA! That might work in his favor;-) I still have no illusions for Jennifer...the reviews are enough. How proud Mum must be....she said in a recent interview that she glows when someone says:"Oh, you're Jeniifer Ehle's mother"....maternal pride. ~~~~~ (Ann)..and to think I had any doubts Evelyn,I am ashamed but very pleased I'll admit, I wuz scared too...called K. last night in a "fit of nerves"...

I wasn't going to tell them. ;-)

Evelyn, although I tend to agree with Karen and you about S & JE actually winning a Tony, I really think after these wonderful reviews that they will be nominated, hope someone goes to the Tony Awards, they are open to the public.

Well, it's been an exciting day on 132! The cast must be over the moon about these reviews--very, very well-deserved. Pressure is off now; they can relax a bit and just enjoy the run. (Best of all, Ann, Evelyn, and Donna get to relax now, too.;-) I'm going to be optimistic and say that the play, SD, and JE will not only be nommed for Tonys--but will have a real shot at winning. I think the pissing contest (or as Karen euphemistically put it, tit-for-tatediness;-) between the British and American unions has eased somewhat and there seems to be a nice exchange of work going both ways across the pond. Secondly, Harvey will sell the hell out of this one, and you know how successful he is at awards time. He's got to be seething that his archrival, Spielberg/Dreamworks, got ahead of him in establishing a relationship with Sam Mendes and the Donmar, plus they won the Oscar to boot. He will come out swinging and, as far as JE is concerned, he won't hesitate to play the North Carolina card.;-) As far as who takes over after the 20-week run is up--it doesn't matter. The people who originated the roles will rightfully get the accolades and glory; extension of the run with another cast is just about money-making. Besides, Jennifer will be ready to move on--she will get tons of offers. Her parents must be so thrilled. Love that quote from RH, Evelyn; nice that they are together in one spot to enjoy this. Should be some more reviews in the days ahead. Typically, nearby cities also review major NY works, plus Time and EW will likely have something. Does anyone have the URL for the Outer Critics nominations? I want to look at the competition.;-) Thanks.

The URL for the Outer Critics nominations are on the theatre.com website ; http://www.theatre.com/news/public/newsbrief.asp?newsid=7026 Am exhausted...I've had too much excitement for one day!

I never said SD or JE wouldn't get a nomination. Can't imagine that SD wouldn't. These work exchanges (actor for actor) gives you some idea that this is still a major issue. Hmmm, but that Lion King snub...

(Karen) A long time ago, and Jeremy Irons was was the only English actor in the cast. And he apparently approached the role very differently than SD, according to some of the reviews. How refreshing that SD was able to imprint Henry with his own stamp. It will be hard for the next actor to make Henry fresh (imprinting his own stamp), and it will be fun to speculate on who might be good for the role. But I can't even think about that now. :-) (Gwinnie is too young IMO for Annie.) SD is so darn likeable as Henry that maybe the Tony voters will warm up to him, more so than if he assumed the more urbane, less frumpled posture that Jeremy seemed to have adopted. (Forgive if I've read between the lines incorrectly.) (Ann) hope someone goes to the Tony Awards, they are open to the public Don't I get a rest? :-) I noticed that the Drama Desk Awards are announced on April 25th. Does anyone know about these? Is TRT eligible? Thanks everyone for the eagle eyes in spotting the news. It's nice to know we backed a winner, hee hee.

Henry (Stephen Dillane in a miraculous, masterful performance.) These are all reviews to die for! Thank you all for posting! Those two better be cast in the film version or else! I am v. happy to have seen it. They do deserve all the praise. I will be in London in July, any suggestions as to what plays to see?

(Moon) I will be in London in July, any suggestions as to what plays to see? As a matter of fact, yes. Our Steppenwolf Theater company is taking One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (which just opened here on Sunday) with Gary Sinise to London in July for a short run at the Barbican Center. Amy Morton (who played Nan/Lina in 3DOR here) is the nurse. I'm going to go see it in a couple of weeks.

and Moon, I am going to see "A Lady in a Van" with Maggie Smith and written by Alan Bennet, next week, will let you know what I think of it and whether to recommend it to you.

Donna. Don't I get a rest? ,Nope, hee hee

Thanks for the suggestions. More please!

We saw Lady in the Van in January. Very funny, but YDH might take a hike. ;-)

We saw Lady in the Van in January. Very funny, but YDH might take a hike. ;-) Really, why? ;-) I would do the matinee. Evenings are booked up.

From the NY Daily News' gossip column: Putting a Stoppard to Rumor Don't worry about any ugly scenes between literary titans Tom Stoppard and Salman Rushdie. Contrary to London reports, Stoppard tells us he has never dated his friend Rushdie's current flame, model Padma Lakshmi. "I don't even know her," Stoppard said at Monday's opening for the Broadway revival of his critically hailed play, "The Real Thing." Stoppard is used to people poking around in his private life. "The Real Thing" deals with the tortured romance of a divorced playwright, Henry, and his actress lover, Annie. And it's hard not to look for parallels between Henry and his twice-divorced creator. Having romanced actress Felicity Kendal (who starred in the original West End production of the play) before she returned to her former husband, Stoppard has lately been linked with model Marie Helvin. Also at the opening were Jerry Seinfeld and Jessica Sklar (sitting next to Regis Philbin and wife Joy), Marisa Tomei, Paul Rudd, Liev Schreiber, Linda Fiorentino, Tina Brown and Harold Evans, Frederique van der Wal, Heidi Klum, Kyle MacLachlan and Desiree Gruber, John C. Riley, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ron Eldard and Julianna Margulies, Moby, Toni Collette, Geoffrey Rush, Bebe Neuwirth and George Stephanopoulos, and Patrick Stewart.

The JE Page has yesterday's TRT reviews posted. http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/4820/real_art.html Are you posting them too, Donna? Get over and make TRT Official Page webmaster link the SD page. ~~~~~~~~~~ "Lady in the Van" is a #10. We saw it in January (with Prince Charles and Camilla!). I hear it might transfer to B'way next season. ~~~~~~ Julianna Margulies is a v. good friend of Jennifer's from Paradise Road days. Once on GMA JM mentioned JE was staying at her NY flat.JM will star in a Lincoln Center play next season after she leaves ER.

Review for TRT from Village Voice, the reviewer seems to be a bit of a misery, but he liked JE & SD so he can't be all bad, he didn't like the 1984 production of TRT. http://villagevoice.com/issues/0016/feingold.shtml

forgot to say the review is at the bottom of the page, but his comments at the beginning are worth reading, he sounds very cynical though.

There are some snippets of reviews we haven't seen at the Real Thing on Broadway website, put all together they sound absolutely wonderful, every bit as good as the reviews last summer.

TRT on B'way Official Website: http://www.therealthingbroadway.com/index.htm (They wasted no time getting the reviews up!) Is The Bergen Record yours, Eileen?

(Ann) Review for TRT from Village Voice, the reviewer seems to be a bit of a misery, but he liked JE & SD so he can't be all bad The reviewer sounds like a miserable sod. Poor baby, he was forced to see a lot of plays this week.

Donna, there is a wonderful discussion about TRT going on at Virtual Views, I think you would enjoy it, Evelyn and I have already contributed.

Where is Virtual Views?

Where is Virtual Views? Ignore, found it! Thanks.

Where is Virtual Views? Ignore, found it! Thanks. Really ignore it...I opened up a Pandora's Box....! Didn't mean to;-)

LOL - too late! A and D to the rescue :-)

Another good review: The Wall Street Journal Wednesday April 19, 2000 Passion and Deceit Are Brilliantly Probed in 'The Real Thing' By Amy Gamerman In Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing," newly revived at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Henry, a playwright, pulls out an old cricket bat to describe what he does for a living. The bat just looks like a wood club, but as Henry explains, it's actually several particularly chosen pieces of wood, "cunningly put together" to create a launchpad. If the bat is well made, it will smack balls into the air with speed and grace. "What we're trying to do," says Henry (Stephen Dillane), "is to write cricket bats, so that when we throw up an idea and give it a little knock, it might ... travel." Mr. Stoppard writes some of the best cricket bats in the business. Ideas travel first class in "The Real Thing," floating on a play of words so sparkling and so effortless, you don't even see the bat - just the ball. (This is in contrast to Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen," a play that concentrates your eye on the painstaking workmanship of the wooden club.) The ideas that Mr. Stoppard bats around in this 1982 play, staged by David Leveaux in a glossy import from London's Donmar Warehouse, concern true love - the real thing - and the ways people step all over each other to get it. It's also about writing plays, which for Mr. Stoppard is another form of love, and a very real one. Of course, realness is a highly loaded concept in Stoppard territory. He plays brilliantly with our sense of what's true and what's make-believe in the opening scene of "The Real Thing," in which Max (Nigel Lindsay) confronts his wife, Charlotte (wryly played by Sarah Woodward), with the apparent proof of her infidelity. In the next scene, Charlotte staggers out of bed in a man's bathrobe to join Henry in the living room. We assume he's her lover. But it's really they who are married: Charlotte is an actress, and the domestic confrontation we've just witnessed is a scene from a play written by Henry (funny how that bathrobe morphs from sexy to frumpy the instant we realize that Charlotte is a respectable wife and mother). In fact, Henry is the one who's having an affair - with Annie (a radiant Jennifer Ehle), who happens to be the wife of his leading man, Max. They show up for brunch, Annie, who is also an actress, is so giddy with love and the secrecy of it that she seems high. Urging Henry to make a clean break of it, Ms. Ehle all but giggles as she delivers the line, "It's only a couple of marriages and a child." "The Real Thing" traces intricate patterns of passion and deceit as Annie and Henry leave their spouses (and a teenage daughter in his case) to marry, only to find themselves wondering if their love is the real thing after all. The "real" scenes these people act out blur with the scenes that they act in: Mr. Stoppard throws snippets of Strindberg's "Miss Julie" and Ford's "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" into the mix, not to mention a clunky scene by a talentless jailhouse playwright who's a minor character in the play. The British cast negotiates this hall of mirrors with great agility, led by the edgy Mr. Dillane. His Henry is the smartest guy in the room, the one who's always quick with a comeback (both wives come to hate him for it). But this doesn't make him look better than everyone else - quite the opposite. Padding around the stage in his socks, Henry seems permanently scuffed around the edges. Words are his refuge. But with Mr. Stoppard at the typewriter, what a glorious refuge they make. And wouldn't you know it? He's given his playwright all the best lines.

(Ann) Evelyn and I have already contributed. So did I, several times actually. Took great restraint not to write, "just how old are you and is your favorite TV show Touched by An Angel?" Just call me Curiosity...or Ms. Stone ;-)

Review in today's Philadelphia Inquirer: A writer's conception of love collides with 'The Real Thing' By Clifford A. Ridley INQUIRER THEATER CRITIC NEW YORK - What a cracklingly good play is The Real Thing, and what a cracklingly good production David Leveaux has made of it! Tom Stoppard's 1982 exploration of love, of what happens when the abstraction meets the mixed-up genuine article, is dazzlingly witty, quietly moving and penetratingly sage. And Leveaux's staging at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, imported from London with its cast intact, perfectly captures both the play's brittle humor and its profoundly human ardor and attendant confusion. Stephen Dillane is Henry, the facile playwright who leaves his wife for Annie, an actress whose eventual fling with a young costar, Billy, precipitates the play's central argument. Annie (Jennifer Ehle) loves Henry, but his insistence that love be as neat as his plays ("happiness is equilibrium") drives her mad. Henry is in love with love, with the all-consuming nature of it, "the insularity of passion." But to Annie, that's too simple, too suffocating. "You have to find a part of yourself where I'm not important," she says, yet Henry can't do it. And so the lines are drawn, and though the conclusion may be deliberately ambiguous, getting there is an invigorating journey, including an eloquent defense of writerly precision and a meltingly tender scene between Henry and his teenage daughter. Dillane and Ehle are at once vibrantly alive and achingly vulnerable; and there are masterly supporting performances by Sarah Woodward, Nigel Lindsay, Charlotte Parry and Oscar Pearce. Leveaux's direction deftly balances the play's dual appeals to the heart and the mind; and Vicki Mortimer's set design, involving a series of gray, industrial-looking panels that rearrange themselves from scene to scene, creates a clean, efficient environment that contains the play without visual comment. A few scene changes seemed awkward at the preview I saw, a minor blemish on an otherwise flawless evening.

I'm surprised more reviewers haven't commented on that scenery which I liked at the Donmar but hated at the Albery. They even brought over the Donmar staircase. Of course it's critical when at the end Annie ascends to the tune of "I'm a Believer"....but one reviewer remarked [LOL] that it reminded him of Pilgrims Progress..!

Let's be on the lookout for the NY Drama Desk Award Nominations to be announced on Tuesday April 25th and presented on May 14th.

Let's hope I can actually post this. I've been unable to post anything for the past week. (Karen)So did I, several times actually Ah, now I get it...Rosetta! Duh! *slaps head* It is a very interesting discussion. If I hadn't been studying for my exams, I would have contributed as well. Now it seems they want to stop the discussion...oh well.

No, just that one person, who persists in viewing the play as being about something that it is not, has given up. She thinks the play is about infidelity, which depresses her. Can you imagine what she would think about Wit, which is about cancer?

Oh so your "R", slap head twice, how did you know Tineke? Please add to the discussion Tineke, it is far from over. One person does not make a discussion.

Somebody had to steer the lynch mob away from Evelyn. ;-)

Good for you, R, that's what friends are for.

Thank you all...actually I can usually fend for myself...but this was a crowd. Fun though...I like spirited discussions. Am like Bill...accusations and vituperative remarks roll off me.... ~~~~~~~ Tony website which becomes active on May 3rd. http://www.tonys.org/ IMO TRT has a good chance of Best Revival Play.... Best Actor and Actress...I dunno....nationalism sometimes kicks in on these awards... Remember Lion King at BAFTA time;-) Still....reviews have been superb...can't complain.

(Kaen) Just call me Curiosity...or Ms. Stone ;-) Karen this reminds me of the old Cheech & Chong routine, featuring the deceptively demure nun, Sister Rosetta Stone, attempting to call her class to order.;-) BTW, Jerseygirl has weighed in . . .;-) Moon, "Wit", which Karen mentioned, would be a great one to see, if it's still there in July. Last chance to catch Kathleen Chalfant, who originated the role Off-Broadway. She is magnificent. Read that Emma Thompson will be doing the role in an HBO production; nothing against ET, but I guess Kathleen is not a famous enough cancer victim.:-( Also highly recommend Lady In The Van, as others have. Maggie Smith is a delight. The Prince seemed to be enjoying it too before someone nearly mowed him down.;-)

I had a feeling you were Jersygirl, although they don't like aliases at RoP. I'm still slapping that little Holier-than-Thou poster around.

I see they picked up their ball and left the playground. LOL Gee, I thought we were trying to discuss the play, the beauty of the words and performances. Who was it that kept turning it into a morality play? (And slap my head too, RS and JG, hee hee.)

My DH was once banished from VV. His first time out! (heehee)

(Donna) Who was it that kept turning it into a morality play? Exactly my thoughts! ;-D Sometimes I just get so sick and tired of that stuff. Had a bunch of comments in that vein with High Fidelity too. People just didn't get it. Oh well, had it gone on any further, we might have heard from Auntie Pasta. :-) My DH was once banished from VV. His first time out! (heehee) As well he should.

THE EXPRESS: TOLSTOY'S BATHTUB CLASSIC 20-Apr-2000 TELEVISION'S latest costume drama has yet another surprise for generations of schoolboys who once thumbed the classics in the desperate hope of finding a ripped bodice. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, adapted for Channel 4, is to feature scenes which are bound to shock viewers. The four-part version of Tolstoy's story of adultery and heartache among the Russian aristocracy has been spiced up with full-frontal sex scenes which are only suggested in the 1875 novel. In one particularly raunchy episode viewers will see 30-year-old Helen McCrory, who plays Anna, and Kevin McKidd as the dashing Count Vronsky, frolic naked in a bath-tub. The scene leads to a sexual encounter with almost nothing left to the imagination. But the film makers claim that the scenes are necessary because they want the drama to have a "contemporary" feel. The adaptation comes just a fortnight after the BBC broadcast a new version of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, full of no-holds barred sex scenes. Last night McKidd - star of Trainspotting and Topsy-Turvy - defended the latest drama production. "People watching have to believe that these two people are absolutely passionate about one another," he insisted. "That's what we tried to achieve. There is extremity in all the emotions." Anna Karenina, which will be broadcast next month, now joins a catalogue of classics spiced up for TV and cinema to attract bigger audiences. A new film adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, soon to be released in Britain, introduces a lesbian storyline certainly not evident in the original. Moll Flanders, which won large TV audiences, showed actress Alex Kingston having relations with more than a dozen men. She appeared to have her clothes off more often than on, while actor Colin Firth became a pin-up for a generation of women when he appeared in Austen's Pride and Prejudice dressed in wet breeches. But evidence emerged yesterday that the trend towards sex in period drama does not always sell TV classics. Although BBC2's controversial Madame Bovary attracted a respectable 3.5 million viewers for its first episode last week, the audience fell by almost a third once they had actually seen stars Greg Wise and Frances O'Connor without their clothes on. A BBC spokesman said the explicit nature of the Madame Bovary series was acceptable. "The book was written 150 years ago. We are now broadcasting for a mature audience in the year 2000," he said. ~~~~~~~ In you're wondering why this is here, SD is playing Karenin.

Another article about Anna Karenina in The Sunday Times (under Culture, Television, "From Russia with Lovemaking") "The sex scenes will grab the headlines, but Channel 4's Anna Karenina is not just a bodice-ripping bonanza, says Steve Grant" No mention of SD, although a reference to JE and CF (our benchmarks for all costume pieces) ;-)

From today's New York Post--Neil Travis: Two-party system IT'S getting harder to find the real thing when you're invited to the after-party for movie and Broadway premieres. Take the big bash Miramax hosted at Tavern on the Green the other night for its new theatrical smash, "The Real Thing." While the hoi polloi milled about at Warner LeRoy's restaurant, producer Anita Waxman called Elaine Kaufman and asked if she could fit in a few friends. Around 11 p.m. Anita, playwright Tom Stoppard, Rosemary Harris and a group of 50-odd pals arrived at the uptown saloon for their own celebration.

Also from today's NY Post:- Stoppard Drama All Too "Real" by Clive Barnes "As Broadway gears up for its customary who-wants-to-be-a- Milionaire fiesta known as the Tony Awards, the big question is whether a show is better the second time around. There are currently three second-timers on New York stages. Two are from Britain Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and T.R & AL-W "Jesus Christ Superstar. The Yankee entrant is Arthur Miller's "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan"...." 5th paragraph down "Wry and painfully charming, Dillane (give that man his Tony right now) embues the beleagured dramatist Henry with seemingly everything we've read about Stoppard himself"... Clive Barnes certainly seems to like TRT, remember it was him who gave the play 4 out of 4. www.nypostonline.com/entertainment/28790.htm

http://www.nypostonline.com/entertainment/28790.htm

Clive Barnes is an old NY Times reviewer...Thanks Ann. Like that comment about SD "Give that man the Tony right now". And "succulently sensual Ehle"...how can that woman remain so down to earth with comments like that! ~~~ Thanks Mari...Harvey can sure throw a party.I bet it was in the Crystal Room of Tavern on the Green.

An interesting change in the curtain call. All previous performances had the cast doing an ensemble curtain call. Sunday's performance went like this: 1. ensemble 2. 3 supporting actors first, then Nigel and Sarah, then JE, then SD 3. ensemble

I believe Saturday's curtain call went that way, as well.

Meredith, are you going to let us know what you thought of TRT, audience reaction, how full was the theatre. We are pleased to hear all opinions.

Well, we both loved it! Loved the staging and music. I'm not very articulate, though. We could definitely see it again, but alas, not much chance of that. I was surprised by how funny it was. Now I understand what all the fuss about SD is about! He was amazing. He did land on the floor in the "cricket bat" scene. JE was luminous as always and v. sexy. Not Lizzy at all :-) I think it was very well received by the audience. LOTS of buzz at intermission. Theatre was full, or very close. Perhaps a few absentees here and there. Very warm response, but not a SO at end (*we* were standing of course). On a personal note, we got to see JE up close and personal (twice-on her way in and out), but did not have intestinal fortitude to ask for autograph (in manner of stalkers). There was quite a little line of people waiting for her though. Including some "grown ups" who were P&P2 fans, who DID have the guts to ask for her autograph. She was facing away, so we couldn't hear what she said. She was off with her chums on the town. I was struck by how anonymous stage actors can be.

It sounds like Jennifer is making the best of NYC after-hours. SD just keeps impressing.

Thanks Donna and Meredith . Meredith I don't always get autographs either...When I met Jennifer in Oct. 97 I didn't ask for an autograph...didn't seem appropriate.When I've been at the Donmar on my own, I like to just stand back and "drink" him in.It's just being up close and personal that counts.Glad you enjoyed the weekend.

Thankyou Meredith for your report, I am so glad you liked the play and the performances. Hope you don't mind but I have one other question (or two), if I remember you were to see WITW on the Friday, did you enjoy that play and also did you see any similarity between RH & JE in their acting technique.

More nightlife for Jennifer and Stephen according to Mitchell Fink at the Daily News. Harvey Holding Brit Bash Don't be surprised if Harvey Weinstein starts affecting a British accent. The Miramax honcho is hosting a "British Invasion" party tomorrow at Serena for the British stars who appear his company's new and upcoming films. Jimi Mistry will be there from "East Is East," along with Justin Kerrigan from "Human Traffic," Emily Mortimer from "Love's Labour's Lost" and Claire Forlani from "Boys and Girls." Expected also are the British cast members from the Tom Stoppard play, "The Real Thing," which Miramax co-produced.

(Moon)It sounds like Jennifer is making the best of NYC after-hours. "Salsa-ing" her way through NY hotspots!

Another Award Nomination for TRT from The Drama League for Most Distinguished Revival of a play, winners announced on the 5th May.

There are some nice candid photos of the TRT cast at the opening night party at the Playbill site. Nice one of Jen and mum. Donna, where *does* SD find that shade of green?;-) Go to: http://www.playbill.com/cgi-bin/plb/news?cmd=list&selector=U.S.

Hmmm, not sure why that doesn't work. Try: http://www.playbill.com Then click on NEWS, then click on U.S. Theatre News. That should do it.

(Mari) where *does* SD find that shade of green?;-) Too bad he didn't wear the yummy aqua one! :-)

Drama Desk Awards nominations: TRT garnered 2: Stephen for best actor, and the play for best revival

Review from The Hollywood Reporter today: 'The Real Thing' (4/25/00) It isn't always true that a writer's most accessible work is also his best, but it is certainly the case with this 1982 play by Tom Stoppard, being given a sterling Broadway revival at the Ethel Barrymore by London's red-hot Donmar Warehouse, also responsible for such recent Broadway hits as "Cabaret" and "The Blue Room." Staged impeccably and acted beautifully by the original British cast (given permission to perform here for a mere 20 weeks), this production is indeed "The Real Thing." Stoppard's play, best remembered here for Mike Nichols' sterling 1984 production starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, manages to pack in myriad themes and ideas with maximum efficiency and impact. It is a love story; an exploration of the artistic process, particularly writing; a playful exercise in the differences between reality and illusion; a celebration of the ineffable joys of pop culture; an examination of the endless struggle between intellect and emotion; and much, much more. Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle, making their Broadway debuts, star in the central roles of Henry, an urbane, witty playwright, and Annie, a beautiful actress starring in his latest play. Henry and Annie, both married, are having an affair, a situation mirrored in a scene presented from Henry's latest work, aptly titled "House of Cards." Soon, they discard their spouses and get together, only to have the past repeat itself a couple of years later when Annie has an affair with a younger co-star. Henry, who has always prided himself on his ability to manipulate life with a well-chosen phrase, suddenly discovers that emotions are not so easily controlled. This work by Stoppard, a playwright often prone to excessive manipulation himself, bears his usual trademarks, including droll, witty dialogue and theatrical tricks played on the audience to make them question their assumptions. But it is also grounded in an emotional reality that makes it very moving. This production, directed by David Leveaux, is far more low-key than Nichols' supremely polished version, but its understated quality makes it that much more affecting. There are moments that don't quite work -- Henry's howl of anguish at the revelation of Annie's infidelity is unconvincing -- but, by and large, the production mines the text's essential qualities. Dillane gives a charmingly rumpled performance, making Henry likable despite his affectations, and Ehle is thoroughly winning as the high-spirited Annie; both will no doubt be major candidates during the upcoming awards season. Nigel Lindsay and Sarah Woodward are excellent as the displaced spouses, and Charlotte Parry, Oscar Pearce and Joshua Henderson make the most of their relatively brief roles. It runs indefinitely. � Frank Scheck in New York

2000 Drama Desk Nominees - TRT's competition and the major nominees OUTSTANDING NEW PLAY: Contact with the Enemy, by Frank Gilroy Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn Dinner with Friends, by Donald Margulies Dirty Blonde, by Claudia Shear Jitney, by August Wilson The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, by Charles Busch OUTSTANDING NEW MUSICAL: Contact James Joyce's The Dead Saturday Night Swing! The Wild Party (Manhattan Theatre Club) OUTSTANDING REVIVAL (PLAY): A Moon for the Misbegotten, by Eugene O'Neill The Price, by Arthur Miller The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard True West, by Sam Shephard Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov Waste by Harley Granville Barker OUTSTANDING REVIVAL (MUSICAL): Kiss Me, Kate The Music Man OUTSTANDING ACTOR (PLAY): Gabriel Byrne (A Moon for the Misbegotten) Kevin Chamberlin (Dirty Blonde) Stephen Dillane (The Real Thing) Derek Jacobi (Uncle Vanya) Philip Seymour Hoffman (True West) Paul Sparks (Coyote on a Fence) OUTSTANDING ACTRESS (PLAY): Sinead Cusack (Our Lady of Sligo) Eileen Heckart (The Waverly Gallery) Linda Lavin (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife) Claudia Shear (Dirty Blonde) Lynn Thigpen (Jar the Floor) Charlyne Woodard (In the Blood) OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR (PLAY): Matthew Arkin (Dinner with Friends) Roy Dotrice (A Moon for the Misbegotten) Joel Grey (Give Me Your Answer, Do!) Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Author's Voice) Brian Murray (Uncle Vanya) Harris Yulin (The Price) OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS (PLAY): Jillian Armenante (The Cider House Rules, Part One: Here in St. Cloud) Marylouise Burke (Fuddy Meers) Seana Kofoed (An Experiment with an Air Pump) Chiara Mangiameli (The Time of the Cuckoo) Phyllis Newman (The Moment When) Amy Sedaris (The Country Club) OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR (PLAY): Michael Blakemore (Copenhagen) Thomas Hulce and Jane Jones (The Cider House Rules:Part One, Here in St. Cloud) James Lapine (Dirty Blonde) Marion McClinton (Jitney) Michael Mayer (Uncle Vanya) Daniel Sullivan (Dinner with Friends) OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE: Olympia Dukakis (Rose) Spalding Gray (Morning, Noon and Night) Barry Humphries (Dame Edna: The Royal Tour) Mark Linn-Baker (Chesapeake) Mark Setlock (Fully Committed) Marc Wolf (Another American: Asking and Telling) SPECIAL AWARDS: Producer Alexander Cohen for Lifetime Achievement (posthumously) Barnard Hughes and Helen Stenborg for Shared Lifetime Achievement The ensemble of Jitney

Thanks for the list, Donna. I didn't realize the Drama Desk combined Broadway *and* Off-Broadway plays. That makes it a huge field, lots of competition. Nice news for TRT and SD; disappointed that JE didn't get something, but again it's a big field to draw from. Tonys focus on Broadway only I believe. I didn't think Uncle Vanya opened yet--did it?

Thanks, Mari! From Playbill here is a great picture: They all look so happy!

Thanks everybody for reviews and Drama Desk Award Noms. Wish "Annie" was up there with "Henry":-( More nominations coming though. ~~~~~ Sinead Cusack (Mrs. Jeremy Irons, I think)is a formidable actress in this play. Wish I had time to see it. It played at the National. ~~~~~~~ JE is carbon copy of her Mum . Nice pic of the cast. Looks as if they really had a good time... Ya'better help SD pick out his shirts, Donna;-)

(Moon Dreams) They all look so happy! Yes a very nice pic, I'm happy for them all. (I guess Brodie was tired of sporting dip on his face, and opted for a tux, hee hee.) "JG" - Uncle Vanya officially opens on the 30th.

Ann-WITW on the Friday, did you enjoy that play and also did you see any similarity between RH & JE in their acting technique. This is fearfully off topic, but I will reply here, if that's OK. We enjoyed WITW very much. It was very funny-very much ensemble. Lots of laughs! Those old broads really have timing (if you'll excuse the expression--very affectionately meant). I was struck by Rosemary Harris' presence. You can tell she's very experienced on stage. (I also saw her arrive at theatre with baseball cap on her head--at least I think it was a cap like that-I was rather startled to see her on the street :-). In JE's case, I had no idea her voice was so low pitched, very deep. We weren't as close to the stage in TRT as we would have liked. I'm afraid I don't know enough about theatre to compare and contrast their styles. I'm of the "I know what I like" school, and I liked them both, in both plays.

Hello to all. I can answer to of your queries. Yes, Sinead Cusack is married to Jeremy Irons. Yes as well, on the question of the Tonys. The Antoinette Perry Awards, which is the full name for the Tonys, are for Broadway productions. Off-Broadway shows are not open for consideration. According to the Tony by-laws "True West" will be eligible to nominated for Best New Play, as it as never been produced on Broadway before.

Thank you, Saskia! Welcome to our party. :-)

From Robert Osborne's column: Critic's choice: Drama Desk over Outer Circle NEW YORK -- Sally Ann Howes in "James Joyce's The Dead," Philip Seymour Hoffman in "True West," Eartha Kitt in "The Wild Party," Barry Humphries in "Dame Edna: The Royal Tour" and a few others got grand news on Tuesday: Nominations in their individual categories from the Drama Desk for their outstanding work this season on Broadway, nominations none of them received a week ago when the Outer Critics Circle announced its own list of the best in New York theater. That's what makes horse racing, of course, a difference of opinion, but Howes, Hoffman, Kitt, et al. are too good, too award-worthy not to be singled out for mitt-pounding; so this list, to my eyes anyway, seems the much better one. (To be fair about it, Hoffman, along with his "West" co-star John C. Reilly, and Humphries each will receive special Critics Circle citations; none, however, were included in a competitive category.) What's astounding is that Reilly also was a no-show on the Drama Desk's nomination list. He came up with a big, fat zero wh le his teammate and pal Hoffman pulled two, count 'em, two Drama Desk acknowledgments, the first as best actor in a play for his "West" work, the second in the category of best featured actor in a play, the off-Broadway "Author's Voices: Imagining Brad" ... For the record: Unlike the Tony awards, the Drama Desk lumps together both Broadway and off-Broadway work; hopefully, one day soon, the Tonys will realize they're doing everyone a disservice by not doing the same, especially since those once-distinct lines between the two venues get fainter by the minute. The Outer Critics Circle, made up of writers on the N.Y. theater for out-of-town media, also honors both Broadway and off-Broadway but keeps separate the judging of work in those two areas. There are some true eyebrow lifters: Philip Bosco, who gives one of the year's really superb Broadway performances, failed to get nominated for his work in "Copenhagen" by either the DD or OCC. (Does this doom his chances of deserved Tony attention?). None of the many reliables currently cavorting in Noel Coward's "Waiting in the Wings" (including Lauren Bacall, Rosemary Harris, Rosemary Murphy and Simon Jones) were tapped by the DD; two of them, Harris and Jones, did manage to end up on the OCC list. Likewise, Harris' daughter Jennifer Ehle pulled an OCC nod for her dazzling work in the revival of "The Real Thing" but has been overlooked by the DD. David Suchet, Michael Sheen and Cindy Katz of "Amadeus" are in the same boat, liked by one group (the Outer Critics group), ignored by the other (the Drama Deskers). Ditto Laura Linney in "Uncle Vanya," Blair Brown in "The Dead," Michael Breese in "Kiss Me Kate." Maybe the biggest surprise among all the omissions on the DD list, though, is Deborah Yates. s the musical's "Contact's" spectacular "girl in yellow," Yates steals the show and received love-letter reviews but did not make the DD cut. Nor did Cherry Jones in "A Moon for the Misbegotten," Michele Lee in "Tale of the Allergist's Wife" or Debra Monk in "The Time of the Cuckoo" ... Most sobering is the fact the generally bashed "The Wild Party," produced off-Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club, led the DD nomination list with 13 nods; that other "The Wild Party" done on Broadway by the N.Y. Shakespeare Festival and also critically battered, pulled three. And it's as if the new Elton John-Tim Rice musical "Aida" never happened.

And it's as if the new Elton John-Tim Rice musical "Aida" never happened. Just my luck...that's the one I'm seeing !

Isn't he implying that Aida deserved to have had some recognition from them?

I thought the music for Eldorado was disappointing unlike the Lion King. I will be curious to hear if you liked Aida, Evelyn.

Another excellent review for TRT from curtainup.com albeit one or two quibbles.

I saw the play twice, once in London, and once in New York. I thought it was well-written, well acted and very witty, but I will stand by my initial impression that the underlying theme is incredibly depressing. It's nothing to do with the morality of adultery, but I don't think that glorifying serial adulterers is remotely amusing. I am definitely in the minority here, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

PS, Stephen Dillane was delicious!

Julie, you're absolutely right: you *are* in the minority here.;-)

But not about the delicious part. :-)

He IS, isn't he! Hee hee! :-)

We'll "forgive" Julie her "minority" opinion since she injected some drool into it. ;-)

Found this quote in the London Times: "It's great. It means that there is a real relationship with the audience and that is kind of thrilling." Actor Stephen Dillane, after the audience shouted "Speak up!" during a performance of his latest play, The Independent

*hee hee* That happened opening night at the Albery and we were there.

(Heide)We'll "forgive" Julie her "minority" opinion since she injected some drool into it. ;-) Nevah!

Outer Circle Winners Announced :-( Best Actor - Derek Jacobi (Uncle Vanya's reviews are not good) Best Revival - A Moon for the Misbegotten All winners are at http://www5.playbill.com/cgi-bin/plb/news?cmd=show&type=news&code=+95326&selector=U.S.

I forgot to mention, RH and JE can console each other, they were empty-handed too :-( Best Actress - Eileen Heckart Best Featured Actress - Frances Conroy

I have read 4 reviews for UV, and they are not good for either DJ or UV, how on earth did he get nominated let alone win, and the Director was particulary singled out for criticism and he has bee nominated for both OCC & DDA. How could DJ have topped SD, fingers crossed for the TONY nominations on the 8th.

Time Magazine (Richard Zoglin) has a small review of TRT today: In the first scene of this 1984 play, enjoying a somewhat premature Broadway revival, a man confronts his wife with evidence of her affair. In the second scene we learn that the two were acting in a play--yet something very similar is going on in their own lives. The nice thing about The Real Thing is that Stoppard's penchant for trickery doesn't register as mere virtuosity but is integral to his probing exploration of betrayal and trust among married couples. Stephen Dillane heads a flawless, starless cast that has brought over David Leveaux's sharp production from London's Donmar Warehouse and it's a winner. ~~~~~~~~ Can't believe it about Derek Jacobi. Read a review of UV yesterday. His performance was panned. Gaah!!

Flawless cast, yes, but starless cast-not in our eyes.

Friends of NY Theatre Award nominations (FANYs) have been announced and Sarah Woodward has been nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actress category and TRT Outstanding Revival of a Play. (nothing for JE or SD, quite an odd selection).

Sarah Woodward has been nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actress category I'm glad she is getting some recognition, I thought she was an excellent Charlotte.

but what about SD & JE, I am getting a little bit worried now about the TONY Nominations on Monday. How important are the FANYs?

Sorry David Leaveaux has been nominated as well.

Here's the full list for the FANYs http://www5.playbill.com/cgi-bin/plb/news?cmd=show&type=news&code=+95404&selector=U.S. I noticed that the deadline for voting was March 30. Unfortunately, TRT premiered on March 29 to a lukewarm response from the Silver Fox audience. The cast had not reached its stride yet, nor had they made the subtle changes in pacing that seems to move along the play much better now for the American audience. So presumably not many people saw the production, and if they did, they didn't see the cast at their best :-( I don't know about the importance of these awards. Well at least, there doesn't seem to be a shoe-in for the Tony's, though I was hoping it would have been SD. FYI, Uncle Vanya was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal today. The play wasn't received well, but the reviewer thought that DJ was outstanding. He was not kind to the Americans in the cast (Laura Linney and David Patrick Kelly (he said he talked like a surfer dude)). Yes, and he too was critical of the director, saying that everyone seemed to be doing their own thing. If SD doesn't get a nod from the Tony's, it will really be a dirty rotten shame. It is odd that the director was nominated for the FANYs, and not SD. Fingers crossed!

