Another Tonys Roundup Plus a Few Extras

First up, the non-Tony items:

• It has been announced that Jennifer Ehle and Rosemary Harris will be presenters at the 2006-07 Theatre World Awards. Both mother and daughter are former winners of this prestigious award for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut performances. The invitation-only ceremony will take place on June 5th. See BroadwayWorld, Playbill, or TheaterMania for more details and a list of this year's winners.
• At BroadwayWorld, you can see some video coverage of the Drama League Awards, which took place on May 11. The coverage starts about halfway through the video, and there are interviews with Utopians Ethan Hawke, Brian F. O'Byrne, and Billy Crudup, along with many other nominees.
• Adam Pincus of The New York Observer reports on some unresolved legal issues pertaining to the movie Pride and Glory. According to New Line Cinema, the film is still scheduled to be released Jan 4, 2008 despite these hiccups.

And now on to the Tonys!

• All of our finger crossing was for naught. The Tonys site has posted a list of everyone who will be included in the remaining "Meet the Nominees" videos and Jennifer Ehle is sadly not one of them. (I still recommend watching them for the other nominees). Video #3 is now available.
• Score! Broadway.com's Nominee Video Poll #3 asks, "Will You Prepare an Acceptance Speech?" and Ms. Ehle is actually featured in this one! (Don't blink or you will miss her).
• There is a cute interview with (Jennifer Ehle's co-nominee) Martha Plimpton at New York Magazine. She also mentions this in her latest MySpace blog, which is viewable to all.
• Broadway.com has posted an interview with nominee David Pittu, who draws connections between The Coast of Utopia and the character he plays in LoveMusik:

  [...] Doing Utopia was like going back to school with about 40 wonderful actors and having Tom Stoppard and Jack O'Brien as our teachers. (Continuing the school theme, Ethan Hawke actually put together a yearbook for everyone in the cast.) For me, a fortuitous connection was discovering a direct line to Brecht from the pre-communistic, anarchic ideas hammered out in The Coast of Utopia. Brecht read the writings of Michael Bakunin, the character Ethan played and, like a lot of the characters in the third play, Brecht was an émigré, first to Scandinavia, then to California and finally back to East Germany. The running dialogue through the trilogy about just what constitutes the ideal personal-political "utopia" is reflected in the life and work of Brecht. [...]

• Some of the musical performances that will be featured in the Tony Awards telecast, along with some additional presenters, have now been announced. Playbill and Broadway.com have more of the details.
• For a little gossip about the upcoming Tonys broadcast and some discussion of the nominees for Best Play, visit Yahoo! Broadway.
• And just for fun: at the Tonys site you can fill out a ballot and predict who you think will win the awards and then "check back after the Tony Ceremony on June 10 to see if your predictions matched those of the majority of other Internet theater buffs - and the actual winners!" Note that you can also get a printable ballot to fill out and have with you while you watch the show. Whatever floats your boat!

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.

Mini Post

Just a quick update:

• For those of you in the metropolitan New York City area, you can watch the telecast of the Drama Desk Awards today, May 27, on WNET/Thirteen at 12:30pm. See Playbill for more information.
• Playbill also announces that the latest edition of "Theater Talk" will feature several theater journalists discussing their Tony predictions. This will be aired on WNET/Thirteen immediately following the Drama Desk telecast.
• Speaking of awards, there are plenty of pictures of cutie-pah-tootie Martha Plimpton and Jack O'Brien at the Outer Critics Circle Awards at Broadway.com and BroadwayWorld.
• The results of the Broadway.com Audience Awards have been announced. The Coast of Utopia scored a win for 'Favorite New Play' and Ethan Hawke is the 'Favorite Featured Actor in a Play.' (Tonya Pinkins of Radio Golf was named the 'Favorite Featured Actress.')
• Remember that you can still vote for the BroadwayWorld Fans' Choice Awards until June 6th. Martha Plimpton is currently beating Jennifer Ehle by a mere hair. If you haven't already voted, what are you waiting for?!
• To end with some good quotage - Christine Dolen of the Miami Harold laments that The Coast of Utopia has already closed, and she lavishes praise on specific members of the cast:

  [...] Through breathtaking design, energetic direction by Tony nominee Jack O'Brien and some brilliant acting (by the cool Brían F. O'Byrne as Herzen, Ethan Hawke as the comically self-adoring Bakunin, Billy Crudup as the awkwardly intriguing Belinsky and the amazing Jennifer Ehle, unrecognizable from one play to the next in a trio of key roles), The Coast of Utopia was a thrilling exploration of passionate lives intertwined with roiling political and social change. [...]

Further haemoglobin shortage

• The Tonys site has been updated with another video of nominees at the Meet the Press event. The latest includes Utopians Martha Plimpton, Scott Pask, Catherine Zuber and David Pittu. Presenters for the big night have been announced and include Jennifer Ehle's doppelganger Eddie Izzard and former co-stars Liev Schreiber and Kevin Spacey. Also, you can download her Tony Memory video as an iTunes podcast, the same one that can be viewed on the site. The second Road to the Tonys video is up, along with some short clips from the plays. Oh and yesterdayish was the Nominees' Luncheon where they got certificates and presumably free nosh.
  
• The Playbill photocall from the Drama Critics' Circle awards sports a cute pic of Herzen's women.
  
• Ricky calls it for Utopia in most of its Tony categories, including the one most of interest:

  [...] Though Martha Plimpton took home this award at the Drama Desk Awards (Ehle wasn't nominated), I think that Jennifer Ehle will probably take home the Tony. I'm not familiar with the work of Elbrick, Ivey, or Maxwell, but Ehle was one of the best things about Utopia. I wish she had had a more prominent role throughout the trilogy, but as Natalie Herzen in Shipwreck, she more than proved her acting chops. It was one of the most thrilling performances I saw all year. [...]

• At a night so frozen, some commentary on nominations the writer is excited about:

  [...] Jennifer Ehle, The Coast of Utopia (remember when she won a Tony in like 2001 and it was so freaking cute? Oh, also remember when she and Mr. Darcy got married and that other time when they were gazing at each other over the piano and stuff?) [...]

