Multimedia Galore!

Okay maybe not galore, but there are some exciting finds:

• First off, BroadwayWorld has some great video interviews with many of the Tony nominees, including Jennifer Ehle. (And it's more than 2 seconds long!)
• Broadway.com has created a page for each one of this year's nominees, complete with factoids, Tony odds, and video clips. They have this to say about Jennifer Ehle's chances for winning:

  In what may be one of the most wide open Tony races of all, Ehle is perhaps the frontrunner—because of her integrity and her meaty roles in all three plays of the trilogy.

  Be sure to check out the pages for Martha Plimpton, Billy Crudup, Ethan Hawke, and Brian F. O'Byrne to see more video clips from all three parts of The Coast of Utopia. (5 acting nominees + 1 Best Play nominee = a lot of video clipage!)
• "Meet the Nominees on Video: Part 4" is available at the Tonys site.
• The Tonys site also announces that on June 9th, the evening before the Tonys, there will be "a champagne reception hosted by Hilton Hotels, honoring the 2007 Tony Award nominees. Past winners, presenters, Tony Awards marketing partners, and other VIPs will get one final chance to wish the nominees luck before their big day."
• For those of you who live in NYC, a panel discussion about the Tonys will be held on June 5th at Ars Nova. Michael Riedel, a columnist for the New York Post, will be the moderator. See Playbill for more details.
• There is yet another thread of Tony predictions at BroadwayWorld. Note that there are quite a few picks for both women of Utopia.
• According to TheaterMania, "Broadway set a new record for ticket grosses - $939 million - during the 2006-2007 season." Supposedly, The Coast of Utopia brought in $11.2 million, the most of all the non-musicals. (See Platinum Broadway.)
• There is some exciting news about the soon-to-be-released Coast of Utopia CD. Playbill announces:

  [...] To celebrate the release of the CD, composer Bennett and Utopia cast members Martha Plimpton, David Pittu and Felicity LaFortune will make an appearance at the Barnes & Noble Lincoln Square that day. The June 12 event will begin at 5:30 PM. [...]

• And, BroadwayWorld has a list of other theater-related events that will take place at the Barnes & Noble Lincoln Center during the next couple of weeks.
• Remember that "Uncharted: Dan Lipton" will take place this Sunday, June 3rd, at Ars Nova. Martha Plimpton will also be taking part in this concert, which features the original music of Dan Lipton.
• Playbill informs us that the latest edition of Forbidden Broadway, the long running off-Broadway show, has been titled The Roast of Utopia. ItsCalledHistory at All That Chat found a description from Gold Star Events:

  THE ROAST OF UTOPIA Special Summer Edition is the brand new installment of the hilarious musical comedy that has been skewering Broadway's biggest shows and brightest stars for more than 25 years. The latest version of this 2006 TONY Honor recipient grills everything from Legally Blonde to Spring Awakening, Grey Gardens to Hairspray - even Annie, The Lion King, & Mary Poppins get burned! Nothing is sacred, and no one is off-limits. If you missed The Coast, see "The Roast!"

• John Longenbaugh of Seattle Weekly gets philosophical and asks, "How long should a play be?" He mentions that, "In the '90s, epics like Angels in America caught the zeitgeist, but the most common critical reaction to the current nine-hour Stoppard epic, The Coast of Utopia, is that, while it's good, even split across three evenings it's a butt numb-er."
• Finally, the Douglas Henshall Blog alerts us to some notable updates at the Douglas Henshall Website. A new page for The Painter of Dishonour has been created and The Relapse page has been updated. Visit these sites to see some production photos of Jennifer Ehle and to read the reviews.

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.

Relapse and randomness

From producer Ian Judge's site:

"Ian Judge’s production has a spring in its step from the first; the actors plainly take pleasure in their parts, and the pleasure communicates itself to the audience." - The Telegraph

That second one isn't her, by the way.

As for the randomness:

An Alan Cumming fan has written in to ask if anyone has a tape of the Ex-S show "Alan Cumming, Uncovered" or Liquid News from March 16th 2001 on Design for Living's opening night. She's willing to pay for it. While we're at it...we'd welcome any photos, clippings (news, not nail), tapes, etc etc that you want to sell or share.

Here's a site with tips for Shakespeare in the Park.

Kerry's started a new Myspace group about Shakespeare in the Park - join her to chat about it. Oh yeah, come talk to us at the forum as well!

There's a piece on Edward Norton's new movie; he's interviewed on the set of Pride and Glory "where he's filming with Colin Farrell, Noah Emmerich and Jennifer Ehle."

Lastly, Sands has a new blog on Pride and Prejudice.

Need belated Christmas pressies?

Never fear, eBay is here.

El cheapo River King DVD - only USD$6.

The Relapse program

Philadelphia Story poster with a picture of Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Ehle from the final weeks

Not particularly new, but I hadn't seen the VHS of Pride and Prejudice with this cover before. Nice change from the other versions which have the wrong character enlarged.