Best of Broadway to be Honored Sunday

2013-06-08 13:45

分享到

 

Get Flash Player

It’s spring in New York and that means it’s time for the Tony Awards, which recognize the best musicals, plays and actors on Broadway.

Sex is in the Heel is one of the show-stopping tunes that garnered Kinky Boots a Tony nomination for Best Musical. David Cote, theater critic for "Time Out New York," says its 13 nominations are well-deserved.

“Kinky Boots is a bright, funny, silly but sentimental show about drag queens in a shoe factory in England,” he said. “It’s an underdog story. So in that sense it’s a good show, it’s a fun show, it’s a crowd-pleaser, it’s an American show."

Kinky Boots faces stiff competition from Matilda, a Royal Shakespeare Company production based on Roald Dahl’s children’s book.

“It’s also is about an underdog,” said Cote, “a young girl named Matilda who has some horrid parents and a terrible headmistress named Miss Trunchbull at this English public school where she attends…And it ends with a song called Revolting Children, in which the children sort of wallow in their own revoltingness and how revolting society is and how revolting her rhymes are. It's an anthem to bad behavior."

Both Best Musical frontrunners are conventional Broadway productions, according to Cote.

“They have a little bit of comedy here, a little bit of conflict, but everything turns out all right in the end. And even if there’s a little sexual ambiguity with the characters, like you have drag queens and uptight straight characters sharing the stage,” he said. “You don’t see a lot of musicals that are dark or weird or ambiguous or whose music really pushes the boundary for what we hear onstage.”

Of the four nominees for Best Actor, two are well known stars. Nathan Lane is up for his role in The Nance, about a burlesque performer in the 1930s, and Tom Hanks plays the lead in Lucky Guy, a Nora Ephron play about a real life New York reporter during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

“Tom Hanks is magnificent in this play,” Cote said. “He’s got the charisma, the swagger, the kind-of old school patter down perfectly. It’s a love letter to New York and tabloids.”

Lucky Guy is also nominated for Best Play. To win, it has to beat three other plays, including a comedy called Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike, by veteran playwright Christopher Durang.

“It’s kind of about being middle-aged and sad and feeling your life hasn’t really ended up where you wanted it,” Cote said, “themes that any average theater critic can relate to."

Some Tony watchers are interested in who got snubbed. Many were surprised that singer and comedienne Bette Midler, who plays a colorful foul-mouthed Hollywood agent in I’ll Eat You Last, was not nominated for a Tony.

Casting a celebrity may boost ticket sales, but it doesn’t guarantee a Tony.

"A lot of industry people vote for the Tonys, and they may really want to nominate and award people who are stage stalwarts,” said Cote.

Just who will win the Tonys at Sunday's ceremony is a closely guarded secret. But that’s show business. Otherwise, where would the drama be?

相关阅读

Star Trek Influence Lives Long and Prospers

Demand Grows for Global Ban on 'Killer Robots'

International Survey Shows Habits of Happy Couples

Listeners Tell Their Favorite Proverbs

(来源:VOA 编辑:Julie)

 

分享到

中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883561联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。

中国日报网双语新闻

扫描左侧二维码

添加Chinadaily_Mobile
你想看的我们这儿都有!

中国日报双语手机报

点击左侧图标查看订阅方式

中国首份双语手机报
学英语看资讯一个都不能少!

关注和订阅

本文相关阅读
人气排行
热搜词
 
精华栏目
 

阅读

词汇

视听

翻译

口语

合作

 

关于我们 | 联系方式 | 招聘信息

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. 版权声明:本网站所刊登的中国日报网英语点津内容,版权属中国日报网所有,未经协议授权,禁止下载使用。 欢迎愿意与本网站合作的单位或个人与我们联系。

电话:8610-84883645

传真:8610-84883500

Email: languagetips@chinadaily.com.cn