You have a good point about the Silver Fox audience Donna, these are the people's awards I believe. I too have read many review for Vanya and for DJ and they have been bad for both and particularly the Director and leading lady. If that gets nominated I will be amazed. As you say how can the Director, and the play be nominated and not the leading actors, who have both received universally wonderful reviews. Fingers doubly crossed.

I've never heard of these FANYS, and my thought is that they mean nothing. They are just fans who had $250 to plunk down for "membership." RE the Outer Critics and DJ--maybe they are into honoring a "body of work" and not necessarily this specific performance. That always irks me; if they honored people when they deserved it, they wouldn't have to make anything up to them later on! Still feeling good about TONY prospects, but it is a more competitive field than I thought.

It's interesting to note that Amy's View was eligible for a nomination this year but received none, was it nominated for a TONY last year and what about Judi Dench?

I never heard of the FANYs either. I agree with Donna...If voting was on March 30th and TRT premiered on the 29th, it means that the voters saw the play during it's preview performances when the cast was still trying to iron out the kinks. They have quite a mixed bag of nominees with last year's plays thrown in.Don't know how they could ignore Judi Dench, but nice that RH made the list. Tony judges are Broadway producers, directors, fellow actors...folks who are competent to judge peer talent...I hope...

(AnnW) how can the Director, and the play be nominated and not the leading actors Didn't we see something rather similar with 3DOR and the Oliviers? The play was nominated but none of the actors or the director for that matter? Wonder why the play was if the direction or the acting wasn't particularly notable.

Quite!

Here's last year's winners. Ann, Judi did win. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The 1999 Tony Awards, for the 1998-99 Broadway season, were given out at Manhattan's Gershwin Theater Sunday evening. The winners were: Play: "Side Man." Musical: "Fosse." Revival-Play: "Death of a Salesman." Revival-Musical: "Annie Get Your Gun." Actor-Play: Brian Dennehy, "Death of a Salesman." Actress-Play: Judi Dench, "Amy's View." Featured Actor-Play: Frank Wood, "Side Man." Featured Actress-Play: Elizabeth Franz, "Death of a Salesman." Director-Play: Robert Falls, "Death of a Salesman." Director-Musical: Matthew Bourne, "Swan Lake."

Apologies if this has already been posted but according to Curtainup.com Derek Jacobi has won again, this time for the Drama Desk Awards Oustanding Actor and Moon for the Misbeggoten? has again won Best Revival, is this a trend? Stephen's reviews were tons better!!

This should cheer us up! Good 'ol Liz Smith, bless her. From today's column. Great exposure--her column is very widely read, and syndicated in newspapers throughout the U.S. RIALTO RAVES: Four fabulous performances grace the stage at the Barrymore Theatre courtesy of Stephan Dillane, Jennifer Ehle, Nigel Lindsay and Sarah Woodward in Tom Stoppard's bitingly witty and wordy comedy "The Real Thing." Outstanding is the only word for Dillane, who plays a writer not unlike Stoppard himself. Jennifer Ehle, a red-haired beauty - almost as ravishing as her mother, Rosemary Harris - is a knockout as wife and lover. Sarah Woodward is deliciously sardonic. Superbly directed by David Laveaux, this is yet another Donmar Warehouse production, intact from London, making Broadway sit up and take notice. The surprise of the evening? How young the audience was, and how heartily they appreciated the bittersweet humor wrapped in the irony that love is wonderful ... AND WHILE we have Broadway on the brain, there's a new Web site for theater mavens now. The world's most comprehensive coverage of live theater - 1,900 listings across the U.S. Just click on Broadway.com. Welcome to the theater, cyber-ites.

Thanks Mari....Liz Smith is a gem... I have just spoken to the publicists of TRT and SD and JE are taping a Charlie Rose interview as we speak....to be televised probably next week. Let's all be alert on date. ALSO "Breakfast with the Arts"on A&E is still a strong possibility.Have had email from the producer and they are keen on having her on "She's one of the major reasons why P&P was such a success with A&E" . We all know the "other major reason"...but it's nice when Jennifer gets a little credit and not always "the wet shirt".

From today's Playbill.com BROADWAY PLAYS BASEBALL A few pre-season games under its belt, the Broadway Show Softball League officially plays ball May 4, with its special opening day event in Central Park. Among those expected to throw the ceremonial first pitch are The Real Thing's Stephen Dillane, Jennifer Ehle, NIgel Lindsay and Sarah Woodward, The Music Man's Rebecca Luker, Beauty and the Beast's Andrea McArdle, Kiss Me, Kate's Marin Mazzie and Taller Than a Dwarf's Matthew Broderick. The National Anthem will be performed by Annie Get Your Gun's Tom Wopat and a trio of singing cowboys. The Broadway Show League plays on the Hecksher Ball Fields in Central Park at 63rd Street and Central Park West. The day's events begin at 1 PM. The Show League has been playing since 1955. Dan Landon is its current commissioner. ~~~~~~~ Wonder what postion JE and SD will play?Think maybe Harve is in on this one? Oh well...they might not be getting the awards, but no one is asking Uncle Vanya to play baseball;-)

Great news re: the Charlie Rose interview, Evelyn! Those are usually nice and lengthy, 20--30 minutes. He's had Stoppard on a couple of times that I can recall. So glad she's doing this; A&E would be great, too. The baseball thing sounds like fun; maybe Uncle Vanya is umping.;-)

(Mari) maybe Uncle Vanya is umping.;-) Very likely. Umping usually requires overacting, especially when making bad calls. ;-) Can't wait to see the Charlie Rose show...which is...TONIGHT according to the website: http://www.pbs.org/charlierose/ Might be on second after the tribute to the Cardinal http://www.pbs.org/charlierose/show.html

A catholic and a couple of infidels. ;-) Thanks for the head-ups!

Thanks Karen.Will alert the troops.They're going on hot off the griddle...they taped it this morning.

I am really sorry everyone but apparently the Drama Desk Awards have not been made yet, according to Curtain Up the Award winners listed on their site were for The Outer Critic Circle Awards and not Drama Desk Awards as they said, they have posted an apology for the error. So Stephen still has a chance!! and so does TRT.

Is it just me or was anybody else disappointed in SD & JE on Charlie Rose last night? What a hard time they had trying to articulate their thoughts! JE kept slumping on the table. What is wrong with sitting up straight? One of the worst interviews I have seen on Charlie Rose.

(Moon) Is it just me or was anybody else disappointed in SD & JE on Charlie Rose last night? Boo hoo, I didn't see it to know if I would be disappointed or not. :-( I will say that I used to like him as an interviewer, until I got to the point where I would be irritated with his habit of wanting to hear himself talk. Just MHO. I thought he would try too hard to prove to the audience and the interviewee that he was intelligent. I used to want to shout at the TV, "just interview the guest, Charlie, don't try and impress us with how much you know!" Yes, he is intelligent, well educated, and not bad to look at either. Charming and probably a wonderful dinner partner. But he interrupts the guest too often. But I digress, sorry, and this is not meant to start a thread on the merits of Charlie :-) Not sure if this happened during the SD and JE interview. Inquiring minds want to know. And how did they look (aside from the slumping) and could you tell what they were wearing? Bummed, bummed, bummed.

(Moon) Is it just me or was anybody else disappointed in SD & JE on Charlie Rose last night? Very much so. But we didn't see the whole thing. At the very beginning, when he's saying who is going to be on, they showed clips of SD and JE answering different questions very articulately and with no slumping. ;-) Why they edited it down to those pathetic questions, we'll never know. Think we should email the show and ask them to show the entire interview. Donna, I taped it for you. Evelyn and I thought you wouldn't be back in time. What bugs me about Charlie Rose (aside from his interruptions) is that while his guest is speaking he looks like he's asleep.

(Karen) Donna, I taped it for you. Evelyn and I thought you wouldn't be back in time. Mega HUGS and kisses!! (Yes, I got back late, and empty-handed...)

No problemo. Check and see if your PBS station rebroadcasts CR during the day. One of mine shows it again at noon. It was on 3 stations last night; had no idea he was so popular. ;-)

(Donna), I will say that I used to like him as an interviewer, until I got to the point where I would be irritated with his habit of wanting to hear himself talk. He does do that and it is anoying, but last night he really let them talk but they just could not get it together. You will see for yourself. (Karen),What bugs me about Charlie Rose (aside from his interruptions) is that while his guest is speaking he looks like he's asleep. NY is the city that never sleeps. ;-) He does have druppy eyes, I do think he can fix that unless he goes for surgery.

Well, I guess I'll be the dissenting voice here; I thought they did fine last night. They were attempting to address some very intriguing questions, such as: do the playwright's words foster the actor's emotional portrayal, or do the actors need to start from a place of emotion, and then let the words take them where they will. I'm not expressing it very well, but it was, thank God, not the usual talk show fare of "Oooo, so what was it like working with (insert name of once-great but now-has-been actor).';--) I think we (and I include myself in this) are so accustomed to glib 5-second sound-bites spouted by over-rehearsed celebs that anything else comes off as awkward. Stephen was wearing a dark jacket and brown shirt; Jen had on a charcoal gray suit, hair redder than when I saw her a few weeks ago. Donna, I made a copy as well.

(Mari) They were attempting to address some very intriguing questions Seemed to me there was only one question and they beat it to death without imparting anything more substantial (i.e., when you cut through the crap) than "it depends" or "we've tried it different ways" or "whatever works for you." ;-) Will go back and check as it was only 10 minutes. From the opening (teaser) clip, both SD and JE looked all put together. Think by the time that question was posed, they were fed up with Charlie and aching to get out, hence JE's somewhat disheveled appearance and the frustrated look of both.

(Mari) Donna, I made a copy as well. Mega HUGS all around K/E/M for thinking of me. Just as well, I would not have been able to watch. Our PBS station is having their fund drive this week and have preempted his show along with most of their programming. Disappointed to hear their interview was only 10 minutes. With two such intelligent and accomplished actors, and with a combined body of work that could be interesting topics of discussion, I bet they could really give riveting and entertaining interviews if asked the right questions. But thanks again, you have excited my anticipation! :-)

Well, I will also dissent with the Moon and Karen. Obviously they were addressing a difficult topic...as I heard it (at midnight here)...the amalgamating of the methodology of acting (emotions..impulse) and the word of the playwright."Cerebral" as W. Buckley would call it.They weren't rehearsed and didn't have a script.I thought they were brilliant. Not entertainers...not David Letterman stuff. Not many ha, ha's here.Just two very serious actors trying to improve their craft and give the audience their money's worth. Both v. natural, not pretentious. Yes, she wasn't conscentrating on her looks.LOL...the best interview she has given yet.Does v. well , not shy when it comes to talking about her craft...facade comes on when talking about JE.and he has a smile that would melt your toe-nails. In the annals of CR interviews it won't be a #10, but for two unknowns who don't make a career of appearing on talk shows, I was proud of them. IMO

(Evelyn) he has a smile that would melt your toe-nails Pant pant.

Dissent is fine. While I will agree that the CR show is different (i.e., the guests actually converse most times), I saw a frustration on their faces that said, "how many times are you going ask that same question?" or "it's not that black and white?" or "or many different ways can I say this?" Grrr Stripping away the high-falutin' methodology, that's what it all boiled down to, folks. Sorry. I would've rather heard a discussion like the teaser bit implied. Something more on the play, their interpretation of the characters, etc.

I would like to read the book ...was it by Mamet...called "True or False"? I'm interested in methodology...ever since the a recent article in the Observer about CF's training...on Laban etc. You see?...different strokes....etc.;-)

thank God, not the usual talk show fare of "Oooo, so what was it like working with (insert name of once-great but now-has-been actor).';--) I watch Charlie Rose very often and for years now. As much fun as I have doing Top 10 lists, I do not watch either Letterman or Leno, or regular TV for that matter. (Karen), Stripping away the high-falutin' methodology, that's what it all boiled down to, folks. Sorry. I would've rather heard a discussion like the teaser bit implied. Something more on the play, their interpretation of the characters, etc. I agree! They could have talked about what they pleased, yet they lingered endlessly on that unclear methodology. (Evelyn), Obviously they were addressing a difficult topic...as I heard it (at midnight here)...the amalgamating of the methodology of acting (emotions..impulse) and the word of the playwright." Please! That is their bread and butter, what else do they dedicate so much time too? SD had ONE interesting point when he said that the words somehow took different meanings as they changed to a bigger theatre.

My,my this is one tough crowd. I will put my vote in with Evelyn and Mari. They are both not used to doing publicity so I thought they did very well. I don't think either of them are extroverted, talkative people and both seemed at ease, hence the slouching. Just because they are actors does not mean it is so easy to articulate what they do. Instead of finding fault with Jennifer and Stephen, perhaps CR should have asked a wider range of questions. I do have to say that every time I have seen or read anything about SD, I like him more and more. He's dreamy, she's creamy. :-))

While I may be critical, I do think what was aired was poor, and I'm not blaming SD and JE as CR's comments/questions were inane for the most part. He was totally unbriefed about Jennifer's background apparently. Stephen's final answer after going over and over the same territory finally said *something* and that was about how they had previously subordinated the words to the relationship they were trying to convey and, now, they had a better balance. But like I said, everything boiled down to that anyway. Not exactly an earth-shattering revelation. Oh well... In the opening segment (Jen's hair is neatly coiffed in that), they say: SD: But I like the fact that he inhabits a world in which his love is the most important thing and that's sort of hard to do in your own life (cute little smile beneath fingers covering mouth) JE: I think what's beautiful about it is that it's a sort of...it makes commitment and trust and the openess and some kind of sacrifice that it involves...it makes it sexy and romantic which I think is a difficult thing to do. BTW, I have emailed the show to ask if they would consider airing the entire interview. charlierose@pbs.org

Contact and Copenhagen and have won the 2000 Drama League Awards for best musical and play, respectively. Kiss Me, Kate Won the prize for best revival. Boo hoo, another loss for TRT. Full story at: http://www5.playbill.com/cgi-bin/plb/news?cmd=show&type=news&code=+95496&selector=U.S.

(Karen)BTW, I have emailed the show to ask if they would consider airing the entire interview. Thank you. I also think CR cheated us out of "Tom Stoppar's remarks about TRT" which he said we would hear "later". Never happened. I doubt CR will do this. LOL... this is not only a controversial play...it's also a controversial interview;-) Pause:...Now let's all go back to Oprah....

I saw Tom Stoppard when he was on for SIL. Wonder when he talked about TRT? Did CR have TS on when the play opened? v. possible. You could check with the show to get a transcript, which are for sale, but you have to know the airdate.

I saw Tom Stoppard up , close and personal last June when he addressed the Friends of the Donmar after a TRT performance.Very witty.I don't know if CR had him on, but he certainly mentioned his forthcoming clip... "later on ". (I like the way SD pronounces his name...Stoppard We seem to go for the first syllable) Good idea, I'll inquire.Surely they must have someone who keeps an archive.

Competition is hotting up for Best Actor Tony Nominations, as The New York Times says "Tough Time for Nail Bitters" ...Another category to watch is the best actor in a play, mainly because of the strength of the competition .... SD., Gabriel Byrne, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Philip Bosco, Michael Crumpsty, Sir Derek Jacobi and Patrick Stewart...." and I have also seen Michael Sheen and David Suchet mentioned and only 5 names allowed. It seems to be nominated will be a great honour let alone winning!!

AAAAGH - did you read the smarmy review by John Simon? http://www.nymag.com/page.cfm?page_id=2948 He corrects grammar, but then doesn't get the dialogue right. Simon refers to the scene where Henry, as a child, was taken to a concert in Covent Garden. Yes, the written play refers to Callas, but the performance refers to Kiri Takaniwa (sorry if I misspelled, maybe Simon will correct me). You got THAT wrong John! Now, can we trust the rest of your review???

From today's Dallas Morning News: The Real Thing, Copenhagen and Rose also won acclaim and awards. This time, however, each is something really special. It's as if the Brits had sneaked in a single commando unit and won the war. Where was Paul Revere when we really needed him? The revival of The Real Thing, like so many other top-of-the-line London shows these days, originated at the tiny Donmar Warehouse. Its stars aren't nearly as imposing a pair of names as Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, who played the leads when Tom Stoppard's comedy-drama debuted on Broadway in 1984. But Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle make The Real Thing the smartest, sexiest play in New York. Mr. Dillane is known in this country, if anything, for the movie Welcome to Sarajevo. He also happens to be the premiere Hamlet of our time, as he proved in Sir Peter Hall's 1994 London production. The same qualities that made him a surpassing Prince of Denmark render him ideal for Mr. Stoppard's playwright-hero - mercurial intelligence, blistering intensity and stiletto wit. Ms. Ehle, the daughter of theatrical diva Rosemary Harris, is a star among the Jane Austen set, for whom tapes of her Elizabeth in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice are first-line collectibles. For The Real Thing, she has bobbed her hair and wears it auburn, making her look like a softer, sexier Gillian Anderson. The Real Thing was Mr. Stoppard's bid to be taken seriously as a writer about emotion, specifically romantic love. It's full of clever tricks - there are no fewer than three plays within the play and sometimes you can't tell whether you're in one of those or in the main plot - but something deeper as well. Mr. Dillane and Ms. Ehle make the bubblies in the Stoppard champagne fizzier, give the heat in his passion more sizzle. Under David Leveaux's direction, they make The Real Thing a show you could watch every night for a week and still hope you could nab another pair of tickets. Joan Marcus / DMN Philip Bosco (left), Blair Brown and Michael Cumpsty spar in Copenhagen. Copenhagen plays the same sort of role in Michael Frayn's career that The Real Thing did in Mr. Stoppard's. Mr. Frayn is a very prolific writer, turning out volumes of magazine stories and novels in addition to many plays. But in the public mind his name means only one thing - Noises Off, the funniest backstage farce of our time. Until now, that is. Although it engages in some Stoppardian ironies and shifts of time, Copenhagen is serious stuff. Its three characters were all real people. Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg were two of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. Their insights paved the way for nuclear energy and the atom bomb - which is what gives the play its force. Heisenberg (Michael Cumpsty) visits Bohr (Philip Bosco) and his wife, Margarethe (Blair Brown), in their Denmark home after his country, Germany, has invaded and occupied theirs. The Bohrs distrust this intrusion by an enemy who used to be like a son to them. What is his motive? And upon that question the whole play revolves. Copenhagen could easily seem like an intellectual exercise, ranging as it does from scientific and philosophical issues to world politics. But it keeps its issues clear and personalizes

Thanks for that Sue, what a wonderful review.

Sorry as I was cutting and pasting, I hit the submit button by mistake. I was trying to delete the Copenhagen part. Anyway, if you want to read the whole article it is at http://dallasnews.com/entertainment/73988_BRITISH06.html

Very nice article, Sue. That writer knows the material and the actors, something we haven't seen in anybody else's writeup. Liked the info about Dillane's Hamlet being so acclaimed. No one here would know anything about it. Also, the mention about JE being a "star among the JA set"!! ;-)

Thanks Sue... I like this part too... Re: JE for whom tapes of her Elizabeth in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice are first-line collectibles. He must be the same reviewer who always says about any costume drama... "...but don't expect a Pride and Prejudice". P&P is his hallmark.....

(Sue) Mr. Dillane and Ms. Ehle make the bubblies in the Stoppard champagne fizzier, give the heat in his passion more sizzle. Under David Leveaux's direction, they make The Real Thing a show you could watch every night for a week and still hope you could nab another pair of tickets. My sentiments exactly :-)

Re: the Charlie Rose interview (which I missed, unfortunately) -- didn't it air on the day Cardinal O'Connor died and/or include a segment about him? Perhaps the producers decided to cut down the JE/SD interview to accommodate the newsier O'Connor story. There's a big article in today's Boston Globe about Tony contenders and tipping ("mooting"?) TRT for best revival. Wasn't able to find the article on the Globe's web site, but among the glowing quotes are: "...Stoppard is very much in the English tradition of playwriting, and the casually handsome Dillane and irreverently beautiful Ehle are excellent representatives of British acting styles." Also includes a large photo of JE (the one in the black dress).

I have finally been able to digest your great TRT discussions here and read the stunning reviews. I am, of course, still kicking myself for being too ill to join you at the Donmar last June AARRGH! But this is making up for it. Thanks everyone. Busy catching SD in the AK preview trailers. Anyone else seen them? Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

There is an article on the Tony noms tomorrow and it looks like SD and JE should be nominated. It would be interested if JE and RH are competing against each other;) Here's the link:

Okay, here's the link;) http://cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Arts/05/07/tony.advancer.ap/index.html

Thanks Laura....I'm not banking on it... Not that JE doesn't deserve it,but I have little faith in the system.

You can listen to the Tony noms being announced at: www.tonys.org The suspense is killing me!

At what time will they be announced?

The Tony nominations just came out. Unfortunatley my line got corrupted during the broadcast, so I didn't hear the IMPORTANT nominations (actor, actress). But so far, the TRT has been nominated for: Best Revival Director Featured Actress - Sarah Woodward

YES - both SD and JE got nominated!!! So did RH. Yippee!!!

Yipee Yipee 5 nominations, wonderful, they must all be thrilled, now I can relax. Where are you Evelyn , bring out the champagne!

Here's the list of the major noms. GREAT NEWS. I want a mimosa and I want it now! Kate, Music Man, Wild Party Lead 2000 Tony Noms 08-MAY-2000 It's great to be a revival. Kiss Me, Kate leads the Tony Award nominations with 12 nods and The Music Man coming next with 9. An original musical, The Wild Party, made third with 7. Dirty Blonde garnered the most recognition for a play with 5 nominations. Several special awards will be granted this year with Dame Edna, Eileen Heckart (for Excellance in Theatre), Encores!, agent Sylvia Herscher and producer T. Edward Hambleton being honored. A list of nominations follows: Best New Play: Copenhagen by Michael Frayn Dirty Blonde by Claudia Shear The Ride Down Mt. Morgan by Arthur Miller True West by Sam Shepard Best New Musical: Contact James Joyce's The Dead Swing! The Wild Party Best Revival of a Musical: Kiss Me, Kate The Music Man Jesus Christ Superstar Tango Argentino Best Revival of a Play: Amadeus Moon for the Misbegotten The Real Thing The Price Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play: Gabriel Byrne, A Moon for the Misbegotten Stephen Dillane, The Real Thing Philip Seymour Hoffman, True West John C. Reilly, True West David Suchet, Amadeus Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play : Jane Atkinson, Rainmaker Jennifer Ehle, The Real Thing Rosemary Harris, Waiting in the Wings Cherry Jones, A Moon for the Misbegotten Claudia Shear, Dirty Blonde Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical : Craig Bierko, The Music Man Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kiss Me, Kate George Hearn, Putting It Together Mandy Patinkin, The Wild Party Christopher Walken, James Joyce's The Dead Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical: Toni Collette, The Wild Party Heather Headley, Aida Rebecca Luker, The Music Man Audra McDonald, Marie Christine Marin Mazzie, Kiss Me, Kate Best Direction Of A Play : Michael Blakemore, Copenhagen Peter Hall, Amadeus James Lapine, Dirty Blonde David Leveaux, The Real Thing Matthew Warchus, True West Best Direction Of A Musical : Michael Blakemore, Kiss Me, Kate Lynne Taylor Corbett, Swing! Susan Stroman, The Music Man Susan Stroman, Contact Playbill On-Line will publish a complete list of nominations momentarily. --By Robert Simonson and Christine Ehren

Evelyn, you really need to have more faith;)

Audra McDonald is a fave, I see her getting it for Marie Christine. JE and RH are up against each other, interesting;)

what do they mean Dirty Blonde garnared the most nominations for a play, TRT also had 5 nominations!

Bring on the bubbles!! Also from the Tonys website, interview with Rosie O'Donell Tonys.org: Will you have this year's nominees on your program? Rosie: Yes. In the week before the Tonys we'll have all the nominated musicals performing. The week before that we'll have as many of the nominated actors and actresses as we can. I'd say, get those VCRs ready!

Mimosas coming up!!! Yipee. Really didn't expect it, gang.This is the icing on the cake. Drama Desk awards can stuff them up their*** Now watch the newspapers about mother/daughter combo. Am off to send JE congrats on TRT Home Page.They're distributed to the cast daily. C'mon and join me.... http://www.therealthingbroadway.com/ click on Message to the Cast!! Thanks everybody....a two chardonnay day!

I noticed the Tonys website has some TRT pics that I haven't seen before. Just click on gallery and then TRT.

Great news! I have never watched the Tony Awards before, this will be a first. When is it?

Forgot to say....Thank you Harvey....I know you're in there someway

They're on in June, Moon. Rosie O'Donnell is hosting. They almost stopped televising the Tony's a few years back because viewership was so low. However, they are fun. Last year, Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews came out singing! (JA got a BIG standing ovation.) Rosie is fun as well, she's a definite theatre lover.

Thanks, Laura. I sent my congratulations, Evelyn.

I tried to send a message as well, but I keep on getting an error message:-( I filled in all fields, I can't imagine what I might be doing wrong.

The Tonys will be on June 4th.

The message board is probably jammed, Tineke...keep trying!! Big night for the Donmar and Sam too. Plan to email Rachel.They must be ecstatic.Big year for the Donmar. Oscars and Tonys.... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Laura)They almost stopped televising the Tony's a few years back because viewership was so low. Hey, those Tonly guys aren't so dumb, Laura...Mother/daughter competition helps heightens the show's publicity. (Cynical evelyn strikes again!) ~~~~~~ Thanks Moon...but there is a big contingent who has recognized her talent including the recent Telegraph article..."Would someone pl. write a part for JE..."This will help now. Also "Sunshine" opens on June 9th. Of course the downside is that she will go into hiding....just like you-know-who...

Evelyn, I demand you to stop being so cynical!!! NOW!!!! Have faith!!! She'll sit with her mum and dad, and when they announce the noms for Best Actress they'll show each other kissing and hugging;) Have faith!!! please????

We have lots of reasons to tape the show....someone we know is going! I'll let her give details..... evelyn,....who is doing a "one-man Macarena"

I was finally able to send a message. Now I fear I may have sent it three times. I kept on getting the same error message "parameter is incorrect". I went back, hit forward again and then it did get sent. Strange. What do you mean, Evelyn? one-man Macarena! *swinging arms*

In our jubilation, did you notice who and what didn't get nominated? Uncle Vanya. No Derek Jacobi. Just a single nod for the featured actress Amy Ryan and a nod for scenic design. In 1984, TRT was nominated in 7 categories, the same 5 plus scenic design and costume design. (Actually best play, not best revival). Anyhow, it won all 5 (actor - Jeremy Irons, actress - Glenn Close, featured actress - Christine Baranski, play - Stoppard, director - Mike Nichols). What a hoot if Stoppard gets it again. Oddly enough, that year TRT played along with A Moon for the Misbegotten and American Buffalo. Same as now.

Sadly, the biggest competition is their nationality..... No way will 5 Tonys go to Brits. In 1984 TRT was an American production with Anglo-American cast. Can't believe Derek Jacobi was shut out.

(Evelyn) Sadly, the biggest competition is their nationality..... No way will 5 Tonys go to Brits. Well, since TRT was already honored in '84, I don't think they'll honor it or the director again. But I think the actors have a real shot. Best Actor category is very competitive. I predict the two Yanks, Hoffman and Reilly (both superb actors, BTW) will cancel each other out, coming from the same play. Suchet is well-liked; Bryne's reviews were good, but not as immaculate as SD's. I say SD in a real horse race. Best Actress: Jennifer and Rosemary will tie--yes, you read it first here! The Tony people know how to put on a show;-) Sarah has a good shot as well--nice to see her nommed--she was very good also. TV audience this year will be big. Rosie is back, plus many people tune in for the musicals, and last year was slim pickings--this year, there are some very popular shows. (Kiss Me Kate is fun, saw it earlier this year--FYI for anyone coming to NY.) Gee . . .nothing for Patrick Stewart? What a surprise.;-) ;-)

(Mari)The Tony people know how to put on a show;- You are so right.... The wires already are touting... "Mother and daughter battling it out for Best Actress"... Good publicity for Jennifer. (Mum already has several Tonys....)

Nice pic of Jen and Rosemary, along with Tonys announcment: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/newsid_741000/741153.stm

LOL flies don't light long on Paramount Classics...they just issued this press release... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tony Nominations Awarded to Rosemary Harris and Jennifer Ehle, Stars of Upcoming Film SUNSHINE NEW YORK, May 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Veteran stage and screen actress Rosemary Harris and her daughter, rising star Jennifer Ehle, were both honored with Tony nominations this morning in New York City. The two women will appear this summer along side Ralph Fiennes in Oscar-winning director Istvan Szabo's sweeping film SUNSHINE, scheduled for release from Paramount Classics on Friday, June 9th. Ms. Harris was nominated for her touching turn as an aging but regal stage actress in the Noel Coward play "Waiting in the Wings," in which she stars with Lauren Bacall. Ms. Ehle has recently garnered impressive reviews for her Broadway debut in the Tom Stoppard play "The Real Thing," in which she plays the mistress of a playwright (Stephen Dillane). The two appear in a compelling casting achievement in SUNSHINE. Ms. Harris plays the older version of her daughter's character. In this highly charged historical and romantic epic, Ms. Harris and Ms. Ehle star with Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Deborah Kara Unger, Molly Parker and William Hurt. Mr. Fiennes plays the patriarch in three separate generations of the same extraordinary family. Through the lives, losses and loves of the Sonnenchein ("Sunshine") family, director Szabo creates powerful metaphor of the 20th century quest for personal identity and liberty. SUNSHINE is produced by Robert Lantos and Andras Hamori and was written by Istvan Szabo and Israel Horovitz from a story by Szabo. The Tony Awards take place on Sunday, June 4th, Ms. Harris and Ms. Ehle are currently available for interviews in New York City. For more information please contact In NY: Gwin von Ludwig - DDPR / 212/213-8277 In LA: Bob Meyerson - mPRm / 323/933-3399 SOURCE Paramount Classics ~~~~~~ Now that's timely PR!

True, Evelyn, and that is just the way the machine usually works. That is why we are always surprised/shocked/angered when it does not happen for Colin.

From Robert Osborne's column for THR: Mother vs. daughter for best actress May 9 NEW YORK -- The most entertaining aspect of that Tony Award nomination list, announced Monday at Sardi's, is hands down the fact that a mother (Rosemary Harris in "Waiting in the Wings") and daughter (Jennifer Ehle in "The Real Thing") are competing for the same prize in the same category, best actress in a play. You can't get a better hook for armchair quarterbacking than that. It's also something that sets a precedent: It has never happened before in Tony history or, for that matter, in Oscar's 72-year past, either. The closest things in the Academy's history book to such a family matter are the two occasions when sisters competed for Oscars in the same year: Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine in 1941 and Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave in 1966. ... The most confusing aspect of this year's Tony list is that so many productions that were lambasted by the critics ended up in the competition: e.g. the roundly lambasted revival of "Jesus Christ Superstar," up for best revival of a musical, and George W lfe's generally panned "The Wild Party," which pulled seven nominations, including best musical. ... There's undoubtedly cheering in some offices today since the 12 nominations for "Kiss Me, Kate" are certain to upgrade its boxoffice appeal (despite positive reviews, "Kate" has so far failed to take hold as a bona fide hit). The seven for "Wild Party," six for "Swing!," five for "The Real Thing" and three for "Aida" also may help upgrade their b.o. chances, although there'll be some red faces around the "Aida" camp since the highly touted, heavily promoted musical failed, even in a generally weak year, to manage a nom as best musical. (For the record, 15 of the group's nominations went to shows that already bit the dust: "James Joyce's The Dead," "Marie Christine," "Wrong Mountain," "The Rainmaker," "The Price," "Putting It Together" and "Tango Argentino.") The nomination list will not please Patrick Stewart, Julie Taymor, Lauren Bacall, Olympia Dukakis, Woody Harrelson, Derek Jacobi, Roger Rees, Elaine May or Matthew Broderick, all of whom toiled without Tony recognition. If they deserved no better fate this time around, several did: Where were the names of actors Philip Bosco and Michael Cumpsty, both so fine in "Copenhagen"? And Sally Ann Howes, who did such magnificent work in "The Dead"? The nominees, by the way, were announced at the Sardi's gathering by Bebe Neuwirth and Kelsey Grammer.

The thing about Broadway plays, is lately, they have all been panned. With the exception of a few notables. Aida was panned so badly during previews that it had to be revamped! Waiting in the Wings was crucified here in Boston. Kelsey Grammer will be here shortly for MacBeth (I'm hoping to get tix). I'm still planning on seeing The Real Thing this summer. It sounds wonderful!

I think JE & SD have won an Award, The World Theatre Awards, or is it a nomination, I am not sure, check out Playbill.com

You are right Ann, another award: WORLD THEATRE AWARD :The 2000 Theatre World Awards, which honor performers making their first big New York splash (including, but not limited to, Broadway debuts), have been announced: Stephen Dillane...TRT Jennifer Ehle ...TRT The Theatre World Awards will be presented May 23 at Studio 54. Attendance at the ceremony is by invitation only. ~~~~~~ Full list : http://www5.playbill.com/cgi-bin/plb/news?cmd=show&type=news&code=+95559&selector=U.S. ~~~~~~ Always good for the CV's. But I've never heard of half of them....

Hey, can we create our own award and then invite the recipients to our bash? Hmmm, mind thinking... pineapple, pineapple, pineapple On the menu...bananas.

What kind of organization is Theatre World? Sounds like a "cult". ;-))

From Liz Smith's Column: TONY NOMINEES such as Gabriel Byrne, Toni Collette, Craig Bierko, Laura Benanti, Stephen Spinella, Blair Brown, Cherry Jones, et al., received fabulous congratulatory baskets courtesy of Taittinger champagne -- everything from velour robes to perfume, silk slippers, crystal paperweights, haircuts at the John Barrett Salon and more. Each basket is valued at about $2,000.

I read in the Times today that from now on we should address Tom Stoppard as Sir Tom Stoppard.

..received fabulous congratulatory baskets courtesy of Taittinger champagne -- everything from velour robes to perfume, silk slippers, crystalpaperweights, haircuts at the John Barrett Salon and more. Each basket is valued at about$2,000. I'd rather have the $$$$....but second, I'd take the bubbly instead. Thanks Sue.. ~~~~~~~ Had an email from Rachel yesterday in response to my congratulatory one to the Donmar. She said "Hi" to everybody.Will post this on 129 since only a few come here.

Tineke: I read in the Times today that from now on we should address Tom Stoppard as Sir Tom Stoppard. I think he was already Sir Tom, but has now been appointed by HRH to the Order of Merit.

A slow day so I thought I'd post this pic of SD at the premiere party.

That bilious green shirt , ug. (I couldn't sell that at a garage sale with provenance.)He is much handsomer than that pic esp. when he smiles.... They call that a widow's peak? Hmmmmmm.

For Donna, from today's Sunday Telegraph - they didn't like AK, no chemistry between AK & V, said HMCF made a creditable stab at the role but was not helped by having an unusually wooden Vronsky. ouch poor KMcK, but I am afraid I have to agree. Also said HMcC was matronly looking and that her AK was less glamourous than usual, however, "But the acting honours belonged to two of the subsidiary roles: DH had an appropriately anguished intensity as Levin, while SD's Karenin was outstanding - a drawling dilletante, knocked utterely off balance by his wife's behaviour. Fingers crossed for TRT and SD at The Drama Desk Awards today. .

I can't wait to see SD's Karenin. He is getting so good at putting his own stamp on each role. Thanks A!

I can't understand what Anna sees in Vronsky, he has no fire, no passion, no romance, no fantasy, no imagination. A bored footloose and fancy-free Russian cavalry officer seducing a lady? I have once known a lovesick Russian lorry driver and he was a poet compared to KMcK. SD is v. good in this, though.

Sounds like poor casting except for SD. LOL no wonder SD put on that pained expression when Charlie Rose asked him "Was Anna Karenina[script] the same [as TRT]. Why did HMc leave SD for Kevin McK? I felt the same in Vanity Fair. And we all agreed in TEP....and even Lord Wessex had his moments;-)

I don't know if this has been posted before re: Tom Stoppard....er, I mean Sir Tom. Mark told us, he had received a new honour by the Queen...but here it is: From British Theatre News: "ROYAL HONOUR FOR STOPPARD Playwright Tom Stoppard has been awarded the Order of Merit, the highest personal award that can be given by the Queen to those of exceptional distinction in the arts, sciences and other areas of learning. Only 24 people at any one time can hold the OM, which is in the personal gift of the Queen and does not require government approval. Other current theatrical holders of the honour are Sir John Gielgud and opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland."

