Tonys Live Chat!

News is thinning out at the moment, so apologies for the paucity of meaty links. At Stage Door Rants there's a recap from the Outer Critics' Circle awards, including Jack O'Brien's speech:

[...] Jack O'Brien talked about the need for a national theatre here and mentioned creating a company where a group of amazing actors could come together and work and have a creative home. COAST was a very special, unique experience made possible by the extraordinary efforts of Lincoln Center but it shouldn't be - we should have a place where projects of this size happen because they have to and are good for the theatre. We all agreed. [...]

BroadwayWorld has coverage of the same event, with a couple of cute photos of Martha Plimpton and Mr O'Brien. More photos at BroadwayWorld, this time from the Drama Desks press room and after-party.

On the Tonys front, results from polling at Off-Off Broadway have Jennifer Ehle ahead of Ms Plimpton by a mere 7 votes, or 5%. It's going to be close! There's discussion at ATC to the same effect: everyone seems to agree it'll be a Utopian, but aren't sure which.

A couple of old reviews. First, one of Shipwreck by Margarent Croyden of NY Theatre Wire, which I have in my notes under "thbbbbt". Secondly, and with quite a different perspective, is commentary from 4th wall saying how Coast of Utopia revealed the meaning of life to the writer, no less. Some good quotage of the text there as well...and a call to arms Belinsky or Bakunin would've been proud of.

Meanwhile, we haven't been following John Ehle's work for some time- Press53 is republishing another of his works, The Free Men.

It's not too early to start preparing for the big night! The Tony Awards ceremony is on Sunday, June 10. The red carpet will be webcast from the Tonys site from 6.30pm and the ceremony will be telecast on CBS at 8pm. This is the Tonys webmaster's response on what international fans will be able to see:

The Tony Awards will be broadcast exclusively on CBS. Please visit TonyAwards.com before, during, and after the awards ceremony for complete text and photo coverage, with video interviews with winners and presenters, and much more.

The word from prior years is that there are real-time transcripts and plenty of multimedia to enjoy even though you can't see what's going on onstage. No excuses, get in on the excitement and partay like it's 2000! Er, yeah. It's no fun alone, so we are organising a live chat for the event. Mark your calendars:

• Date: Sunday, June 10
• Time: 6.30pm US EST (see your time zone)
• Place: Tonys Live Chatroom 2007

Don't be shy, come join in the merriment! There will be squeeing, finger-crossing, dress-snarking, speech-groaning and more. This is a chance not only to celebrate Ms Ehle's nomination and Utopia, but also to meet fellow fans. The chatroom only requires a Java-friendly browser; have a test of it now if you suspect yours is not compatible.