Broadway notebook: Special Tony Awards
NEW YORK - Close races are the attention-getters while they're being run, and there are several in the nominations for the 62nd Annual Tony Awards. But the American Theatre Wing did something else of major importance Tuesday morning with the announcement of the 2008 Special Tony Award recipients.
The only question was when, not if, Stephen Sondheim would join the ranks of those named for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. 2008 is a good moment, while there's a strong revival of "Sunday in the Park With George" on tap, and the potential for life and achievement ahead as well as the remarkable record already on the books.
Orchestrations is a late category to join the list of awards bestowed by the Tonys. The king of arrangers, who create the orchestral fabric from composers' scores, was the late Robert Russell Bennett. The 30-piece orchestra at Lincoln Center for the current revival of "South Pacific" is a stunning reminder of a standard that has long since faded. Hopefully, such reminders won't let that standard die completely. But you'll have to come to New York for the experience.
A production with an orchestra like this can never tour. But South Florida can dream of a full-blown concert version. Today's daydream: Both the Symphony of the Americas and the Boca Symphonia are about the right size.
The third Special Tony Award, recommended by the American Theatre Critics Association, is probably overdue for the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.
The Windy City also probably has more than its share of Regional Theatre Tonys. The CST is a special case, young by today's standards for top rank regional houses. It began in 1986 with a production of "Henry V," little more than a community theater scraping by in borrowed spaces in the early years.
It's morphed into a multimillion-dollar organization on the city's Navy Pier, with a 50-week season of 600-plus performances and an annual audience of 225,000.
But the citation doesn't go for the physical phenomenon. CST held to its mission and also became the premiere Shakespearean/classical theater company in the U.S. And there are many. Which brings up another point. Wish we had one.
JACK ZINK, the Sun-Sentinel theater, music & cultural affairs writer, has spent 38 years on the Gold Coast...