I am posting an article from The Times (London), May 8th, 2000. This was printed the day the Tony announcements came out - and how prophetic this article was! This article has to do with Patrick Stewart's feud with his producers, and lists some background, including his possible panic over the good reviews that his rivals received. Of course, he ultimately never received a Tony nomination, but the 4 other actors mentioned in this article did. The author, Joanna Coles, did not mention David Suchet, who received the 5th nomination (presummably Patrick's slot). Enjoy, this is an interesting read. I highlighted some of the interesting parts, including the part about Ben Brantley of the NY Times, who gave TRT a rave review. Big money, the TV actor and President Barbie Forget the May Day rallies, the most heroic act of civil disobedience took place on Broadway last week when the British actor Patrick Stewart stunned his audience by suddenly reappearing on stage after his curtain call to badmouth his producers. Stewart - better known for his travails as Captain Jean-Luc Picard aboard the starship Enterprise - is starring in Arthur Miller's Ride Down Mount Morgan, but declared himself furious and depressed that the producers had failed to advertise the show as promised. Neither, he continued, had they erected favourable review quotes in the theatre's lobby. "Arthur Miller and I have no confidence in our producer's commitment," he told an astonished audience. "I know we have an extraordinary, provocative and vastly entertaining play. What is also needed is promotion and publicity. Arthur and I feel frustrated and helpless." The move is a first in Broadway history, and prompted several to claim that Stewart was absolutely crazy. "There is no excuse for not picking up the phone and screaming at someone," snorts one Broadway stalwart. "I was totally shocked," says Ron Kastner, producer of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and Sam Shepard's True West, both playing to full houses in neighbouring theatres. "I also heard there was a secret vote among the cast as to whether they should complain and everyone voted No," he tells me. "Patrick might have taken that as a hint." But the question mystifying everyone is why exactly Stewart, known in the business as a consummate pro, should take on his producers, the Shubert Organisation, which is one of theatreland's most powerful outfits. In addition, he's supposed to be a close friend of the company's chairman, Gerald Schoenfeld. Some point out that there's a financial stake involved. Stewart eschewed the normal salary in exchange for a share of the profits. (An example set by Kevin Spacey, who recently cleaned up after full houses for The Icemen Cometh.) But others suggest he may be panicked by the recent rash of great reviews for other actors, notably Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Dillane, Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly, who may eclipse him for the all-important best actor Tony award - this year's nominations will be announced later today. The core of his argument also appears shaky. Shubert, which has replied to the attack by filing charges against the star with the actors' union, Equity, says it has spent $1 million marketing the show, which received mixed reviews. Broadway insiders also point out that Stewart was suspiciously lucky in that The New York Times - whose review is crucial - chose to assign the task to the paper's Off-Broadway critic. Bruce Weber found the play "an intelligent and savage satire". Ben Brantley, the paper's chief drama critic, who would normally review a new Broadway drama, had previously described the play as "musty . . . Mr Miller has really brought nothing new to the table". I track Stewart down to his dressing room, but Equity has got to him first, advising him to hold his peace at least until its hearing on Thursday is over. "I'm afraid I can't say anything," he says, with a meaningful pause. "I really can't say anything at all." I have come across Stewart's nemesis, the all-powerful Shoenfeld, only once, at a New York fundraiser for London's Royal Court Theatre. We both arrived early and, not quite catching his name, I asked him whether he was associated with any one theatre in the city. "You could say that," he said, eyes twinkling. "I own 17 of 'em."

Yippee!! Welcome to New York Stephen! The Drama Desk Awards have been announced. TRT was nominated in only 2 categories, but took both prizes: ACTOR (PLAY): Gabriel Byrne, A Moon for the Misbegotten Kevin Chamberlin, Dirty Blonde Stephen Dillane, The Real Thing Derek Jacobi, Uncle Vanya Philip Seymour Hoffman, True West Paul Sparks, Coyote on a Fence REVIVAL (PLAY): A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill The Price by Arthur Miller The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard True West by Sam Shephard Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov Waste by Harley Granville Barker

Full awards are at: http://www.broadway.com/stories.cfm?ssection=buzz&id=205&ssectionid=1 Thanks E for the wake-up call :-)

Great news Donna, and no more than he deserves, hope it augurs well for everyone next month. BTW was it televised and where you able to watch or video it?

Yes it was televised locally, but I could not watch or tape :-(

Fantastic! Did you check out the "Behind the Scenes" news item? There's a pic of SD and it's labeled "British hunk Stephen Dillane took home Outstanding Actor in a Play for TRT" http://www.broadway.com/stories.cfm?ssection=buzz&id=207&ssectionid=1

Nice-goin Steverino.Cute pic too. Wish they hadn't cut off his head...looks like a pic I would take. Great week for Tom Stoppard...honored by the Queen, 5 Tony nominations and Drama Desk Award for TRT. Wow! Wish David Leveaux would have won.But only one category for director of a play and I guess Copenhagen is sweeping the boards. (Jennifer was not nominated on this one. Outer Critics Awards due on May 25th)

Super news, and very well deserved!

Go Steven! Looking good for that Tony.

Time Magazine, May 22, p. 158: There's Nothing Like a Good Gene Pool Joan and Melissa Rivers may want to watch their backs. [what a hideous example!!] For years, they have owned the coveted mother-daughter spot on the red carpet at awards shows, but next month their pre-eminence will be challenged by two women of somewhat more refined talents. Last week Rosemary Harris and her daughter Jennifer Ehle were nominated for Tony awards in the category of Best Actress. Harris, a stage veteran who has won a Tony, was recognized for her role in Waiting in the Wings; Ehle, best known for playing Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, got the nod for her Broadway debut in The Real Thing. This summer the two can be seen in the film Sunshine, also starring Ralph Fiennes, in which Harris plays the older version of Ehle's character, the most inspired casting since Joan and Melissa played themselves in the TV movie of their life story. Evelyn: Think you need to write Time a letter. Joan and Melissa Rivers being compared to these two. What a travesty!! Who is this imbecile?

Thanks Karen...didn't get my issue yet. Joan & Melissa ...puhleeeze. But the publicity is welcomed :-)

I'm so glad SD won! Here's another pic I found, with Michael Sheen. I don't know if you've seen this one before. No green shirt this time!

I didn't know SD's real name is Stephen Delaney. If this has been posted before, I apologise. Check out the Star Files at Broadway.com. Stephen Dillane Star File There's one about JE as well.

Hmm, link didn't work! Second attempt: Star File

(Tineke) I didn't know SD's real name is Stephen Delaney. No apologies necessary! No, it wasn't posted. Actually he went from Delaney to Dillon to Dillane. One of his earlier theatre programs acknowledged this.

All log in at 11.30 am (ET) tomorrow at www.tonys.org for live interviews at the Nominees Brunch. According to Playbill online, JE will be there. From Playbill: Tony Nominees To Bunch At Brunch: Annual Event At Sardi's, May 17 On May 8, Tony nominations for the 1999-2000 Broadway season were announced at Sardi's restaurant by Bebe Neuwith and Kelsey Grammer. Aside from peer recognition, increased esteem in the business, and the chance to win a Tony Award, a Tony nomination means...free food! Every year, the American Theatre Wing and the League of American Theatres and Producers, who co-produce the Tony Award, throw a brunch for the nominees at Sardi's theatrical restaurant. This year's lunchtime event -- which is as much a meet-and-greet for the stars and media as it is an occasion to dine -- takes place May 17, 11:30 AM in the restaurant's Eugenia Room. Tony nominees will receive their special certificates at the gathering. Among notables expected at the Brunch are Boyd Gaines, Jennifer Ehle, Craig Bierko, Blair Brown, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Claudia Shear, David Suchet and Karen Ziemba, according to Tony spokespersons at the Keith Sherman press office.

I'm listening to the live interviews at Tony.org at the moment. JE, SD and RH have just been interviewed. The interviews were rather short, but interesting, even though the interviewer didn't know that much about the nominees (she said she thought this was RH's first Tony nominations whereas she's got several and actually won a Tony once). I believe the transcripts of all interviews will appear on the Tony website eventually. So I will not try to write down what's been said.

Just listened to the Live Interviews of SD, JE and RH from Sardi's on Tony.com. Did anybody else hear it? They sounded uncomfortable.American actors came across as chattier...more relaxed.The interviewer didn't help. Laughed when she asked if this was RH's first Tony nomination.!!! Things are heating up for the Tony's. Click on to the Calendar on Tony website. Designer clothes, jewels from Harry Winston, Van Cleef...trying to mimic the Oscars, I guess.But Tony's is just B'way....and it's a big country.So it will never have a big audience. But arguably the highest award for theatre world-wide.

(Tineke) even though the interviewer didn't know that much about the nominees Yes, the interviewer's knowledge was a bit on the short side. She also said that TRT got 7 nominations. Seemed like she knew more about the musicals than the plays. Did you hear the part where Claudia Shear was looking for "that cute guy from TRT"? LOL

I had to laugh when the interviewer said "Claudia Shear is looking for the cute guy from The Real Thing" heehee!

Jinx, Donna!

Hee hee, Claudia and the rest of us!

Good thing JE couldn't remember how she found out she was nominated. It saved her from a "was that a cell phone call?" question.

Didn't you find the comment from SD interesting...how the play changes every night... the ambiguous ending....some night's you think Henry and Annie are going to make it and some you don't.Interesting comment. Ask him to elaborate on that one, Donna...next time you talk to him;-) Wonder what that depends on...the audience? How the actors feel about the characters that night? They're sure having a good time .

Did you catch Gabriel Byrne's comment about sometimes people in the first row think they're watching a baseball game, and "getting away with it"? I wonder what that was about? But I did like his comment about coming back to NY being like appreciating a girlfriend on the second go-round.

(Evelyn) They sounded uncomfortable.American actors came across as chattier...more relaxed. Yeah, I thought the same thing. The Amercians really seemed to be having fun, the UKers treated it more as a chore than an opportunity to schmooze with the press. JE really sounded like she didn't want to be interviewed, or maybe she just didn't like the questions (me too!). SD sounded like he could slip into some "disputatiousness" if properly motivated. Hee hee, that's my new favorite word. I believe that was the first time I ever heard David Suchet's real voice. Sort of a bittersweet moment for him. I saw him in a restaurant recently, the waiters were fawning all over him. Cute in person. how the play changes every night You know, I was just rewatching the Charlie Rose interview. The scene from TRT that they show at the beginning of the clip is played fairly somber. I've seen it played lighter, which I prefer. I only saw it once where JE screams "I'm behaving normally. It's you who's abnormal." Her actions/voice were a nice counterpoint to the words, it got a nice laugh. I wonder too how/when they decide to change the tone in the various scenes. Maybe it's like a jam session with musicians. One kind of takes off and the others follow :-) You know, it never crossed my little pea-brained mind that Henry and Annie wouldn't make it. But then, some of you have been down this path with me before, hopeless romantic that I am (or is that hapless romantic?). And the inquiring minds want to know - do ya think Claudia ever caught up with that cute guy!!!??? ROTFLMAO

(Donna)do ya think Claudia ever caught up with that cute guy!!!??? ROTFLMAO You can't get over that comment, can you? LOLLOL! When I heard it, I immediately thought of you. I knew you'd love it. how the play changes every night That was an interesting comment. The second time I saw TRT was a couple of months after I had first seen it. I had noticed a couple of changes but thought that was under David Leveaux' direction. One of the changes was that Annie no longer sat in the couch for the "touch me" scene. But then I read in the discussions that this changes every night. There was another interesting change of which I'd always wondered whether it came on the spur of the moment or not. I'm talking about one of the discussions between Henry and Annie. Annie's trying to say something but Henry keeps finishing her lines. Eventually she says "For Christ's sake, will you stop finishing my sentences for me!" The second time I saw the play, Henry cut her off. Annie: "For Christ's sake, will you stop..." Henry: "finishing my/your(?) sentences!" I thought this was incredibly funny. And now I know that it's SD improvising on the spot.

Finally got a response from some unnamed individual at the Charlie Rose Show. Question: The opening clips of the May 4th show had Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle answering questions about their characters from The Real Thing. Neither of those questions was included in the subsequently aired segment. Are there any plans to show a more complete interview? Many of my friends would be very interested in that interview, as we have seen the play in London and/or NY and have been discussing the play in our Internet forum. Answer: Karen, I just printed out your letter for Charlie. I also passed on your idea to one of our producers. I hope it helps, I personally like your idea, but don�t book the show. As always, thank you for watching as we try to bring the most interesting guests we can to the roundtable. Charlie Rose Viewer Services

(Karen) I personally like your idea, but don�t book the show. Well thanks for trying...

(Tineke) I had noticed a couple of changes but thought that was under David Leveaux' direction. I must share another funny incident. I have seen this play, read it, seen it, read it, etc. So I feel I know it pretty well. There is a moment in the second act just before Henry brings out the cricket bat where he says, "it's interesting how many of the all time greats begin with B: Beethoven, the Big Bopper" ... audience laughs. This one evening Stephen is reciting this line, but instead of saying "Beethoven" first, out of his mouth comes "the Big Bopper." Well, I knew instantly that this was out of order, and you could tell from his eyes that he immediately caught his mistake, as it were, ruining his own punch line. But the audience laughed. Then he cocked his head to the side like a puppy, made a funny face, then continued with "Beethoven." Well, the audience laughed a second time. He did it smooth as silk. There was no mistaking however that this was a boo-boo. Several weeks go by. I am seeing the play again, and don't you know it, they are now doing it the "wrong way", with Big Bopper first, because it drew 2 laughs instead of the usual 1. Strangely enough, the delivery wasn't nearly as funny as the first time when it was unintentional. No pause or funny cocking of the head. But the audience laughed twice. Ah, the magic of live theater!

Thanks Karen...good for them to know they could improve on their editing.If only that cardinal hadn't died that day..... JE really sounded like she didn't want to be interviewed, or maybe she just didn't like the questions (me too!) What...she couldn't answer..."How did you hear of the award?" Make it up, fergodsake.Instead, she says"Hmm, I don't remember..." Grrrrr. Well...she's on all by herself for the A&E interview taping on Friday for airing on Tony-Sunday "Breakfast with the Arts". I putting up the joss-sticks.

..."How did you hear of the award?" The interviewer just wanted to know whether she heard it from the website first. That question didn't bother me much. How about this question? "Your mum has been nominated as well. Will this cause trouble at home?" ..As if!

To see pics of yesterday's brunch, go to http://www.broadway.com/stories.cfm?ssection=buzz&id=284&ssectionid=1

Since they like to do collages, thought I'd make viewing a little easier: Sort of a deer caught in the headlights look, don't you think?

Thanks Karen.The guy with RH is a fellow actor, not DH. JE&RH have the same "ping-pong"cheeks as the Telegraph once called them. Something tells me SD doesn't like to have his picture taken....

Yes, it's Ray Dotrice. I know he has an impressive CV, but my recollections of him are from the TV show Beauty and the Beast. ;-)

(Karen) Sort of a deer caught in the headlights look, don't you think? He was thinking, "please hurry up and take the damn picture before Claudia works her way over to this side of the room."

I found another review at http://www.broadwaybeat.com If you go to http://www.broadwaybeat.com/tvindex.htm, you'll find three RealPlayer files. The first is Bebe Neuwirth and Kelsey Grammar announcing the Tony nominations. They show a short clip of each nominated play, musical, actors,... when making the announcement. BROADWAY SNAP-SHOT, 11 May 2000 by Russell Bouthiller

I couldn't post it all in one message, I had to cut it. Here's the review. THE REAL THING The American Theatre Wing's Tony nominations came out this week and, as expected, Britwright Tom Stoppard's THE REAL THING did quite well, receiving five nods including one for "Best Revival of a Play." Among its fellow contestants in this catagory, this critically acclaimed Donmar Warehouse import pulled the most nominations, topping A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN's four, AMADEUS's two and THE PRICE's one. Jennifer Ehle enters into a five-person race for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play," up against her own mother, Rosemary Harris, from Noel Coward's WAITING IN THE WINGS. Stephen Dillane earned recognition as "Leading Actor," David Leveaux for "Best Direction of a Play," and Sarah Woodward as "Featured Actress." THE REAL THING is Stoppard's slick and refined look at love, marriage and other such romantic entanglements. Opening with a play-within-a-play, we see a young couple coming apart as the Husband discovers his Wife's infidelity. In the next scene we meet the true players and the true play. The opening sequence is, in fact, a scene from "House of Cards," a play written by the often caustic Henry (Stephen Dillane). His actress wife, Charlotte (Sarah Woodward), portrayed the adulterous Wife. Their actor friend Max (Nigel Lindsay), the Husband, comes by their apartment with his wife, Annie (Jennifer Ehle), whereupon it is quickly established that Henry and Annie are having their own illicit affair. Is this art reflecting life or life reflecting art? These are among the many tribulations knocking about Henry's crisply intelligent mind. At one turn he is the long-suffering artiste, at another the dictatorial grammarian. He is not beneath being above it all. His confidence in his opinions is unfailing, especially in affairs of the heart and, of course, writing. There is but one emotion he seems to have evaded: guilt. It fazes him not to facilitate the break-up of not only Annie and Max's marriage but also his own. And, Debbie (Charlotte Parry), Henry and Charlotte's teen-aged daughter, barely enters into the equation. As Henry and Annie's relationship moves ahead, a tint of irony washes over the fabric of their love. The sharp-minded Henry slips into a muddle, eventually questioning the state of their affair. He seems caught between his view of the world and his place in it; his lofty ideals of love and the stinging realities of his present affair. Henry's view of pop music serves as an example of the way his mind operates. He cannot enjoy this style of music for what it is: simple and ordinary. He must regard it as possessing a greater profundity; otherwise, how could a mind as complex as his enjoy it. Henry's confidence is called into question when Annie, also an actress, ends up in another affair. With a determined vigor, she champions the cause of Brodie (Joshua Henderson), a political prisoner. Determined to get Brodie's voice heard, she convinces Henry to rewrite Brodie's pathetic drama (another play-with-a-play), as she intends to play a leading role in it. While on the road, Annie becomes involved with a handsome young actor, Billy (Oscar Pearce). Henry is miffed to discover his towering principles compromised by such a puerile infatuation. In the inevitable confrontation, Annie deftly appeals to Henry's intellectual superiority by pleading the younger man's vulnerable state. She hopes to let Billy down gently, confident that Henry will be there for her in the end. Theirs may well be the "real thing" after all. With all cast members making their Broadway debuts, the performances in Tom Stoppard's THE REAL THING have the vital precision necessary to bring both the comedic and tragic element into a tidy symbiosis. Under the direction of David Leveaux (whose production of last season's ELECTRA garnered well-deserved accolades), Dillane's Henry reaches the perfect balance between effete snobbery and misguided idealism. Even his disheveled hair and slovenly dress (sets and costumes ably designed by Vicki Mortimer) convey an above-it-all outlook. Jennifer Ehle, with her apple-cheek charm and hauntingly Meryl Streep-ish good looks, unearths Annie's grounded pragmatism as well as her fiery passions. Next to Henry she seems temperate, yet not so measured as to avoid her own acts of infidelity. Ehle, whom many of us enjoyed in the BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, makes this an auspicious debut on the New York stage. This Donmar Warehouse revival of THE REAL THING comes to Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre after an honored run in London. Stephen Dillane earned the Evening Standard Award for his performance and Olivier Award nominations went to Dillane and Jennifer Ehle. The original Broadway production opened in January of 1984 at the Plymouth Theatre and won Tony Awards for Best Play, Leading Actor Jeremy Irons, Leading Actress Glenn Close, Featured Actress Christine Baranski and Director Mike Nichols.

Thanks, Tineke! So glad I got to see TRT with you, you are quite the expert. SD was so good. Looking at those pictures of him on stage brings it all back.

Liked this guy's review.

Liked this guy's review So did I . Love it when they mention JE in P&P.I bet she's surprised about how many US fans she has.(Including the producer of "Breakfast...") evelyn

Catching up with you all here. Thanks everyone for the new photos, reviews and reports. I keep thinking what a nice thing this is for JE and RH to be sharing together. What a special time for them. I picture them shopping Bloomies together for their Tony gowns! (Don't think it's an Oscar-type deal where the designers and jewelers come to you, but what do I know;-) I wonder if A&E will have Tiffany(?) Whatsis doing the JE interview as she did for CF. I keep remembering her burying her head in her hands midway through--ah, the poor woman was smitten, perfectly understandable. I guess that's why they pay Katie C. and Barbara W. the big bucks.:-)

(Mari) Don't think it's an Oscar-type deal where the designers and jewelers come to you, but what do I know;-) Actually, I think I heard on TV the other day, that the purveyors of fine purveyables (like Harry Winston) are coming forward for the Tonys now... Getting more glam. Have written to Rosie to ask when SD and JE will be on. Specifically pointed out the tremendous following P&P has and that it's the benchmark for all costume dramas nowadays. Also, tossed in a hint about Colin and the unique casting for BJD. Must get these TV show people educated and interested!!

Good for you Karen, what would we do without you. BTW I may be wrong but wasn't it The Rosie Show that JE was on just before Paradise Road was released. If so I remember her saying she would love to have JE's Mum on the Show.

Yes, Jennifer was on Rosie's show to promote Paradise Road. Evelyn lent me the tape for that short segement. The reason I wrote is that I've checked the TV listings for next week and she is starting to have some of the Broadway Tony stuff on, like Kiss Me Kate and Contact. Perhaps it will be the week after next when the actors from the nonmusical shows will appear.

(Don't think it's an Oscar-type deal where the designers and jewelers come to you, but what do I know;-) bradway.com has an article that is following a Tony nominee through fittings for designers, & Harry Winston and Van Cleef jewels. You know NYC doesn't want Hollywood to have all the glam. Even Rudy is getting into the act: Gracie Mansion Lawn Party - New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani invites the Tony nominees and the rest of the theatre community to his residence for an afternoon celebration of the 1999-2000 season on Broadway and off. May 24, 2000 International Press Event - Sponsored by The Creative Coalition, this is an opportunity for the world's media to meet and interview the Tony nominees. ~~~~~~ I hope our guys make it til Aug 13. Read where "Waiting in the Wings" is closing on May 28; ahead of the June target date. I'm surprised it lasted this long. Noel Coward is not as popular here and this play is not one of his best. Glad I'm seeing it on the 26th. ~~~~~~ Thanks Karen.Let's see what the next two weeks bring. Too bad WITW is closing. An appearance on Rosie might have helped; though I doubt it. Dramas have a tough time on B'way. And those theatres are Big.

After hitting Refresh 26 times, I finally got in...phew! Here's another pic I like from the Nominees Brunch. (Tonys.org)

I think Monday, when our admin people are back on the job, I'll talk to them about the problems we're having. That's persistence, Tineke!

I just found out that Ordinary Decent Criminal was last week's Sneak Preview and I missed it! :-( Now I have to wait till June 26th for it to open. I watched the trailer (a different trailer than the one on your website, Donna) but it showed SD only once.

(dreuleur) That's persistence, Tineke! You can say that again! Unfortunately it's a rainy day here so I am forced to be indoors. Trouble here at drool and other PC woes. Re-boot time again :-( (Tineke) Now I have to wait till June 26th for it to open. Oooh, where? My toes are curling up just thinking about it! From reading the reviews, I thought this would be such a turkey that it would go straight to video in the US. For anyone reading this, MLSF reviews got RAVE reviews by comparison. The reviewers universally panned the ODC script, some are getting tired of Spacey. But Stephen got nice reviews. I think one of them said he was the only cop (he plays an Irish cop chasing Spacey) that had a 3-digit IQ. Hee hee. Actually SD got very little mention, most of the reviews spent all the space complaining about what a terrible movie it is. And in anticipation of seeing SD in Anna Karenina, I watched the Vivien Leigh version last night (fell asleep about half way through). From what I saw, I think this may be the most satisfying version I've seen to date. Ralph Richardson did a real nice job of Karenin, but actually the script allowed him to do more. It showed how Anna became bored with him. Other movies tend to gloss over their relationship, so you tend to not have sympathy for Anna when she strays. I can't wait to see how the new script treats their relationship. Gee, how can AK possibly stray from SD? One of the reviewers described the character Karenin as bad in bed... LOL Now, if this doesn't post... #@#@$@@!@@!##$$

The public here seemed to like this film, Donna (BTW, here is Belgium). It got a sneak score of 8.1/10 which is very high! In case you wonder how the Sneak Preview here works; the idea is that you go the cinema, but you don't know in advance what film you'll be seeing. All you know is that it's an avant-premiere. I love the few minutes leading up to it, wondering what film it's going to be. If you don't like the film and leave the theatre before the first half hour, you get your money back. This is a student town, so most of the people in the theatre are students. After the film, you fill in a form about what you thought of the film. The results of this poll are always published on the web. So lots of people, when they can't decide what film they should see, check the sneak website and read the reviews there. Some films that were trashed by the newspapers and magazines may still get good reviews in the sneak and vica versa. The sneak results say more about whether a film is enjoyable or not than other reviews. A newspaper review is one person's opinion, whereas the Sneak Results are the votes of more than 300 people. And from what I can tell from the trailer, ODC looks pretty funny.

(Tineke) It got a sneak score of 8.1/10 which is very high! Well that is encouraging news! Belgium, eh? Gee, I would offer to meet you in June, but can't manage it :-) And it could be that the UK critics are just plain sick of the story, which is based on a real life crook. I remember reading that they were dissatisfied about how the movie seemed to glorify this thug (Spacey), etc. But the rest of us aren't familiar with his story, so maybe we can appreciate the movie as just an entertaining caper without getting involved in moral issues. I can't wait to hear your review!

The Q&A section of this month's Ritz Filmbill says Ordinary Decent Criminal will open in the U.S. "soon." So, it has avoided direct to video!:-) Last month there were two separate questions on CF.

Nice pic. of JE, SD, SW & RH at Sardi Tony Brunch, at Playbill.com

Thanks Ann! BTW, have you sen this RH pic at Tonys.org? I think it's rather funny;-)

Rosie O'Donnell will be highlighting these Broadway shows. Nothing said yet about non-musical guests. The schedule for the week of May 29 to June 2 runs as follows: May 29: a performance from Jesus Christ Superstar May 30: a performance from Aida May 31: a performance from Kiss Me, Kate June 1: a performance from Swing! June 2: a performance from The Music Man

Updated schedule for the Rosie show. Still no mention of non-musical actors as guests... Thursday, May 25: The Wild Party Friday, May 26: Contact Monday, May 29: Jesus Christ Superstar Tuesday, May 30: Aida Wednesday, May 31: Kiss Me, Kate Thursday, June 1: Swing! Friday, June 2: The Music Man

Check out http://www.broadway.com/nominee.cfm Like Playbill, they too give their opinion on what the chances of each nominee are. Stephen Dillane chances: Not bad. As the philadering husband in Tom Stoppard's keen relationship play, Dillane is sexy, charming and centered. But his laid-back manner may not be showy enough to snag the prize. (Byrne got : promising but competition is stiff. Reilly: pretty good)

Again, I had to cut the message! And it's not even long! Jennifer Ehle: chances: Strong. Ehle is the discovery of the season and Tony voters may want the chance to claim her as one of our own before Hollywood comes knocking. Rosemary Harris: chances: Despite strong competition from her own flesh and blood, Harris may just repeat her Tony win of 34 years ago Sarah Woodward: chances: Woodward is marvelous as the down-trotten ex-wife to Dillane. She plays the part for real, miles away from Christine Baranski (who originated the part in the original Broadway production). She could easily ride a wave of Real Thing wins. And finally, what they have to say about TRT's chances in the Best Revival category: For it: This production offers a fresh look at a piece that many skeptics thought was purely 1980s. There are genuine starmaking turns by Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle to boot. Against it: The American production of Misbegotten may have an edge simply because its a homegrown hit. Doubtful, but possible

Wow, Tineke!! Those writeups on the odds are amazing. Hadn't thought they'd be that positive, especially for Jennifer. Shame Evelyn is offline, but she's in NY now, a mere stone's throw from the theater.

Tineke - thanks for the info on the Tony nominees...very interesting on their predictions. Also quite an interesting comment about not liking Christine Baranski's Charlotte from 1984. Oh now I wish I really could see a video of that other cast in action. By the way, a few notes back you mentioned seeing another trailer for Ordinary Decent Criminal. Was that in the theater or online? Mari - I think I was with you a while back when you predicted that the 2 guys from True West would cancel each other out. Now it's getting to be pins and needles time. Fingers and toes crossed. And wonderful news about ODC coming to the Ritz. Hey, maybe we can invite Stephen to join us at the viewing? Let's see, he has Mondays off :-) Karen - I nearly s**t a brick when I saw the HG's mug shot on the other topic. Snicker. FYI, I was able to get someone to tape the Drama Desk Awards, so hopefully I can get some good snappies out of it. The viewer said SD gave his presenter a nice smacker when he went up for the award :-)

the 2 guys from True West would cancel each other out That usually happens, although I wonder if there would be some sympathy for Philip Seymour Hoffman because of his three movie performances last year that failed to even get nominated (Ripley, Magnolia or Flawless). He received outstanding reviews for all of them and not even a supporting actor nomination.

For the Ordinary Decent Criminal trailer, go to http://www.cinebel.com/cgi/trailers.exe?nl Just scroll down, the films are ranked alphabetically. Even though the site is in Dutch, the trailers are in English with Dutch and French subtitles. There are three different qualities to choose from ("Kwaliteit" = quality); low, middle and high.

Hi Tineke. Yeah, if you blink your eyes, you miss him. And I thought his hair was short in Welcome to Sarajevo and Deja Vu. I think his 'do is even shorter in this one. Thanks, it's a great site.

OK, here's another pic of Stephen :-) I thought I recognized the brown shirt. This pic is of him at the Theatre World Awards held today at Studio 54. I think it is the same shirt he wore at the Drama League Awards, posted by Tineke, 237.

Hmmm, I'll try one more time. If unsuccesful, try this link: http://www5.playbill.com/cgi-bin/plb/news?cmd=show&type=news&code=+95962&selector=U.S.

Got it!

Compare

Not to belabor the point... BUT ... isn't that the shirt worn in the Charlie Rose interview too? :-)

Could be. Was dark. Must be due to the weight restrictions on luggage. ;-)

Evelyn sends her regard to everyone! She had a nice chat with JE after the show, and I am sure she will fill in the details when she gets back online. But I am happy to report that her encounter with the warm, luminous and charming JE was most enjoyable. And she thought that the play was better than ever. She had an SD sighting after the show too, but did not talk to him as he sped away blending into the crowd. That's all from this roving reporter :-)

Excellent news! Have been meaning to call her up. What time do you think is the best to reach her at the hotel, Donna?

Hi - my guess would be about 11:00-11:30 NY time. The plays let out about 10:40, so unless she goes out partying, hee hee, she should be wide awake and back at the hotel by then.

Hmmm, looks like Stephen's wardrobe is as vast as Colin's. '-) Looking forward to seeing Evelyn's report. Is someone we know going to the Tonys?

(Heidi) Hmmm, looks like Stephen's wardrobe is as vast as Colin's. '-) LOL. That big, eh? :-) (Heidi) Is someone we know going to the Tonys? Oui mademoiselle :-)

I'm so happy for Evelyn! Does anyone know when is she due back home?

She won't be home until Monday and on her computer until Tuesday (it's at the spa).

Some curtain call news from Evelyn - she said that Stephen now comes out first during the curtain call, then the same pattern as befpre - ensemble, pairs, JE, SD. Also, TRT and Stephen were voted best revival and best actor in the Broadway.com poll. http://www.broadway.com/stories.cfm?id=300&ssection=buzz&ssectionid=1 Also, a kind lady was able to tape the Drama Desk Awards for me. I just watched it and there is a cute moment when the best actor awards were being announced. The presenter, Camryn Manheim (spelling?) from The Practice announced that she would like a kiss from the winner. When Steven Bogdosian announced "Stephen Dillane," Camryn shouted, "I'll take it!" Well the show cut away to a brief clip from TRT. When the camera went back to the stage, SD and Camryn were in a lock lip. It was the kind of swooping, agressive kiss you might see John Wayne "take" from one of his leading ladies. One of those leaning, dipping types. Oh, very cute... SIGH :-)

I� m baaack...and so glad to be home on Drool.... Haven�t read through all the postings yet on this board, but wanted to say that the performance of TRT was the best I had ever seen (#6!). SD is awesome....Jennifer�s performance was similar to the Albery�s...perhaps more sensual and subtle.They are both obviously v. comfortable in their roles, and with each other (v.important). Some props have been changed, and some lines have been changed. No doubt to connect with the American audience.It worked! They completely overwhelmed the audience. I have never seen such a reception.At curtain call, the audience sprang to their feet like on cue.They are taking their bows differently...SD alone, whole cast, in two�s and then JE and SD individually. Thunderous applause (including whistles and hoorays from the audience).It was thrilling...v. emotional for me, I must admit. I stayed later and got to see and talk to Jennifer. What a charmer....gracious, self-deprecating.... �You are now and forever, the best Lizzie� She smiles...�It was a great part�. I bet she told me four times...�Thank you for coming�.... I told her �Your friends on the Internet send their greetings and congratulations.� JE �Please thank them for the lovely roses...they are lovely...I have them on my dressing table.�[I had sent her a small arrangement of tiny peach roses from everybody]. So I�m telling you all....�Jennifer sends her thanks�.... Also got to see Waiting in the Wings and told RH how much I admired Jennifer...She glowed...�Yes, isn�t she wonderful��, she said. What a bunch of genes....

Great to have you back, Evelyn, it sounds as if you had a wonderful time.

Evelyn, welcome back! You've been missed. I am so happy that you of all people met JE! She is a dolly, isn't she? Nice that she tied your comments about her fans to the roses. Sweet of her and thoughtful of you. Mum sounds like a good sort, too. Hey the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Fingers crossed for Sunday. How was WITW? I'm sorry I missed the chance to go up and see it--got a bit complacent figuring it would go on for a bit more. But, 6 months is a good run for that play.

Welcome back, Evelyn! It sounds like you had a fantastic time! So happy that TRT is getting the famous standing-ovation that they so well deserve. It is probably worth doing a play in NYC just for it. I bet they will miss it once they are back in the UK. One of these days, you are going to have to set up an interview with Jennifer for your web site. She could not ask for a nicer web-host. The flowers were your usual nice touch. Thank you for sharing them with us. Tell us about the other shows when you get a chance. :-D

I must reiterate Evelyn's comment about the response that TRT is getting from the audience. I think having SD stand there first at curtain call time really gets the audience pumped. I think that since the nominations (and the 2 Drama Desk Award wins), the audience comes in knowing they are in for a treat. Below is a Tony prediction from Broadway.com. They have not yet predicted the best actor/actress categories. REVIVAL OF A PLAY: Had True West been placed in this category, it might very well have been the winner. Amadeus and The Price flopped, and while A Moon for the Misbegotten was mostly well-received, it was up against the memory of a better �70s revival. Moon has a chance, but the spiffy new version of The Real Thing is the likely winner.

(Moon)One of these days, you are going to have to set up an interview with Jennifer for your web site I'm working up the courage....it may take a while. The poor girl is having a hard time coping with all the hoop-la...left the Sardi's lunch early....RH said: ". She�s a bit strung out at the moment became there�s so much happening at once. " Aside from the A&E interview this Sunday ,she has an interview coming in Newsday this Sunday and in Interview Mag next month.Plus the eight performances /week and rehearsals!

(Evelyn) The poor girl is having a hard time coping with all the hoop-la...left the Sardi's lunch early Yeah, one of them (SD or Sarah Woodward) said that the Olivier's is much more low-key, not all the parties (and neat gifts!). SD was quite overwhelmed at the Sardi's luncheon. These guys must be having the TIME OF THEIR LIFE!

one of them (SD or Sarah Woodward) said that the Olivier's is much more low-key, not all the parties Read: Dull. What can you say about an event that isn't even televised live.

Ben Brantley of the NY Times is on Charlie Rose right now. He said one of the surprises of this season was The Real Thing. He was not sure he wanted to see a revival, but he was quite pleasantly surprised. He also praised SD. And if he had one criticism, it would be that he is almost too likeable. But he thought his performance was brilliant. Then Charlie brought up the cricket bat scene. And they both gushed about how marvelous the writing in that scene is. His predictions: revival - he thinks TRT will win, he'd be happy (he'd prefer Moon for the Misbegotten) actor - he thinks SD, he'd be happy (he'd prefer Gabriel Byrne) actress - Claudia Shear recommendation to see - True West twice, Dirty Blonde

(Evelyn) Aside from the A&E interview this Sunday ,she has an interview coming in Newsday this Sunday and in Interview Mag next month.Plus the eight performances /week and rehearsals! Plus Sunshine opening in the U.S. next week (June 9, is it?). She's one busy girl;-) Welcome back, Evelyn! Loved your report and thrilled that you got to chat with JE. Were there many people waiting for her? As always, you are a sweetheart to send the flowers:-)

Wow Evelyn, just caught up with your trip. You must have been SOOOO ecstatic, and the flowers were such a typical touch from you. I love that moment on 3DOR video when Cf thanks you for the flowers that you and Karen organised, I am so pleased that you had so much time with Jennifer I wish we had it on film too, but I can imagine it. I need some chardonnay to toast you and your trip .......... Cheers!