• Over at YouTube, there are a couple of Martha Plimpton videos: one backstage at the Drama Desks ceremony, and one from the nominations.
• A review of a Utopia review (Anthony Grafton's, NY Review of Books) can be found at snarksmith, along with a nice quote about Herzen from Russian Thinkers.
• Utopia is topping the tables at the Broadway Show League, as yet undefeated in five matches.

An Anemic Post

a.k.a. A Post of Marginal Relevance

• Broadway.com has a new Tony nominee video poll entitled "Are You a Competitive Person?" Alas, Jennifer Ehle has managed to escape once again, but you can see plenty of her co-stars.
• Episode One of "The Road to the Tonys" series is now available online at TonyAwards.com. (Hopefully next week's episode will be a little more meaty).
• And, while you're on the Tonys site, you can watch "Meet the Nominees on Video Part 1". Supposedly more video interviews will be up on Friday. (We live in hope that someone managed to capture Ms. Ehle in one of these).
• Also at TonyAwards.com is Bakunin patriarch Richard Easton's "Tony Memories" video. Scroll down until you find his name. This is doubly relevant because Mr. Easton discusses his friendship with Ellis Rabb and Rosemary Harris and the A.P.A. repertory company that they created together.
• Former Jennifer Ehle co-stars Liev Schreiber and Kevin Spacey, along with Jeff Daniels and Brian Dennehy, recently took part in The American Theatre Wing's "Working in the Theatre" seminar. According to Playbill, the show was broadcast by CUNY-TV on May 20 and will be aired again later this week. It can also be viewed online at the ATW's website.
• This might be overkill, but there are still more pictures from the Tony Nominees' Press Reception at Broadway.com.
• And, there are more photo-calls from the Drama Desk Awards at Playbill and BroadwayWorld.
• Finally, Michael Musto of The Village Voice has his tongue firmly in his cheek as he announces his Tony Award picks:

  When the Tony nominees were announced last week, gays could suddenly be seen running through Times Square shrieking things like, "I thought for sure NIALL BUGGY was the biggest lock since IAN MCDIARMID" and "In what universe is JENNIFER EHLE considered featured?"...And so: Best Play will go to The Coast of Utopia, mainly because it was longer than the three other nominees combined. [...]

Past, Present and Future

• Drama Desk Award winner Martha Plimpton shows off her lovely dress at the ceremony on Sunday (scroll down, 5th photo). Here is another photo of her with the winner of the other Actress in a Play category, Eve Best (scroll down, 7th photo). There are also a few of Ms Plimpton at the Drama Desk Cocktail Reception on May 3rd.

• Some Utopians have exciting things lined up for the coming days and months. Martha Plimpton will be hosting and taking part in the Tiny Smooshy Sunday on Fire event on June 3rd. Click here for a list of other performers and for ticket and location information.

• The promised further details for Ethan Hawke's plans have now been revealed. He is, once again, favoring directing over acting and will be working on Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want for The New Group for the 2007-2008 season.

• Across the pond, Charlotte Lucas is swimming the Channel! Lucy Petrie (formerly Lucy Scott) who played Miss Bennet's friend in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice is undertaking this challenge with her husband to raise money for premature babies. "Maybe I'll swim across in a bonnet" she joked!

• For $15 on eBay meanwhile, you can get yourself a window card from the Broadway production of The Real Thing.

• Lastly, for all you American Austenites out there, PBS is planning to devote some serious screen time to Jane's works. In January 2008, the channel will start broadcasting a four month marathon on Sunday nights, called The Complete Jane Austen. It will include the adaptations of all six novels (including the 1995 Pride and Prejudice) as well as Miss Austen Regrets, a new programme based on the author's diaries and letters. Capital, capital!
  

Utopia sweeps Drama Desks

Coast of Utopia scored seven wins at the Drama Desk Awards held on May 20. Felicitations! We could get used to this. Here are the categories:

• Outstanding Play
• Outstanding Director of a Play: Jack O'Brien
  
• Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play: Martha Plimpton
• Outstanding Music for a Play: Mark Bennett
• Oustanding Set Design of a Play: Bob Crowley and Scott Pask
• Outstanding Costume Design: Catherine Zuber
• Outstanding Lighting Design: Kenneth Posner, Brian MacDevitt, Natasha Katz

Drama Desks on now

• The Drama Desk awards are on now; you can watch the live webcast from Theatermania. Windows Media Player is required. See BroadwayWorld forumers' predictions. Coast of Utopia has ten nominations.

• On Nandita Das' site, there are some photos proving the existence of Before the Rains (formerly named Kerala or Road to the Sky). We've had our doubts. Ms Das' assistant says that the film might be released at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is running from September 6 to 15, but this isn't confirmed yet.

• There's an amusing quote in the New Zealand Herald's interview with Mary Wesley's son, Toby Eady, about costume anachronisms in The Camomile Lawn. So to speak.

• The Tonys polling continues at Off-Off Blogway; again les soeurs Bakounine are neck and neck.
  

• If you're feeling bereft at the closing of Coast of Utopia, think how it must be from the other side of the stage. Martha Plimpton sums up the experience in a moving post (publicly viewable, yay). Hope she doesn't mind me sharing this beautiful passage from Shipwreck that she quotes in conclusion:

  We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but we think there is something wrong with this picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and wilfullness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected. But there is no such place. That's why it's called Utopia.

A Few Little Extras...

• Firstly, a nice little photo of the former Mr and Mrs Macbeth at the Nominees' Brunch at the Marriott Marquis. (Scroll down, fourth photo).
• Mark Shenton of The Stage gives his opinions on the Tony situation, including notable omissions. He notes how Mr O'Brien is the sole American entrant competing for Best Director of a play.
• The Independent leads the British publications who have well-intentionally (if erroneously) tried to claim Ms Ehle as one of their own. (I apologise for my country!)
• Rexsteed ran the penultimate marathon and found it 'stunningly beautiful, awesome, intriguing' and 'thrilling'.
• Fan Sean meanwhile has decided that 'the world needs a lot more Martha Plimpton' and is rooting for her in the Featured Actress category.
• Here is an old interview with Ethan Hawke regarding his second novel, Ash Wednesday.
• All you Stoppardians out there, mark your diaries for October 19, the date Rock 'n' Roll is coming to Broadway! (as reported by Playbill)
• eBay has a Coast programme signed by five main Utopians. If you did not buy any memorabilia, there are still some window cards available. Or if you're free on June 10th, there are two Tony Awards tickets up for grabs! Playbill.com meanwhile is still selling opening night playbills for each part.

