Atlanta made a big splash the morning the Tony Award nominations were announced last year. The Alliance Theatre won the Regional Tony for sustained excellence, and August Wilson’s “Radio Golf” (directed by Atlantan Kenny Leon) received four Tony nominations.

When the Tony contenders are announced tomorrow morning, we’ll be watching to see how Georgia’s Broadway contingent fares. Here’s a look at the homegrown talent, all of whom have a chance at nominations but are by no means shoo-ins.

Tituss Burgess. The Athens native is making a delightful turn as Sebastian, the fussy crab in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.”

Sutton Foster. Already a Tony winner for “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” the star who grew up in Augusta was also nominated for “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Little Women.” Foster plays Inga, Dr. Frankenstein’s love interest in the Mel Brooks musical, “Young Frankenstein.” The big news from Foster is that she’ll play Fiona in “Shrek: The Musical,” opening Nov. 8.

Jennifer Ferrin: This lovely actress is a native of Lawrenceville and graduate of Brookwood High School. She’s the lone female in “The 39 Steps,” the frenetic physical comedy send-up of the Alfred Hitchcock film, which happens to be airing at 8 tonight on TMC. Ferrin is known for playing Jennifer Louise Munson on the daytime soap “As the World Turns.”

Shuler Hensley: The Marietta native gets to make whoopy with “Will and Grace” star Megan Mullally, whose character ditches Dr. Frankenstein for his Monster in Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein.” Hensley has already won a Tony for his portrayal of the lonely, downtrodden Jud Fry in Trevor Nunn’s “Oklahoma!”

Atlanta’s Boris Kodjoe recently stepped in for Terrence Howard to play Brick in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” but Kodjoe won’t be eligible for a Tony nom.

If there were a category for biggest disappointments, “Young Frankenstein” and “Little Mermaid” would be in the game. As it is, “Passing Strange,” “In the Heights,” “Catered Affair” and “Xanadu” have all been better received. By all accounts, the best musicals on Broadway right now are the revivals: “Gypsy,” “South Pacific” and “Sunday in the Park with George.” Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage Count,” which won the Pulitzer Prize, is the best American play in decades. It will win a Tony.

The Tony Awards will be handed out live on CBS on June 15. Whoopi Goldberg will host.

Now, What Broadway shows have you seen this year? And who do you think should win a Tony?

Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater

Carl Hiaasen and I have something in common

By Phil Kloer | Monday, May 12, 2008, 08:07 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

We both have a passionate love-hate relationship with golf. But while I just flail away, week after week, trying to either get better or get calmer, Hiaasen does the same, and then wrote a very funny book about it: “The Downhill Lie: A Hacker’s Return to a Ruinous Sport.”

Hiaasen is known for his Florida-based comic thrillers like “Nature Girl” and “Strip Tease,” so the lacerating first-person account in “Downhill” will be new to his fans. But not the humor, as he sets out on “the cart path to perdition” to improve his game and/or be at peace with it. What he finds, instead, is that “golf is as calming as a digital prostate exam.”

Hiaasen will talk and sign “Downhill” at 7 tonight at Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston. In a phone interview last week, he was in a venting mood.

Q: Are you still playing?

A: I played yesterday and it was a bloodbath. It was like I never played the game before.

Q: Have you made any progress in how you view the game?

A: No. Yesterday was such a massacre I have nothing good to say about it. It was one of those days you want to throw your clubs off a bridge. I set out at the beginning of this experience to be able to say OK, I’m having a rotten day, but I’m still outside walking around in Florida. Theres only 3 billion people who would trade places with me in a heartbeat. If nothing else maybe I can teach myself to enjoy the game in a therapeutic way. And I’m not there yet, obviously. I have nothing to offer but bile and bitterness.

Q: Books like this are supposed to end with enlightenment.

A: This isn’t a self-help book. This is a self-abasement book. I don’t think writers are cut out to be golfers. We train ourselves to be our own toughest editors. Then you take that way of thinking on the golf course and you’re just brutally hard on yourself on every hole.

Q: What’s harder, golf or writing?

A: Both are very difficult and painful, and they’re supposed to be. If you’re gonna be good and excel at them, it’s not gonna be easy. Anything that’s easy, the outcome shows it. Day to day, the writing comes more naturally to me.

Q: I loved your writing about the ads on the Golf Channel.

A: That’s the most depressing commercials in the world, on the Golf Channel. Prostate problems, erectile dysfunction, joint pain, high cholesterol. They know their demographic. And their demographic is me.

Q: Near the end of the book you realize that the worse you play, the funnier the book is going to be, and that your editor is actually hoping your game goes as far south as possible.

A: I thought it would still be a good story if I got to a level where I was breaking 80, so there’s sort of a heroic ending. Of course it didn’t work out that way. The worse I played, the funnier it got, not just for my editor but for all my friends. I would trade the whole book for an 8 handicap any day.

Since today’s book is about golf, do we have any golfers out there who would like to try to one-up either Hiaasen or me on how insane golf makes you?

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books