Loved your report and thrilled that you got to chat with JE. Were there many people waiting for her No, just me and my friend NY is v. blase about stage actors...after we chatted..she just walked on towards 8th Ave. in the crowd carrying her Bloomingdale shopping bag!! ~~~~~ Best Actress Claudia Shear Yuck....pass the air sickness bag....

Just had a call from Donna who is on Broadway and attended the "Stars in the Alley" presentation ( a freebie that Broadway actors put on in Shubert's Alley.) RH and Jenn were there...she got good shots of Jennifer...but SD did not show. (Boo!) She'll give us a report tomorrow."Our Girl on Broadway"!

Best Actress Claudia Shear Yuck....pass the air sickness bag Actually, I don't think Claudia Shear is that bad. She showed good judgement when she looked for the cute guy from TRT. If JE doesn't win and RH doesn't win either, I'd rather have CS win than Cherry Jones. But I'm hoping CS wins for Best Play and leaves the Best Actress Tony for someone else.

Well I'm back from Stars in the Alley. Go to this site for a nice review of who was there: http://www.theatre.com/News/public/newsbrief.asp?newsid=7603 When I got there, they were passing out Playbills for this event. It showed the actors and shows that were scheduled to be highlighted, including our SD. Actors would introduce the musical acts. After a few numbers, JE came out. I was so nervous about trying to get some good pics, I can't even remember what she talked about. Some of the actors would talk about theater history or some other related topic. I don't think she introduced a performer. I'll post a pic later. As the show went on, I figured they would save SD for near the end. The bigger names came on near the end, with the exception of Eartha Kitt, who was an earlier performer. She did a song from The Wild Party, I can't say I'm "wild" about that music. Anyhow, I kept looking at my watch wondering, "when is he coming on?" It was getting late, and I knew these performers would have to do their 2pm matinee. Near the end, Rosemary Harris and Roger Rees came out and did several introductions of musical performers. Then, alas, the show came to an end :-( No SD. Some other announced performers did not show up as well. I think the show may have gone on too long (close to an hour and a half), that some of the performers just had to get to their own theaters to prepare for their own shows. It was originally supposed to be closer to an hour. The show featured some tributes to shows that were closing, including Cats. I could have done without that, thank you very much :-)

More Tony predictions from Broadway.com LEADING ACTOR IN A PLAY: David Suchet was marvelous in Amadeus, but was dismissed by the New York Times in a revival that failed. The True West men were terrific, but would have needed a joint nomination to win. Which leaves the highly praised Gabriel Byrne and Stephen Dillane. If the latter wins, which seems likely, he will be taking the prize for the same role for which Jeremy Irons earned it in 1984. LEADING ACTRESS IN A PLAY: I would have to eliminate Jayne Atkinson, as The Rainmaker is long gone (and Atkinson wasn�t at her best therein). Rosemary Harris was fabulous as usual in Waiting in the Wings, but the lightness of the role and play work against her. Cherry Jones lacked the sensuality and earthiness needed for A Moon for the Misbegotten, but received mostly raves anyway. Claudia Shear seems essential to Dirty Blonde, but also seems more gifted performance artist than great actress; still, she�s appealing in a show she wrote and co-conceived, and could win, unless Rosemary Harris� daughter, Jennifer Ehle, takes the prize for the same Real Thing role that earned Glenn Close a Tony opposite Irons in �84.

More from Broadway.com: pics from the Theater World Awards Mum Rosemary Harris and daughter Jennifer Ehle share a laugh.

You're not in this pic, are you Donna?;-)

Thanks for the report Donna, and thanks very much for going and keeping us up to date, I am vey sorry that SD did not show, you must have been very disappointed.

Nice pics and great report from the Alley. Shame SD didn't show up, but it sounds like the entertainment was mainly from the musicals. Giving my VCR a tuneup for the big weekend ahead. ;-) (am kicking myself that I didn't use a longer tape...)

Shocker!! From Robert Osborne's column today in THR: What? You don't believe a Tony can save a show? One needn't go back further than three years ago, when three new musicals (Kander & Ebb's "Steel Pier," Cy Coleman's "The Life" and Maury Yeston's "Titanic") were all struggling to find an audience while their grosses fell lower and lower by the day. Then, "Titanic" was named the best musical of 1997 and immediately became a virtual sell-out (and is still touring) whereas those other two shows quickly expired. ... The new shows most needing such adrenaline at the moment include "The Wild Party," "The Green Bird," "Swing!," "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan" and "Saturday Night Fever." The best play currently on the boards here is also struggling: Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" is only pulling in about 60% of its capacity at the 1,072-seat Ethel Barrymore Theatre. That's a particularly sad commentary on today's playgoing taste, too, because "Real" is not only an engrossing play, but this production is superlative. Its two leads, Stephen Dellane and Jennifer Ehle, g ve a pair of the most electric performances seen on a Broadway stage in the past 10 years.

Oh no, it better not close before I get to NY in July, perhaps things are beginning to pick up, Evelyn said last Saturday's matinee was sold out.

I've often wondered how those capacity stats are calculated. Every time I've seen the show, it has been to a rather full house. So maybe a lot of the audience comes from the discount tickets, so maybe the less-than-full-price tickets somehow dilute the capacity stats...? So while the audience is full, the total "take" is down...? When I saw Waiting in the Wings, it was a full house and thunderous applause. Then a few days later they announced the closing due to poor advanced bookings. Tis a mystery.

I have noticed that TRT's average ticket price is higher than other shows so although their capacity is down the gross is up. Please hang on in there and please evryone go and see this wonderful play, it would be such a shame if such a good play closed early. OT Have just read that The Lady in the Van (in London) is closing early, now that is a surprise I thougnt it would go on for ever and ever.

It was due to Maggie Smith's commitments and they aren't going to replace her. Also read that they are making it into a movie and she will star. Said they wouldn't consider anyone else for the role.

Below is an article from Playbill.com about the Stars in the Alley, including a blurb about what JE talked about (since I couldn't remember). I've added my "Joan Rivers" commentary in BOLD. Tony Nominees Kitt, Hoffman, Ziemba Strut Their Stuff For 2000 Stars in the Alley 31-MAY-2000 The 2000 Stars in the Alley, peppered generously with plugs for the upcoming Tony Awards, had more than a few of the 2000 nominees. Eartha Kitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Karen Ziemba, Laura Benanti, Cherry Jones and Jennifer Ehle were among the performers and presenters at the Stars event, held at 11:30 AM in Shubert Alley. Ziemba, who didn't dance a moment from Contact but did put in several appearances during the hour and a half event, opened the proceedings by welcoming the crowd to the thoroughfare between 44th and 45th street, "Broadway's favorite footpath -- or carpath for some of those producers." By the way, no, I wasn't in that crowd picture, LOL. That showed the right side of the stage, I was in the crowd standing to the left. With setting the mood in mind, Orfeh and Janine Myers offered Saturday Night Fever's "Nights on Broadway." They were followed by 1998 Tony nominee Tsidii Le Loka, Brian Kennedy and the Riverdance and Amanzi Singers with one of Riverdance's new Broadway tunes, "Endless Journey." I thought that the woman (Tsidii) looked familiar, was she in The Lion King? Anyhow, she had a fabulous voice. Two-time 2000 Tony Award nominee Claudia Shear, spouting Mae West isms, introduced her next door neighbors, Swing!, whose Benanti sang her sexy duet with trombonist Steve Armour. So, it seems Ms. Shear has finally met "that cute guy from TRT." LOL, I think they must have met at the Drama Desk Awards, if not before. Jennifer Ehle, the star of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, connected revivals like her play and long-established pieces by Anton Chekhov and Noel Coward with the new "classics": Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and The Phantom of the Opera. Jessica Boevers, currently Eponine, did "On My Own," Luoyong Wang, the Engineer's "American Dream" and Howard McGillin, Broadway's Phantom, sang "The Music of the Night." Jessica from Les Mis, tsk tsk. Can't they find people with better voices? Embarassing. Noting that it will be the last "Stars in the Alley" for the long-running show, Ziemba introduced Cats. Linda Balgord sang the signature tune, "Memory." Speaking of bad voices. And to think SD was delayed because of these poor performances. No wonder Cats is closing. Meow. Hoffman and his stage partner and fellow Tony nominee, John C. Reilly, played up Broadway's reputation before Kitt took the stage. With her trademark purr and dressed in all black, she launched into The Wild Party's "When It Ends." The tall guy (not the one with the beard) did a great purr when he introduced Eartha. They were standing outside watching the show. Most of the other actors stayed inside until it was time for them to announce, and then you didn't see them again. There were a few exceptions, people who "worked the press" (Bernadette Peters, Craig Bierko, Sharon Lawrence, even RH) Tony nominee Craig Bierko, clutching his Daily News "like a real New Yorker," brought on his fellow castmates, The Hawkeye Four, who, he said, are always whispering the most obscene things to him before curtain call, and Rebecca Luker, whose voice he described as "having someone pour God all over you from a pitcher." She and the four sang "Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You." Craig is very good looking in person. And he is right about Rebecca, she may have had the sweetest voice there. A pink summer dress-clad Bernadette Peters introduced her show, Annie Get Your Gun, the first of three classic musical comedies to sing a number. Nicole Ruth Snelson and Andrew Palermo did the duet, "Who Do You Love, I Hope." New Sally Bowles and former "Ellen" cast member Joely Fisher sang Cabaret's "Maybe This Time." Another TV vet, "NYPD Blues" Sharon Lawrence, a new addition to Chicago, dueted with Charlotte D'Amboise on "My Own Best Friend." Joely had a surprisingly nice voice. Not as powerful as some, though I am sure she could work on it. But a better voice than some of the other performers, and better than the actress that I saw play Sally last year (Mary McCormick). The Green Bird's Tony Award nominee Derek Smith brought on the last two musical revivals, Jesus Christ Superstar and Kiss Me, Kate. Glenn Carter in less than Christ-like flared jeans and leather, sang "Gethsemane" backed by two acoustic guitars. Tony nominated "gangsters" Lee Wilkof and Michael Mulheren did their only -- but unforgettable -- number in Kiss Me, Kate, "Brush Up Your Shakespeare." Finally, Roger Rees and Rosemary Harris, neither native born but both describing the happiness of performing on Broadway, introduced the last shows of the event, Jekyll & Hyde, Footloose and Fosse. Andrea Rivette and Coleen Sexton sang Jekyll's "In His Eyes." RH did express sadness that her show closed, and Roger led the crowd in a sympathetic "ah" sigh. Footloose, too, provided one of their most popular tunes -- "Footloose" -- but with a completely different beat. The newly conceived "Footloose Five" (Jeremy Kushnier, Casey Miles Good, Bradley Madison, Curtis Holbrook and Sean Haythe) sang their "boy band" conception of the title tune (interspersed with "Let's Hear It For My Girl") complete with choreography to make Backstreet Boys or N'Sync jealous and the young girls in the audience (from the sound of it, there were many) swoon. I wonder if there would have been any of that if SD had come out, LOL. Or at least, to make Rees jealous. The Uncle Vanya star cried out at the end of the number, "That's the show I want to be in!" Closing out the afternoon was Stephanie Pope with Fosse's "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries." Rees, who worked with Fosse, cheered especially for the deceased director-choreographer. Two special presentations were made during the afternoon: two Rising Star scholarships for two students from LaGuardia High School from Continental Airlines and the annual Star Award were awarded. Patrick Stewart and Jones gave out the $2,500 scholarships and two free tickets to their shows to Jed Peterson and Eliza Segell. Policeman Allan H. Hoehl, commanding officer of Midtown South, Broadway's precinct, received the 2000 honor for his valuable service to the Broadway community. Hoehl, a police officer for 38 years, in turn thanked his men, who he feels changed the Broadway neighorbhood from what it was to what it is now. The Mayor's Office also read a special proclamation naming May 29-June 4 "Theatre Week." "Stars in the Alley," presented by Continental Airlines and The Chase Manhattan Bank, is a production of The League of American Theatres and Producers. The annual event features music and dance numbers from currently running shows in a free concert held in Broadway's Shubert Alley.

Funny comments, Donna! Looking forward to seeing your pictures. If Lady in the Van closes what should I go see in London this July? I am disappointed.

Thank you Donna for the "on the scene" comments and Tineke for the pics. Which leaves the highly praised Gabriel Byrne and Stephen Dillane. If the latter wins, which seems likely,.. I'm betting on SD. But surely they won't give it to two Brits.... ~~~~~ I too have seen capacity audience for TRT and so has everyone who has seen it. However, I also saw TRT posted on the "Half-Price Ticket Booth" every time I passed by.Dramas (esp British...with no "stars"...) have a hard "go" on B'way. Jeremy Irons was well-known when he played Henry. Copenhagen is doing well...but with an American cast.Amadeus closed early.

From Reuters/Variety: Broadway's Tony awards revisit familiar ground NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Broadway's biggest night looms, the theme song for Sunday's 54th annual Tony awards might just as well be Johnny Mercer's "I Remember You." Two shows each nearly half a century old led the nominations for Broadway's version of the Oscars, while a dance piece that uses canned renditions of a host of well-known tunes is poised to snatch the coveted best musical prize. This year's Tony awards, held at Radio City Music Hall and hosted by talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, has been mired in controversy nearly from the start, generating a measure of genuine suspense with virtually no shoo-ins. [deleting all the stuff on the musicals] On the drama side, experts say best play, the only other Tony which is seen as having the power to extend a show's life or even move it into the black, has come down to the cerebral British import "Copenhagen" and "Dirty Blonde," a deftly executed confection about the late bombshell and screen siren, Mae West. The other nominees are Sam Shepard's 20-year-old "True West," receiving its first Broadway production, and Arthur Miller's 10-year-old play "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan." Tony voters do not consider either a "new" play, analysts said. Pressed to call what is seen as a horse race, most experts expected the prestige of Michael Frayne's "Copenhagen," a drama about a 1941 meeting between two physicists in war-torn Europe, to prevail over the commercial appeal of Claudia Shear's sleeper "Dirty Blonde," a small show that began off-Broadway. "There's a moral imperative to vote for 'Copenhagen" even though a lot of people are falling asleep at it," one observer said. The play has also been named best play by a raft of other theater groups. But a jolt of xenophobia could always give the comedy, by American Shear who also stars as West, an edge. Last year's winner, "Side Man," was also the lone American entry. Shear could likely win a consolation best actress nod. But in one of the strongest categories she is up against beloved stage veteran Rosemary Harris for "Waiting in the Wings." MOTHER AND DAUGHTER IN A TONY'S FIRST In a Tonys' first, Harris's daughter Jennifer Ehle is competing with her, nominated for the acclaimed revival of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing," which most expect to win best revival of a play. Harris won a Tony a few years back, so voters may want to encourage newcomer Ehle. But most say Shear, having conceived, written and starred in "Dirty Blonde," should win a Tony. [sorry, Evelyn, but this sounds like voters' mentality] Best actor in a play also had experts stumped, with film star Gabriel Byrne's turn in Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten" and Stephen Dillane's for "The Real Thing" emerging as the front-runners. Both actors made strong impressions in roles once associated with others: Jason Robards in "Moon" and Jeremy Irons in "The Real Thing." Film actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly of "Magnolia," who swap roles as "True West"'s dueling brothers every three performances, are seen canceling each other out. [more musical stuff] Whatever the outcome, the $1.2 billion business of Broadway will emerge the winner, as millions tune in to the show on PBS from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. EST and CBS from 9 to 11 p.m. (A live Web cast will emanate from www.Tonys.org). Musical numbers performed on the show often boost a struggling show's fortunes, as with "Smokey Joe's Cafe," a pedestrian revue that ran for years after its cast opened the awards show with "On Broadway."

There's a moral imperative to vote for 'Copenhagen" even though a lot of people are falling asleep at it,.. No kidding..."Copenhagen"(Three people, Three chairs...[sole props} for almost Three hours) has to be seen at a matinee.Our drama students in the group couldn't take it after the first act... ~~~~~~ Shear, having conceived, written and starred in "Dirty Blonde," should win a Tony. [sorry,Evelyn, but this sounds like voters' mentality] I know, I know...as RH said in the CNN interview..."Neither of us expect to get the glass slipper...we're going as the two ugly sisters and plan to enjoy the ball"....Me, I'm thrilled that Jennifer was nominated.

JE at Stars in the Alley.

I can't see the pic, Donna.

Donna: you can't post an image stored at eGroups/Onelist outside of that area. Gi and Marcia did some testing a while back.

JE at Stars in the Alley - encore performance!

Look, what I ran across! The German poster for Firelight:

*** Sizzle *** I feel the heat :-)

I was probably one of the only ones that actually saw Firelight in a movie theatre. Film actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly of "Magnolia," who swap roles as "True West"'s dueling brothers every three performances, are seen canceling each other out. This is so pop! I bet Andy Warhol would have loved it.

(Moon Dreams) I was probably one of the only ones that actually saw Firelight in a movie theatre. Oooh, that must have been a sight, seeing SD climb out of that lake in his birthday suit on the big screen :-) And back to TRT... Brodie seems to be doing something lately that I don't recall from earlier performances. I can hear him belching on stage during his scene. I guess he is making his character more repulsive. Something for you to look forward to, Ann :-)

I was probably one of the only ones that actually saw Firelight in a movie theatre. I am grrrreeen with envy.Think you can work a private showing at Mr. Young's next time we're in London, Karen? ~~~~~~ What a poster!!Who could pass that one up...

Donna, thanks for the great reports. Just three more days! Do you know where you're sitting? More importantly, what are you wearing?;-) RE: predictions and voter mentality. I read the other day that the complexion of the Tony voters has changed a bit recently, as they've cleared out the dead wood. Now, you must have produced a show within the past x number of years in order to vote. While that keeps it from being exclusively an old-boys network, it also means that a greater proporton of the voters are now "road show" producers. The article said that would favor shows such as Dirty Blonde and their performers as they'll "travel better" in the heartland than some others. Also, isn't Claudia Shear a rags to riches story, starting that show off, off, off Broadway until finally making it to the big time? You know how voters love a story like that. But hey, maybe they'll love a mother/daughter combo better.:-) It's all just speculation anyway. Don't mean to sound negative but I always have to go through this prior to awards shows so that when the people I want to see win actually do win, I feel pleasantly surprised. Mari-logic.;) Don't dissect it.;-) BTW, I just found out that one of the guys nominated for supporting actor in Dirty Blonde is from my area. Got his first stage role as a kid playing Huck Finn in our Parks & Recreation Service's production of Tom Sawyer. Name is Kevin Chamberlin.

The NYT's predictions (or portions thereof): And while the theater aficionado will certainly pay closer attention than the layman, even a casual viewer can see the potential drama in races that pit mother against daughter (Rosemary Harris of "Waiting in the Wings" and Jennifer Ehle of "The Real Thing" for best actress in a play), "brother" versus "brother" (Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly of "True West" for best actor in a play) and Susan Stroman against herself in two categories (best choreography and best direction of a musical, for "Contact" and "The Music Man"). In an informal poll of 20 producers, press agents, nominees and other Broadway eggheads, only a few sure things seem to emerge. One of the most contested categories will probably be best revival of a play, in which voters were evenly split between "A Moon for the Misbegotten" and "The Real Thing." (The other two nominees, "Amadeus," and "The Price," registered nary a vote.) Here the voters are divided by a certain mild jingoism -- "Moon" is an American production, while "Real Thing" is a British import -- and a sense that a revival should involve something, well, dead. " 'The Real Thing' is only 15 years old," said one agent, noting that he had a client in the 1984 Broadway production. "O'Neill has that certain back-from-the-grave gravitas." Another voter added, " 'Moon' seems the kind of thing Broadway should be doing." Still, several voters thought that "Real Thing" might have a slight edge by dint of an even more powerful phenomenon: O'Neill fatigue. In particular people mentioned last year's acclaimed four-hour production of "The Iceman Cometh." "People still remember 'Iceman,' and they remember it was loooong," a nonprofit producer said. " 'The Real Thing' is contemporary and easier to sit through." Likewise the leading men in both of those productions, Gabriel Byrne in "Moon" and Stephen Dillane in "Real Thing," look to be neck and neck for best actor. The dark horse in the race is Mr. Hoffman, the rising film actor whose well-received turn in "True West" has only gilded his reputation. The other two nominees are Mr. Reilly, another hot movie talent who alternates roles with Mr. Hoffman in "West," and David Suchet, who played the gloomy Salieri in the closed revival of "Amadeus." Who will win? Pushed to answer, a majority said that Mr. Dillane would carry the day, despite Mr. Byrne's name recognition from films. 'It's Wide Open' Leading actress in a play is an even tighter category, with five talented performers in the mix: Ms. Ehle, Ms. Harris, Ms. Shear, Cherry Jones ("Moon") and Jayne Atkinson ("The Rainmaker"). "I have heard every option," one producer said. "It's wide open." Handicapping this race is a process of elimination, voters say. Ms. Atkinson's show is long closed, so scratch her. Ms. Ehle is young; she'll have her day. (Just not this Sunday.) That leaves her mother, Ms. Harris, the older, sentimental choice; Ms. Jones, the Broadway insider choice; and Ms. Shear, the populist choice. While Ms. Jones has an edge in the informal tally, the race seems primed for an upset from Ms. Shear. A chatty, amiable sort, she has been active in interviews and pre-Tony promotional events. Voters also say that a nod for Ms. Shear here may be a way of acknowledging her other work on "Dirty Blonde," which she also wrote; conceived with the show's director, James Lapine; and practically dragged to Broadway from a run downtown. "It won't win best play," one voter said, "but she could be given a nod here to say, 'Good work, come again.' " She also has a potential bloc of votes behind her from the Shubert Organization, Broadway's largest theater owner and a principal producer of "Dirty Blonde."

(Mari) Do you know where you're sitting? More importantly, what are you wearing? With binoculars in tow, I'll be peering from the second mezzanine (three in total). What I will be wearing - more like what can I fit in!! Ah, the old trusted black silk dinner suit. I would have sprung for something a bit flashier and sexier, but alas, the bod would not cooperate :-)

According to Theatercom. JE & SD are among the actors and actresses to be interviewed in the first hour of the Awards on Sunday. Also USA today gives its predictions and who it would like to win on Sunday, Jennifer is favourite but they would like to see Cherry Jones win. No mention for Stephen incredibly, it is between the two True West actors, no mention for Gabriel Bryne? or DS. All this speculation but from reading all the predictions I have a horrible feeling that MFTM will sweep the board, best actor, best actress and best revival. Well whatever happens they have had tremendous success already and can be very proud.

When did we ever think a year ago that TRT would be in competition for a Tony? Up from the bowels of Covent Garden to Radio City Music Hall.... Pretty heady stuff.... ~~~~~~ BTW..."Breakfast with the Arts" on A&E informed me that they will begin a half-hour earlier on Sunday 8:30AM Eastern Time.Wish SD was along. Elliot Fraser is the interviewer...that helps. Not that dummy that did Colin.

Keep the faith, Ann. USA Today is not known for its arts reporting, especially when it comes to theater; it figures they would predict the middle-of-the-road choices and the American names which is all they seem to know. MFTM--big yawn. (Evelyn) Elliot Fraser is the interviewer...that helps. Not that dummy that did Colin. Good, they *should* roll out the top person for JE--she's the main force behind their biggest success. As for Timberly, Kimberly, whatever . . . the poor gal was completely smitten by CF, I tell you. Journalistic ability went out the window; reminded me of BJ interviewing him in Rome!:-)

Another prediction from The Dallas Morning News: REVIVAL/PLAY: should - TRT will - TRT ACTOR/PLAY: should - Hoffman and Reilly should have been nominated together and would have won will - SD ACTRESS/PLAY: should - JE will - Claudia Shear (Dirty Blonde) FEATURED ACTRESS/PLAY: should and will - Blair Brown (Copenhagan) DIRECTOR/PLAY: should and will - Michale Blakemore (Copenhagan) FYI, at the Drama Desk Awards, when SD gave his acceptance speech, he mentioned that when he first got to NY he had a chance to see both True West and A Moon for the Misbegotten. And he admired the performances in each of those plays. On the Charlie Rose show, Ben Brantley favored Moon for both actor and best play, in spite of mentioning that Gabriel Byrne has been criticized for doing a WC Fields imitation. Maybe we should get him and Claudia together :-)

Donna, you've probably seen this before, but I thought I'd post it anyway, just in case. At http://www.broadway.com/stories.cfm?ssection=buzz&id=211&ssectionid=5 there's a short video clip of SD talking about the possibility of a Tony Award win.

Thanks Tineke. Doesn't he look good? :-) Yeah, Claudia must have met him that night. I thought she had won, but I just looked it up and it was Eileen Heckart who took home the prize for best actress.

Another prediction this time from Playbill, with all these different prediction someone is going to get it right:- Best actress between RH & CS, Best Actor SD & GB !!

JE was just briefly interviewed on CNN's Showbiz Today. It is replayed in the wee hours of the morning (4am Eastern time). I didn't see the show on Wednesday, hopefully this is a new bit. She mentioned that her mum was excited because they could both go to the ball. It briefly showed the scene from TRT where she smacks SD with the script over the Miranda Jessop actress in the leopard pants. I nearly had a heart attack just now trying to set my VCR to tape it tonight. I kept getting "error" and I thought, NO, it can't break now!! But I figured it out, ate some chocolate, and now I feel much better :-)

(Mari) reminded me of BJ interviewing him in Rome!:-) LOL, Mari....I knew it rang a bell..... BTW the host's name is Elliot Forrest. The Dallas Morning News loved P&P...I'm not surprised they picked JE for Best Actress.They're the ones who keep saying when they review a new BBC production..."...but don't expect P&P"..It's the hallmark. During the TRT intermission, I overheard people commenting.."who are they...?", "wonder what they've played in"....I could have sold a few P&P tapes that night;-) Win or lose...it has given them a lot of exposure. Imagine CNN:-)

Back to CNN, Showbiz Today will interview the winners on Monday's show. 1. I'm running out of tapes 2. My nerves are frazzled 3. Must stay away from the chocolate

Monday is going to be such a anti climax, I think I prefer the "before time", there is still a chance and it is lovely to hear so much news about TRT, SD & JE. The next 10 weeks of the run will also be rather an anti climax after all that has hapopened in the first 10 weeks. (Fingers crossed that they continue)

JE at Stars in the Alley - fingers crossed that this time it works.

More predictions posted at Theatre.com: (IMO, I don't think they should get away with hedging their bets.) The New York Times: BEST MUSICAL: Contact BEST PLAY: Copenhagen BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL: Kiss Me, Kate BEST PLAY REVIVAL: A Moon for the Misbegotten or The Real Thing BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Brian Stokes Mitchell for Kiss Me, Kate BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Heather Headley in Aida BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY: Stephen Dillane in Real Thing BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Claudia Shear in Dirty Blonde BEST FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY: Roy Dotrice in A Moon for the Misbegotten BEST FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Blair Brown in Copenhagen The New York Post: BEST MUSICAL: Contact BEST PLAY: Copenhagen BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL: Kiss Me, Kate BEST PLAY REVIVAL: The Real Thing BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Brian Stokes Mitchell for Kiss Me, Kate BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Heather Headley in Aida BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY: Stephen Dillane in Real Thing BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Cherry Jones in A Moon for the Misbegotten BEST FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY: Kevin Chamberlin in Dirty Blonde BEST FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Blair Brown in Copenhagen BEST FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Deborah Yates in Contact BEST FEATURED ACTOR IN A Musical: Boyd Gaines in Contact Reuters: BEST MUSICAL: Contact BEST PLAY: Copenhagen BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL: Kiss Me, Kate BEST PLAY REVIVAL: The Real Thing BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Brian Stokes Mitchell in Kiss Me, Kate BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Clauda Shear in Dirty Blonde BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY: Gabriel Byrne for A Moon for the Misbegotten or Stephen Dillane for The Real Thing BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Heather Headley in Aida Theatre.com critic (This guy has hedged on so many of these, geesh.) Best New Musical: Contact Best Revival of a Musical: Kiss Me, Kate Best New Play: Copenhagen by Michael Frayn Best Revival of a Play: A Moon for the Misbegotten Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play: Gabriel Byrne, A Moon for the Misbegotten or Stephen Dillane, The Real Thing Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play: Cherry Jones, A Moon for the Misbegotten or Claudia Shear, Dirty Blonde Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play: Kevin Chamberlin, Dirty Blonde or Roy Dotrice, A Moon for the Misbegotten Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play: Blair Brown, Copenhagen Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical: Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kiss Me, Kate Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical: Marin Mazzie, Kiss Me, Kate or Heather Headley, Aida Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical: Boyd Gaines, Contact Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical: Deborah Yates, Contact or Eartha Kitt, The Wild Party

Broadway.com did a nice job of comparing predictions from the various newspapers. So if you can stand it, here is a summary, including the annoying hedges :-) Best Revival of a Play Broadway.com: The Real Thing The New York Times: Toss-up: Real Thing or Moon The New York Post: The Real Thing Time Out New York: A Moon for the Misbegotten USA Today: Toss-up: Real Thing or Moon Associated Press: A Moon for the Misbegotten Reuters: The Real Thing Back Stage: A Moon for the Misbegotten Show Business: The Real Thing Best Leading Actor in a Play Broadway.com: Stephen Dillane (The Real Thing) The New York Times: Dillane The New York Post: Dillane Time Out New York: Gabriel Byrne (A Moon for the Misbegotten) USA Today: Toss-up--Phillip Seymour Hoffman or John C. Reilly (True West) Associated Press: Byrne Reuters: Toss-up--Byrne or Dillane Back Stage: Byrne Show Business: Dillane Best Leading Actress in a Play Broadway.com: Jennifer Ehle (The Real Thing) The New York Times: Cherry Jones (A Moon for the Misbegotten), with a possible Claudia Shear (Dirty Blonde)upset The New York Post: Jones Time Out New York: Jones USA Today: Ehle Associated Press: Jones Reuters: Shear Back Stage: Shear Show Business: Shear And slightly OT, but in the Broadway vein... Can anyone possibly explain why Kathleen Turner would want to do Tallulah? Seems like this will be her Mommy Dearest Waterloo :-)

Thanks for the pic, Donna. (Donna)But I figured it out, ate some chocolate, and now I feel much better :-) LOL Chocolate does that to a person. It's Murphy's Law that your VCR should break now. I warned my sister that her computer will crash on June 8th, she'll run out of ink and will misplace the spare ink cartridges and all copy centres will be closed;-) She's got to hand in her thesis June 9th. It's a pity I'm at Uni now, or else I could have seen JE on CNN. Or is CNN in Europe different from the CNN in US? And thanks for all the predictions. Now, what are your predictions? We all know who should win, but who do you think will win? Mine: Best Revival: Moon (I hope I'm wrong) Best Actor: SD (I've got a good feeling about this) Best Actress: I'm afraid Claudia Shear will run away with this one:-(

BTW, you can listen to audio clips of the interviews at the Nominees Brunch at Tonys.org

hrmm..the Stephen Dillane interview doesn't seem to working. At least, I can't listen to it. Anyone else having problems with it?

My predictions are the same as yours Tineke. I feel the voters have to give something to Moon. Of course you realize, if the broadcast tomorrow night shows a clip from Moon, I will be listening intently for that WC Fields sound :-) And I just tried SD's audio, same problem as you. Listening again to JE's, it was a little distressing - not the schmoozy, enthusiastic, excited kind of interview that some of the others had. I wonder what her face looked like. Were her eyes smiling? If I remember, SD's was longer with more interesting responses. But I think he lacked sparkle too. I think they must have been quite overwhelmed at the Sardi's brouhaha. Not to mention uptight as it was on a Wednesday and they had to get back to the theater for the matinee. Did you notice who's interview is missing? Claudia's! Hmmm, c'mon guys, let's hear her repeat wanting to meet that cute guy!

Thanks for the picture Donna, 11 out of 10 for perserverance.

Know this is OT , but thanks Ann for the interview today in NEWSDAY with Jennifer and mum. http://www.newsday.com/features/daily/fcve0604.htm Have to agree with everyone's predictions....but I think TRT will win revival.

They recently spent an entire day together -- or at least near each other -- as they did back-to-back interviews at the Regency Hotel to promote the release of "Sunshine." Sounds like junket time and now they have all the more reason to show Jennifer and Rosemary's bits, as opposed to only seeing Ralph's on the entertainment shows once the film starts rolling out. ...and a Colin mention (too funny)

Broadway.com calculated the odds from all the different media...in case you're a betting man... Best Revival Award TRT Six Moon Five TRT/Moon tie on one ~~~~~ Best actor in a Play SD Five Bryne Four Seymour One Reilly One SD/Bryne tie on one Seymour/Reilly tie on one ~~~~~~ Best actress in a Play JE Two Jones Four Shear Four Jones/Shear tie on one ~~~~~~

......and a Colin mention (too funny) "I don't want to talk about that" reply she makes to a question about romantic entanglements. She is no longer with Colin Firth, with whom she costarred in the 1996 television mini-series "Pride and Prejudice," which aired on A&E. " ~~~~~~~ Grrrr...they never let that one die...even after six years. I bet they got this from the Internet..but not from our website...we deleted that stuff a while ago.

LOL, I have been eating a piece of chocolate while reading the posts from the last few days. I always eat it when I am nervous. I think I will prob. get sick and gain weight by Tony time. :-)) I'm glad the race seems wide open. Award shows are boring if the winner is a foregone conclusion and it is not the conclusion you want.

Haven't had much time for "drooling"--got a job--darn! Jumping out of lurker mode with this. Hope this is not TOO off topic, but this was a cute article in our LOCAL paper, the Greensboro (NC) News & Record. Not sure if ALL the facts are quite straight, but I was thrilled to see it today. Winston-Salem is 30 minutes away from me. (Sorry, but don't know how to format, bold, etc.): Mother-Daughter to highlight Tonys Jennifer Ehle and Rosemary Harris, both with strong ties to the Triad, will compete against each other for best actress in a play. BY MARTHA WAGGONER The Associated Press Raleigh - The serendipity is a little overwhelming for actor Rosemary Harris. Both she and her daughter, Jennifer Ehle are nominated for a Tony as best actress in a play. The awards ceremony is Sunday in New York. The next day, a movie opens in which they not only star together, but portray the same character at different ages. And in May, Ehle received the Theatre World Award for "best newcomer," an award Harris won in 1952. "I don't know if anybody follows biorhythm charts any more, but if they do, I think they'd find our charts are running side by side at the moment," Harris, 72, said this week in a telephone interview. The Great Britain native is married to North Carolina author John Ehle ("Journey of August King"), and they make their home in Winston-Salem. Jennifer Ehle lived in Winston-Salem for the first 18 years of her life and attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, which her father helped found. Harris is nominated for her work in Noel Coward's "Waiting in the Wings," which closed at the end of last month. Ehle 30, is nominated for her role in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing." On Monday, their movie, "Sunshine," which stars Ralph Fiennes and William Hurt, opens in the United States. The movie, set in director Istvan Szabo's native Hungary, is the story of the Sonnenschien (Sunshine) family's life during World II, the Holocaust and afterward. "Again, it was fate, I suppose," Harris said of the mother-daughter casting. She and Fiennes had met at a fund-raiser where they read together from a book of sonnets. Szabo knew Ehle through a mutual friend. Harris, who won a best actress Tony in 1966 for "The Lion in Winter," is more excited about Ehle's nomination than her own. The mother-daughter nomination is something she never envisioned. "Actors have anxiety dreams about things going wrong," she said. "I don't know what the opposite is, maybe a fantasy dream, but in this case, it's real."

Thanks Meredith for sharing this with us...we've missed hearing from you. Some of the facts in the article are a little lop-sided, but the sentiment is there. Big day for North Carolina....Go Tar Heels!!

Thanks, Meredith, nice article. The Philly Inquirer's theater critic, Cliff Ridley, is a Tony voter and reveals his votes in today's paper. He voted for TRT almost across the board--best revival, Leveaux for director, Ehle for actress, Woodward for featured actress; but Suchet for actor. Alas, he doesn't predict that any of them will win.-(

A nice excerpt from Ben Brantley in the NY Times today: Other productions played directly and appealingly with a self-conscious awareness of just what the theater achieves and how it does it. The sparkling Broadway revival of "The Real Thing," Tom Stoppard's keen-witted tale of a playwright in love, makes the case that certain things (love, for example) defy articulation. Nonetheless, with the infinitely charming Stephen Dillane playing the playwright in this import from London, even groping in the dark acquires a glistening stylishness that is pure theater. Mr. Dillane's co-star, the radiant Jennifer Ehle, is, by the way, the daughter of an actress who gave another sublime study this season in stage-savvy artifice. p.s. Thanks for starting this topic Karen, this has been fun!

Have a great time today, Donna whatever the results enjoy it and we look forward to your report.