Tonys Fever

Just a brief round-up for today:

• "How Did You Celebrate Your Tony News?" is what Broadway.com asked the nominees at the Press Reception. Watch the video to hear their responses. Unfortunately, Jennifer Ehle wasn't included in this one, but there should be more in the coming weeks.
• The Tonys site has a cute picture of Jennifer Ehle, David Pittu, and Martha Plimpton at the Press Reception. It can be found on the fourth page of the nominees gallery.
• Wire Image also has a couple of photos from the same event.
• The New York Times now has a poll where fans can vote for the Tony Nominees and view the current standings. Jennifer Ehle is currently leading her category with 36% of the votes, and Martha Plimpton is in second place with 25% of the votes. Note that The Coast of Utopia is leading in all of its categories save one! (Hopefully it will pan out this way on Tonys Night!)
• I don't believe this has been posted yet. Here is Brendan Lemon's latest post for the Lincoln Center backstage blog, in which he talks about the cast party after the final Salvage.
  

  [...] Cast and crew spent much of the party telling each other what their immediate post-Utopia plans would be. Some people are taking a long-deserved break; others have already plunged into their next project. In the former category can be counted Jennifer Ehle, who's planning to catch up with her family and Larry Bull, who's taking a trip to Slovenia and Croatia; in the latter category are Brian O'Byrne, who's already begun his work on the Showtime series Brotherhood, and David Pittu, who says he's enjoying playing Brecht in the Broadway production of LoveMusik. (For this work, Pittu won an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.) [...]

• Playbill has some more news about Ethan Hawke's upcoming plans:
  

  Ethan Hawke, Mark Brokaw and artistic director Scott Elliott will stage works by Mike Leigh and more for the forthcoming New Group 2007-2008 season.
  The Off-Broadway troupe — who will again take up residence at Theatre Row — has announced the productions to be featured in its 13th season. Dates and further details are yet to be revealed. [...]

• Here is an interesting tidbit about Jennifer Ehle from mag78 of All That Chat:
  

  [...] randomly, i was at lincoln center on saturday [May 12] and jennifer ehle was outside, in costume, at 1:45, having her photo taken professionally...

• Just for kicks, here is Time out of Mind's very reasonable prediction for Best Featured Actress:
  

  [...] Best Featured Actress in a Play is a toss-up. I know absolutely nothing in this. I'm betting The Coast of Utopia again. I pick Jennifer Ehle, just because I like that name better than Martha Plimpton. Unless Dana Ivey, who's been nominated a buncha times, makes a surprise comeback for the not-well-liked Butley revival. [...]

• If you hurry to ebay, you can bid on this collection of production photos and a programme from The RSC's 1995 production The Relapse, which starred Jennifer Ehle and Douglas Henshall.
• Also at ebay is a programme from The RSC's The Painter of Dishonour as well as some production photos and a newspaper review.

High Flying Adored!

• Jennifer Ehle's "Tony Memories" video can now be seen online at TonyAwards.com! Scroll down until you find her name.
• The Tony Nominees' Press Reception was held today, May 16, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. Matt Freeman, a TonyAwards.com intern, posted about it on the Tonys' MySpace page. TonyAwards.com says, "We’ll be there with cameras and microphones, and we’ll post and podcast video clips of interviews with nominees soon after the event."

Edit: There are a couple of pictures from the Press Reception at gettyimages.com. Search for "Jennifer Ehle."

Edit #2: More pictures of Jennifer Ehle and Martha Plimpton at the Reception can be found at Broadwayworld.com.

• More 'Tony Reactions' have been recorded by Playbill.com. Jennifer Ehle's account is roughly the same as the one posted by Broadway.com (see previous post) although she sounds slightly more discombobulated in this one. Endearingly so, of course!

  We were driving home from upstate, and I suddenly got two emails on my Blackberry with people saying congratulations. Then enough came through that I realized exactly what was going on. I don't remember exactly what I said. I was with my family. Told my husband, 'I've been nominated for a Tony!' I wrote back asking for who else. It's so exciting there's so many of us from the cast — only an idiot would ever think it would happen. That would be a ridiculous way to live, expecting anything like this to happen. I think I'm in a state of shock. I don't think I'm making much sense. But I'm in a state of shock anyway 'cause we just closed [although] it feels like the show hasn't closed yet. I know I'm going to be seeing a lot of people over the next month and we'll still be celebrating. It's extraordinary [that the show] was even put on at all. It's such a thrill. It's lovely. You get to go to the ball.

  More multimedia! Broadway.com has a video feature of the opening day of the Broadway Show League. There are some fun (albeit brief) interviews with Martha Plimpton, Billy Crudup, and Jason Butler Harner, who were there playing for Team Utopia.
• Four more pictures from the Soho Rep Spring Gala can be found at gettyimages.com. Search for "Jennifer Ehle."
• There are a couple of additional photos from The Drama League Awards Luncheon at Broadway.com. (Go to numbers 3, 47, and 52 to see the Utopians).
• During The Coast of Utopia's last weekend of performances, NY Magazine was on hand to ask audience members a variety of questions. Some of the responses are quite humorous.
• Broadwayworld.com has a nice exit interview with Brian F. O'Byrne entitled "Marathon Man: Brian O'Byrne at the 'Utopia' Finish Line."
• Getting back to the Tonys, we've gone from predicting the nominees to predicting the winners. Katie and Chazwaza of All That Chat as well as Linda and Popcultureboy of blogland predict that Jennifer Ehle will be victorious. Cross your fingers!
• And for those of you who want to be completely in the know, The NY Times has created "a special section with a complete list of nominations, reviews, multimedia features, and more."
• Finally, Broadwayworld.com is holding its 5th Annual Theater Fans' Choice Awards. You can vote for Jennifer Ehle, The Coast of Utopia, and your other favorites until June 6th. You can also look at the live standings of the votes in any category. For instance, Jennifer Ehle is currently leading the 'Best Featured Actress in a Play' category with 14% of the votes. Martha Plimpton is right at her heels with 12% of the votes. (Note that this is different from the Broadway.com Audience Awards).

