Daniels on downers

Bobo was already up at 5:30 am this morning, so he tuned into the Webcast of the Tony nominations announcement.
Jeff Daniels acted even sleepier than I was.
I mean, show some enthusiasm, man.

But there is much fun to be had watching the current show clips, which help explain why the big nom-nabbers — Fences with 10, Fela! with 11, La Cage with 11, Memphis with eight, Red and Ragtime with seven each, and so on — did as well as they did.

The O'Neill won the regional Tony, but they weren't that high on my ballot. Marian Seldes and Alan Ayckbourn will receive honorary Tonys on the June 13 show, and long overdue, says I.

That Spokane show only got one nom, for Walken.

In the New York Times, Patrick Healy is heartened somewhat by the fact that money-makers didn't grab as many nominations as the more artistically fulfilling shows. But the Tony noms are voted on by a select group of about 30 theater people; the voters tend to skew toward the money people, for whom commercial success means it must be pretty good artistically too, right?
[ photo: Fela!, a show that will never play Spokane ]