I know I'm shameless, but here is another quote from a different article in today's NY Times: Tonight's segments will include this season's toasts of Broadway, like Heather Headley of "Aida," Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle of "The Real Thing," and Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly of "True West." The article talks about the pre-show on PBS. Did anyone see the article of how San Francisco will not be airing the pre-show? Instead they will show a documentary on glass blowing.

(Ann W) Have a great time today Thanks Ann. I am sure that I will feel your good vibes in the theater, and I will "raise the roof" whenever they announce our favorites. Anticipating a very sore voice come Monday morning... :-)

(Donna) Instead they will show a documentary on glass blowing. What on earth?! Would imagine there will be some flak generated, although not as much as the infamous Heidi Bowl. ;-) Have fun tonight, Donna. A&E's Breakfast with the Arts has just started; VCR is primed and ready for a workout today. (my pleasure) and if there's a need for other discussion topics, just yell'm out.

Breakfast With the Arts interview went well.... Clips from P&P...clearly her favorite role. Clips from Sunshine....LOL , (AKA "You Can't Kill RF", interviewer) Clip from TRT. Elliot Forrest is a great host...makes all his guests feel relaxed. Doesn't play "gotcha". I hope Moon approves;-)

I also thought she did great on the A&E interview, Evelyn. Loved the part where Elliott mentions all these people who had been e-mailing him about having her on the show!:-) Interesting comment about liking the Barrymore space better than the Albury (though Donmar is probably still tops). Also, her comments on not being so wrapped up in the character on stage that you can't react to the audience. Sounds like she's really enjoyed the run. Glad they got CF in the P&P clip.:-) Donna, have a wonderful time tonight--we're looking forward to your first-hand report. Wonder if Stephen will break down and wear a tux--maybe with a lime green cummerbund?;-) ;-)

Breakfast With the Arts interview went well.... Her eyes were definitely smiling but she must be tired. Elliot had some trouble pulling answers out of her and I thought he asked good questions. Good clips though. Dillane pulled me in for just the few seconds I saw. Fingers crossed for tonight. Go Donna!

I hope Moon approves;-) Dear Evelyn, my VCR did not go off! I will watch tonight. (Did she sit up straight?) ;-) Donna, we are with you tonight. Keeping fingers crossed. My only prediction is SD as best actor. The others are too close to call.

(Moon)Dear Evelyn, my VCR did not go off! I will watch tonight. Bummer....though I looked at your response with trepidation....;-) Well, I can tell you, Moon ,unconditionally....it wasn't the worst interview on Breakfast with the Arts that I have seen;-) (Moon)(Did she sit up straight?) ;-) NOOOO....LOL...she was doing real well...when she leaned her head on her elbow I shouted... "Sit up ,Jennifer....Moon is looking";-)

"Sit up ,Jennifer....Moon is looking";-) SUSLOL! (Sitting up straight)

I hope you have a great time at the Tonys, Donna. I can't wait to read your report. It seems I'll still be awake by the time the Tonys start, so I may as well watch it on-line.

Find Stephen (I don't see a green shirt...);-) Find Jennifer..(I don't see flaming red hair);-) Only one I recognize is Rosie!!

I can't find Stephen either, but I think I found Jennifer. The fourth row (could be seen as third or even second row), fourth from the right.

Go to it Donna! Awaiting your reports. Take it easy there Evelyn, thoughts are with you. Thanks everyone for all the interesting news, I have time only to read rather than reply, but it was a great idea to have this topic thanks Karen.

Tineke, I think you may be right. But don't you think that Stephen is right next to Jennifer on her left. Almost looks like Harvey is standing right above the two of them. Would he be in the pic as a producer? Doubt it. Tried to blow it up, but it got way to blurry. Don't have the right tools here.

Evelyn, when was this photo taken? That's definitely Radio City Music Hall. Karen, that looks more like Gabriel Byrne next to Jen. I think I found Stephen. Look waaaaay up top, I see a speck of lime green with its head tilted--I'm not kidding! The guy at lower left with the white suit is Brian Stokes Mitchell (lead actor, musical, Kiss Me Kate--he was great). Looks like Sarah Woodward in the row behind Jen but all the way on the other side, second from left. I feel like we need a team prayer here or something.;-) I lit 'em all a candle today. Of course, I'm the person who organized the Fever Pitch novena, so my track record isn't so hot. Maybe He thinks I ask for frivolous things.;-)

Yippeee!! TRT won for best play! That's a good start. I wish this Tony.org website would have cameras of what's happening inside, instead of all these backstage cams.

Jennifer won!!!!!!

Isn't it exciting Tineke, are we mad being up at 3o'clock?4o'clock in the morning, if SD doesn't win I will be so sorry now especially with Jennifer winning.

Stephen won too, a hat trick, I would love to see Donna's face, absolutely wonderful and no more than they deserved, I can go to bed happy. I am so pleased for you too Evelyn.

I've been listening to the interviews at Tonys.org. This time the interviews were very good and long and interesting. They said some very nice things about SD. Oh, and I checked the Webcams, hit print screen about a million times and pasted it in photoshop. So I've got some backstage pics.

YIPEE....THEY WON... THEY WON 3 TONY'S!!!!!HOOORAY!!! BEST REVIVAL BEST ACTOR BEST ACTRESS They cleaned up.....So take that Oliviers!!!

Isn't it great Evelyn, I am still up, too excited to go to sleep. How is your heart, mine is pumping. I hope you don't mind but I have to say a great night for the Brits, as well as 3 TRT Tonys, Roy Dotrice won and so did Michael Blackemore, Tim Rice and Elton John. Thankyou Broadway but mostly thanks for the 3 TRT Tonys.

I just wish this guy would stop mispronouncing Ehle and Dillane! LOL

Hey, the guy just thanked the Jennifer Ehle fans! Evelyn, what did you do?

(Ann)I hope you don't mind but I have to say a great night for the Brits, Yes....it is a great night for the Brits...for Tom Stoppard. He worked his magic again. They got the same awards in 1982. Congratulations...Cool Britannia....Cool Donmar (But it took Broadway to give them recognition!!)

BRILLIANT!!! The hotline between OK-Chgo was burning up!! Can't wait to hear Donna's report. She's probably still on the ceiling. Also can't wait to see those pics, Tineke.

WWWHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's such an honor to be nominated--BUT IT'S BETTER TO WIN!!!!!!!!! They swept it--best revival, actor and actress--couldn't ask for much more than that! Jennifer looked beautiful, and played nice tribute to her parents in her speech, who were beaming with pride! She was sitting right in back of her parents, beautiful moment when they called her name and she grabbed her mom and kissed her. And Stephen looked soooo dapper and spoke so nicely! I'll bet they're scraping Donna off the ceiling at Radio City! LOL! (Ann) I hope you don't mind but I have to say a great night for the Brits, Yes it was, Ann, and good for the Brits--they deserved to win! (Michael Frayne sp? also won best play for Copenhagen.)

Think I'll include Ray Dotrice's acceptance speech on that compilation tape (says the Evil One);-)

Oh thanks so much for that Karen, I am so looking forward to seeing it, thalnks for all your hard work.

Please do, oh evil one.:-) What a nice man . . .

Okay, here goes...Tineke-who-should-be-in-bed-but-what's-the-point-the-sun-is-rising-so-I-may-as-well-stay-up-Mini Backstage Report: The only thing you could see on-line of what was happening inside were the transscripts of everything that was being said, including the songs. This lead to some rather funny transcripts: "it's darn hot, it's hot, man, it's darn hot, it's too darn hot, hot...it's hot" I have no clue what musical or what show this is from. Perhaps you can enlighten me. Anyway, all the winners went to the press room afterwards, and there was a webcam there. Here's Jennifer talking to the press: Jennifer walked off that mini-stage to watch Stephen accept his award: Then Jennifer was interviewed for Tonys.org, followed by the SD interview. Also, I would like to thank my parents for giving me this computer, my sister for providing me with illegal photoshop software, Uni for giving me internet access,...;-)

Marei, what did Jennifer wear, not the black trouser suit, I hope (LOL) and what did Mum wear and was it a good Show?

LOL!! Tineke! You got better shots than were on TV. Good shots of Jenn's dress (back and front, although didn't fit her well...you knew there would be a critical comment from me) :-) "Too Darn Hot" is from Kiss Me Kate Wow, do I want to see Contact! That Simply Irresistable number was great! I can't believe you guys are still up.

I'm not the only who's up. There are quite a few students in my street who got up early to study. Lemme see, I got more pics, you know. I'm sorry if they take too long to load.

Thanks for the fireworks, Karen....and for putting up with all of us , and for setting up this board.... Tineke....what great pics....that's Jennifer squatting down in front of the TV. Ann...Jennifer had a white beaded dress...ahem, K. thought it was too big...I thought too small. She gave a cute acceptance speech...SD was in shock. Hey, the guy just thanked the Jennifer Ehle fans! Evelyn, what did you do? I dunno..I did email them earlier to thank them for carrying the Sardi's nomination brunch live online...and of course gave the JE fan Page URL.

As you can see, Ann, it wasn't the black trouser interview suit, but a pastel (maybe pale green) slinky number with spaghetti staps, about calf-length. Sexy yet sophisticated. (I thought it fit fine;-) I didn't notice mum's dress, I was too busy screaming and jumping up and down, I'm afraid! Matthew Broderick gave out the best actress award, but before doing so, he talked about Jennifer and RH, saying it was the first time in Tony history that a mother-daughter combo had been nommed, and that the mother wanted the daughter to win, and vice versa. Harvey got himself onstage for the best play revivial award, but didn't get a chance to speak--haha! The NY producer, Anita Waxman, accepted, and thanked the Donmar and Sam Mendes. Great pics, Tineke, thanks!

Oh no...Jennifer isn't sitting up straight.... Moon will be so disappointed;-) Fabulous pics Tineke.What a coup!!! Aren't you gonna go to bed ?

I think I'll just stay up and start studying. I've got a very important exam tomorrow.

From Broadway.com 10:14PM Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play: Stephen Dillane, The Real Thing Dillane commented on how great a night it has been for The Real Thing while Ehle watched with her Tony from backstage. Ehle was so excited she wanted to be comfortable for his acceptance speech � she squatted on the floor while she listened! 9:59PM Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play: Jennifer Ehle, The Real Thing Ehle beat out her mother, Rosemary Harris, who was nominated in the same category for her work in Waiting in the Wings. Matthew Broderick, who presented the award, noted that mother wanted daughter to win and daughter wanted mother to win. Ehle pulled an upset though, not an upset over her mother (who was not expected to win) but an upset over Cherry Jones and Claudia Shear � both of whom were critical favorites. In her acceptance speech an excited Ehle thanked Harris and her father by saying, �Thank you to my beautiful parents for teaching me how to talk, walk, and read.� Backstage Ehle was in a celebrating mood. Someone gave her a glass of champagne and when she was told she needed to go to the press room, she replied, �Can I bring my champagne with

Here's MSNBC's story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/415693.asp#BODY

Nice pics from NY times

WOW everyone well done. Fabulous news just dashing to work!!!

from Playbill

more Playbill Stephen Dillane with presenter Kathy Lee Gifford.

from Yahoo Kathly Lee Gifford boasting "look Claudia!";-)

want me to stop?

Last one....for now;-)

from Playbill I think this one was taken after she squatted on the floor to watch SD;-)

Great news! Great reporting! Hooray!!!! Tineke, fantastic work, now quit it, and get on with your revision. Don't fail that exam.

Fantastic, I was cheering last night! pastel (maybe pale green) slinky number with spaghetti staps, about calf-length. Sexy yet sophisticated. (I thought it fit fine;-) I thought she could have done a lot better for her big night out. That dress looked wrinkled, she only wore earrings and her hair Louisa! Her mother looked chic and glamourous, too bad Jennifer did not pick any of that up from her. Yes, Evelyn, she really should sit up straight (not very lady like). SD should have worn a tux. I hate that mobster black on black look. Did anyone noticed what a dark mood Gabriel B was in after they announced JE as best actress. He knew at that point he had not won. My cutie patoutie award goes to Leveraux (sp) that close up on him was a knock-out. Any chance of getting a snappie or a picture of him posted?

And, thank you Tineke for staying up late with those reports and pictures. And you too Karen, for starting this topic.

Did anyone notice if Tom Stoppard was there, also what did SW wear. I have to say I agree with Moon regarding Jennifer's dress, considering she has such a lovely figure the dress was completely shapeless, alright from the bust upwards. Who goes shopping with her?! Its a good thing she has such a lovely face and actually I like her hair, au naturel!!(sp) Still none of this must detract from the wonderful news of their winning the Tonys for great performances, very very well deserved.( Perhaps you should be her wardrobe adviser Moon.) Great to see the news on our Teletext and Ceefax, absolutely wonderful. What did everyone think of the Show overall, the reporter at The New York Daily News was not too impressed with Rosie.

I have to disagree on the dress, I rather liked it. I prefer simple dresses.

From Variety--just the key parts: Backstage at the Tony Awards NEW YORK (Variety) Newcomer Jennifer Ehle beat out veteran Rosemary Harris, her mother, for the actress award. ``I never viewed it as a competition and she didn't either. You can't in different theaters and different plays,'' said Ehle, who won for ``The Real Thing.'' Harris was nominated for ``Waiting in the Wings.'' As for what they said pre-show, ``We were just scrambling around getting ready. We didn't think either of us would win.'' As for what ran through her head as she went up the stairs to the Radio City Music Hall stage, ``I was thinking about not tripping and finding a toilet, it had been a two- and a half-hour wait.'' Her run in ``The Real Thing'' is supposed to come to an end Aug. 12, but not because of Actors' Equity rules for British actors. ``The Equity regulations don't apply to me, because I'm an American citizen.'' Ehle is a British resident and possesses a very British accent. Can she talk American? ``Yes,'' she answered in decidedly tough tones. Will all the Tonys help extend the run of Tom Stoppard's ``The Real Thing?'' ``Nothing planned,'' said Stephen Dillane, who won the actor Tony. He said the play has changed a bit since it traveled across the Atlantic. ``It demands that we be a little bit more outgoing. Maybe audiences here want a bit more razzmatazz than they did in England.'' Dillane denied the rumor that his body language in the role was based on Stoppard's.

I have to disagree on the dress, I rather liked it. I prefer simple dresses. There is nothing wrong with a simple dress, Tineke, but it was a gala occasion. It was her big night and she should have risen to the occasion. ``The Equity regulations don't apply to me, because I'm an American citizen.'' It sounds like she might want to stay in NY. :-)

Fantastic captures, Tineke. Donna can even examine Jennifer's manicure from that one closeup. ;-) Her dress was OK, but didn't fit or suit her figure type IMO.

From BBC: Meanwhile, Ehle and Dillane won best actress and actor for their parts in Tom Stoppard's play The Real Thing, which also won best play revival. Ehle - best known for appearing in the film This Year's Love and the BBC's Pride and Prejudice - beat her mother, Rosemary Harris to the award.

More from Yahoo What camera do I look at?

God, what an amazing night! When TRT won the first award right off the bat, it seemed a lock that SD would win, but when JE won I was totally shocked -- thought the Brit factor would work against them. Thought Ray Dotrice's speech was fabulous and very apropos of the situation (re: Americans' willingness to applaud a good performance without envy -- nice smack at the Brit critics). Blakemore (?) and Frayn also made similar comments. How is all this playing in the UK? Or are the papers just focusing on the "We won" angle a la the Oscars? Re: Jennifer's dress -- remember, she wasn't expecting to win, so perhaps that's why she didn't go overboard. Personally I thought she looked fine. I loved that she stopped her interview to watch SD accept his award, and it was nice that she was sitting with Nigel Lindsay. I cracked up at the funny grimace she gave when Matthew Broderick announced her as "Jennifer Ehle, the daughter" -- looks like she wants them to give that a rest, already. (Did everyone see the Tony blurb/photos of JE and RH in yesterday's Parade mag?) This was the first Tonycast I've watched in years, and I thought Rosie and Nathan Lane were great and actually pretty funny in spots -- a few lame-o jokes, but not nearly as bad as at the Oscars. And they brought in the show on time, too.

Great pictures Tineke, they certainly look very very happy, smiles all round. How is all this playing in the UK? Susan, it would have been too late to get into today's papers, except possibly The London Evening Standard but I am hoping there will be something in tomorrow's papers. When Judi Dench won last year there was masses about it and this year we have JE, SD, TS, TRT, EJ & TM. MB & RD, so I would hope there would be more that just something.

You're right about the London Evening Standard, Ann. Go to http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/hottx/top_review.html?in_review_id=288005&in_review_text_id=233133

More from BBC Tonys in pictures The Winners This is what Karen posted earlier

RE: Jennifer's attire--you people are brutal! LOL! She's a bit of a tomboy, isn't she? Not the princess type at all, but isn't that part of what we love about her? Her personality is reflected in her dress and in the vitality she brings to her performances. She had me absolutely hooked on P&P right from the opening moments with her expressive face and when she skipped and ran across those fields. I recall thinking, thank God, not another corset drama, but a real flesh and blood Lizzie! You see her physicality in TRT as well, e.g., sprawling across that sofa, "Touch me." Yeeow! Ann, Tom Stoppard wasn't there. Agree with Susan, I thought the show was pretty good, as awards shows go. Loved all the dance numbers, real energy there, and I enjoyed all the behind the scenes stuff they showed in the first hour. I also thought Rosie and Nathan Lane did fine as hosts, especially when they tore into the National Rifle Assn. and its #1 henchman, Charleton Heston.:-)

(Mari)RE: Jennifer's attire--you people are brutal! LOL...I keep telling ya'...this is a tough crowd. Poor Renee got it and now poor Jennifer.She isn't a clothes horse... but is THE TOAST OF B"WAY... Lots of dolls out there who want to trade places with her;-) I had an email from Donna who is resting....she liked her dress.I'll let her report the audience reaction. But didn't you LOL at Claudia Shearer who was primping up (in a gorgeous dress, Moon;-)as they were reading out the Best Actress...she had her foot in the aisle ready to go.... Instead...the self-deprecating gal....unpretentious, unaffected but a helluva actress got it. Paramount classics is dancing in the streets, I bet.(Sunshine comes out on Friday) I had an email from Rachel at the Donmar...they stayed up all night too...and are thrilled. Big Time on Earlham Street. Sam Mendes must be dizzy with excitement. An Oscar and his Donmar gets the Tony...he must be doing something right.

Where do I begin? Thanks ladies for your warm send-off. I am baaack, tired, and overwhelmed with photos and articles to read :-) First an excerpt from Broadway.com: Another big winner was the Donmar Warehouse revival of Tom Stoppard�s The Real Thing. �It�s a play about love that is not cynical and therefore is a courageous play,� said David Leveaux, the director of The Real Thing. The play�s stars took home the two top acting awards, with co-stars Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle (beating out mum Rosemary Harris) winning Best Actor and Actress respectively. Well I schlepped a couple of blocks from the Mariott Marquis to Radio City, in my high heels. You could tell who was going to the affair, their sequins gave them away! I met J. on the corner, feeling like a prostitute waiting for a john. (not really, a little humor) Anyhow, we had to be in the theater early, as they were closing the doors at 7:30. Everyone was milling about, and they gave out special Playbills that listed all the nominees. It is about 1/3 inch thick. The show actually started at 7:30, we had to rush to our seats. And no intermission, so it was 3.5 hours in the seat. They gave some special awards before the PBS broadcast began. With binoculars glued to my face, oh yes, I had a good view of our man. You probably could tell, but he was sitting next to David Suchet. I was impressed because SD's seat was probably the most visible in the house. Right in front of one of the stairs to the stage. Was that by design? :-) Nathan and Rosie told some pretty "raunch" material during the commercial breaks. Brutal, making fun of actor's toupees, sexual preferences, etc. Although I laugh just as much as the next person, I was uncomfortable hearing it. I guess this was "insider" material. When TRT won best revival, we uttered a sigh of relief. No shutout. Relaxation. When JE won, WOW. There was a noticable hush when her name was announced, I think it caught everyone by surprise. I thought she looked beautiful. Her hair was indeed toned down, the harsh red color stripped out. Her dress photographed well on the huge projection screen, a beautiful pale seafoam green. Her back looked lovely. It looked better in person than it appears in the still photographs. Then I was more tense than ever. What if SD didn't win? JE was a darkhorse, but it was SD's tour de force. When his name was announced, I let out a scream. But I had to contain myself so as not to lose focus on him through the binoculars. Oh, I wish you gals were with me. I needed a group to stand up and hoot and hollar! He looked stunned. I don't think he expected to win. Believe me, he was much more relaxed and verbal when he accepted the Drama Desk Award. Before his award was announced, during the commercial break some of his cast members came up to him to wish him luck (Sarah Woodward (Charlotte), Nigel (Max), Charlotte Parry (Debbie), David Leaveaux (director)). He also went back and said some words to RH. JE was backstage at this time doing the interviews. Neither SD or JE came back to their seats after the win. It was funny to see the "seat warmers," the stand-ins who occupy the seats when the stars are not in them. Hey, a job I could do! :-) Big cheers from the audience for Karen Ziemba, apparently a favorite of the crowd and I understand a very nice woman. Big cheers for Aida. Big cheers for Kiss Me Kate. Big cheers for Eartha. And yes, I agree, Dotrice's acceptance speech was so sweet. No British backlash last night! I'm sure I'm leaving out a lot, but I need to roll back into bed. Maybe when I replay the broadcast I will remember some more details. It was a fun evening, the acoustics were wonderful. FYI, the only musical I saw was Kiss Me Kate, and it is a fabulous show. Do you recognize Brian Stokes Mitchell? He was the young doctor on that old show Trapper John, MD.

Thank you Donna....honestly, I thought I heard your hoop 'n hollar when SD's name was called out.We were there with you...sweetie. I couldn't look alone...I was on the phone with Karen..What a night!! Then I went on line with Tineke...who I know did an all-nighter... I saw "Aida" and Heather Hadley deserved the Tony and the show was really quite good. I bet Elton John and Tim Rice told them to stuff it when the show didnt'even get a nomination for Best Musical. Do you recognize Brian Stokes Mitchell? I saw him last year in "Ragtime" and he should have gotten it then too... Thanks again for being our rep at the Tony's!And congratulations!!

Great report, Donna! Evelyn said she heard you scream when Stephen's name was announced. ;-) Someone at VV commented on JE's arm. Is there some kind of mark on it or is this a photographic illusion:

She was burned as a child, I believe. It was v. noticeable at the Donmar. Also it was pointed out to me, her right eye doesn't open as wide as her left...and neither does her mum's. BTW have you ever seen such a look of pure love and admiration as the look on RH's face when her little girl won? In slow mo' it is v. moving. Didn't you love it when Jennifer said"What a welcome home..." Must go read the Winston-Salem newspaper.

Karen, I believe it is from an accident she had as a child, a burn or something, read it when P&P came out. She said then that she was very self conscious of it and always wore long sleeves and if you remember Lizzie did wear mainly long sleeved dresses, maybe they all were. Evelyn, I was up all night too, James thinks I am quite potty but he managed to sleep through it all!! Donna, thanks for your wonderful report, how I would have liked to scream if only once at The Oliviers. What did SW look like, could you see what she wore and was she with her partner/husband?

(Tineke) want me to stop? NO, don't stop! :-) OK, I shouldn't say this, but... Kathy Lee Gifford is not one of my favorites. Arrghh, that she should be photographed so many times with SD!

Mari, your comments "re Jennifer's attire etc", I couldn't agree with you more, you put it so well. Vitality is the word and she lights up the stage/screen somehow, I just loved her running in P&P and I don't know if you remember but at the Bafta Awards that was exactly how she ran off the stage.

Arrghh, that she should be photographed so many times with SD LOL! She really clung to him, I couldn't help but think, first Claudia and now yet another admirer;-) I've never heard of Kathy Lee Gifford though. Mari, I have to agree as well. When you read interviews, Jennifer does seem like a tomboy; climbing ropes, breaking swizzle-sticks. She uses arms and legs to explain things. I can't imagine other 'typical' stars squatting on the floor in their gala dresses. I think it's rather charming. And it shows that she cares about her co-stars.

Donna, you asked for more! From Tonys.org Stephen speaking to Tonys.org With Michael Blakemore

(Donna) Kathy Lee Gifford is not one of my favorites. Arrghh, that she should be photographed so many times with SD! LOL! I was thinking the same thing: how the heck did she end up being chosen to give out this award? Too bad it isn't like the Oscars, where the recipients from the previous year hand out the award -- then you'd be guaranteed to see SD again next year;-) Sounds like you had an amazing evening, Donna. Thanks for the report. Speaking of screaming, when they announced JE's name I swear I could hear Evelyn from halfway across the country;-) Just wondering -- will these Tony wins have any effect on the casting of the film version of TRT, d'ya think? Or is it too much to hope that they'd cast JE and SD?

Thank you all for such great reading and viewing. Great pics Tineke and Donna's on the spot tales. WOW everyone. I only have time to read these days and not really post but so happy for TRT.

What a great day here! Wonderful pictures too. Can someone find a picture of the director and post it? His close up at the Tony s knocked me off my seat. ;-D I hope Harvey will give the cast the opportunity to do the film. Didn't you love it when Jennifer said"What a welcome home..." I thought that was strange. Did she live here as an adult for a long period? She later made it a point to say she was an American. I wonder what is going on? Will she even want to return to England?

Moon, you wanted to see David Leveaux. Evelyn sent me a pic from the Donmar gala. Will be scanning it in very shortly.

Thanks, Karen, and Evelyn. I will be waiting.

I hope Harvey will give the cast the opportunity to do the film. Talking about the ole boy....when TRT received Best Reivival...did you see the smile on Harve's face? Ear to ear...(he's lost a little weight too). I think perhaps he knew about JE and SD awards. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ (evelyn)Didn't you love it when Jennifer said"What a welcome home..." (Moon)I thought that was strange. Did she live here as an adult for a long period? She later made it a point to say she was an American. I wonder what is going on? Will she even want to return to England? She was born in the US but educated on both sides of the pond.She considers herself British. I think she mean't"land of my birth".She could have "dual". But Actor's Equity considers her American...in the A&E interview she made a poit of saying that there had to be an arrangement to bring the other members of the cast over..."but not me, I'm American".First time I've heard her say that. No I don't think she will stay in the US...she was trained in London,..her home is London.Has a flat ...with her cat...in Islington!

And I think Nicole Kidman will play Annie in the film TRT. Maybe Tom Cruise will play Henry and then we could have an Eyes Wide Shut redux;-)

This is a good one....at the Tony Ball at the Marriott Marquis (Did you go Donna?)

The pic on the right is Eartha Kitt and Phil Seymour Hoffman from The Wild Party...who thought he was gonna win..hee, hee. Jenn and her mom have same eyes, cheeks and voice.

Just watched the end of the Late news and they did the papers for tomorrow, I am sure I saw a pic. of Jennifer top of the front page of The Times, will check it out tomorrow. What a great day, night everyone.

Hmmm, that looks like Ken Branagh to me with Eartha Kitt? I liked Jennifer's dress, I thought it just right for a young woman (Tony's is generally stuffier, but she was relaxed and beautiful). Didn't see SD win, turned to the Practice, however did like Nathan Lane and Rosie together. Really enjoyed the Contact dancing, reminiscent of Dirty Dancing. (Liked MB during the beginning of the announcing the noms for lead actress.) I hope Tineke is in bed sleeping;)

Here is the E. Telegraph coverage. I must agree with the opinion drawn form Contact. I found the dance number nothing new and rather boring. Swing on the other hand was fun. Broadway Britons steal show By Philip Delves Broughton Tony Awards Contact, Copenhagen win top Tonys - Theatre.com JENNIFER EHLE led the way for a night of triumph for Britain at the Tony Awards, Broadway's version of the Oscars. Best known for her appearance in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, she beat her mother, Rosemary Harris, to win the best actress award for her performance in the revival of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing. The play, which transferred this year from London's Donmar Warehouse, also won the best revival accolade and the best actor award for Stephen Dillane. Accepting her award Ehle, 30, thanked her "beautiful, beautiful" mother, who was nominated for her role in Waiting in the Wings, for "teaching me to walk and to talk and to read, otherwise I wouldn't be here at all". Jennifer Ehle: beat her mother, Rosemary Harris, to win the best actress award The greatest applause was reserved for Michael Blakemore, 71, the Australian-born director, who scored an unprecedented double, winning best director awards for the musical, Kiss me Kate, and the play, Copenhagen. Copenhagen, a drama by Michael Frayn about a secret meeting between two physicists, also won the prize for best play, while Kiss me Kate swept the board with five Tonys, including best actor in a musical for Brian Stokes. Accepting his awards at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, Blakemore, who was nominated in 1990 for direction prizes in both play and musical categories, said: "All I can say is thank you America. And of course by America, I mean New York and by New York I mean Broadway." Of his double win he added: "It's like having twins: you get it all over at once. I'm delighted and amazed - really a little stunned. If I'd known I was going to win two Tonys, I think I would have retired." Since leaving Australia as a young man to attend London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Blakemore has become a pillar of British theatre. He was taken on at the National Theatre by Lord Olivier, but left in 1982 after falling out with Olivier's successor, Peter Hall. Other British winners were Roy Dotrice, who won best featured actor for A Moon For The Misbegotten, while Sir Elton John and Sir Tim Rice were awarded the accolade for best original score for the Disney production of Aida, which won a total of four titles at the ceremony. It is understood that the pair were so piqued over the production's failure to win a nomination in the best musical category that they declined to attend the event. The main controversy of the night was over Contact, which won four titles including the award for best musical despite having no singing and little dialogue. Its nomination provoked one member of the nominating committee to resign and an outcry from musicians' unions. Barry Humphries, best known as Dame Edna Everage, was awarded a special Tony for Dame Edna: The Royal Tour. Humphries prompted one of the funniest moments during the three-hour ceremony. Presenting best costume winner Martin Pakledinaz, of Kiss me Kate with his prize, Humphries - as Dame Edna - gave him a kiss leaving the lipstick-smeared Pakledinaz so taken aback he struggled with his speech.

This picture goes with it.

Congratulations, girls. Feels like you won that award right along with Jennifer and Dillane. Even though the dress was not flattering, JE looked absolutely radiant. Glowing...I can feel the heat just from her photos. Dillane looked dashing, a bit nervous accepting his award. Or was he just wondering who the hell Kathy Lee is? I agree with Karen. I loved that Contact number "Simply Irresistable". Sizzle. The Oscars could learn something about dance numbers if they persist in doing them in their telecasts. Donna, did you get a good look at Jennifer's seatmate? Know who he is?

I didn't see the broadcast, nor have I watched my tape. Was Mr. Ehle in evidence in the audience? He had a couple of lovely ladies to root for...what a dilemma :-D

Donna, did you get a good look at Jennifer's seatmate? Know who he is? I think Donna is probably getting some zzzzz's...Jennifer was sitting next to Nigel Lindsay who plays Max from the cast, her ex in the play.He's married...I think Donna saw him & his family at the baseball game. I know, I know...Jennifer can't seem to get a date. She probably came with her folks.She says she's "choosey".:-D

From backstage and the Tonys Supper Ball:

(Evelyn) I think Donna is probably getting some zzzzz's Not yet, she cried woefully... Here's a funny excerpt from an article in The Times (London): The Real Thing's third award of the evening, for Best Revival, ensures a boost for the production which, despite excellent reviews, has not been playing to full houses. It's also another victory for the Donmar Warehouse, where the production and cast originated. "I'm shaking," cried Anita Waxman, the co-producer, accepting the award. "Tom and David, I don't know where you are. But Sam , it's a treat to be up here!" Behind her, a Weinstein brother from fellow producers Miramax could be seen anxiously trying to manoeuvre himself into shot. Here's an accompanying picture. And how the heck do we describe Kathy Lee to the rest of the world? Now if Frank Gifford had his arms clinging around a babe, do you think she'd be having hissy fits? :-)

a Weinstein brother This journalist is woefully ignorant if she couldn't put a first name on this Weinstein brother and it didn't look like he was trying to get into the shot. He stayed far at the outside, as you will see on the tape. Now that I know where Stephen sat, I've gone back through the tape. Man, oh man, do you know how many times they showed the woman right behind him?! That Marin Maizel person!! Looked like Stephen was slouching a lot; you could sort of make him out as people were climbing up on stage. Also you could see Jennifer acknowledging him on her way up and then you see part of his head as she passed.

To Susan, who posted back a bit, there has been, I am glad to say quite a lot of media attention for The Tonys from Teletext & Ceefax, and the newspapers lots of coverage "A Great Night for the Brits on Broadway" etc, and quite a lot of pictures especially of SD & JE., and so there should be.

Also you could see Jennifer acknowledging him on her way up and then you see part of his head as she passed. The finest hour was when he got it too....I was thrilled for her, butwas afraid the Gabriel Byrne would get it. Unusual for two leads from the same show to get it....except for Tom Stoppards magic.But as someone who has seen the play mny times said...JE and SD were a team...they can't be discussed separately Their excellence was due to the fact that they had such terrific "synergy". "I think that they are an inseparable stage pair. SD shines this brilliantly because JE plays the opposite and vice versa." They are so natural on stage. I hope to see it again at the Theatre Museum Archives in London.They taped it last summer. And Lincoln Center Library was going to tape it for their archives last week.A classic.

re: Gabriel Byrne One of the columnists remarked about his sour puss today. Can't remember which one it was. ;-)

re: Gabriel Byrne One of the columnists remarked about his sour puss today. Can't remember which one it was. ;-) Yeah....and he even had a nice tux, Moon ;-)

Apparently I have a reputation to uphold (or so Evelyn tells me *winkie*);-) So I'll post another pic. From www.mrshowbiz.go.com

Thanks for the pic. Tineke. Evelyn - "synergy", is that the same as "chemistry" Evelyn, in which case I wholeheartedly agree.

Mother and Daughter: Friendly Competition Sitting side by side at the Tony Awards were two of the nominees for Best Leading Actress in a Play: Rosemary Harris of Noel Coward's Waiting in the Wings and Jennifer Ehle, who played Annie, the love of playwright Henry, in Stoppard's The Real Thing. Harris is Ehle's mother. As the Tony went to Ehle, mother and daughter threw arms around one another. Off-camera, the wise-cracking Nathan Lane, co-host for these Tonys with the equally clever Rosie O'Donnell, said that he'd heard about a new book coming out, Daughter, Dearest.

Grr, I really can't post long messages in here! "We didn't think either of us was going to win," Jennifer said later. "We thought we'd just go and have a wonderful time of it, remember it, and it would never happen again. We'd go and have a lovely dinner with my dad" � prolific North Carolina-based author John Ehle. "I wasn't praying for myself," Harris said, sitting next to husband Ehle at the gala Tony Awards ball. "I was praying for Jennifer. I thought Stephen Dillane might get it, and I didn't think lightning would strike twice, but it did." Up in the press room, high over the Music Hall, Ehle noted that she and her mother were both appearing, in a split role, in the upcoming Istvan Szabo film, Sunshine, whose story spans several generations. Then, she caught that the Best Actor award was going to Dillane and gasped, "Oh my God!" She crouched, clasping her knees, to hear him declare, "It turned out to be a very good night for us."

Thanks Tineke...you are indeed upholding your reputation as the best photo sleuth... Cute pic of both of them.. Up in the press room, high over the Music Hall,... Did you see the size of that room on tony.org?Huge...I bet they had over 100 journalists. I was reminded of "Hostages" when John Mc Carthy(CF) descended from the plane coming back to UK and Ciran Hines said: "Welcome to the circus, John" Donna said they never came back to their seats....went straight to "the circus"

There's a videoclip of the Tonys from the BBC There's nothing about Stephen, but it does show JE being announced as winner and hugging her parents. I hope this link works Broadway's Biggest Night of the Year

and apparently it doesn't work! http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/775000/video/_778018_tombrook08_jun05_vi.ram

Stephen missing again, (known as the Colin Syndrome), great picure of Jennifer in the Daily Mail, luminuous, with tears in her eyes, "Move over Mum, it's my turn for a Tony" from Michael Coveney in NY, mentions all the Brit. winners but no SD, come on Michael you can do better than that, how could he forget SD, he was awesome! The Times not only covered it in the Main section, but also in Section 2 (the online version), different pictures and different article and this time a lot of SD, mentioned his reviews being the best of the season. Great coverage. I think they will ble a little better known now.

Pictures from the TRT and 3DOR galas and other Donmar mailings supplied by Evelyn: http://www.spring.net/karenr/general/donmar/galas.html

re: Gabriel Byrne One of the columnists remarked about his sour puss today. Can't remember which one it was. ;-) (Evelyn), Yeah....and he even had a nice tux, Moon ;-) I noticed GBs sour puss the minute the announced Jennifer. At that point he knew it would go to SD. In fact SD winning was the only sure thing for me, as I had predicted the night before. :-) GB gets high marks for wearing the tux. He is NY savvy. Evelyn, did they tape 3DOR for the Theatre Museum Archives in London? I might go see it. :-) Thanks for the pictures, Tineke!