TEN!

It's been far far too long since the word SQUEEEEE!1!!11 was mentioned on this blog! Coast of Utopia has swept the Tony nominations! Here's the damage:

• Best Play
• Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play: Brian F. O'Byrne
  
• Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play: Billy Crudup, Ethan Hawke
• Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play: Jennifer Ehle (double woot!), Martha Plimpton
  
• Best Direction of a Play: Jack O'Brien
• Best Scenic Design of a Play: Bob Crowley and Scott Pask (Mr Crowley is also nominated in two other categories for Mary Poppins)
  
• Best Costume Design of a Play: Catherine Zuber
  
• Best Lighting Design of a Play: Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner, and Natasha Katz (Mr MacDevitt is competing against himself in this category for Inherit the Wind)
  

Head-to-head nominations in TWO categories! As noted below, Utopian David Pittu was nominated in his musical LoveMusik. Congratulations all! The NY Times sez that Utopia is the most-nominated straight play ever.

Broadway.com has nominees' reactions to the announcement; here's Ms Ehle's:

I found out by getting an email from [co-star] Kellie Overbey on my Blackberry. I was in the car—we live upstate and were driving home. She wrote and said congratulations, and at the same time, I got another e-mail from my friend, Brooke Smith, saying the same thing, so I knew it must be true. I instantly wrote back to Kellie going, 'Who else? Who else?' It's just a huge shock, but for some reason, finding out everybody who got nominated was when the real thrill and excitement kicked in because it means that we get to celebrate this production for another month. Having just closed, that's such a joy. It's so great that we get to go on seeing each other. It kind of feels like it's keeping alive for a little bit longer. I didn't scream, I didn't cry. I called my mother and told her, and I told my husband, who was in the car, and my son. He's four and said, 'What are you guys talking about?' And we were just like, 'Oh, some people liked the way mama helped to tell a story, and we're happy about it.' I'm kind of in a state of shock. It's very exciting. I sent [co-star] Martha [Plimpton] an e-mail, and I got an e-mail from director Jack [O'Brien], but I haven't actually spoken to anyone. We literally moved back from Manhattan to where we live upstate today, so it's already a bit of a big day. We got home and saw how many weeds had grown in the garden since last week and set to work on that. I'm celebrating by pulling weeds and doing laundry and just being home. I'm thrilled for David Pittu, of course. David got nominated for LoveMusik, but we claim him still, because he will always be a part of Coast as well. To stand alongside Martha in this category representing the women of Utopia is the best thing of all. It is a glorious thing to have happened."

Awww. More from Billy Crudup, Scott Pask and Martha Plimpton. Watch this page.

Too much news. Have some disorganised linkies:

• The Drama Critics' Circle Awards photocall sports a nice piccy of Martha Plimpton, Jennifer Ehle, Bianca Amato and Jason Butler Harner.
• Lawson Taitte's Dallas Morning News review of a marathon.
• BroadwayWorld forums: "should/will win", initial reactions.
  
• NY1's video of the announcements (I think, no RealPlayer here).
• Have a few hundred spare roubles? Go to the Tonys...the easy way.
• Utopia page on the Tonys website.
• Report from the final Utopia performance including curtain call teariness.
• Hey, Ms Ehle got to play with Meryl Streep at last, according to BroadwayWorld News:

  Jenny Schwartz -- an emerging young playwright whose numerous works include the recently-acclaimed God's Ear, along with Cause for Alarm and Escaping the Modern World-- has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Soho Rep Dorothy Strelsin Playwriting Fellow, it was announced last evening by Soho Rep Artistic Director Sarah Benson at the Soho Rep Spring Gala '07 in Manhattan [that took place on Monday May 14th].
  
  A scene from Schwartz's new work, Somewhere Fun, was given a staged reading at the Gala by a cast featuring 2 time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep, recent Tony Nominee Jennifer Ehle (The Coast of Utopia), and Gala host and Soho Rep Board Member Tim Blake Nelson. [...]

• Check out pictures from the above gala.
  

PS. One more SQUEE!!! for good luck!

From the other shore

The Outer Critics Circle awards have been announced: see Playbill. Eve Best won in Jennifer Ehle's category, but Coast of Utopia scored six gongs, the most for the season. Congrats!

[...] Among its honors are Outstanding New Broadway Play, Outstanding Director of a Play (Jack O'Brien), Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Martha Plimpton), Outstanding Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner and Natasha Katz), Outstanding Set Design (Bob Crowley and Scott Pask) and Outstanding Costume Design (Catherine Zuber). [...]

There are now some photos up from the Drama League awards at BroadwayWorld; Utopia was represented by Ethan Hawke, Brian F. O'Byrne and Billy Crudup. Here are the boys at the meet and greet. At Stage Notes, you can see a shot of some of Team Utopia from the Broadway Show League.

Tonys predictions are stepping up, with Utopia quite prominent. The Record's Robert Feldberg is tipping it for Best Play and Mr O'Byrne for Lead Actor; Jacques Le Sourd of the Journal News and Michael Kuchwara of AP more or less concur. Michael Riedel of the NY Post goes straight to the source, gauging Tonys temperature from some nominators; according to them, Utopia will be battling Frost/Nixon and Radio Golf for Best Play. Steve on Broadway's poll comes up with the same.

Bloggers are getting in on the predictions as well: Carajoy of Full Force Theater Musings considers Jennifer Ehle a lock in Featured (spin round, spit thrice!) along with some other Utopians in their categories, while Josh R at Edward Copeland on Film thinks Martha Plimpton is a chance:

[...] I'm starting to really like Martha Plimpton's chances for Featured Actress in Play - she was absolutely brilliant in Salvage, which was the last play in the Utopia cycle and consequently the last one voters will have seen (Ehle's triumph came in Part 2). Of course, I love Ehle, but actually, it's a close call for me - and of course, Jennifer has her Tony, so I won't be upset if Martha takes her out. [...]

