Drama Desk Nominees + Dorian Awards expand to honor theater

by Nathaniel R

"Shucked" is a hit and leads the Drama Desk Nominations

Are there too many awards groups? We've often bemoaned the ever expanding roster. But, in a stunning feat of hypocrisy I'm personally excited to announce that I'm part of a new group. Or, rather, an already established group expanding to cover something else! So, two things to report. First the Drama Desk Awards (which honor Broadway and Off Broadway productions) and then a new theatrical wing of GALECA: The Society for LGTBQ Entertainment Critics. Several members of Team Experience are part of GALECA but the Dorian Theater Awards are a small subsection of that large group of national critics. In the inaugural year I am excited to be among its 31 charter members. We have covered Broadway (and random theatrical events) on and off over the years here at TFE but we've always wanted to make that a weekly happening so now hopefully we can make that happen.

But first the Drama Desk Nominations...

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Tony Award Nominations! "Some Like It Hot" leads

by Nathaniel R

Christian Borle and J Harrison Ghee are 2 of "Some Like It Hot"'s 13 nominations

Lea Michele, still treading the boards in Funny Girl, and Myles Frost who won Best Actor in a Musical last season for the Michael Jackson musical "MJ" announced the Tony Award nominations this morning honoring the current season on Broadway. The nomination leader, far out front, was the musical adaptation of movie classic Some Like It Hot (review coming soon!) with 13 nominations. Jessica Chastain scored her first Tony nominations (with her second Broadway show) though other screen stars weren't as lucky this year. Though the Tony Awards are gendered for acting, two non-binary performers became the first to score nods for acting with their work in popular musicals: Alex Newell (Shucked) and J Harrison Ghee (Some Like It Hot). 

Nominations are after the jump...

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Interview: Stephanie Hsu. The year's breakout star on her insane year, stage history, and working with legends.

by Nathaniel R

Stephanie Hsu as "Jobu Tupaki" in Everything Everywhere All At Once2022's wildest film was also it's most unlikely mainstream success. For sheer invention it Everything Everywhere All At Once, outdid the animated Spider-Verse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the suddenly flourishing subgenre of multi-verse hopping. At the center of its chaotic maelstorm, is Jobu Tupaki (Stephanie Hsu), the nihilistic variant of depressed Joy Wang, a young queer woman with a tense relationship to her overly critical mother Evelyn(Michelle Yeoh). Stephanie Hsu, 32, is not an overnight sensation but she is a sensation. 2022 essentially served as a mainstream coming out party for the gifted actress after years treading the boards in experimental theater and musical comedy, as well as season-long or guest episode TV gigs.

Back in October I had the change to moderate a Q&A for Everything Everywhere All At Once at which Hsu received a "Rising Star Award". Over the course of the day we met three times and talked Broadway theater, being dramaturgy nerds, forgetting your lines, wild costumes, and various movies that are competing with hers at awards shows (off the record of course!). What follows is the conversation we had as we met, shortly before we went on stage [edited for length and clarity]...

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The Phantom Link

• The Atlantic "Fear of a Black Hobbit" insightful piece about politics and 'nostalgia' franchises
• Boy Culture the latest updated edition of "Encyclopedia Madonnica" (one of our all time fav showbiz books) is out. Buy one if you haven't yet and love Madonna. It's a treasure trove.
• Vulture looks at Baz's tortured artists from Moulin Rouge! to Elvis

Very significant Broadway news regarding The Phantom of the Opera, A trans riff on Gotham City characters, Superman II cosplay, and more after the jump...

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I'll Link To That

• Vox wonderful must-read piece by Alissa Wilkinson on the new fad of intertitles in movies and why and how they're deployed artistically.
• GQ Euphoria's Jacob Elordi profiled. Stunning photos with buzzy interview
• Pajiba Very interesting take on what "Jean Jacket" symbolizes in Jordan Peele's Nope (tons of spoilers)

More Anne Heche, Brad Pitt, Eminem/Hitchcock, Only Murders costumes, and Broadway stuff  after the jump...

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