Ouch

According to VIP Hollywood Insider Nikki Finke, Frank Langella waited until Oscar voting was closed to leave his long, long, longtime agent at Innovative and move to William Morris. Langella seems like a perfect fit for WMA, notorious for repping those serious (stodgy) and seasoned (old) actors.

Why did he wait to leave until the voting was closed? Perhaps he was afraid that the academy members are hardcore Innovative supporters? Oooh, maybe there will be a big showdown of "Team Innovative" and "Team WMA" t-shirts on the red carpet. Or everyone will just stare slack-jawed at Robert Pattinson, as originally planned. Probably the latter.

Tony Awards: Money Quotes

"There's a line in Frost/Nixon which says, "Success in America is unlike success anywhere else. That feeling when you're up, it's indescribable." I'm very grateful to the theater community, to my colleagues in Frost/Nixon here and overseas and the New York theatergoing public for allowing me that feeling this season. The line in the play then goes on to say "But there's another feeling, when it's gone, to somewhere else, to someone else." And I know that feeling, everyone in this room knows it. I suppose we can't stop people from putting us into competition with one another, and once we're here, I suppose we all want to win, but I think we must honor the common bond in us, the struggle. The striving for success because that's a race we simply can't lose. I am very proud, very honored to work and live among you splendid people. Thank you. Thank you for giving me that indescribable feeling, I wish it for you all." - Frank Langella gives the best speeches, no?


"I didn't go to acting school, [but] I have been working in the theatre for 25 years. Over that time you learn by doing and you learn by watching wonderful people, and you learn by making dreadful, embarrassing mistakes! . . . I literally made my debut 20 years ago in Lucky Stiff — a musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. I sang the dog song." - Julie White in the Tony press room, following her win (via the Playbill.com Tony Blog)


"Frank Wood, Mary McCann, Kerry Gartner, Jim Carnahan, all of our producers..." - John Gallagher Jr. thanked Frank Wood and Mary McCann, the only two actors who were replaced when Spring Awakening moved to Broadway.

"Not one audience shot of Les Moonves in the entire TONY broadcast. I thought, “Wait a minute. Is this not the TONYS?” And then a winner mentioned Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall and I knew I was in the right place." - Blogger and tv writer Ken Levine on the Tony telecast

"Of all the big awards shows, I find the Tonys the most reliably moving... Though the awards honor only a fraction of what makes up even New York theater, they nevertheless seem to stand for the art as a whole in a way that the Oscars, Grammys or Emmys don't — they represent a community rather than an industry." - Robert Lloyd of the LA Times , in his review of the telecast

"I did tell Jack O'Brien that if he wanted to a do a musical of this, I think 'Serfs Up' would be a good title." - Tom Stoppard

"Special thanks to music director Kim Grigsby, sound designer Brian Ronan, casting director Jim Carnahan because the Tonys aren't given for their categories, and I think they should be." - Michael Mayer thinks there should be a Tony for casting.

"That's the virus of the show... It starts with that young woman whose body is talking to her. I told them, 'Feel just the tips of your body. Feel all those gentle, tender places you would like to be kissed." - Spring Awakening choreographer Bill T. Jones (via Variety)

Thank God.

Contrary to earlier reports, Frank Langella will play Nixon in the Frost/Nixon film, and not Warren Beatty or Kevin Spacey (blech... something I would pay money NOT to see). My new "favourite" actor Michael Sheen will indeed play Frost in the film. So why did producers, and director Ron Howard, go with Langella after being rumored to be pursuing Warren Beatty? Howard did initally want him, "But Beatty, the [London Daily Mail] reveals, is said to have put off movie executives with his "oscillating behavior." Huh. Oscillating behavior... like the time he deserted Natalie Wood mid-meal in a restaurant and ran off for a three-day interlude with a checkroom girl? One wonders these things on a Friday afternoon. Anyone care to share some of Beatty's more recent "oscillations"?

Frost/Nixon

I wish I had gotten around to posting my review of Frost/Nixon before the critic's reviews came out. Then I could have beaten Brantley to the punch in describing "the momentum of a ticking-bomb thriller and the zing of a boulevard comedy". Actually I probably would have just said that it's splashy and dark and zippy and intense and sad and funny. I really liked Frost/Nixon, and sort of saw it as a more fun, more palatable cousin of British import Democracy, another story about two important men's relationship and the precarious nature of power and the public eye. Frank Langella, whose mug is so recognizable, disappears into the Nixon persona, and Michael Sheen's effortlessness is delightful to watch. It's also incredibly impressive how deftly the actors navigate playing to both the last row of the audience (where I sat) and the extreme close-up of the onstage television cameras.

I was profoundly moved by the apology Nixon finally offers to the American people at the play's conclusion. I was surprised to be so affected by it - these events took place decades ago, and I certainly don't need an apology from Nixon to sleep at night - but I realized that what Nixon was offering up (after much prodding from David Frost) was exactly the thing that we Americans long to hear from our current president. An admission that mistakes were made, lies were told, and most importantly, the ownership of responsibility. This administration has done so much damage, much of it irreparable, but I truly believe it would mean a great deal for Bush to say, in no uncertain terms, "I have let down the American people, and for that I am sorry." I know, I know - I'll keep dreaming. But I think that's an important part of what makes Frost/Nixon so moving.