Michael Baker of Lunar Gemini bats for a few Utopians too. Another blogger, mole_underfield, went to see Voyage especially for Ms Ehle. He missed her at the stage door but says nice things about her "intelligence and her compassionate persona" in Pride and Prejudice. Peter saw the last Salvage performance, enjoying the acting and production. Manderson at The Art of Possible posts this wrapup:

[...] Of everything this season, I only missed one show... nothing has been as amazing and overwhelming that is the journey with the cast of The Coast of Utopia.

The sets, the lights, the costumes, and the most remarkable cast of 44 actors make this an experience unlike any other. Guided by, I am going to say it - Theatrical Genius, Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia takes the amazing words of the fabulous Tom Stoppard and turns them into the most captivating philosophical drama I have ever experienced. [...]

A wee description of Utopia I liked from Chris Jones' review of Arcadia in the Chicago Tribune:

[...] Stoppard’s “The Coast of Utopia,” which recently finished its run at New York City’s Lincoln Center, has that riveting, hopelessly impassioned quality. [...]

And possibly the highest praise one can give a writer chez Sacha:

[...] I'm over the moon. The actors in this ensemble are storytellers on an elite level, Stoppard is gutsy and unsparing and assumes his audiences' intelligence, the light designer painted with light, shade after shade drawing me in, and the music wrapped the whole passionate, noisy, glorious mess in an embrace. Jack O'Brian, the director, had a vision and it was one that as many people as possible should see, love it or hate it. The productions were more than worth every cent I spent, every minute spent on the cancellation line . . . what line? Any memory of that left as soon as my eyes met the stage. What a wonderful, miraculous thing this is, stories told on stage. The very best ones scoop you up, and take you into their world, forcing you to forsake the daily life you have just for a few hours. And when you come back, even the real world has changed as a result of seeing good, very good storytelling. If I ever got a chance to really meet Tom Stoppard, I'd tell him that. He altered the way I see people, my world, choices, and events and that I'm disturbed by this, and I'm glad. And I think he'd be one of those people who could take something like that as a compliment. [...]

Elsewhere in blogland, love for Utopia and funny comments at Allison Williams' LJ, plus some general "saw it, liked it" from Tom & Alissa and Sandy. On the forums there's a sweet "Farewell to Utopia" thread at BroadwayWorld about how it's inspired people, some discussion of accents at All That Chat and another thread where daveylow writes about the last Salvage performance:

[...] I also found Salvage much more involving today, much sadder. The whole cast was in tears this afternoon. I was in the second row center so I was thrilled to be there. [...]

Anthony Grafton reviews Utopia for the New York Review of Books. It begins with observations about some marathoner' reactions:

[...] The marathon version of Tom Stoppard's Russian trilogy is charged with excitement. When I saw the three plays in one day at the end of March, virtually the entire audience stayed until the end. Some of those present—who ranged from eager students to slippered pantaloons—clutched battered blue copies of Isaiah Berlin's Russian Thinkers. Others congratulated one another enthusiastically on seeing plays "that are so much more demanding than the usual." One young man who passed me during an interval on the plaza outside the Vivian Beaumont, talking and gesturing as wildly as the young Russian intellectuals in the first of Stoppard's plays, cried "Knowledge! I want more knowledge" as he went by, smiling seraphically.

When the audience gave the actors a standing ovation—something that happens more often than it should these days—the actors applauded the audience in their turn. Some of them even appeared in costume after the show and joined the ushers in handing out buttons that read "I ran the mara-thon." The ties of feeling that bound cast and audience were almost visible and broke slowly. An older man, behind whom I walked to the subway after the third play came to an end, used his cell phone to give a friend or loved one an urgent, detailed, scene-by-scene account of what we had just watched. [...]

In the "links that fit nowhere else" category, have a read of Aileen Kelly's introduction to Isaiah Berlin's Russian Thinkers, posted at Slow Muse. Also, Dying City playwright Christopher Shinn was asked his opinion on Utopia at one of the Platform Series sessions. Oh yeah Brits, tune your tellies to BBC2 this Monday at 11.50pm to see Bedrooms and Hallways.

Phew, that's the news done! Now for the navel-gazey bit....as of Sunday, the grand Utopian voyage has finally come to an end. There have been more than 200 performances of the show, which must add up to a hell of a lot of sacrifice, man hours and creative energies spent so that hundreds of thousands of spectators could experience this epic event. Congratulations to every single person in the Utopia family - cast, creative team, crew, admin. And thank you. I can't do justice to the scope of this momentous achievement; surely there will be an elegy for Utopia in the NY Times or something. We all need some closure!

On our part, we've been chronicling the show from June 2006 when it was announced that Jennifer Ehle was cast (see hysterical post). Since then, it became an almost daily part of our lives as we hunted down every snippet of Utopia news and opinion available online. It's been a joy watching it take flight.

A lesser milestone passed a couple of weeks ago, the blog's second anniversary. We made it! Hilarious, wristslitty, absurd, humbling, hectic, exhilarating...that hardly begins to describe the year. For me personally, this was the year that web fandom converged with real life as I had the privilege of seeing Utopia with some fellow fans. It was incredible. The report from this is criminally overdue but on the verge of completion.

Said report contains an announcement I've been meaning to make for some time now. The short version is that I am soon stepping down from blog management, passing the torch to Abi and Kate. Officially I'm staying until the Tonys, but impending exam madness means my departure will be a gradual decrescendo rather than an abrupt silence come June. Afterwards I will still be around to enjoy my successors' work and help with technical hitches if necessary, but the blog will be in Kate and Abi's capable hands.

There are many thanks due to everyone who's helped with the blog over the past couple of years, but I think I'll keep my list of specific acknowledgments til June to avoid repetition. For now, thanks to you, dear readers, for your silent support. The little numbers ticking over on our visitor counter has been great reassurance that we're not talking into a void.

PS. Sorry about the weird popup, not quite sure how to get rid of it.