I will repeat myself, David Leveareux is v.v.good looking. And that is not even a good picture of him! What will he do next? Does anyone know?

I believe David is already in rehearsals for a play he is directing on Broadway in the fall, Desire Under the Elms.

Thanks, Donna! Is he British? He has a french last name but that is not telling. Do you know who is in the play? What has he done before?

Hi Moon. Yes, I believe he is British. I don't know who is in the play, but I have read about it opening in October. I believe he directed Zoe Wannamaker in Elektra last year :-)

I just pulled out the Playbill. He also directed Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson in Anna Christie. He has a lot of credits to his name, and is an associate director of the Donmar. He has directed at the RSC and RNT. Those Donmar boys, they grow em young, talented, and cute :-)

Young is right! How old is he? He certainly has an outstanding resume. Thanks again, Donna!

I give up on Reporters, you sometimes wonder if they know anything at all about what they are writing, for instance in The Independent today, nice picture of Jennifer and Michael Blakemore, with the caption underneath "JE, left, won the Best Actress for her role in "TRT" by Michael Blackmore, right". I ask you even someone who doesn't go to the theatre all that much knows TS wrote TRT, don't they !! (Also I wouldn't have thought it was necessary to put "left" and "right", I would have thought that that at least was obvious. First they miss SD out now they are giving credit to Michael Blakemore for TRT!! Still overall very good coverage of the Awards, mustn't complain.

LOl...just had an email from the A&E producer.... "Due to the overwhelming response, we will reshow the Jennifer Ehle Interview on Breakfast with the Arts on July 23" Aw Moon....you'll be away :-( ~~~~ Honestly, guys I only wrote one thank you. ~~~~~~ Also I put in a plug for a reshowing of P&P (the cast get residuals!) and he said there is a new person in programing...I requested another Marathon P&P Sunday on Thanksgiving weekend..."an A&E tradition"(they've done it twice....so he could not confirm it. I shall find out who it is and we can bombard her/him.

Slightly OT but very current mentions JE winning Best Actress for TRT - Good review for Sunshine and particularly for RH at http://www.newsday.com/ap/entertainment/ap253htm

The page seems to have disappeared but is really is still there, go to Entertainment and scroll down the headlines.

Someone posted this at VV Another link to a video clip of the Tonys (even though it seems more like a combination of stills and video). This time Stephen is shown. Go to http://http://www.necn.com/ then entertainment

Before I forget again, just wanted to say thanks to eveyone for this fun board-- Karen for starting it up and all of you for sharing in the excitement of these past weeks. (And we're keeping it going, right?) Moon, DL *is* kinda cute, but I didn't think the unmade bed was your type!:-) Ann, I'm so glad to hear that the awards have gotten lots of coverage in your press. The home crowd can be very, very proud of these folks. Donna, thanks for the first-hand account; believe me, you were the first person I thought of when they called SD's name! I also thought he was a bit stunned, but handled himself very nicely. BTW, that was his wife next to him, right? The lady in the Nimi-like head wrap. Suchet was sitting right in front of him, I believe. I have a feeling that Rosie will definitely have JE and SD on her show, as soon as it can be arranged. Has anyone been in touch with the show? If not, I'm sure I can find a number and inquire. Maybe Regis & Kathie Lee also. It will be interesting to see what JE and SD decide to do next--any thoughts? I think they've earned a nice break for themselves after this run is over. Between TRT and Summerfolk, JE has been on the stage for the better part of a year now, right? Maybe she'll want to do a film next; she should have lots of offers to weed through, and she should get some good ones. Very versatile, can do comedy, drama, the classics, period, contemporary. A happy dilemma!

I was also thinking it would be nice to continue this topic so that we can see where they both go from here but perhaps change it to SD & JE. I asgree it has been fun especially as the news about CF is slow at the moment.

I forgot to say that according to The NY Daily News, the winning Shows have reported improved ticket sales since the Awards on Sunday and not before time as according to Theatercom TRT's capacity fell to under 50% for the week ended 4th June and their takings were well down on the previous week. From yesterday's NY Daily News "The other Tony Winners, KMK and TRT and Copenhagen also have good news. Each reported that ticket sales had gone up dramatically, KMK & TRT doubled their business, C qauadrupled it." (Ann still keeping her fingers crossed that they don't close early).

(Mari) that was his wife next to him, right? He's not married. And we're keeping it going, right? I should hope so! We still have to drool over Anna Karenina :-) He's got 3 movies released in the UK that have yet to make it to our shores. AK, Ordinary Decent Criminal, and The Darkest Light. Get out your bibs ladies! I've been checking out AK. He is always wearing either a uniform, tails, or a very nice bathrobe (a la Darcy). Just like SIL, how can she leave Karenin for Vronsky (Wessex for Will)? By the way, Doug Henshall is in AK and he is very good. If you saw Angels and Insects, he was the odious brother in that one (shudder). But here, he plays the very likable Lenin.

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Doug Henshall plays Levin (not Lenin). Geesh, I haven't had my morning coffee yet :-)

Moon, DL *is* kinda cute, but I didn't think the unmade bed was your type!:-) Mari, first impressions my dear, I thought he looked great at the Tonys. He was wearing a tux. :-D Now do not tease me with "unmade bed" and DL on the same sentence. ;-)))

No one is folding up this topic...and if other topics are desired, you only need to say. Some of us also saw Douglas Henshall in that classic This Year's Love. More recently I saw him in Orphans (liked him in that one); rent it if it comes out on video. Am looking forward to seeing AK; might even rent the other versions like you did Donna. Moon: you are v.v. bad ;-)

I contacted the Rosie show, but she only had Cherry Jones from "Moon from the Misbegotten "early on. "See you at the Tony's", she said to Cherry. Ha, ha...Cherry lost:-)She's never had any other drama stars on except Lauren Bacall. It will be interesting to see what JE and SD decide to do next-- any thoughts? JE maintains there is nothing in the pipeline.I hope she doesn't sew herself up for anything since "Sunshine" is coming out on Friday and the US reviews are good...for a certain type of academic audience. Still she is getting mention along with Mum. I hope she does another play...she's a natural for a Tennessee Williams female role.I read where Nicole Kidman was rumored for "Cat on Hot... She is in the inviable position of having no responsibilites and doesn't need the money...

I wonder why Broadway.com claims that the reporter from Show Business Weekly had the most correct predictions. I found this column at Back Stage, and this woman guessed 17 out of 21 correct. She got Original Score, Featured Actor, Lighting Desing and Costume design wrong, but that's all. http://www.backstage.com/columns/centerstage/CSG20000601.asp

Great article and cute photo of RH & JE of 25 years ago in The New York Daily News at http://www.nydailynes.com/today/New_York_Now/Movies/a-69202.asp - The Sunshine promotion has started.

sorry here it is again http://www.nydailynews.com/today/New_York_Now/Movies/a-69202.asp

That picture is soooo cute. They are certainly making the most out of the mother-daughter thing too. Wonder if some cable network will pick up The Chamomile Lawn now (notice they called it The Chamomile Lane in the article).

Wonder if some cable network will pick up The Chamomile Lawn now (notice they called it The Chamomile Lane in the article). It will have to be a late night cable...this is an adult movie. "Chamomile" is the American spelling.The British "camomile" stuck with the original french "camemille".

Thank you Karen for the Village Voice article...(we won't post that one;-) Thank God they're not all that way...like I said, this film isn't for everyone. Like the AP said:"This film has intelligence and empathy to burn". Most movie-goers don't go for either one...plus it's 3 hrs long... Bring a cush for your tusch.

From Variety: TONYS UPS AWARENESS, STUDY SHOWS By ROBERT HOFLER The Tony Awards may have tanked in the national ratings on CBS, but their impact among potential theatergoers appears to have rearranged Broadway's current hit list. According to a study conducted by Audience Research Analysis, a visual and performing arts market research firm, the CBS and PBS broadcasts were especially effective at raising the national awareness of "Contact," which received the Tony for best musical. George Wachtel, president of ARA, said that 47% of the survey's respondents had not even heard of the dance show prior to the telecast. Only 12% of respondents who watched at least some of the telecast remained in ignorance, naturally enough. 'Copenhagen' gains Similarly, lack of awareness for "Copenhagen," the best play winner, and "The Real Thing," winner of best revival of a play, decreased from 46% and 36%, respectively, to 34% and 24%. Pre-telecast, "Kiss Me, Kate" and "Aida" were virtually tied as the musical potential theatergoers most wanted to see. After the telecast, the Cole Porter show, which received the award for best revival of a musical, retained its No. 1 ranking, but "Contact" jumped from fourth position to second and "Aida" dropped to third, ahead of -- in descending order -- "Swing," "The Music Man," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "The Wild Party." 'Real Thing' moves up As for plays, "Copenhagen" jumped from fourth to first place on the most-wanted list while "The Real Thing" moved from sixth to second place. Post-telecast, they were followed by, in descending order, "Moon for the Misbegotten," "Dirty Blonde," "True West," "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan" and "Uncle Vanya." ARA conducted the survey of 975 respondents through the NYCtourist.com Web site.

Evelyn do not feel bad about the Village Voice review. They do not like anything. (Sad case of troubled unhappy New Yawkers)

Thanks for the Daily News article, Ann. Nice and I love the old photo! Not so hot Sunshine review from Rex Reed in the New York Observer, but praise for JE. Just the parts pertaining to her (note he gives Rafe, ahem, short shrift;-): . . . The best way to get through it is to let it roll over you, sift through the morass and thrill to some wonderful performances. A stroke of casting genius has the delicate Jennifer Ehle, as the young, headstrong Valerie, replaced partway through the film by the elegant Rosemary Harris, Ms. Ehle�s mother in real life, who plays Valerie in later years. Valie becomes the family�s surviving matriarch, having endured so much pain and sacrifice. Oddly enough, it is Ralph Fiennes who disappoints. Instead of delivering a nuanced set of interpretations that delves into the inner depths of his three disparate characters, he plays them all the same way. Full frontal nudity, which he displays eagerly and often, may generate prurient interest, but only proves he�s no babe magnet. . .

Very good reviews for Sunshine in Entertainment Weekly (B+) and New York Magazine, which has a large color photo of JE and Ralph from the wedding scene. Jennifer singled out for high praise in both!

Thanks everybody...I'll go hunt those reviews down for the website.... Interesting on the Tony impact....I was sure sold on "Contact"..sorry I went to see Annie get you Gun...I dunno about Copenhagen.... I read that Wild Party is closing on Sunday. Great about TRT going to second place....hey a Brit play with two unknown leads ...that's not bad. LOL...heard that Rosie gave out tickets to TRT yesterday on her show.... ...and I laughed when ATA played on a half price day in London... See...God is punishing me!

Mari, I can't find the reviews do you have a link and have you seen the James Berardinelli Review at the MRQE 3stars out of 4, very good for JE.too.

Hi Ann, I saw the Entertaiment Weekly and the New York Mag reviews at the bookstore (I'm one of those browsers that the shop owners *just love*;-) I have a subscription to EW, but haven't gotten the new issue yet. Will pick up the New York mag tomorrow and post the review, as I don't think it's available online, but EW should be; they just probably haven't posted the new issue yet. The NY Observer is online at: www.nyobserver.com Scroll down the left to Rex Reed's column. The Sunshine review is 2nd, I believe. Yes, I saw the James B. review (with the link to his P&P review). What a huge P&P fan he is! It was nice to re-read that review.

Here's the Entertainment Weekly review. Friday, June 9, 2000 SUNSHINE �� THIS MORTAL FOIL Family man Fiennes is a ''Sunshine'' superman Ralph Fiennes, Jennifer Ehle Rated R Multigenerational sagas are more comfortably the provenance of TV miniseries than of crammed feature films. But in Sunshine, the distinguished Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Szabo (''Mephisto'') distills complex issues of identity into three hours of dense 20th-century family drama that, while inevitably oversimplified, is never less than engrossing. Three generations of the Jewish Hungarian Sonnenschein family -- the name means sunshine -- rise and fall through the rise and fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Nazism, and communism. It is Szabo's most elegant touch, though, to cast one mournful-faced actor, Ralph Fiennes, as a Sonnenschein son of each era, weighing forfeitures (of family name, of religion) against personal and professional gains. The classy cast includes James Frain, Rachel Weisz, and William Hurt. And none is classier than recent Tony Award winner Jennifer Ehle as free thinking Valerie Sonnenschein, the story's bright center. Another fine detail: When Valerie ages, she's played by the luminous Ehle's own glowing mother, Rosemary Harris. � Grade: �B+ � -- Lisa Schwarzbaum

Thanks Mari, I guess when things are going well they go very well and to think she was out of work for 6 months. I have just found a very good review for Jennifer and her mum again not so good for RF and the film at Mr. Showbiz, here are the relevent bits:- "It's chief virtue is the luminous work done by nascent screen star and Tony winner JE and her mother, actress RH." "In the movie's first third, Szabo effectively delivers his thesis: Political regimes promise happiness, but commit heinous acts to achieve it. It's easily the best part of the film thanks mostly t o Ehle's commanding screen presence and Meryl Streep-like sensuality." I must say from what I have seen so far the reviews are better than the ones it recieved in the UK and very very good for JE & Mum. The best one for JE in the UK was the Telegraph.

Entertainment Weekly Review of Sunshine: http://www.ew.com/ew/review/movie/0,1683,1350,00.html ~~~~~~ The NY Observer pans the film and RF, but complimentary of JE and RH. A stroke of casting genius has the delicate Jennifer Ehle, as the young, headstrong Valerie, replaced partway through the film by the elegant Rosemary Harris, Ms. Ehle�s mother in real life, who plays Valerie in later years. Valie becomes the family�s surviving matriarch, having endured so much pain and sacrifice. Oddly enough, it is Ralph Fiennes who disappoints. Looks like those girls are pulling a "Rupert Everett".....

Here's the link to Rex Reed's column at the NY Observer. Sunshine's review is below the one entitled "The Bard's Cabaret Act. http://www.observer.com/pages/onthetown.htm

Mr Showbiz http://mrshowbiz.go.com/reviews/moviereviews/movies/Sunshine_2000.html In the movie's first third, Szab� effectively delivers his thesis: Political regimes promise happiness, but commit heinous acts to achieve it. It's easily the best part of the film, thanks mostly to Ehle's commanding screen presence and Meryl Streep-like sensuality..... As Sunshine crawls toward its inevitable end, its chief virtue is Harris playing the aged version of the character originated by her real-life daughter Ehle. The role of Valerie is schematic; her apolitical, humanist ways are intended to be the Sonnenschein family's only beacon of virtue. In that regard, Szab�'s heavy moralism works all too well: The mother-daughter duo is Sunshine's only ray of light. And these people mostly like Nicolas Cage...

Would you rather we posted the links, rather than the full reviews here?

Good review from The New York Post, 3 out of 4 stars; once again great for JE. POWERFUL 'SUNSHINE' MORE THAN FIENNES By JONATHAN FOREMAN SUNSHINE Ralph Fiennes, Jennifer Ehle, William Hurt and Rosemary Harris are excellent in this flawed but powerful romantic family saga that takes three generations of an adultery-prone Hungarian Jewish family through a turbulent century. Running time: 180 minutes. Rated: R. At the Loews 72nd Street and the Union Square. �SUNSHINE, " a three-hour saga from Istvan Szabo, the Oscar-winning Hungarian director of "Mephisto" and "Colonel Redl," should really have been a miniseries - though its sex, nudity and one ghastly torture-murder scene would probably keep it off the networks. The compelling story of a Jewish family's rise and fall, with Ralph Fiennes playing three generations of the troubled Sonnenschein clan (Sunshine in German), it moves swiftly along through several wars and revolutions, buoyed by excellent performances from the ravishing Tony award-winner Jennifer Ehle, her real-life mother, Rosemary Harris, andMolly Parker and Rachel Weisz. It is often as powerful as it is elegantly shot. Unfortunately, Szabo tends to tell this rather predictable tale in an obvious yet uneven way. Some of the historical and personal episodes feel rushed, while others - especially those that take place in the Communist era - are dragged out too long. Still, if it is a story with familiar ironies (on New Year's Eve 1899, one character says, "I predict that this will be a century of love, justice and tolerance") it's only so because so many Jewish family narratives from Eastern Europe really do follow the same tragic arc. Name changes, conversion to Catholicism and enthusiastic participation in the postwar purge of Hungarian fascists are not enough to protect the Sonnenscheins. And though you are supposed to draw a conclusion about the futility of assimilation, the real lesson of "Sunshine" seems to be that the end of the liberal Habsburg monarchy was an unequivocal disaster for minorities like the Jews.

From the New York Times; mixed/positive, good for the actors: Serving the Empire, One After Another After By A. O. SCOTT About half an hour into "Sunshine," the first of three characters played by Ralph Fiennes raises a glass to toast the passage of time. "Long live the 20th century!" he cries, which is, when you think about it, a profoundly illogical thing to say. Not that he's entirely wrong: the century, or at least one Hungarian Jewish family's experience of it, from the twilight of empire to the fall of Communism, is the subject of Istvan Szabo's churning, sometimes clumsy, often thought-provoking -- and decidedly long -- film. It follows in the footsteps of movies like Visconti's "Leopard" and Bertolucci's "1900," epics that aspired to match the sprawl and capaciousness of classic novels and to show, at once panoramically and intimately, the process of historical change. This is never an easy thing to do, and Mr. Szabo, working from a script he wrote with the American playwright Israel Horovitz, attempts it with minimal subtlety, priming his enormous canvas with big, cartoonish sketches. "I predict this will be a century of love, justice and tolerance," Mr. Fiennes's character, a rising star of the Austro-Hungarian judicial system named Ignatz Sonnenschein, declares after his toast. You don't need to know much about the last hundred years -- just that they were characterized by an awful lot of hatred, injustice and intolerance -- to grasp the irony. But fortunately, and thanks largely to Mr. Fiennes, Jennifer Ehle and Rosemary Harris, the film pulls away from such obviousness and views the lethal unreason of the past hundred years with gravity, humor and, most remarkably, with something like sanity. The first third of the film, which sprints from Ignatz's 19th-century childhood to his death in 1930, doesn't have much time for nuance. Most of the action takes place at the Sonnenschein dinner table, which stoically endures being pounded and stormed away from during the passionate arguments that seem to erupt at every meal. Most of the tsoris is caused by the smoldering passion between Ignatz and his adopted sister Valerie (Ms. Ehle), who is really his cousin and who will eventually be his wife (and then, since Mr. Fiennes plays both their son and grandson, his mother and his grandmother). When they aren't provoking family fights, Ignatz and Valerie steal away for dreamy, heavy-breathing, soft-focus sex, followed by earnest pillow talk. "When I'm lying in your arms, I feel like I've come home," Ignatz whispers. No kidding. The Sonnenschein household, overseen by plump, good-hearted parents who migrated to Budapest from the countryside and made a fortune selling an herbal elixir called Sunshine, is dominated by a quasi-incestuous love triangle involving Valerie, Ignatz and his younger brother Gustave. Their relationship is further complicated by political differences that erupt, all of a sudden, in a scene of speechifying melodrama shortly before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Gustave is a socialist, his brother a steadfast believer in the empire's brand of liberal multiculturalism, while their sister turns out to be a budding Hungarian nationalist. This scene, and many others in the film, is both underdeveloped and overdone, as though Mr. Szabo, in his rush to interpret the history of Central Europe, couldn't be bothered to dramatize it. The sets are there -- the complacent bourgeois opulence of the Sonnenschein apartments, the haughty grandeur of Budapest's cafes and governmental palaces -- but he never slows down enough to capture the texture and rhythm of daily life. For all the shouting and panting, the Sonnenschein family story feels more like a collage of ideas, events and metaphors than something lived. But it must be said that the ideas are interesting, the metaphors occasionally inspired and some of the events unforgettably powerful. Just as history, properly understood, is more than just one darn thing after another, so "Sunshine" manages, as a whole, to transcend the crude melodrama of its individual scenes. The stagy political shouting match on the eve of World War I turns out to be the key to Mr. Szabo's understanding of the 20th century. He imagines socialism, nationalism and imperial liberalism as siblings, born out of an essentially decent, meliorist 19th-century impulse, and all vulnerable to horrifying moral corruption. Several of this Hungarian director's earlier films -- notably "Mephisto" (1981) and "Colonel Redl" (1985) -- dealt with the exemplary modern agonies, especially acute in Central Europe in the middle decades of the 20th century, of decent men driven to compromise with evil. "Sunshine" is a triptych of such stories, each one displaying Mr. Fiennes, with different facial hair and altered ideological coloration, caught in the pincers of history. Small compromises lead to big disasters: Ignatz, anxious to advance his career, changes the family name from Sonnenschein to the more Hungarian-sounding Sors . His son Adam converts to Christianity to gain admittance to Budapest's most exclusive fencing club. He becomes the national fencing champion and leads his team to the 1936 Olympics but succumbs to the temptations of snobbery, anti-Semitism and acquiescence to dictatorship. As it follows Adam's rise and fall, the film begins to breathe a little more, and Mr. Fiennes comes out of himself, acting with the fierce insouciance that is his best, and often neglected, attribute. In the next generation Mr. Fiennes's flair turns into rage, as he portrays Adam's son Ivan, who becomes, after World War II, a member of the Communist secret police out of blind, vengeful rage at the fascists who destroyed his family. The contours of Hungarian history from 1939 to 1956, when Soviet tanks crushed an incipient revolution, is well known, but I'll refrain from revealing the particulars of the Sors-Sonnenschein family saga. By the time Ivan confronts his own crisis of conscience, the movie has accumulated sufficient power and momentum to erase the memory of its earlier awkwardness. It shows such sympathy for its characters, and approaches its subject with such intelligence, that it's easy to forgive the clumsy editing, the haphazard insertion of black-and-white newsreels, and the hyperventilating sexual ardor that seems to be a Sors family curse. In spite of it all, the film leaves you with a sense of quiet, chastened grace, as embodied by the older Valerie, played by Ms. Harris, who is Ms. Ehle's real mother (the two actresses might share an Oscar, just as Mr. Fiennes might have to compete against himself). "She was the only one of us who had the gift of breathing freely," her troubled grandson remarks, and "Sunshine," at last, honors that gift. ��

Ok, I'm done for now.;-) V. good, from the LA Times; the Sunshine Girls once again impress.;-) Hungarian Upheaval, Family Entwined in 'Sunshine' By KEVIN THOMAS, Times Staff Writer �����With the monumental three-hour "Sunshine," master director Istv�n Szab� relates the tragic and turbulent history of Hungary in the 20th century. The story is told through the Sonnenscheins, an assimilated Jewish family whose last survivor finally accepts the futility of trying to deny one�s roots--especially when he realizes that that is all he has left. �����It is a superb period re-creation and boasts a formidable international cast acting in English but does not attain the high artistic level of Szab�s great trilogy exploring the theme of self-deception, "Mephisto, "Colonel Redl" and "Hanussen." �����Szab� and his co-writer, playwright Israel Horovitz, tend to match every upheaval in Hungarian life with tempestuous behavior on the part of the Sonnenscheins, particularly the three generations of scions played by Ralph Fiennes. The constant compounding of personal and political turmoil is soap operatic in effect, which makes you feel that "Sunshine" would play best as a TV miniseries. It is nevertheless absorbing and illuminating in regard to the eras its spans but is also pretty wearying by the time it starts winding down. However, those of us who are steadfast admirers of Szab�--and also suckers for traditional-style period epics--wouldn�t want to miss it. �����"Sunshine," which is English for Sonnenschein, prophetically opens (in 1840) with an explosion in the herbal distillery of a rural tavern-keeper, killing him and his entire family except for his 12-year-old son, Emmanuel. The boy heads for Budapest with his father�s secret recipe for his "Sunshine" herbal tonic, which will become the basis for the family fortune that affords the Sonnenscheins a palatial mansion. Their story begins in earnest with the dawn of the 20th century, at which time the sons of Emmanuel (David de Keyser) and Rosa (Miriam Margolyes), Ignatz (Ralph Fiennes) and Gustave (James Frain), have settled on careers in law and medicine, respectively. They have been raised with their orphaned cousin, Valerie (Jennifer Ehle), an aspiring photographer and free spirit who defiantly and successfully seduces Ignatz, whom she marries. �����Under the rule of Emperor Franz Joseph, Hungarian Jews were granted unprecedented opportunities and civil rights, and the dashing Ignatz rises fast through the ranks of jurisprudence but must change the family name (to Sors, pronounced Sorsh) if he is to go all the way to the top. He�s so grateful to the emperor that he refuses to notice that the government is growing ever weaker and more corrupt, with the lower classes left in such dire straits that Gustave becomes a Communist in protest. �����The outbreak of World War I, the deaths of the emperor and his father on the very same day, and Valerie�s disillusionment with him ensure an early grave for Ignatz. Hungary goes briefly Communist until taken over by Admiral Horthy�s military regime, which ultimately collaborated with the Nazis. With the end of World War II, Hungary would endure Communist rule until 1989. �����It is unclear whether in the wake of World War I the Sunshine Tonic is still being manufactured, but in any event the Sonnenscheins continue living in style in the family mansion. Ignatz�s son Adam, a dedicated assimilationist and superb fencer, leads Hungary to triumph at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, returning home a national hero and no more willing to see where the country is heading than his late father, Ignatz, was in his time. �����Only Adam�s sister-in-law Greta (Rachel Weisz) sees that the family needs to emigrate before it�s too late. Needless to say, Adam�s heroic status will mean nothing once the deportations of Hungarian Jews commence. Valerie (Rosemary Harris, having taken over for Ehle, her real-life daughter) and Adam�s son Ivan survive the Holocaust, with Ivan turning Stalinist inquisitor in his mood for vengeance but emerging a hero of the futile 1956 Hungarian uprising. Ivan, too, is seduced--by an aggressive apparatchik (Deborah Kara Unger). �����With his clenched intensity, Fiennes is well-cast as a series of single-minded, self-absorbed innocents who are pursued by women rather than pursuing them. The film is anchored by Ehle and Harris, equally luminous as Valerie, who possesses the strength and wisdom of a woman who always dared to be true to herself. Margolyes makes a put-upon, tradition-minded matriarch sympathetic because she can be amusing and common-sensical in her candor. �����William Hurt is commanding as a man who survives Auschwitz only to meet a worse fate at the hands of rabid Stalinists, and R�diger Vogler is an elegant and subtle Hungarian general. (Vogler in middle age recalls Melvyn Douglas at his most urbane, which is a long way from the hippie drifters Vogler played in Wim Wenders� early films.) Lajos Koltai�s cinematography is glorious, as usual, and Maurice Jarre is the ideal composer for a stirring epic. Although the lives of the three generations of Sonnenscheins come across as melodramatic rather than tragic, "Sunshine" is a film of many redeeming virtues.

Great reviews, thanks Mari. Will you please post the NY Magazine review when you have it?

NY Times:Re: JE &RH (the two actresses might share an Oscar, just as Mr. Fiennes might have to compete against himself I predict an Oscar nomination for Rosemary Harris. Great week for those girls and ...is Paramount lucky or what? Thanks Mari. I think that sews it up. I would like to see Philly Inquirer and Chicago Trib when it gets there...but the majors are in now... What a ride!Phew!

Evelyn, there is still one more to come and it is another goodie for the ladies, RF and the film don't come off to well but her is what the NY Daily News says about JE & RH:- "Sunshine lacks Shading" .."The standout performances are by JE as Ignatz' sensual, stromg-willed wife, Valerie, and Ehle's real-life mother, RH, who takes over as Valerie for her later years, as the family's doting matriarch." As you say what a week, I think JE could walk on water at the moment and incidentaly have you noticed how often the words "sensual and luminous" appears in reviews for these two.

"too not to"

Evelyn, there is still one more to come and it is another goodie for the ladies, RF and the film don't come off to well but her is what the NY Daily News says about JE & RH:- "Sunshine lacks Shading" .."The standout performances are by JE as Ignatz' sensual, stromg-willed wife, Valerie, and Ehle's real-life mother, RH, who takes over as Valerie for her later years, as the family's doting matriarch." As you say what a week, I think JE could walk on water at the moment and incidentaly have you noticed how often the words "sensual and luminous" appears in reviews for these two.

From theatre.com Fiennes, Ehle, Harris Play Across Generations in Sunshine, Opening June 9 NEW YORK � Three Tony Award winning Broadway stars -- Ralph Fiennes (Hamlet), Jennifer Ehle (The Real Thing) and Rosemary Harris A Delicate Balance) -� play the leads in Istvan Szabo�s $25 million epic film drama, Sunshine, opening Friday, June 9.

Running more than three hours, Sunshine spans four generations of a Jewish family and covers the entire 20th century that saw two world wars, the rise and fall of a monarchy, fascist dictatorships and the communist regime in Hungary. Set primarily in Budapest, the film traces the partilineage of the Sonnenschein family through grandfather, father and son, all of whom are played by Ralph Fiennes. The first is Ignatz, a judge who changes his Jewish name to advance his career. The second is his son, Adam, who converts to Catholicism to win a spot on the fencing team and dies in the Holocaust. The grandson is Ivan, who joins the Communist secret police to avenge his father�s death. Mother-daughter actors Harris and Ehle both play Ignatz�s wife Valerie. Originally called The Taste of Sunshine, the film is a huge saga about a Hungarian-Jewish clan locked in a camouflage battle with history. Along the way, the life of each man played by Fiennes is complicated by an illicit romance.

Directed and written by Szabo (Academy Award winner for Mephisto and Colonel Redl), the film�s screenplay was co-written by American playwright Israel Horowitz. �It�s a wonderful, wonderful film that opened at the Toronto Film Festival,� Harris told Theatre.com. �My daughter Jennifer Ehle and I play the same role. She plays the first 40 years, and I play the next 40 years of the same part. Ralph Fiennes plays three parts. William Hurt is also in the film.� Harris and Ehle previously played across the generations in the 1992 British television drama "The Chamomile Lawn." "At the same time that Istvan was thinking about me for Valerie," Ehle told Newsday. "He asked Ralph who should be the older Valerie. And he's alleged to have said, 'What about Rosemary Harris?' And they hadn't known we were mother and daughter." With music by Maurice Jarre, the stories in Sunshine parallel the experience of the Jewish middle-class in Central Europe from the decline and fall of the Habsburg Empire to the aftermath of the Hungarian revolution of 1956. It is both historical and artistic

�I�ve always been selective of the films I take on,� Harris said. �Film is the lazy way out of acting. It�s not nearly as hard work as the stage. I also have a family. I have a daughter who I adore, and I never wanted to be just an actress. i wanted to be a mother first and an actress second. So I was always putting my family first. My husband, Johnny, is a writer. He was able to take a pad and pencil, and we would put Jennifer in our pockets and go off and do a project.� Likewise, Szabo has said in interviews that Sunshine centers on the family: "It started in my mind with how in the whole of Middle Europe, not just Hungary, people's private lives have been influenced by history and politics. I wanted to tell the story of one family and how their whole life is deeply affected by the various movements in Europe. All human beings seek out a sense of comfort in their lives and in the last 150 years we have faced enormous challenges and difficulties which threaten our safety and that can lead to losing ourselves. So I wrote this story, showing how these supposedly different regimes -- be they an Empire, a republic or a foreign dictatorship -- have put individuals under pressure

"All regimes promise happiness," Szabo continued, "but dreadful things have happened in that name. Authority uses people. When it no longer needs them, it throws them away or destroys them. This enormous experience is only the experience of the 20th century. It is extraordinary that in one life, say that of my grandfather, a man could experience the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Nazi and the Communist Regime. Instead of showing one life through different ages, I thought it might be more profound to tell the story through three generations. I therefore created three characters - a grandfather, a father and a son - all at similar ages. I always knew that I wanted one actor to play the three parts, of Ignatz, Adam and Ivan and so I asked Ralph Fiennes to create these for me." Fiennes said he wanted to work with Szabo because he is a fan of Mephisto and Colonel Redl: "The script works on so many levels. Not only is it a story of personal relationships across three generations, but it is set against a very specific historical and social background of Hungary from the turn of the century through until the 1960's. It is deeply humane without being sentimental. It is as rich as any great novel and it is all from Istvan Szabo who is an extraordinary human being."

In the press packet, Fiennes describes Ignatz as "a lawyer who wants to be accepted as a member of the establishment of Hungary. He is a middle class Jew who wants to be assimilated successfully; he wants to feel the safety of the Establishment and the legal system. The infrastructure of the Empire is what gives him his raison-d'etre, to the point of neglecting the woman he loves. By contrast, his son Adam is an Olympic athlete. �He lives through his body, he's a championship top athletic fencer and his motivation is to succeed as an athlete,� Fiennes said. �He too wants to be assimilated, but he's a physical man and has the linear vision of any sportsman. He is blind to social change, to the rise of Fascism, so in one sense he is quite limited. But in another he is the most romantic because he is a bit of a swashbuckler."

Ivan, Adam's son and Igantz's grandson, may be the most complex. "Ivan is the most crippled and wounded psychologically by seeing his father murdered in a concentration camp,� Fiennes said. �He's the most conflicted; he has literally no roots. He comes out of the war with a kind of Messianic determination to fight for Communism and take revenge on the Fascists. It's only when he sees the corruption of the Communist Regime and recognizes it as the same mindless corruption as Totalitarianism that he is able to make a change. He does it in the most fundamental way, by changing back to his family name." Sunshine also stars Rachel Weisz (The Mummy, Chain Reaction), Deborah Kara Unger (The Hurricane, Crash), Molly Parker (Kissed, The Five Senses), James Frain (Elizabeth, Hilary & Jackie) and Academy Award winner William Hurt (Children of a Lesser God, Broadcast News). {:-)-:} I'm sorry about cutting up the article, but it won't post any other way:-(

RH: "�Film is the lazy way out of acting. It�s not nearly as hard work as the stage. Er...a...hm...maybe I don't want my friend on #129 to be on Broadway...;-)

For Donna, a little snippet I noticed in today's Times, Section 2 "SPOTTED: Stephen Dillane, who won best actor at the Tony awards, distributing buttons just before the ceremony began to fellow cast members of The Real Thing. On one side he had printed "I lost" on the other, "I won". Hedging his bets, but so sweet.

A cutie-patootie story, worthy of telling on the Rosie O'Donnell show. Now if she'd only book him! :-)

Donna, I read another cute Stephen tidbit in Variety. They said that Stephen was spotted in a New York street right after the Tonys making a post win phone call in a pay phone. He doesn't own a cell phone. Good for him!

Gosh, had I known that, I would have lent him mine :-)

Ann, the newstand was out of NY Mag, so I'll need to look elsewhere.

Tony Award magic From Variety: The Tony's four big winners responded nicely at the box office: "Contact" (up $16,357), "Copenhagen" (up $71,849), "Kiss Me, Kate" (up $66,542) and "The Real Thing" (up $74,694). "Contact" and "Copenhagen" had their best sessions ever, coming in at $602,884 and $346,742, respectively. Dame Edna's scene-stealing at the Tonys also did the trick. Her "Royal Tour" rose $62,076.

Tom Stoppard is scheduled to be on Charlie Rose tonight!

Mary-Louise Parker will be in Desire Under the Elms, directed by David Leveaux.

Thanks, Donna! I should make this a must see. Let me know if you read anything else on this play (or DL). I wonder if TS is a repeat on Charlie Rose. I remember he was on after SIL.

Thanks Donna, please report if TS says anything about TRT and the Tonys.

Thanks, Donna, I'll watch tonight. It should be very obvious if it's the SiL one.

This from Playbill.com... More info on David Leveaux. Mary-Louise Parker To Be Found Under Roundabout's Elms This Fall 14-JUN-2000 Mary-Louise Parker, currently starring in Off-Broadway's Proof, will be joining the cast of Desire Under the Elms when it runs this fall at the American Airlines Theatre. Parker will stay with Proof at least until the end of July, she told Playbill On-Line (June 14). Spokespersons for the Roundabout at Boneau/Bryan-Brown could not confirm any casting on the production and did not anticipate any casting announcements until August. As reported earlier, director David Leveaux, who recently worked on the Broadway production of The Real Thing, will be helming the Roundabout Theatre Company (RTC) production of Eugene O'Neill's play at the American Airlines Theatre. This will be the third time Leveaux has directed an O'Neill play on Broadway (see below). Desire is scheduled to run at the American Airlines Theatre directly after the The Man Who Came to Dinner, which stars Nathan Lane. Dinner, RTC's first show at the reconstructed Selwyn house on West 42nd Street, should begin previews June 30. Leveaux's Broadway productions include two other O'Neill plays -- Anna Christie with Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson (Tony Award for Best Revival) and A Moon for the Misbegotten (Tony nomination for Outstanding Direction), making Desire his third shot at directing O'Neill on Broadway. No other casting or production information was available on Desire at press time. For the Royal Shakespeare Company, Leveaux has directed 'Tis Pity She's a Whore and Romeo and Juliet. For the Royal National Theatre, Leveaux directed Strindberg's The Father. Since 1993, he has been artistic director of Theatre Project Tokyo, Japan, where other productions included Yukio Mishima's Modern Noh Plays, The Changeling, Hedda Gabler and Mishima's version of Jean Cocteau's Two Headed Eagle. Leveaux's opera credits include The Turn of the Screw for Scottish Opera; The Marriage of Figaro, and Richard Strauss's Salome at the English National Opera.

