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The Curtain Up Show Album of the Year 2016 nominees

Best UK Cast Recording
American Psycho – Original London Cast Recording
Close To You: Bacharach Reimagined – Original London Cast Recording
Funny Girl – Original London Cast Recording
Half A Sixpence – 2016 London Cast Recording
Kinky Boots – Original West End Cast Recording
Mrs Henderson Presents – Original London Cast Recording

Best American Cast Recording
Allegiance – Original Broadway Cast Recording
The Color Purple – New Broadway Cast Recording
Fiddler On The Roof – 2016 Broadway Cast Recording
Lazarus – Original Cast Recording
On Your Feet! – Original Broadway Cast Recording
Waitress – Original Broadway Cast Recording

Best Solo Album / Non Cast Recording
Cheyenne Jackson – Renaissance
Lin-Manuel Miranda – The Hamilton Mixtape
Idina Menzel – idina.
Kristin Chenoweth – The Art of Elegance
Nadim Naaman – Sides
Samantha Barks – Samantha Barks

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CD Review: The Color Purple (2015 Broadway Revival Cast)

“They see more ’bout how things really are now”

After garnering Tony Awards for Best Revival and Best Actress in a Musical, the revival of The Color Purple is even more of a hot property so it is little surprise that a cast recording was made to crystallise this extraordinary reimagining of the show. The album was made late last year so actually came before award season but the writing was already on the wall at that point.
And it’s interesting to now have this to compare the Original Cast Recording, one which hasn’t gone down in history too well although I thought it sounded exemplary on listening to it recently. What John Doyle’s revival does seem to do though, is to strip away some of the Broadway-isms of the show to drill down to something more elemental. Something that was in ample evidence when I saw it at the Menier and which has been heightened here.
Notions of authenticity when it comes to theatricality are always bogus but there is undoubtedly a stronger feeling of Georgia in the air here, the smaller orchestra proving grittier in these arrangements and a new set of performance imbuing new, different, life into these characters. Cynthia Erivo took that Tony home and it is easy to see why, the raw truth in her voice perfectly suited to Celie’s arduous journey, finally flourishing into beautiful, soaring, warmth.
But it is Danielle Brooks (another escapee from Orange is the New Black – Kimiko Glenn is currently in Waitress and Uzo Aduba starred in The Maids on the West End) as Sofia who is the real revelation here (Erivo’s talents are of no surprise to UK theatregoers after all), a stunning performance of character that crackles with life and demands that you listen to every damn word she got to say and she needs to say…
Joaquina Kalukango’s Nettie is well done and it’s no crime that she’s not Renée Elise Goldsberry, but I do have to say that I was disappointed in Jennifer Hudson’s Shug, a vocal turn that does little to delve into the heart and damaged soul of this woman, beyond the superficial sass of ‘Push Da Button’. I’d love to be able to hear Heather Headley’s take on Shug instead, she’s now playing nightly at the Bernard B Jacobs Theatre as Hudson’s replacement, the only lead to have thus far left the production. 
So it’s a bit of a Celie’s choice – I like both of the Cast Recordings for The Color Purple in different ways, you should probably invest in them both!

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Theatre World Awards 2015-2016

Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple
Carmen Cusack – Bright Star
Khris Davis – The Royale
Daniel Durant – Spring Awakening
Cynthia Erivo – The Color Purple
John Krasinski – Dry Powder
Sarah Charles Lewis – Tuck Everlasting
Austin P. McKenzie – Spring Awakening
Lupita Nyong’o – Eclipsed
Mark Strong – A View From The Bridge
Ana Villafañe – On Your Feet!
Ben Whishaw – The Crucible

Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater: Nicholas Barasch – She Loves Me

John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre: Bernadette Peters

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70th Tony nominations

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Frank Langella, The Father 
Gabriel Byrne, Long Day’s Journey into Night 
Jeff Daniels, Blackbird 
Tim Pigott-Smith, King Charles III 
Mark Strong, A View from the Bridge

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Jessica Lange, Long Day’s Journey into Night 
Laurie Metcalf, Misery 
Lupita Nyong’o, Eclipsed 
Sophie Okonedo, The Crucible
Michelle Williams, Blackbird

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Leslie Odom, Jr, Hamilton
Alex Brightman, School of Rock
Danny Burstein, Fiddler on the Roof 
Zachary Levi, She Loves Me
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Cynthia Erivo, The Color Purple
Laura Benanti, She Loves Me
Carmen Cusack, Bright Star 
Jessie Mueller, Waitress
Phillipa Soo, Hamilton

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
Reed Birney, The Humans 
Bill Camp, The Crucible 
David Furr, Noises Off 
Richard Goulding, King Charles III 
Michael Shannon, Long Day’s Journey into Night

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Jayne Houdyshell, The Humans 
Pascale Armand, Eclipsed 
Megan Hilty, Noises Off 
Andrea Martin, Dotty Otley
Saycon Sengbloh, Eclipsed

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Daveed Diggs, Hamilton
Brandon Victor Dixon, Shuffle Along 
Christopher Fitzgerald, Waitress
Jonathan Groff, Hamilton
Christopher Jackson, Hamilton

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Renée Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple 
Jane Krakowski, She Loves Me
Jennifer Simard, Disaster! 
Adrienne Warren, Shuffle Along

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Nominations for 2015-2016 Outer Critics Circle Awards

John Gassner Playwriting Award
Lindsey Ferrentino, Ugly Lies the Bone
Lauren Gunderson, I and You
Martyna Majok, Ironbound
Marco Ramirez, The Royale
Anna Ziegler, Boy

Outstanding Actor in a Play
Reed Birney, The Humans
Gabriel Byrne, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Frank Langella, The Father
Mark Strong, A View From the Bridge
Ben Whishaw, The Crucible Continue reading “Nominations for 2015-2016 Outer Critics Circle Awards”