'Distinguished Production of a Play'

There are only three days of performances left, but first, the awards:

This afternoon, The Drama League presented The Coast of Utopia with the award for 'Distinguished Production of a Play.' See Playbill.com for a complete list of the nominees and winners. Note that Jennifer Ehle's former Macbeth costar, Liev Schreiber, took home the 'Distinguished Performance Award.'

Broadway.com has announced the nominees for the 2007 Audience Awards. The Coast of Utopia garnered seven nominations, including 'Favorite New Broadway Play,' and Jennifer Ehle has been nominated for 'Favorite Featured Actress in a Broadway Play' alongside castmates Amy Irving and Martha Plimpton. Vote for your favorites by May 24.

The website manager for the Tony Awards, Andrew McGibbon, announced that the first of three videos in the newly created "Road to the Tonys" series will be available online on Monday May 21st. These videos can be viewed at TonyAwards.com. Jennifer Ehle's "Tony Memories" video is not online yet, but keep checking the Tonys Site.

On the message board front, more Tony victories are predicted for The Coast of Utopia and Jennifer Ehle by idoleyes at All That Chat. Whyohwhyoh, also of All That Chat, is critical of the American cast, but commends the "brilliant Jennifer Ehle" for her performance.

Review-wise, Misha Berson of The Seattle Times attended the April 28th marathon (when Tom Stoppard was in the audience). Her review includes a mention of Ms. Ehle:

[...] Herzen's complicated relations with wife Natalie (the outstanding Jennifer Ehle), a tempestuous mistress (Martha Plimpton, also terrific), many children and a fierce German nanny (also played by Ehle) attest to the limits of 'free love' in an age without birth control (or mental-health care). [...]

Meanwhile, marathon runner Deborah Barlow of Slow Muse left the theater in a state of transcendence:

[...] I’ll be blatantly bloggish and personal and just say that I was in an altered state through the entire 12 hour marathon. (Still am.) Stoppard isn’t everyone’s cup of tea–during the breaks I overheard people who thought it was a bit 'wordy' or that they had fallen asleep through some of it–but he is definitely mine. Why stop at 12 hours? I could do 100. More! No other playwright I know blends the history of Western ideas with theatrical intensity like Stoppard. And there are so many large arc ideas in this trilogy, ones that I care about deeply. [...]

David Fischer at Blog About Town prays for an extension ("I saw Part I courtesy of TKTS last night and loved it--my main disappointment is that, barring a miraculous extension, I won't be able to see the other two parts."), while Elizabeth Maupin of The Orlando Sentinel offers a few words of caution.

Some news about the cast members' post-Utopia projects has begun to trickle out. For instance, Playbill.com reports that Dan Lipton, The Coast of Utopia's pianist, will be performing his own music at Ars Nova on June 3rd. Martha Plimpton will also be taking part in this concert.
Ethan Hawke is off to Australia to begin filming a new movie about vampires called Daybreakers, as reported by Ed Perkis of Cinema Blend. No news of any upcoming projects for Jennifer Ehle. As of now, Pride and Glory is scheduled to be released 04 January 2008.

In other news, Spider-man 3 has been setting box-office records, according to CBC.ca. Gina Carbone of Seacoastonline offers some heartening words about Rosemary Harris in an otherwise mixed review:

[...] At least there's still Aunt May. Rosemary Harris — class itself — grounds the film with her soulful warmth, reminding us that 'Spider-Man' is more than special effects and witty quips. [...]

Had we but ADSL enough, and time

No time for the full roundup that Utopia's final weekend deserves, but have a few random links to tide you over.

• NY Magazine reminds us tongue-in-cheekily that Coast of Utopia is closing this Sunday.
• Some love for the show from Elizabeth Maupin of the Orlando Sentinel and at Primo Clarinetto.
  
• Utopia is doing well at the Broadway Show (Softball) League, winning both their matches against A Chorus Line and Fantastiks/Crime/829.
• Word at BroadwayWorld is that the Coast of Utopia CD is now available at the Lincoln Centre, presumably in the lobby. It's listed at Amazon as well. There are also results for the Munky Awards in which BWW forumers vote for their favourites. Utopia scored Best Play and wins in costume design, lighting design, scenic design and direction. Jennifer Ehle and Billy Crudup took out Best Featured Actress and Actor respectively. Check out the voting breakdowns.
  

Drama Critics' Circle: Utopia is best play!

• In the first awards ceremony of many, the New York Drama Critics' Circle have named The Coast of Utopia 'Best Play' for the 2006-7 season! Congrats to them all! This is Sir Tom's sixth award for Best Play. There are mentions of the win at numerous places such as Broadway.com and Theatermania. Scroll down on the official NYDCC link above for a detailed look at who voted for what ballot-wise.

• Brendan Lemon meanwhile on the LCT backstage blog tells a very touching story of Utopia's effect on one audience member.

• The latest batch of Tony Memories interviews (including Jennifer Ehle) are not yet up, but should be over the next couple of days.

• Meanwhile on the Tonys homepage, there is a countdown clock to the awards - currently 32 days, 22 hours, 3 minutes and 25 seconds!

• A reminder from CD Universe that you can pre-order your Coast of Utopia music CD, at the sale price of $15.18. The scheduled release date is currently June 12th.

• Capacity figures for the week of May 6th were as follows: The Year of Magical Thinking 93.3%, Utopia 91.6%, Inherit the Wind and Moon for the Misbegotten both at 82.3%, Frost/Nixon 77.4% and Deuce 75.3%. All other plays were down in the forties, thirties and even twenties.

• Only two performances of each part now remain...gosh the intensity!

"My Suffolk days, by Spider-Man's aunt": East Anglia Daily Times

Wow, here's an awesome interview with Rosemary Harris in the East Anglia Daily Times. It covers everything from birth onwards, basically. Too much good quotage to choose from...just read it!

Also, some multimedia from the American Theatre Wing which may or may not have been posted before:

• Dramaturg Anne Cattaneo on Women in the Theatre.
• Brian F. O'Byrne on Theatre Talk.
• Amy Irving and Billy Crudup on Downstage Centre.
  

t-6

What surely must be a record number of famous faces attended the final Utopia marathon, according to Lawson Taitte of Over The Top Blog. A few All That Chatters also present spotted Tony voters and more VIPs. Another final-marathon runner, Heather, sez:

...I will just say - it is surely one the most beautiful things I have ever seen a group of human beings do together. I hope wherever you are there is something to cause you to ruminate on beauty, art, and love. [...]