I MUST MEET DL!!!Where have I benn??? Thanks, Donna!

I MUST MEET DL!!!Where have I been??? Thanks, Donna!

*hic*

The Stoppard interview is from 4/14/00. He says in the movie, the cricket bat will be a baseball bat. :-(

An American TRT??? How could he? We are not so *provincial*! Bad call, ST.

I hope he was joking about the bat :-( Anyhow, Tom mentioned that he thought TRT has fulfilled itself at the Barrymore Theatre. He thinks that technically, it plays better than in London. The Albery being a higher stage, and the Donmar being smaller. Charlie asked about if he saw a difference in the play given the different leads (Irons, Dillane, and Stoppard mentioned Rees who did it in London) and their approach to the role. Tom gave a politically correct answer, no. Though apparently critics and audiences don't agree :-) Too bad this was taped before TRT officially opened (taped 4/14, opened 4/17). He said he would have to see the opening, "to support the boys and girls." Charlie also asked if he thought about what would have happened to Henry and Annie. Tom gave a funny answer, basically "that's all folks." Basically that the play has to end somewhere.

I would like to hear Tom's answers to the same questions today, after the rave reviews and the Tony wins. When he gave the interview, the production was still going through growing pains. Would he (or Harvey) reconsider the bat? Would he re-think how the play "plays" given Dillane's performance? Hmmm. I ponder. I balance a pineapple chunk on top of my carrot stick. Pass the buck's fizz, I need a stiff one.

(Donna) Though apparently critics and audiences don't agree :-) Lest anyone get confused, those *be* my words, not Tom's :-)

(Donna) I hope he was joking about the bat :-( Wouldn't he have to change some of that speech? Don't think that baseball bats are made of composite materials (layers); just one piece of wood. Very interesting that Stoppard did say that the American production was better than in London because of the theater. What happened to "the play's the thing"? ;-) Now, if he would only Charlie would show the entire interview with SD and JE... Come on, folks, email Charlie and show him that people want to see more of them.

He says in the movie, the cricket bat will be a baseball bat. A clue that it will also have an American cast. ~~~~~~~~ I enjoyed the interview...though it too was a bit convoluted. Charlie also asked if he thought about what would have happened to Henry and Annie. He also added that he likes an audience "to have a choice or responses". Wasn't it Stephen who said in an interview that some nights he thinks Annie and Henry will make it and some he doesn't!! What I thought he said that was interesting is that : [paraphrasing]If he were writing that play today, it would be less flashy and less rhetorical.Less witty...he thinks that sometimes actors are "in the service of the writer".(TRT was written in 1982). He admires writers that can write concise plots.He wrote TRT in response to critics who said TS didn't understand women..."I'll show them"... The part about being happy now because he has established his identity..."he escaped from generality"..He made it.."Who wants posthumous fame", says Charlie.He had no formal education...left school at 18. He regrets not having had a university education...but has no hang-ups about it..

I saw True West tonight. I was stunned, because I thought the performance of John C. Reilly was not remarkable (he portrayed the writer in this performance). Not a bad performance, but not of the caliber for being nominated as best actor. And I recently saw Derek Jacobi in Uncle Vanya, who wasn't nominated and I think turned in a much better performance. Maybe Reilly does better in the other part. Thank goodness Stephen won the Tony, much deserved I must say. Had it gone to one of the True West actors, I think it would have been based on popularity. Hoffman turned in a good performance (as the Schlitz drinking drunk), truly wonderful at some moments. But I thought it was over the top at times. Lots of yelling. That gets tiresome. I think the actors would have been better off sticking to one role and getting it down, rather than switching roles every 3 nights. Maybe True West is the "in thing" to see for the NY elite. Flavor of the month, so to speak. The audience gave the play a huge standing-o. It is a loud play, lots of angst. Well enough done, but overrated, IMO. Why do people equate yelling, shouting, and emoting anger as great acting? Rhetorical question. I wonder if other actors find that discouraging. Rhetorical question. Toni Collette and Matthew Broderick were in the audience (not together), I guess that's what happens when your play closes. Blah blah blah. Just bummed. There is no reason on earth as to why they have to change the cricket bat to a baseball bat. Can't Henry be a British playwright married to an American actress living in Manhattan? Can't he have a cricket bat stored in his closet? Yeah, baseball bats aren't sprung like a dance floor. Geesh, to take the very best moment of the play and change it for an American audience! Unnecessary.

I wouldn't get too discouraged Donna because if TS is working on the script (which I'm sure he would be), then any changes should be just fine. He did change things on TRT from its previous incarnation for this run and is a big-time script doctor (i.e., SiL). So... no worries (although I do agree with you about the British playwright married to an American; easy accomodation)

I also agree. Why do people equate yelling, shouting, and emoting anger as great acting? One of my pet peeves.

An excerpt from today's The New York Observer about the Tonys and Gabriel Byrne: At 7:30 on June 4, Gabriel Byrne stepped out of a black Town Car in front of Radio City Music Hall looking every bit as forlorn as the depressive drunk James Tyrone he�s been playing in A Moon For the Misbegotten... Everybody knew who Mr. Byrne was, though. And as he made his way slowly down the press line, he got screams from girls across the street. It didn�t lighten his mood, which seemed to be reflected in the dark rumpled suit he�d chosen over a tux, his two days� beard growth and perma-grimace. He looked like he was taking a slow stroll into a hail of bullets. By the looks of it, Tony night meant to Mr. Byrne what Tony night has come to mean to the rest of New York. As Broadway has become increasingly geared to out-of-town crowds�Jack Wagner in Jekyll & Hyde!�the hard candy-coating of Manhattan glamour that once surrounded the Tonys has been chipped away and replaced with a saccharine taffy geared to the lowest- common-denominator tastes of middle America. (People who aren�t interested in theater anyway, judging from Nielsen numbers that made this year�s telecast the lowest-rated Tonys ever.) Mr. Byrne�s mug said it all. The Tonys have become business without pleasure; a prime-time opportunity for Broadway�s producers to advertise their big musical numbers on national television, and if they win the award, nab Schubert Alley�s answer to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. The logic goes that Mr. Iowa is more likely to shell out a few hundred bucks to take the family to see the road-show production of Tony-winning triumph Contact, rather than something that could be described as a pool-hall dance party set to a recording of Robert Palmer�s "Simply Irresistible." "For the majority of people theater has become irrelevant," Mr. Byrne told The Transom on his way inside, moaning in a very Eugene O�Neill way. "Television and rap music and movies are far more relevant to the vast majority of people than theater. It�s become much more about advertising, about �product,�" he added. "There�s a lot of reasons why theater has to take a good long look at itself." If the organizers of the Tonys heed Mr. Byrne�s advice, a good place to start would have been Rosie O�Donnell�s much-touted opening number for the CBS show. Ms. O�Donnell emerged on stage flanked by grooving fellow television stars Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order), Jane Krakowski (Ally McBeal) and Megan Mullally (Will & Grace). Behind her on risers stood what appeared to be a church choir in black tunics... The rest of the show went without drama or incident, except when after the rousing "Seventy-Six Trombones" number from The Music Man, the CBS camera briefly found Mr. Byrne politely applauding, but wearing a root-canal scowl. Ten minutes later, Mr. Byrne lost the best leading actor in a play award to The Real Thing�s Stephen Dillane. Mr. Byrne was nowhere to be found at the party ...

Slightly OT - but since we talked so much about the Tonys at this topic... A scathing review of Susan Stroman's choreography ("Contact") in today's Wall Street Journal. She apparently has also choreographed the movie "Center Stage." Here is the last paragraph: Dance plays and dance movies deserving of the name should earn praise or blame for the actual dancing in them. By this standard, "Contact" and "Center Stage" merit scant attention. Maybe audiences impressed by these shenanigans should try an actual dance performance. OUCH.

According to Variety , the Box Office for TRT continues to climb since winning Tony Awards weekend, I am so relieved and so pleased for everyone.

delete "winning"

the Box Office for TRT continues to climb since winning Tony Awards The Power of a Tony....who said..."Tony's don't mean anything?" Or...a better one.... "Actors don't care whether or not they win a Tony" [Oh yeah? They sure do if their play closes early...]

There are some video clips of the Tony Nominees Brunch at Sardi's to be found at http://www.broadwaybeat.com/tvindex.htm It's always a short interview with the actor followed by a short clip from the show. Part 1: Heather Headley, Stephen Spinella, Ann Hampton Callaway, Claudia Shear and Helen Stenborg Part 2: Craig Bierko, Karen Ziemba, Deborah Yates, Laura Benanti, Jayne Atkinson, Derek Smith, Cherry Jones, Gabriel Byrne and last but not least Jennifer Ehle Part 3: starts with a TRT clip followed by a short interview with SD.

(Tineke) Part 3: starts with a TRT clip followed by a short interview with SD. Love the cowlick :-)

From Playbill News: The Tonys are over, but there's one more award show to go -- the Friends of New York Theatre "FANY" Awards. When they are presented June 25 at Swing 46, I forget...were there any nominations released on this? Was TRT among them? Like , who cares....we got a Tony.(I'm greedy) Actually, SD has a suitcase full of awards.More than any other actor this year on Broadway.Care to enumerate them, Donna? (And the Olivier went to Henry Goodman...Pfft. Bet he wouldn't have gotten a Tony)

I'm about 70% done with his awards page... research research research :-) But here is what I've got so far for The Real Thing: Tony - Stephen won Theatre World - Stephen honored (not a competition) Drama Desk - Stephen won Drama League - TRT was nominated (actors were NOT in competition) Outer Critics - Stephen nominated, but Derek Jacobi won Olivier - Stephen nominated, Henry Goodman won Evening Standard - Stephen won Variety Club - Stephen won FANYS - TRT nominated, to be announced 6/25. Stephen was not nominated: Nominees for Outstanding Leading Actor: Play Michael Cumpsty, Copenhagen Philip Seymour Hoffman, True West Kevin Spacey, The Iceman Cometh Patrick Stewart, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan Hey, whoever heard of a FANY anyway! :-)

Hey, whoever heard of a FANY anyway! :-) Quite so. They're just friends of, not close relations or anything. ;-)

(Donna)Hey, whoever heard of a FANY anyway! :-) (karen)Quite so. They're just friends of, not close relations or anything. ;-) Youse pay your $250. bucks and you're a "Friend"... ~~~~~~ (donna)Theatre World - Stephen honored (not a competition) Hey...make that a win...he showed up;-)

Old news, but some of you may not have seen before. This includes some nice quotes about Colin and Stephen. This is an excerpt from a report last November, where Stephen won the Evening Standard Best Actor award. Best Actor This was one of two really hard-fought categories which went into a second round. Nicholas de Jongh declared it the best list of Best Actors this decade. "Quite astonishing performances and not by the usual collection of actors either." Benedict Nightingale praised Klaus Maria Brandauer's charismatic performance in Speer. He also put the case for Peter O'Toole in Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell: "His performance had deepened and darkened so hugely since he first tackled it, with sorrow and half-acknowledged self-doubt and regret as well as tipsy fun." He felt it was one of the best performances he'd ever given. Susannah Clapp applauded Simon Russell Beale's detailed, intelligent playing in Money, acclaiming him as one of the stage's best actors. Nicholas de Jongh was thrilled by Charles Dance in Good. "He caught one of the profound dilemmas of the century, whether you collude with evil or struggle against it." Several judges praised Colin Firth's understated performance in Three Days of Rain. Susannah Clapp thought his change from a "very neurotic to a mildly ruffled person" exquisitely done. De Jongh agreed: "He shares with Stephen Dillane an ability to convey nuances of deep feeling without putting them on the surface." But the final battle was fought between Michael Sheen, Stephen Dillane and Henry Goodman. Susannah Clapp put Sheen forward for reinventing Look Back in Anger, praising his luminous quality and ability to be goaded, fiery and defensive at the same time. Jane Edwardes admired his portrayal of the self-hatred behind Jimmy Porter's self-pity. Paul Taylor thought he revealed "the emotional neediness behind the aggression", and helped reinterpret the play in terms of emotional politics rather than politics. For Benedict Nightingale, Henry Goodman established himself as a major actor with his performance as "a most unsentimental" Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. "I found him heart-rending, but also funny, mocking and self-mocking." Jane Edwardes was moved by the mask he assumed in public and took off at home. She found his long pause when debating whether to carry on with the bond one of the most thrilling moments of the year. Paul Taylor agreed, but thought it was Trevor Nunn's interpretation of Shylock that was so brilliant - though Goodman executed it deftly. Taylor argued the case for Stephen Dillane in The Real Thing, "the most delicately layered performance all year. Apart from the potentially rebarbative cocky Stop-pard figure, he showed you a man drowning in his sardonic distancing pose. I think he's a very underrated actor and I value him for the lightness of touch with which he brings out depths." Nicholas de Jongh agreed, praising Dillane's "magnificent casualness". After the second round of voting Stephen Dillane emerged as the winner, with Sheen one point behind.

Yahoo Entertainment Business A Moon for the Misbegotten,'' a revival of the Eugene O'Neill drama starring Cherry Jones, Gabriel Byrne and Roy Dotrice. Walter Kerr. Closes July 2. Whew! That coulda'been us, folks!! "Moon..." lost to TRT as Best Revival... GB lost to SD for Best Actor Cherry Jones lost to Jennifer for Best Actress Only Roy Dotrice (of the stirring acceptance speech) won Best Supporting.

Terrific review for Sunshine in today's Philly Inquirer, and raves for our favorite mother-daughter team.:-) I posted it on 127.

Ordinary Decent Criminal will open tomorrow. I've seen quite a few billboards, even on trams, and they discussed the film on the radio today (Stephen wasn't mentioned though).

(Tineke) Ordinary Decent Criminal will open tomorrow. Well we eagerly await your review Tineke! Do you know if it will be shown in English or dubbed? We already know it got hammered by the British reviewers (is that hammered by an emotional backlash?), but maybe it will be better received outside the UK. I think the reviewers were upset that this real life criminal was romanticized by the movie. It will be interesting to see this film here, and Linda Fiorantino with an Irish accent (I presume). And I suppose this will be another film where we see far too little of SD. Hee hee, I'm still laughing at the "cone of silence" on the other topic.

]Do you know if it will be shown in English or dubbed? English for sure!! We NEVER EVER dub movies! Okay, maybe that's a lie. We do dub Disney films, but that's because 6 year olds can't read. But we can still choose between the Dutch or the original version. Anyone who's not accompanied by a child will choose the original version. Movie complexes here have more than one theatre, so they simply show both versions. I've never seen a film dubbed in Dutch. I'm sure no one would want to watch it. I've seen films dubbed in French and think it's horrible. I even stopped watching Another Country once on French TV because I just couldn't stand it.

Just a Gabriel Byrne - Tony follow-up from Liz Smith today: By the by, I received a sweet, funny note from Gabriel, who responded to my wondering in this column why he looked so glum at the Tony Awards telecast? "Dear Liz: Tension, exhaustion, nerves, shyness, uncomfortableness, lead to a configuration of facial muscles resulting in the condition known as glumpussery. I'm now in a state of post-Tony contentment!! Kindest regards, Gabriel." What a cutie (my words, not Liz')! Glumpussery... must use that some time.

From Jeffrey Wells's column: The Real Thing Caught Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing last night (i.e., Tuesday) at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theatre. A marvelously witty drama about love and infidelity, it stars Tony Award winners Stephen Dillane and Jennifer Ehle in the roles played by Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close in the original 1984 Broadway production. Having seen that version also, I found last night's production every bit as rewarding, and more so in some respects. I loved every minute, every line. Director Sydney Pollack (Random Hearts, Out of Africa) is a big fan also. He and I spoke yesterday afternoon about the Stoppard play and the film version he wanted to direct 15 or 16 years ago for Universal, but couldn't because of script problems he was unable to fix. I called Pollack about this because Miramax Films' Harvey Weinstein, who is co-producing the Broadway revival, intends to produce his own film version before too long. I was curious what Pollack thinks of the idea, and what obstacles he feels the play presents in translating it into screen terms. And since Miramax isn't saying much beyond its plan to shoot a film version, I was wondering if he'd heard anything. The current Real Thing, he says, "is a whole 'nother way of coming at the play," which he describes as "less royal." He attended the opening-night performance a few months ago, and "everyone in that place thought it was written for them. "If it's not the greatest play of the 20th century, I think it's certainly one of the greatest. I really do. It's the most romantic play Stoppard's ever done. It's so full of acute observations about relationships. It fascinates the s**t out of me." He says Universal Pictures bought the play for him to develop into a possible film project in '84, at the direction of then-chairman Frank Price. He contacted Stoppard and asked him about what might be the best way to make it work as a screenplay. I heard from another source that Stoppard "took a couple of swings" at an attempted translation, but what he turned in wasn't to anyone's particular satisfaction. Pollack didn't explain it precisely this way, but acknowledges that efforts to create a filmable Real Thing screenplay never panned out. "The problem for me was I was so involved with the play, I could never find a way to do those things which one does [in order to make a play] into a film, because I thought it would finally eviscerate it. I mean, this is a play about words, about language � and the power and the obligation and the nobility of language. What words can and cannot do, when used properly. "One could always film it as a play. I talked about this not long ago with Stoppard. When we first spoke, I just told him how great I thought the production was � and how you could make it work as a film. But when we started mucking around with it, we wanted to have our cake and eat it too. I know it's primarily a play about language, and it was very hard to make it work in a visual sense." However, says Pollack, "Somebody's going to come along some day and make a liar out of me. A good imaginative director is going to lick it someday, and it'll be very exciting. Harvey [Weinstein] and I talked about this not too long ago. He was joking with me, 'Ok, Sydney, you've had your chance, now we're taking ours.' "I would love to find a way to make it work as a film," Pollack adds. "If I could, I would go to Harvey and say 'let's go.'" He says he doesn't know how soon Weinstein is planning to roll ahead with his Real Thing movie. "Harvey's a gambler," he says. "He sticks his neck out where other people don't." The Real Thing has another few weeks to go. If your plans include being in New York before August, make every effort to see it.

v. interesting. As we've been discussing, it's all in the hands of the director or "his vision." Wonder who Harvey will get.

Wonder who Harvey will get. This seems to be a job for someone with both a theatrical and film background -- like our boy Sam Mendes. Or Anthony Minghella. Wish Wells had also asked Pollack about his casting ideas. Cool article -- thanks Mari.

(SusanMC) Wish Wells had also asked Pollack about his casting ideas. Bet he did, hee hee, and he's not revealing! :-) All I can say, having been seated behind Sydney at the theater, is that his eyes were riveted on SD. Even in scenes where JE was talking on the other side of the stage. And he laughed and howled at all the right places. He was one of the first on his feet giving a standing-o. The big question is... what is Harvey's casting ideas? The inquiring minds want to know :-) Ugh, I've giving myself an ulcer just thinking about it. The Americanization of Henry. :-(

Harv's probably going for his "Dream Cast": David Arquette and Courtney Cox. ;-)

ROTFLMAO I think I like it!

It will probably be an entirely different production.Like TRT I in 1982 when I hear that Jeremy Irons played Henry as a "Stuffy Englishman". And Glen Close was an older Annie.Casting a play with low-wattage stars is one thing...but a movie is another.Like BJD it will have to be high- profile actors to take the leads. IMO But the dialogue is so malleable that it will adapt to any skilled actor.... (Pl God, don't let it be Melanie Griffith):-(

The first glimpse of Stephen as Karenin in Anna Karenina. This is where he first starts to suspect something is amiss.

Hey gang....Donna has been putting in lots of hours reorganizing the SD website...to include The Awards Page. http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/dillane.htm

Any dates on when we might see AK? Russian drama = winter, I expect. ;-) Yes, Donna's site is great. Will check out the new stuff.

Was meaning to ask, where are all the glossy magazine articles on Stephen? He did win all those awards, became the toast of Bway and ....???

I heard a rumble somewhere that AK was probably going to be shown on PBS this fall. It is 4 hours and was shown in 4 parts in the UK. Yeah, where is Stephen??? I've been glancing at the mags too, and nothing! But then, where is Brian Stokes Mitchell and Heather Headley? JE really lucked out with having Sunshine being released at the same time, plus the RH connection made her story even juicier. I'm so glad the attention is being given to someone who is talented. Not like that Dharva person :-)

Have to agree...and wish he was right there with her...cause TRT is Henry's play and he's taking home a suitcase full of trophies.Jennifer did luck out with Mum being on the Tony ticket..."first time in history" gimmick.Talk about luck... was Paramount releasing Sunshine the same week.Win-win all around.

I just saw Ordinary Decent Criminal. It was shown in the largest theatre of the complex, so this means that they're expecting people to go and see this movie. I quite liked it. It certainly doesn't deserve to be trashed. I suppose that some critics didn't like it because it's sort of the same story as The General. But since I haven't seen The General (wanted to though) this didn't bother me. Stephen looks gorgeous in it, his hair is very short (quite like it that way), he wears a suit sans green shirt;-) He plays the only relatively intelligent Garda of the film. Even though his part is important, it's not that grand. I mean, it's not a big enough part to stand out. People will not think Ordinary Decent Criminal - "oh, the superintendent was good", if you catch my drift. He was good, mind you. But this film is about Kevin Spacey, clever Kevin Spacey, every other part is a minor part.

Jennifer did luck out... I am afraid I don't agree with this, The Tony voters considered she had given a winning performance, I think this counted more than luck and her reviews for Sunshine (and her Mum) have been iniversally excellent whereas RF's have been a bit mixed. I too wish there wer more articles on SD but I certainly think Jennifer deserves all the publicity she is now getting.

closing tags too I don't think anybody meant Jennifer doesn't deserve her award, but the additional publicity was likely generated by the people at Paramount Classics and she is benefitting from that. No one is saying she doesn't deserve it. The kind of splash she is making in the press is strictly a Hollywood thing. When a movie comes out, the star(s) appear on the covers of everything from Knitting Weekly to Popular Electronics. Films are national. Most of America doesn't give two hoots about the Tonys as they are for NY plays, most of which they will never see. Touring companies have different casts. As Donna pointed out, there's been no corresponding publicity for any of the other big winners (SD, HH, the three intitial guy from KMK).

Okay, it was just the word "luck", which perhaps I took the wrong meaning. Did I not close the tags, it didn't appear that I hadn't.

The tag is now closed. Sometimes people use the wrong slash to close their tags. Make sure you are using the / and not the \ :-)

Films are national. Most of America doesn't give two hoots about the Tonys as they are for NY plays, most of which they will never see. Ann...Karen is correct.If you said Tony's to the man on the street, he's think it was the newest Pizza Place in town.No kidding. And for a drama actress to receive the publicity she has, is unheard of. Judi Dench didn't get any splash last year, or Janet McTeer the year before. 'Cause it helps that she is v. photogenic and young. Nothing on Heather Hadley, either. Yes, she derserved the Tony , but the rest of the hoop-la is gravy. Albeit, v. welcomed.And by the sound of her last interview, she's"loving it".

Yes, JE deserves all the great publicity!! No glumpussery here :-) The luck was the double whammy of Tony win and major film release. By the way, does anyone know where her recent photos were shot?

Fairenoughski!, it must be this excruciating toothache I have today that is making me ultra sensitive.

You mean the ones in INTERVIEW? http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/4820/jen_mags.html Looks seaside, doesn't it? Or a balcony overlooking Central Park?I think that photographer Pablo Alfaro (Portuguese surname ?) is a real 'comer'.Best I've ever seen of her.All the US pics have been v. artistic ).I know people don't like the one in EW..but it's the kind of stuff one sees in photography shows...avant garde.The one in Parade which everyone liked...I dunno ..wee bit matronly...same ole',same ole'.IMO

(Evelyn) You mean the ones in INTERVIEW? Yes, that interview! If I didn't know better, I would have thought some place exotic, like Greece :-) But we know she's doing the play, so it has to be local. Great pics. Hmmm, that wouldn't be SD's dressing room, would it? :-)

Re: publicity, Brian Stokes Mitchell (the "3-initial KMK guy") got a James Brady "In Step With" piece like JE's a month or so ago (pre-Tonys). So guess it is possible to get some decent publicity on the strength of a good stage performance.

Is she crazy??? This from playbill regarding David Leveaux... Having canceled this season's scheduled run of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, the Roundabout Theatre Company is considering a run of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, Playbill On-Line has learned. If the project develops, it would be helmed by David Leveaux, the director originally attached to Desire. Director David Leveaux, who recently worked on the Broadway production of The Real Thing, was scheduled to helm the Roundabout production of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms at the American Airlines Theatre. It would have been the third time Leveaux has directed an O'Neill play on Broadway. The venture fell apart, however, after Mary-Louise Parker left the show, opting to remain with the Broadway-bound Proof.

Yeah...can't the woman read? The guy has directed a bunch of Tony winners. Also I read that David Leveaux will direct "Therese Raquin" with Kate Winslett.His first screen directorial debut.Produced by KW and hubby's new production company.

Hi, from sunny and hot NY. Have seen TRT twice, and have spoken to both Jennifer & Stephen. Still love the play and could see it again. BTW Paul Newman was in the audience on Tuesday and Tuesday was a full house. Will tell more when I get back to the UK.

A bearded Stephen, taken in late 1997 during his first Charlie Rose interview. I'm not sure if the beard was for a particular project. At first I thought perhaps for Widowing, but that was made earlier. Then, I thought maybe Uncle Vanya, which was reviewed in April 1998. Other pics at http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/dillane3.htm

Had no idea he had been on Charlie Rose before...and he came back??? ;-)

Thanks Donna...he looks biblical in a beard. I like it...makes him look v. distinguished. Which is probably the antithesis of what he wishes to be...;-) ~~~~ ann...pl. tell us your Stephen/Jennifer post- play story....

Hold on to your knickers ladies, tee hee. The unbelievable has just happened. I actually found a pic of Stephen at the Tonys without Kathie Lee hanging all over him. If curious, click on the link. If you look really close, you can actually see a hand print on his jacket :-) http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/dillane.htm

He even looks "reckless"...like in Act 1, Scene 1. Thanks Donna. The Dillanenews list is fun...nice to have new folks.

Ha!! Surprised you haven't taken to airbrushing Kathie Lee out of there.

(Karen) Ha!! Surprised you haven't taken to airbrushing Kathie Lee out of there. I tried, believe me! :-)

Just had another TRT fix today. SD is now sporting a Deja Vu 'do :-) I noticed that Brodie experiments a lot with his small part. He trys different things. Good for him. But when it was over, the lady beside me said she couldn't understand him at all. I had to give her a synopsis of the last act :-)

buzz cut?

(Karen) buzz cut? LOL, just about!

what's a Deja Vu'do, Donna? (If its a haircut perhaps it is for a new role!!)

(Ann) Deja Vu 'do Yes, a new hairdo :-) It's the short model that he wore in both Deja Vu and Welcome to Sarajevo.

I liked the longer hair...not shoulder length though. TRT website has been updated. New front page featuring all the awards..,and press page has blurbs from the reviews. They kindly reinstated the JE website URL under her bio...but nothing under Stephen's... http://www.therealthingbroadway.com/ Donna check your email...I'll be glad to be your liaison;-)

Speaking of buzz cuts :-) Check out this 'do from Ordinary Decent Criminal. Much shorter than the Deja Vu 'do. Thanks K and E for the leads :-) What's that song? You do that Vu 'do that you do so well...

Agggggg....I want Henry back!

Boy, oh boy! That's about as buzz as they come, although in boot camp, they do get closer to the scalp.

What's the story of this film....I know Kevin Spacey is the lead....does SD play the role of a Brit or American? Inquiring minds...you know...

short version - for longer one from production notes, go to Native American website ;-) Dublin. An enigmatic, leather-clad figure weaves its way through traffic on a powerful motorbike. This is Michael Lynch (KEVIN SPACEY): family man, liar, criminal mastermind and our hero. ORDINARY DECENT CRIMINAL is a classic gangster movie set in modern day Dublin. It follows the extraordinary adventures of an ordinary decent criminal - a man who robs from the rich but lives with the poor. He loves his two wives, sisters Christine (LINDA FIORENTINO) and Lisa (HELEN BAXENDALE), his children, his gang and, above all, his unique way of life. Michael is a suave, sardonic and sexy man: a charismatic criminal who strides the Dublin streets like a colossus. He dreams up robberies with hallmark panache which rarely fail to endear him to the public. He challenges authority at every turn, culminating in the ultimate art theft from Dublin's most prestigious gallery, outwitting and dumbfounding the police, Interpol and the rest of the criminal fraternity. Michael is driven by two fundamental beliefs: be loyal to your own and to hell with everyone else. He succeeds so well that what starts as a laugh evolves into something far more dangerous. He begins to enjoy the sting more than the cash, and the notoriety most of all. As his ego drives him on, the police, in particular Noel Quigley (STEPHEN DILLANE), determine to break him. As the law closes in, increasing pressure on the whole gang, Michael makes a mistake that could destroy him, threatening both his popularity with the public and his reliability as a bread winner. But he recovers his equilibrium in time to dream up one last, dazzling score - and evade the trap that has been set for him? ~~~~~~ Ed. note: Sounds remarkably like The General.

Thanks....sounds like a must-see. Will it be art-house (ug)? Anybody know yet when does it come to US?

Wheeee! I solved a technical problem. My video clips on the SD site have been moved to 2 different servers, and now they play on the first try. The network congestion problem has been solved! So for people who haven't seen the play, or haven't been able to see clips of the TRT on A&E, or Charlie Rose, etc., or the awards broadcasts, I've got 3 TRT scenes on Dateline:Dillane and scenes from the Variety Club, Olivier, and Drama Desk awards shows on Awards I've been stewing over this for a while, so pardon my enthusiasm. I need a drink! Besides, I need a break from this PC. (She says as she was grabbing those MP3 files!)

Thanks, Donna. Will try out the new implementation. Had just gotten the hang of the old one and was so excited when I got it to work on one of the TRT clips. ;-)

Had an RH sighting. Glad she's still in the city and can enjoy her daughter. Had I been 2 seconds faster, we would have collided. She still looks fab, was walking west on 44th, carrying a bouquet of flowers. I was going south heading into Shubert Alley. FYI, SD's hair grows fast :-)

Thanks Donna...I hope RH has gotten to see TRT by now. In an interview with the Portland Oregonian RH has this to say: ""I hate my family coming opening night; I won't let them," says Harris, who was nominated for a Tony Award this year for her acclaimed Broadway performance in Noel Coward's Waiting in the Wings. Even an actress with more than 40 years of experience still gets butterflies. "I tell my family, 'Don't come. Let me do my job and get on with it. We'll party afterward,' " says Harris. Harris' case of opening-night jitters is mild compared to her daughter Jennifer Ehle's family phobias. Ehle also was up for a Tony this year for her galvanizing Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing. (On Sunday, she won the Tony for best performance by a leading actress in a play.) She and Harris were in competition, but Ehle's mom says she hasn't seen her daughter's performance--and might never see it. "She won't let me," Harris says. "She's at that stage in her development when she does not want people she knows out front." Harris understands. "I can't act in front of my sister," she says. "I know I'm throwing a performance out the window if she's there because she knows me too well. There you are, trying to be a grand lady in front of someone who's known you since you've been an impossible brat. It's difficult."

For Moon I was rewatching the Tony tape. The cast must really like each other. JE was sitting with Max (Nigel Lindsay). Charlotte (Sarah Woodward) was sitting with Debbie (Charlotte Parry). Max's wife and Sarah's hubby must have been in the cheap seats, maybe near us :-) Don't know who was sitting with David. Did anyone else notice, but I believe the announcer called the Donmar Warehouse the "Monmar" Warehouse twice, during 2 of the awards. And speaking of the Donmar, just thinking out loud, but wondering what kind of stage experience Dougray has...

What a good-looking guy....thanks Donna...Is he married? *always looking for a beau for Jennifer*

Come on in girls, the water's fine... For more of this: Hot Tub and Other Fantasies As for DL's stats... don't know, but am on the lookout :-)

Oh my!! Look how young he looks. Look at his hair (head and legs) Three bathtub shots! Donna, you certainly do know what to Snappy.

Lotta hair too...big feet like Colin...as Anna said in NH "you know what that means...;-)

Last two performances for TRT.Engagement ends tomorrow. August 13th came far too soon. I hope Donna will post all the last performance details here. We have AK to look forward to...this fall? I hear Wives and Daughters (Andrew Davies)starts tonight on the BBC America channel.A&E in September.

Oh yes, I will report through my tears. We've birthed this baby, watched it grow, and now have to let it go on its way... I am so nervous for the cast, similar to how we felt when the play came over to NY and we were waiting for the reviews. I want them to receive a rousing standing-o for one last time. I must say, the last few times that I have seen the play (sold out), they have had major grins on their faces during the curtain call. They must be so pleased with being here. Actually it is the supporting cast that have grins ear to ear. JE and SD try to stay a bit more calm and reserved.

(Donna)...the last few times that I have seen the play (sold out), they have had major grins on their faces during the curtain call. They must be so pleased with being here. I'd be grinning like an idiot too....they're taking home a suitcase full of awards. Esp. the prestigious "Tony". Too bad the UK doesn't capitalize on these awards in their advertisements as we do...I noticed the Sunshine ad in our newspaper has "Jennifer Ehle, Tony winner". As do the new Sunshine posters. I tell ya...Paramount really moves out.The reviews mentioned it too. I guess it's the British self-deprecating manner...but it plays against them. What good does it do to have those awards listed in your obituary?

I'm so bummed:( Not able to see it;( However, did anyone see Firelight with Dillane and Sophie Marceau? Is it a worthwhile rental? I do plan on going back to NYC (with adult companionship!!) to see a future Tony winner;) *sigh*

Run, don't walk, and rent Firelight. He is quite appealing in it. I just rewatched it the other night. Not a trace of "Henry" from TRT. He really is so different in each role.

Laura...Karen got Firelight for me in the sale bin at Blockbuster's...check it out. Trust me...you'll want to own it. *Sigh* Wonderful story. SD and Sophie make it riveting.

The Final Curtain. The performance was magnificent, as was the audience reaction! It could not have been a better evening! :-) During scene 1, the audience response was good. Lots of laughter in the right places. I breathed a sigh of relief and was even more thrilled when the audience applauded at the end of the first scene. They rarely did that at other performances. Scene 2. Same thing, great audience reaction. JE and SD were at their flirtatious best. And on and on. Truly, one of the best performances I have ever seen. The cast was "on," and the audience was willing and able to respond. At curtain call, the audience stood on their feet and there was thunderous applause. I looked up at the mezzanine, they were on their feet too. This was the largest standing-o I have ever seen for this play. The audience and the cast were "embracing" each other, so to speak. Clearly this audience knew it was the last performance and they were showing respect to the cast. And the cast sweetly waved a little goodbye to the audience as they left the stage. They will have wonderful memories of NY. :-)

Oh Donna. What an experience. Thank you for sharing so many of your impressions. *sigh* What I would've given to be there. Brava!!

Yes, thanks so much Donna for your wonderful report, I too wish I culd have been there.Was the theatre full for the last performance and did you see the cast as they came out, or perhaps they were having a final performance party! Were there many people waiting for them outside the theatre after the play? I am sure the Box Office will have been excellent for this final week. What a wonderful experience for them and us.

Yes, the theater was very full. It might have been sold out, I forgot to look for the "sold out" sign. But it was a very, very satisfying evening. Literally, it couldn't have been a better performance or a better audience. The connection between the cast and audience at the end was very touching. There was a large group waiting by the stage door. In fact, we saw Rosemary Harris even waiting. But she eventually gave up and walked on. She was there with what appeared to be her sister (maybe not, but certainly a resemblance) and perhaps brother-in-law, and another person. The cast took a long time to come out, certainly there must have been a lot of hugs going on inside. We saw some of the crew leaving with memorabilia, like big posters, not the kind that is sold. Hey, I wanted those! :-) Finally, the cast came out. They were gracious and signed all the autographs. Stephen looked cute in his black baseball cap, orange jacket, red backpack and long slacks. Jenn had her green leather coat on. They were all carrying huge shopping bags, carrying out their stuff. Jenn, Stephen, and Charlotte Parry (Debby) left together in a cab. Stephen made sure he signed all autographs for people who wanted one (sort of like Colin, bless him), though he still was not talkative. One of the ladies told him this was the fourth time she saw the play. He replied, "oh really?" LOL, he is very uncomfortable with the crowd. She described him as a "gentle soul", and I think that is a lovely way to think of him.