And more marathon reportage from Wendell Brock of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

[...] A very long journey, indeed, but a starry, satisfying and wholly opulent one.

"Starry" as in the constellation of Ethan Hawke, Billy Crudup and Brian F. O'Byrne.

"Opulent" as in sets by Bob Crowley ("Aida," "The History Boys") and Scott Pask ("The Pillowman"). I'm talking about images that got applause before a single word was spoken. I'm talking about an enormous crystal onion dome hanging from the ceiling like some Dale Chihuly chandelier. I'm talking about a tableau vivant representing what looked like hundreds and hundreds of serfs. (Call it the magic of theater.) [...]

Jere-Rigged, who liveblogged from the marathon earlier, posts this summary:

The Coast of Utopia - This was the very definition of epic in every way...huge cast, huge sets and costumes, huge running time. I saw all three of the plays that comprise this work in a single day and it was a bit overwhelming. Cast was terrific, especially Ethan Hawke, Brian F. O'Bryne (terrific in everything and New York's most reliable character actor), and Jennifer Ehle. It about a group of real-life Russian philosphers/rabble rousers and follows the group from their student days in St. Petersburg through their lives for 40 or 50 years. It's like Chekov by way of Stoppard. You just sort of have to go with it and let the whole thing wash over you. Go, if you have a chance. We don't get big theatrical epics like this very often and this is a chance to catch something the likes of which you probably won't see again.

rm on Shipwreck and curtain calls:

[...] The staging of the revolutionary stuff in France was particularly compelling, especially with the singing, and it really gave me chills and moved me to tears just for the sheer scale of it -- it put me in mind of the awe, but in a much darker way, that I felt at the end of Act II of Luhrmann's staging of Bohemme with that damn streamer cannon.
...
One of the stranger things that's stuck with me from both parts 1 and 2 were the curtain calls. Part of it is how exceptionally well choreographed they are (curtain calls always feel like last minute disasters to me when I'm in them), but it's also a sense of how between fact and fiction I find them -- with the thematic music and the victorious, almost martial, staging of them -- is this the heroes of the play celebrating? or the actors? There's a real gleaming pride in these curtain calls and a ferociousness to the body language from all the actors and it interests me, both as a glance into the nature of performing something as insane as this piece, but also as a glance into the characters in a way that's out of Time (even more than the plays themselves) and into the authorial and directorial mindsets of the presentation. [...]

At a thaumaturgical compendium, the Utopia marathon prompts interesting musings on contempory technological utopias - sorta reads like an essay in the LCT Review. Here's his wrapup of the show, but click through for the thinky bits.

[...] I won’t review, because I am rarely very good at that. It was, however, an excellent production. The plays were well written, though the third seemed a bit more harried than the first two. The acting was generally excellent. Ethan Hawke got on my nerves—I am sure that was why he was cast in the role—and tripped on the lines at one point, but I’m sure it has to be a bit harrowing to do three different shows in a day. Tom Stoppard was in the audience (as were some familiar faces, including Bill Bradley, Nathan Lane, and Jane Krakowski), and was dragged on stage to take a bow at the curtain call. The staging was breathtaking, and director Jack O’Brian deserves special credit for making this an astoundingly engaging performance, making use of lighting, a stage turntable, sets, sounds, and odors to draw the audience into the dialogue. In all, a great experience. [...]

There's a fascinating comparison of Turgenev translations at Steamboats Are Ruining Everything. Only tenuously linked to the premise of this blog but that's never stopped us before. Finally, on the awards-tipping front, Modern Fabulosity's Tony predictions are up, with nods to Utopia and a number of cast members. Ditto at BroadwayWorld.

Less than one week til Utopia closes! If you haven't seen the show yet...get out from under that rock!

173 down, 7 to go...

As of today, it's a tearful au revoir to the Marathon!

Meanwhile:

Tim at My Stupid Dog considers Utopia 'quite simply the best thing I have ever seen on a stage.'

The feat performed by Mr. Director is given the thumbs up once again:

[...] With a cast of forty-four and more than eighty speaking parts, this production would be massive by any standard. (The cast of the 2002 London production was smaller by a third.) Yet fluid, ingenious direction from Jack O’Brien ensures that every moment of this trilogy is enthralling, delightful, and deeply heartfelt. [...]

He also gives perhaps the highest praise yet for Mr. O'Byrne:

[...] Brian O'Byrne may be the only living American actor capable of the emotional, intellectual, physical and vocal demands of this enormous role. His booming baritone easily fills the thousand-seat Vivian Beaumont Theater - no easy task, since most of this production is performed without amplification. On days when all three parts of Coast are performed back-to-back, O’Byrne appears onstage for nearly five exhausting hours, all but shouting to the gallery the entire time. [...]

The commendations extend to the rest of the cast, although a few people are omitted:

[...] Ethan Hawke ... gives O’Byrne a fair run for his money. Hawke endows his young Mikhail Bakunin with movie-star glamour (and, more slyly, more than a little movie-star narcissism), then ages convincingly into a bitter, unsympathetic bomb-thrower. Amy Irving successfully tackles multiple roles, as Bakunin’s flibbertigibbet mother in Voyage and a shocking bisexual temptress in Shipwreck. As author Ivan Turgenev, who may well serve as the artistic conscience of Coast, Jason Butler Harner gives an initially restrained performance that grows more intense and powerful as the trilogy progresses. In the performances I saw of Voyage and Shipwreck, the character of Russian literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, usually played by Billy Crudup, was handled by understudy Scott Parkinson. Parkinson acquitted himself admirably, even drawing spontaneous applause for a lengthy first-act monologue in Voyage. [...]

He then parts with the crowd by proposing that Part 1 is the best option for a single play:

[...] Voyage would prove the most satisfying. Shipwreck, a domestic drama, feels like a middle chapter, while Salvage can seem pedantic to those who have yet to see the first two parts. [...]