Donna, to live vicariously through you is wonderful. I really am so upset I didn't get to see it. But I'm happy that I did get to go to New York with my daughter and walk by the theater! :) (took migraine meds, so might sound loopy!) I'm glad the audience and cast had a wonderful time. I bet there were a lot of tears come curtain call!

Wonderful report on the final evening, Donna. Don't worry, I have a feeling that SD will be back before too long.;-) New York really embraced these folks and this show, and it's been such fun here the past months to share in some of the excitement. Moreover, it's a joy to see people like JE and SD recognized, as they are so deserving. Sometimes, substance wins.:-)

Thank you dear Donna...you have been our faithful reporter all these months. By sharing those precious moments you made us feel we were there with you. I thought of you and them yesterday afternoon.What a wonderful welcome Broadway debut for all of them.Knowing those guys they were rehearsing til the last week. Actors who take their craft seriously and work like hell to please their audience. I'm so glad the audience reciprocated...sounds like the last performance was a real love-fest;-)She'll be back in a few months.And I know he'll be too. Hey gang...hasn't this been fun? Thanks Karen for setting up this topic. "Anna Karenina" will be coming this fall.Can we keep it?

Can we keep what? The topic? It's not going anywhere.

I forgot to mention... I believe Stephen was wearing our favorite green shirt when he left the theater :-)

A question for anyone who saw TRT at the Albery - did the audiences there give any standing ovations? I remember reading old posts about numerous curtain calls, but I'm not sure whether standing-o's were ever given or discussed.

(Donna)A question for anyone who saw TRT at the Albery - did the audiences there give any standing ovations? The British audiences never give standing ovations....except for naked women. Kathleen Turner got one in The Graduate recently. Sadly, Jerry Hall did not...they didn't like her droopy boobs ;-)

(Evelyn) The British audiences never give standing ovations Then it makes Sunday night's standing-o that much more special. I am so glad that they can return to England with such wonderful memories of their time in NY. I'm still soaring on cloud 9, so please excuse any gushing and drivel :-)

More great news, according to Variety, TRT has re-couped its original investment, and in it' s last week grossed $372.794, its best ever. So not only a critical success but now a financial success. Well done to everyone.

TRT has re-couped its original investment, and in it' s last week grossed $372.794, its best ever. So not only a critical success but now a financial success. And this....Friends, Romans and Countrymen...is entirely due to the Tony awards. Without which it would have closed months ago when the house was running close to 62%. Like Amadeus and other Brit dramas it would have closed. (Evelyn) The British audiences never give standing ovations To give credit where it is due.... They might not support movies or give effusive ovations...but.... The British public does support their theatre... The Albery (850 seats)run was sold out for the entire run...with long queues at the box office waiting for returns/standing room.That is a great accolade to the actors too.

Another testimonial here: http://austen.com/babble/bindex.cgi?read=23538 Called Jennifer's hair blonde???

Called Jennifer's hair blonde??? Apparently, that's what it was on Sunday night....wasn't it Donna? It was flaming red when I saw her in May...At the Tony's she was a strawberry blonde... Today...who knows? I'm convinced changing hair color is her hobby;-) I like her best as a blonde . Goes with her coloring which is peaches'n cream.

Yes, her hair looks natural blonde now. For the Tony's I believe she had most of the red stripped out. Ever since, it seems as though she's been going back to her natural coloring.

Just some odds and ends... I was reading an interview today with Roger Rees. The reporter asked him about TRT, since he had originated the role in London. He called the play one of the best written in the last 50 years. Sydney Pollack called it one of the best written in the 20th century, when he was interviewed in June. We have been so lucky to see this masterpiece and with the definitive Henry. We have also been lucky to see the definitive Darcy and Lizzie on stage this year. Ain't life grand? :-)

I felt that way when I in London in November and again when we were all there in January....and saw Lizzie one night and the following evening saw Mr. Darcy. With SLOW thrown in for good measure... Pure decadence:-))

Sorry....

This was reported today in Theatre.com NEW YORK -- David Leveaux, director of the 2000 Tony-winning Best Revival The Real Thing, will revive one of Harold Pinter's saddest, funniest plays, Betrayal, on Broadway for Roundabout Theatre Company in fall 2000. Previews begin Oct. 20 and the production opens Nov. 14 at the American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street. No cast or crew have yet been put together. Hmm, think of the possibilities :-) With only three characters and a bare-bones plot, Pinter's Betrayal continues to astonish since it was first produced in 1979 because of its unconventional structure. The story of the ruined relationships of three people, their torn loyalties, hidden lies, and the harsh reality of deception, it escapes the fate of a melodramatic love triangle because the play is structured as a trip back in time. Audiences witness the major events during the seven-year relationship between Emma and Jerry. The play begins with their meeting in a London pub two years after ending their illicit love affair. Though Jerry is convinced that their affair had been a secret all the years, he is stunned to find out that Emma's husband and Jerry's best friend, Robert, had known about them for four years. The play begins in 1977 and moves back to 1968. Betrayal replaces Leveaux's original fall 2000 project, Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, which fell apart when Mary-Louise Parker, currently the star of Manhattan Theatre Club's Proof, backed out of Elms. silly gal Manhattan Theatre Club is working on plans to move Proof to Broadway is the same time frame, possibly to the Walter Kerr Theatre. Leveaux, who previously directed Zoe Wanamaker in Electra on Broadway, will stage Betrayal, following the limited run of The Man Who Came to Dinner at the American Airlines Theatre, Roundabout�s flagship stage on 42nd Street. Leveaux also directed the 1993 Broadway Anna Christie that brought Leam Neeson and Natasha Richardson together. That O�Neill drama was also produced by Roundabout.

Finally have some pics from Stephen's movie, "The Darkest Light." He plays farmer Tom Holroyd! It was filmed in Yorkshire and the scenery looked like Master from the Moor (don't know if it's the same area). He speaks with an accent and is very, very different from any role we've seen him in. Not the stud-muffin from Firelight, or the intellectual from TRT. Here's pics of him as a farmer, with and without hair! The Darkest Light

Oops, one more try... Here's the link to the page with more photos: http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/darkest.htm

He's got a fetching smile...hair or no hair....:-) Thanks Donna...any idea if it will get to the US? On Starz maybe;-)

Is this the movie we saw advertised in the tube? And according to Aishling and her impeccable sources, MOTM was filmed in either Dartmoor or Exmoor (West Country), not Yorkshire.

(Evelyn) any idea if it will get to the US? I wish I knew! But it's written/directed by the same guy who wrote The Full Monty, so hopefully it will make its way here. Definitely not a comedy though. (Karen) Is this the movie we saw advertised in the tube? Yes, it opened in January when we were there. It's a type of role that had he done it earlier in his career, he could have been permanently type-cast as a working-class stiff. No traces of the elegant gentleman. (Sort of what happened to Karen Gorney from Saturday Night Fever.)

(Donna) Sort of what happened to Karen Gorney from Saturday Night Fever. Pffft! My eyes immediately caught this name. Thought, is she in this too? Did she move to England? Would explain her absence from the screen. Am now disappointed. ;-D (it must be the night fever...)

Because Ev's having such a fun time with voice-response systems... From The Sunday Telegraph (September 3, 2000) LUMLEY FINDS PRODUCING ROLE FOR BBC `ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS' JOANNA Lumley is to step behind the camera for the first time to produce a pounds 3 million television series for the BBC. The actress is to make Elizabeth Jane Howard's The Cazalet Chronicle, a four-volume saga of a family living between 1937 and 1947. Lumley said of her production debut: "It is utterly thrilling. It is a power thing I have got now. I just say `Call me MGM'. I have been joking that shortly I shall have films written by me, starring me, with the music by me. But I'd better start somewhere more humble." Filming starts this month on the five-part series which covers the first two books and will be screened by BBC1 next year. The final books will be filmed later for two future six-part series. Howard spent seven years writing The Cazalet Chronicle, which traces the way a family and Britain was changed by the Second World War. She began the books after the collapse of her 15-year marriage to the author Sir Kingsley Amis. Lumley tried to buy the film rights after reading the books last year but discovered that they were already owned by Verity Lambert, the producer of Rumpole of the Bailey and the originator of the soap Eldorado. Lumley had worked with the Cinema Verity production company, which was founded by Lambert, on the series Class Act. When Howard's agent told Lambert that the 54-year-old actress was interested in making the series it was suggested they work on it together. Lumley said: "She is the senior prefect and I just walk around behind her carrying a cloth to shine her shoes and listening and watching how she does things. I have been allowed to bunk off on the financial side. I had no idea producers needed to know things such as how many ladders the crew would need in a specific place. So I would say my input, if any, has been purely artistic." This has included detailed discussion on the script, which was adapted for the series by Douglas Livingstone, and selecting the cast. Although Lumley was asked also to act in the production she refused, preferring to concentrate on her new behind-the-scenes role. She said that she had been inspired to produce by women such as Jennifer Saunders, with whom she worked on the comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, and Ruby Wax, the American comedienne. "Having been bought up in a slightly different generation where at dances you would sit modestly with your hands clasped in your lap, with your eyes lowered, waiting for someone to pick you, I saw these people who would get up and ask someone to dance," she said. "Rather than sit around waiting for the telephone to ring - which it does quite a lot - it is so much nicer to get the bit between your own teeth and drive something along." Next she hopes to bring to the screen her first film script, a drama called Brightest and Best, about a school reunion she has written with the novelist Angela Lambert. "If it is well received and taken up by someone like BBC or Channel 4, and they go, `Here is a budget', then I could certainly play one of the parts in it or maybe even have a crack at directing," she said. "I love acting but the thrilling part of putting together something like The Cazalet Chronicle is that you make the pages come alive." Stephen Dillane, who won a Tony Award for his performance in the Broadway play The Real Thing, plays Edward Cazalet and Lesley Manville, who played a lesbian teacher in the BBC's Real Women, his wife Millie. The actor Paul Rhys, who recently appeared in the much acclaimed ITV drama I Saw You, and Joanna Page, who was in the National Theatre's recent version of The Mysteries, will also star in the series. Meanwhile, a casting agency for the series, Casting Network, in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, has been accused of racism after advertising for a white baby. A BBC spokesman said that it was aware of the complaint from Kingston Racial Equality Council but added that it would be "ludicrous" to cast a black baby as the child of white parents.

Here's a link to the Telegraph (grumble grumble) http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000576481449931&rtmo=a2xw8XaL&atmo=gggggg3K&pg=/et/00/9/3/nlum03.html

Oh thank you for the news Karen! Of course now I'll have to read this book too!

Gulp, all 4 books Part I Part II Part III Part IV

Meanwhile, a casting agency for the series, Casting Network, in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, has been accused of racism after advertising for a white baby. A BBC spokesman said that it was aware of the complaint from Kingston Racial Equality Council but added that it would be "ludicrous" to cast a black baby as the child of white parents. ROTFLOL! Thanks, Karen. I will wait to hear what you think of the books, Donna. (I have Armadillo waiting for me still).

Meanwhile, a casting agency for the series, Casting Network, in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, has been accused of racism after advertising for a white baby. A BBC spokesman said that it was aware of the complaint from Kingston Racial Equality Council but added that it would be "ludicrous" to cast a black baby as the child of white parents. ROTFLOL! Thanks, Karen. I will wait to hear what you think of the books, Donna. (I have Armadillo waiting for me).

Sorry for the double post.

Filming starts this month on the five-part series which covers the first two books and will be screened by BBC1 next year. The final books will be filmed later for two future six-part series. Oh dear....a 5 part BBC series...and two future 6 part series..... (He'll be collecting his social-security check at the end of all of this!) The folks on #134 will be jealous;-)

Have been meaning to ask (and did check your site first): do you know when we will be seeing AK, if at all? I rented the Sophie Marceau-Sean Bean version not too long ago and it was terrible IMO.

(Karen) do you know when we will be seeing AK, if at all? I wish I knew the definitive answer to that. I've searched the sites for PBS and Channel 4, and no info. But I can't imagine that it will sit on the shelf. It was already shown in Australia after it aired in the UK, so I have to think that it will make its way to North America soon. By the way, I had heard that Sophie dissed Sean in an interview.

Found a description of the first book of TCC (The Cazalet Chronicle). I believe the correct spelling is singular, despite the following... Stephen plays Edward. In this, the first book of THE CAZALET CHRONCILES, it is 1937 and the WW II is only a distant cloud on the horizon As the various Cazalet households prepare for their summer pilgrimage to the family estate in Sussex, we meet the entire cast. There's bluff, hearty Edward, in love with but by no means faithful to his wife, Villy; Hugh, wounded in the Great War, but devoted to pregnant Sybil; Rupert, who worships the body if not the mind of his child-bride, Zoe; and Rachel, the spinster sister, conducting a desperate clandestine love affair under the family roof. With her instinctive sense of the British social order, Elizabeth Jane Howard has created a new masterpiece in the tradition of THE FORSYTE SAGA, UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS, and THE SHELL SEEKERS.

*tsk tsk* ;-D

I think Stephen is unto something big...will make him an overnight star!

Sounds vvg!

Just saw this over at VV. Apparently Anna Karenina is being shown in Canada: "It is 2 parts, 3 hours last night and 2 hours tonight; CBC or Canadian TV."

Is that the same one? Said Amanda Root was in it, but she didn't play AK, did she?

Yes, the same one. I think Amanda Root played Dolly, Stiva's wife and Anna's sister-in-law. So the UK, Australia, Canada, knock on wood, USA next. FYI, I did send an inquiry to the PBS, but it said it could take 5-6 weeks for me to get a reply.

5-6 weeks? Public television works in mysterious ways. Go read the letters to the Times I posted on 134. It could be worse. *hee hee*

Mark Strong plays Stiva. Paloma (Far From the Madding Crowd) plays Kitty. I'm surprised her post didn't list the principals, McCrory, McKidd, Dillane, and Henshall. Do you remember reading the early reports about how they added "sex" to the film to attract the audience? Not a big deal, not much to see. The opening shot we see Henshall's bum through a window. But, hee hee, we've seen his better side in Angels and Insects. :-)

I know, that's what threw me. She didn't name any of the leads, although Mark Strong did ring a bell. :-) The opening shot we see Henshall's bum through a window. Is he mooning someone? Love when they are true to the original material and time period. ;-D

Pistol packin', gun totin' Stephen in Ordinary Decent Criminal. Tee hee, don't mess with him, mistah! FYI, rumor has it that he will also star in the upcoming film The Parole Officer with that cutie Lena Headey.

I cannot believe I just glossed over that Parole Officer info without making the connection. Have vacant real estate between ears for sale.

Tee hee, you had Martin Lawrence on the brain!

Let's have a pic of Lena Headey, Donna. I lika' da' pistol -packin' Stephen!

Hmmm, a good looking couple. I feel the heat already :-)

oh poo! That site wouldn't allow me to link to her pic. :-(

I made a boo-boo :-)

(Evelyn) I lika' da' pistol -packin' Stephen! Tee hee, so do I. Never knew he had such a swagger :-)

I have always been partial to a man in uniform. And one that slings a big weapon :-) First it was pistol packin', now it's commando cutie... Stephen in the British series Soldier Soldier from 1993. This episode was a tough one to find!

and look at that solid head of hair. Oh my ;-D

Heehee, that subject always seems to pop up. ;-)

**FLASH** This just in from the Peter Latham British Theatre Newsletter: From Peter Latham THE BRITISH THEATRE WEBSITE AWARDS 2000 All the nominations have been received and now is the time to vote in these Awards. http://britishtheatre.about.com/library/weekly/blawards2000-nominations.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And guess who is one of the nominees!!! Bring on the Bubbly!!Congrats Donna....

Congratulations, Donna!! You done good.

Congratulations, Donna! I knew you admired and ... Stephen, but I did not know you had his website. Keep up the good work!

LOL, thank you ladies!

How exciting, Donna. Congratulations. We know it's a labor of love. ;-)

(Heidi) We know it's a labor of love. ;-) *Tee hee*, unrequited! :-)

Well, yesterday afternnoon Ann W.Aishling, Lizza and I attended a special showing of TRT at the Theatre Museum....I was disappointed in that the whole production loses a lot on film...even the performances. I enjoyed it because it brought back the play experience to me, but I wonder if Lizza, who had not seen the play, enjoyed it at all. Makes me think that it would not transfer successfully to a movie . Unless TS re-writes the whole thing.

Wonder if this has anything to do with having seen it in NY? Haven't you all said the NY staging and performances were better than at either London location? Also, didn't Stephen say that in his interviews how the Barrymore's space fit the play much better and it really came into its own there?

This tape was filmed at the end of the Donmar run....even Ann w. agreed that it was not the true Donmar production we had seen earlier. Annie was not creamy-dreamy..and it was a bad hair-day for all..which didn't help. I don't think the venue would have made any diff..the plot seemed trite.And perhaps what I am trying to say is that the taped performances did not compare to the ones on stage. I guess, the chemistry is what is missing.

Oh dear, what disappointing news. I wonder if the actors ever watched themselves in this particular recording. I know that they had good days and not so good days on stage, it sounds like filming may have been on one of those not so good days. JE had definitely reverted to her creamy dreamy delivery during the last month of the run in NY. Lots more touching in various scenes. During the end, Stephen would actually walk over to her and kiss the top of her head. This was during the cricket bat scene and she says to him, "I hate you." He would then walk over to her and say someting like, "I love you, I'm your pal." Kissing her head, and they would briefly hold hands. It's a pity if they watched themselves on that particular tape. Then they still don't know how good they really were. Neither will the rest of the world. Bummer. But thanks for the report!

I forgot to say that the "Touch Me" scene was the best I've ever seen..almost erotic....while she is saying "Touch, me" ,he is standing in front of her and she wraps her foot around the back of his knee rubbing it up and down..eeeevvvveeer so slowly. *Sizzle*. Did you ever see her do that one, Donna?

I'm not sure whether I should post this here or over at Odds and Ends, and I don't want to offend major Ralph Fiennes fans... But I just saw him in Coriolanus. The production was very good. Uniformly good, which is a pleasant surprise. The last Shakespeare production that I saw was in Julius Caesar (Joe Papp, Shakespeare in the Park in NYC), in which the talent level was quite uneven. But I digress... Ralph was very good, and such a hard worker, so I hate to be critical. But, he did not have a very strong stage presence. He is not tall, his voice was not particularly commanding, and he does not physically move well. There were times when he was swaggering across the stage, and I had to surpress a little snicker. To tell you the truth, the two of us were both quite shocked. He was good, but not brilliant by any means. He did not show the range of emotions that seemed to be required from the dialogue. One reviewer mentioned that he sneered throughout, and he did. I mentioned during intermission that I thought both Colin and Stephen could have done more with the part. My companion thought that Stephen could have played the role with one arm tied behind the back. She also thought Stephen has a virility that was more appropriate for this role. :-) Emilia Fox is in this production. She didn't have much to do at all, but she looked good and her voice had a nice projection. I was very pleased with that, I didn't want to hear a girly thin voice on the stage. Said companion (tee hee, she knows who she is) pointed out afterwards that Colonel Forrester from P&P was also in it. I hadn't recognized him! Linus Roache was in this too, and he commanded the stage. He is even shorter than Ralph. He played Dr. Astrov to Stephen's Uncle Vanya. They must have looked like Mutt and Jeff on the stage together. Going back to Ralph, I really feel guilty about criticizing him, because I do respect his talent and work ethic. Well I see him again on Wednesday, and maybe my opinion will change, and perhaps this was an off-performance. But from this one viewing, I would say that as a stage actor, he is overrated. He is very good, but not brilliant. I was actually stunned by the lack of range that he displayed and the lack of interpretation. The second half was almost one-note. There is a lot of wit and sarcasm in the writing, and I guess I've been spoiled by how Stephen can sort of milk those lines. Ralph's interpretation seemed flat by comparison. I think film is his medium. The camera can control the angles. Physically, he just isn't imposing. Remember how Colin seems to tower over Georgiana when he gives her a hug in P&P? No such thing here. I have to admit that during the play, I kept thinking of how Stephen could have done the role. He is physically more imposing, taller, richer voice. And he moves so well. I think his swaggers would have been more natural. Ralph and Linus did have a wonderful sword fight though. I was worried they would hurt one another, or that they would trip and hurt someone in the audience.

(Evelyn) she wraps her foot around the back of his knee rubbing it up and down..eeeevvvveeer so slowly. *pant pant* Nooooo! Never saw that one. Oh, I need to lie down...

(Donna) I really feel guilty about criticizing him, because I do respect his talent and work ethic. Why should you feel guilty? He's not a sacred person. But from this one viewing, I would say that as a stage actor, he is overrated. He is very good, but not brilliant. I was actually stunned by the lack of range that he displayed and the lack of interpretation. The second half was almost one-note. *snort* I've been saying this for yonks, except that I don't limit it to stage work (which I haven't seen). About the only thing he's done that I thought was not "one-note" is Sunshine. Like little bro better. He was the heart and soul of SiL, and got no credit. As I recall, the reviews in London were not that good. Some of it had to do with the caliber of the plays themselves; however, much had to do with RF's interpretation and execution. v. uneven, as I reall. Ralph and Linus did have a wonderful sword fight though. I was worried they would hurt one another Think I read that Ralph did cut himself in London and kept on going, trooper that he is.

Donna my friends in London who saw RF in both Coriolanus and Richard II thought that he was terrible in C but absolutely brilliant in Richard II. They raved about his Richard II. (Evelyn) she wraps her foot around the back of his knee rubbing it up and down..eeeevvvveeer so slowly. They did it when I saw the play at the Donmar. VVG!

Thanks Donna...This is the first review I've heard from a friend on Rafe. And he considers himself primarily a stage actor.

Yes, Rafe was much better in Richard II. No swaggers required :-)

Donna...a propos of fundraising.... In the Donmar program prominently listed in The Real Thing Gala page is your name as a Patron....right below Miramax Films and ICM!!! I am so proud that a fellow Droolie was acknowledged:-))

We Friends and Patrons of the Donmar can run, but we cannot hide. Time for another festive gala, I'd say! :-)

Ran across this, from the Canberra Times (9/9/00) Likeable Crook in Predictable Plot By Dougal Macdonald Michael Lynch's career is robbery with threats of violence, he sleeps in one or other of two beds with his legal wife or her sister, he loves his kids and inculcates in them his version of honour and trust, and Sergeant Quigley of the Garda would give just about anything to put him away. Gerard Stembridge wrote Ordinary Decent Criminal as a combination of humour and wickedness. We want to see Michael succeed, despite knowing that he belongs behind bars. Shot in Dublin in 1998 before Kevin Spacey won his Oscar, the film offers equal amounts of dramatic energy and, it must be said, predictableness. Director Thaddeus O'Sullivan gives it a little sparkle by inter-cutting past and future moments into what's happening now but can't conceal what we've seen coming. This detracts a little from the film's effectiveness, but mostly it's fun. Spacey slides comfortably into the role, using an agreeably Irish accent although a finely tuned ear might wonder how Dublin it is. Italo-American actress Linda Fiorentino as his wife occasionally loses the accent, which is not so important because she has relatively little to say. Helen Baxendale plays her sister The best of the film is in the supporting actors David Hayman as Michael's trusted sidekick Tony, Peter Mullan as Stevie, Stephen Dillane as Quigley and Patrick Malahide as a born-to-lose policeman.

Anna Karenina is on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre schedule (thanks to a poster at VV). Their website lists the airdate as January 1, 2001. That is a Monday, so I am not sure if that is a misprint.

Excellent counterprogramming for those of us who don't care about the Orange Bowl, that is the one that is played on New Year's Day night, right?

the Orange Bowl, that is the one that is played on New Year's Day night, right? Straight from Miami! Thanks, Donna! I have been waiting for that one.

I've just read an article written about the Tony Award broadcast, generally criticizing it for highlighting TV actors. The author writes, "This last development, to be fair, didn't start with O'Donnell. But having Kathie Lee Gifford present really goes too far." The article also goes on to say, "But for most of the evening, O'Donnell seemed aloof and a bit bored. Hectoring the audience during commercial breaks, O'Donnell insisted that winners 1) keep speeches brief, 2) don't mention your agents ("no one cares"), 3) be "emotional"! Consequently, most of the speeches seemed forced and oddly awkward. Blakemore and A Moon for the Misbegotten's Roy Dotrice thanked America, while Aida's siren Heather Headley paid obeisance to Disney. An uncomfortable Stephen Dillane (The Real Thing) looked like he'd never been onstage before..." Poor baby.

But having Kathie Lee Gifford present really goes too far." We'd all agree with that one, especially you! An uncomfortable Stephen Dillane (The Real Thing) looked like he'd never been onstage before..." LOL! I suppose it never crossed the writer's mind that, maybe, he was surprised???

I guess Jennifer passed muster.

(Karen) I guess Jennifer passed muster. LOL, and she had Matthew Broderick as her presenter. :-)

Sets your VCRs ladies! Deja Vu airs today... Fri Oct 13 09:00P RC- Romance Classics Sat Oct 14 02:00A RC- Romance Classics Sat Oct 14 04:00P RC- Romance Classics Sat Oct 21 02:00P RC- Romance Classics

Anna Karenina is on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre schedule...lists the airdate as January 1,...a Monday, so I am not sure if that is a misprint. Depending on where you live it isn't a misprint. PBS is testing a new schedule in selected markets: such as "Masterpiece Theatre" on Mondays, "Mystery" on Tuesdays, "Nova" and "Frontline" on Thursdays, "Nature" on Fridays, etc. If your current PBS outlet is running "Masterpiece Theatre" on Sunday nights, there is a chance "Anna Karenina" will be on Sunday. However, as Sunday is New Year's Eve, it most likely will be shown on Monday in all outlets, due to special holiday programming.

(Cheryl) PBS is testing a new schedule in selected markets: such as "Masterpiece Theatre" on Mondays Sounds like a great alternative to Monday night football. :-) Thanks for the update.

A bit of trivia: I found this notice from 1998 about a film that was green-lighted with Stephen and a script by Andrew Davies. Boo hoo, it seems to have fallen through the cracks: The Arts Council of England January 1998 Film Production Awards Friday Productions Ltd - 'From A View To A Death' Award: �1,000,000 Total project cost: �2,700,000 From A View To A Death is a black comedy by Anthony Powell, one of the century's most distinguished writers. Set in the 1930s, it tells the story of Zouch, a young painter who visits a village brimming with eccentrics. More interested in social climbing and carnal adventures than the glories of Art, Zouch ends up coming to grief at the hands of county society. Andrew Davies' screenplay perfectly captures the sinister undertones behind the facade. It will be directed by Hugh Laurie, as his first feature, and will star Stephen Dillane in the lead.

Another excerpt from the Times of London from this summer: Last year definitely wasn't one of the West End's best. But although there was a stream of mediocrity, the peaks were fantastic - career-best performances from Stephen Dillane, Henry Goodman and Simon Russell Beale How delicious that they put Stephen's name first :-)

More interested in social climbing and carnal adventures Sounded v. promising. ;-D

NEW YORK -- People magazine has chosen Craig Bierko, star of Broadway's The Music Man, as Sexiest Broadway Star of 2000. Pffft!

and the first runner-up was Philip Bosco, maybe? ;-D

Don't miss the SD puzzle that Donna put up on the website.... http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/awards2.htm scroll down to the bottom Hey Donna...that's a mean pic....I need a bigger screen;-)

Good one, Donna. You made it more difficult.

LOL, little does that older couple sitting in the row behind him know that they've been immortalized on the web. :-) (Always wear clean underwear and have a smile on your face.)

(Always wear clean underwear and have a smile on your face.) Famous last words. ;-)

Uh-oh, The Parole Officer was made with Lottery money, so it's going to be trashed by certain members of the press when and if released. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk:80/dynamic/hottx/review.html?in_review_id=347706&in_review_text_id=292122 Also, if you go to Walker's list of top turkeys for 2000, you might recognize one. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk:80/dynamic/hottx/review.html?in_review_id=348239&in_review_text_id=292510

Seem to be stumbling across Dillane productions all over the place tonight. Times article about Paul Rhys that mentions:The Cazalet Chronicle, a six-part series to be broadcast later this year and intended to recall the television glories of Brideshead Revisited, is based on Elizabeth Jane Howard�s novels about a genteel prewar English family. Rhys plays the sensitive, artistic brother, Rupert. Next summer, From Hell, the Hollywood movie directed by the Hughes brothers, in which he stars with Johnny Depp and is �very evil�, will be released in this country. But his most contentious role this year may be the one about to hit the nation�s television screens. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,62-61746,00.html

Too bad The Darkest Light tanked at the BO, miserably. Gulp. :-( He is so darned good in it too, in a very unglamorous role. Such a pity when a good performance never gets seen. Thanks for passing along the news...

Get a new agent, Stephen....or else stick to stage where you consistently get get rave reviews.

From The Hollywood Reporter today: Miramax telling Woolf story with Par in 'Hours' By Zorianna Kit and Chris Gardner Miramax Films has come aboard to co-finance and co-produce with Paramount Pictures "The Hours." The project is scheduled to start shooting next week with Stephen Daldry at the helm and Scott Rudin producing. Paramount will distribute the film domestically, with Miramax taking on international distribution rights. "Hours" will star Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Eileen Atkins and Allison Janney, among others. Based on Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1998 novel of the same name, "Hours" draws on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the stories of three women: Woolf, portrayed in the throes of writing "Mrs. Dalloway" and contemplating suicide; Laura Brown, a young wife and mother in the suffocating confines of her life in Los Angeles in 1949; and Clarissa Vaughn, who is giving a party in present-day New York for her closest friend, Richard, an award-winning writer suffering from AIDS. The two studios most recently teamed on last year's "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and the upcoming "Four Feathers." ~~~~~~~~ Wonder which story/time period Stephen will appear in?

"Richard, an award-winning writer suffering from AIDS." (Karen)Wonder which story/time period Stephen will appear in? Ug... I hope he isn't Richard...

I know, I was thinking about that. ;-)

Me three. But that storyline takes place in NY. I think that's the Meryl part, so I'm kind of hoping that the character is played by Ed Harris. I'm guessing Nicole plays the prego in LA, with John C. Reilly. Book is on its way. I'll be renting Mrs. Dalloway this weekend... :-)

Stephen is thin; Ed Harris is not. No reason that Richard can't be English just because it takes place in NY. However, he has done far more 'English period pieces' than either EH or JCR. Why don't you try his agent? Surely, this info wouldn't violate the Official Secrets Act. ;-)

An on-set report at Dark Horizon: The Hours: "Meryl Streep is filming scenes for her new movie "The Hours" today (Wednesday) on 10th St. between 5th and 6th Ave. They arrived there very early this morning and will presumedly keep filming all day. The plot of The Hours revolves around three female characters in different story lines and different time periods in the 20th century, related only by a parallel in their personal lives: Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. I heard a mention that Julianne Moore is in the film as well."

Now if we only knew what role Stephen plays.....if it's Richard, he's probably in the Village:-)))) Dooooonnaaaaaa;-)

Stephen will be on PBS this Sunday, February 18th in Anna Karenina. Part 2 airs the next week, February 25th.

You mean she leaves Stephen for that guy in the background? Baaaad casting.

I'll be there.

Don't miss Donna's page on AK. It's a class act. http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/anna.htm Also the page on the Radio Play next week. http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/bayeux.htm

Articles on AK are on the second page... http://fp.enter.net/~purrfect/anna2.htm Be there tonight!

Love the pages, Donna. For those who cannot listen for these 15 minute broadcasts every day, the audiotape is available for purchase. Choices direct has it for 8.49 pounds and shipping is free worldwide. It's a two tape set (155 minutes). Here's the place: http://www.choicesdirect.co.uk/cgi-bin/ChoicesDirect.storefront/612707184/Product/View/809014 My VCR is ready to roll tonight! Too bad SD isn't Vronsky, as I bet there will be some rewind moments.

Great job, Donna! I will have to wait till tomorrow for AK. I get PBS from the Dish and MT is on Monday nights. I did see the previews and it looks so very good. :-)

Wonder if the tape being sold has the missing scenes? They weren't skin shots, were they, Donna? I only saw the first hour (rest was being taped), but it looked pretty good to me...better than the Sophie Marceau-Sean Bean version. However, Helen is not a very bewitching beauty, and Kevin McKidd doesn't fit my view of a dashing cavalry officer. Stephen isn't old enough to be Karenin, but that's OK. I don't mind watching him. [BTW, Donna, are you replaying one of his early lines over and over? The one about "your loving husband is here"? ;-D] Have to agree about Dougie's Scottish accent. Ridiculous! Totally detracted from his credibility. You can see what attracted David Blair to doing this program...all the train sequences! ;-)

(Karen) Wonder if the tape being sold has the missing scenes? Still bewildered over the cuts. There was very little nudity, and we've seen more skin and sexuality on PBS (Moll Flanders). I'm guessing it was to fit in the timeslot. The UK version is 240 minutes, so it will be interesting to see how long the US version is.

Have listened to the first 15 minutes. Do you really think your average Saxon guy would say, "he doesn't give a toss" or similar. ;-D The BBC's page says that an "omnibus" episode will be broadcast on Sunday 25 February at 3.02pm. What does that mean? You should check out the interview with Christopher Eccleston (on 4 pages). On the second page, there is a pic of the actors recreating the battle scenes during the recording. Do not see SD. Lots of links. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/discover/interviews/discover_interview.shtml

(Karen)The BBC's page says that an "omnibus" episode will be broadcast on Sunday 25 February at 3.02pm. What does that mean? Not sure. But I just looked up Sunday's schedule, and it says "part 6". FYI, earlier in the day they're broadcasting Desert Island Discs, LOL.

(Karen) "omnibus" episode will be broadcast on Sunday 25 February at 3.02pm. The mini episodes will be compiled into one.

Thanks, Aishling. I was hoping that would be the case.

Not so sure. The schedule says Sunday is part 6, "Battle of Hastings", which is the climax. Friday's episode is part 5, "Building of Boats", where William prepares to invade England. Very confusing. Parts 1-5 add up to 75 minutes, Sunday's slot will be under an hour. In any case, the radio broadcast will not be the full 155 minutes of the recording.

For anyone listening to part of the radio broadcast, the webpage has a summary of each episode, so you can follow along even if you miss some of it. Bayeux Tapestry

Have just checked radio listings for Bayeux and there is nothing about an omnibus edition. Just the conclusion on Sunday. On Tuesday 27th the afternoon play is First Love with SD reading extracts from Samuel Beckett's previously unbroadcast short story. With commentary by actress Billie Whitelaw, biographer James Knowlson and publisher John Calder. 2.15 - 3.00pm.

A review of the Parole Officer from Dark Horizon. No mention of SD, but maybe Garth can put you in touch with Paul H for follow-up questions. "The Parole Officer" - A Review by 'Paul H' (Positive, No Spoilers) I caught a test screening of a British film last week called 'The Parole Officer'. It's a comedy starring Steve Coogan - well known in Britain as the character Alan Partridge, but probably unheard of outside UK. As with most test screenings, the film still needed a bit of work done to it, but I would say it was about 90% complete. In the film, Coogan plays a parole officer that gets framed for a murder he didn't commit by a couple of corrupt coppers*. The only way of proving his innocence is the security camera that recorded the killing. Unfortunately, the video-tape from it has been placed in a bank vault, and is heavily guarded. To break into the bank, he enlists the aid of some ex-cons that he helped out as a parole officer. What follows is a series of mad-cap scenes, as they plan the heist, attempt the break-in, avoid the cops, and clear Coogan's name. The film is by no means a classic, but it is consistently funny, and a lot better than recent British comedies, like "Kevin and Perry go Large", and the excruciatingly dire "Notting Hill". Coogan's performance is consistently good, and his character - although similar to Alan Partridge - is more likeable. The pace of the film was okay, but at just under 2 hours, it is likely that it will be shortened, and improved before release. The humour is very British, and in the same vein as "A Fish called Wanda / Fierce Creatures" etc... There are some very funny parts in it, a cameo by Omar Sharif, and thankfully only a small amount of cheesy romance.

(Aishling) First Love with SD Sounds promising :-) (Karen) thankfully only a small amount of cheesy romance Whew, I hate it when someone else gets the girl!

" but it is consistently funny, and a lot better than recent British comedies, like "Kevin and Perry go Large", and the excruciatingly dire "Notting Hill". " I don't know "Kevin..." but, better than NH???Wow!! I like SD doing comedy. He's so understated.Hope we get this one.

News from the AFM going on now: SPY GAME SETS UP INTERNATIONAL RING Beacon and Universal Pictures International (UPI) have assembled a network of leading independent distributors for The Spy Game, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. Entertainment has UK rights, while Medusa has taken Italy and Kinowelt Germany. Beacon and UPI, now partnered again on The Palace Thief, have also sold Spanish rights on the CIA thriller to Lauren and Japanese rights to Toho Towa. Egmont has Scandinavia, while Universal is expected to release the film in Australia through United International Pictures. The budget on the film is understood to have swelled to $120m, partly because it was forced to switch shooting from Israel to Morocco well into pre-production.