• Daily Motion speaks to Rosemary Harris briefly about her career and all things arachnidan. (And you can brush up on your language skills with the complimentary French subtitles.)
• Visit the Tom Stoppard Bibliography for a comprehensive list of all Stoppardian creations including unpublished works.
• eBay.co.uk has a few things up for grabs: 1) a The Real Thing programme from the Donmar's production 2) a copy of the Radio Times from March 1983, with cover girl Rosemary Harris 3) a programme from the Apollo's production of The Best of Friends, starring Ms Harris, from 1988. 4) a programme from the Strand's 1992 production of Lost in Yonkers, also starring Ms Harris.

A Splendid Showdown!

Hello everyone, I'm Kate, the newest member of the Jennifer Ehle blog team. I'm a long-time fan, theatre buff, and perennial student. Please bear with me as I make my blogging debut.

Awards season is upon us! Normally, we have to sit back and await the decisions of others, but here is our chance to influence the outcome. Support The Coast of Utopia, Jennifer Ehle, and all of your other favorites by nominating them for Broadway.com's 8th Annual Audience Awards. Here's what they have to say:

[…] Nominate your favorites in each category and later vote for the winners of this annual prize ... Voting takes place through Thursday, May 10 at 11:59pm. We'll announce the nominees on Friday, May 11, at which point final voting will start. Be sure to check back and see if your favorites made the cut! […]

Broadway.com and Playbill.com have posted photos from the 2007 Drama Desk Nominee Reception. Martha Plimpton, who has been nomiated for Outstanding Featured Actress, was there representing The Coast of Utopia. The awards will be presented on May 20.

For those of you who haven't had your fill of reviews, there is much praise from Everett Evans of The Houston Chronicle, who recently ran the marathon. He singles out one scene in particular:

[…] The entire cast, in fact, is uniformly superb, but there is no more space for individual commendations — other than to praise Jennifer Ehle and Amy Irving's splendid showdown in a Paris garret in Shipwreck, Ehle at that point playing Herzen's wife Natalie, with Irving as Ogarev's estranged wife, Maria. […]

He also has this to say about the "all head and no heart" debate regarding Tom Stoppard's works:

[…] Stoppard has at times been accused of being too cerebral, abstruse and devilishly tricky. Yet for all its heady political and philosophical debate, Utopia is not the offputting tract some might fear. Because Stoppard stresses the humanity of his flawed, complicated (and yes, brainy) characters, the trilogy remains involving throughout … It's about human relationships, too: romances thwarted or enduring, betrayals real or imagined, parent-child relationships, the tragedy of three key figures doomed to an early death by consumption. Whether considering how societies evolve or pondering the meaning in the death of a child, Stoppard's people are passionate as they are intelligent. […]

Remember that Spiderman 3 starts today! Here is a cute interview at Relish Now! with the lovely Rosemary Harris, who recounts a potential disaster (that was thankfully averted) while filming part deux.

[...] “They had built four stories of the building, and I was standing on the window ledge,” she recalled. She was protected with a thin body-fitting harness (“It’s the same thing the Cirque du Soleil people wear,” she said) and wires that supported her … for the most part. “One time just before they were going to take a shot of me falling, they suddenly shouted out ‘Don’t jump yet! Your wires have lost their memory!’ It was alarming.” She isn’t sure exactly what a wire having lost its memory means, but waited for them to reprogram the computers that controlled the wires. “Then they said, ‘OK, now you can jump’ and I said, ‘Thanks a lot.’” She enjoyed her brief foray into stunt work. “I loved it. I got quite addicted to it. It was sort of an adrenaline rush.” [...]

Not only does she enjoy doing her own stunt work, she's quite the world traveler as well.

[...] “Rosemary Harris has been busy lately on a worldwide tour promoting Spider-Man 3, and she’s having a blast. "I’m ready for beer and skittles, raring to go," she said by phone from New York, just back from a trip to Tokyo and just before she jetted off to London, Paris, Berlin and Rome. "When you’re flying first class, it spoils you for anything else.… It’s red carpet all the way." [...]

Well, we're down to the wire. Only 11 performances remain, and the cast and crew will be running their final marathon tomorrow, May 5. Don't despair but remember, "Life's bounty is in its flow."

Wunderbar!

• MissSummerLee was present on the 24th and is glad she 'devoted a whole day' to Utopia. She says:

[...] The plays are...very well written and funny with that biting bit of dry sarcastic British humor that I adore ... The design is beautiful. Simple and striking and very well done. It was such an amazing experience and I would totally do it all over again. ... I don't have words for how amazing this was to see! [...]

She also spotted Nathan Lane and Eric Stoltz in the audience, aside from Sir Tom and Mr.O'Brien.

• Echoing similar sentiments, marathon runner Johnna was at the same performance and 'loved every second of it'. Even a little mental drifting didn't lessen the impact:

[...] I admit there was approximately 20 to 40 minutes in the combined show running times of nearly 9 hours where the script was way more intelligent than I was and I couldn't follow the political discussions. But I filled the time with stuff more on my level (admiring the pretty costumes, ... looking for the ventilated wig fronts and microphones.) ... I amused myself even during the cerebral parts. ...

I could have come back two hours after the final curtain and watched another installment if they were willing to present a part four at 1 in the morning. [...]

She isn't the only one contemplating a sequel - Snarksmith nominates The Coast of Realism as a possible title for a part quatre.

Meanwhile:

• Martha Plimpton meets up with singer/songwriter Feist.
• The Guardian has an interesting (albeit loosely related) piece on the current pre-eminence of British playwrights at the expense of their American counterparts. Sir Tom is mentioned briefly with regard to Utopia and Rock'n'Roll.
• Pairs-of-eyes wise, Utopia took silver for the week ending April 29th. (Utopia: 90.2%, The Year of Magical Thinking: 94.6%). For a comprehensive breakdown of Utopia's progress over the last seven months, click here.
• Only 14 plays now remain....if you're in the vicinity, you know what to do. If you're stuck, eBay has a ticket for the penultimate Salvage and the final Voyage. If you buy the latter....I might see you there!