AndiWorld - February 27th, 2007
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10:25 am
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A wrap up of the 2007 Column Awards
The 2007 Column Awards last night was a big success. I heard from many people that the opening number looked great – and the Ugly Betty chorus line was hysterical, as was John Garcia’s airborne entrance from the flys above the stage as Satine from Moulin Rouge. Before the show, I was rushing around backstage to get all my can-can girls together and ran into our guest co-host, Michael Urie (from the real Ugly Betty). I didn’t think he would remember me after only meeting me for an hour at the rehearsal the day before (especially since I was now all made-up with my “Barbie” hair pinned on the top of my head), but he stopped to say hi and even told me how gorgeous I looked in my can-can ensemble. I also kept passing Stephanie D’Abruzzo (Kate Monster of Avenue Q) in the halls backstage and she actually came up to me to introduce herself. I told her I remembered her from her guest appearance on Scrubs and said they should have let her sing more – she thought that was very sweet. I also passed Christian Campbell (Tick, Tick, Boom and NBC’s The Book of Daniel) in the hallway but didn’t get a chance to talk with him (he was still recovering from all the Oscar hoopla from the night before with his sister Neve Campball – he had actually flown to Dallas in the wee hours after all the Oscar stuff and had had very little rest – another real trooper!).
Evil Twin John seemed ‘in a mood’ and was just wanting to get the tango and opening number done so he could leave. After several years of being at the Awards together, it was weird that he wasn’t going to be there but he couldn’t stay. His work schedule is killing him and it shows. He stayed long enough to watch Michael’s introduction/opening song and then he had to leave.
Michael was a wicked brilliant co-host, starting off by ‘interviewing’ some of the audience during his opening song. His quick adlibs were sharp and very funny, and I couldn’t help thinking what a hoot he would have been hosting the Oscars the night before.
After Michael and John (or Jay-Gar, as Michael called him) started things rolling, the first 2 guest presenters of the evening were introduced, Richard Thomas (yes, the original John Boy Walton) and George “Norm” Wendt (Cheers). Who knew they were such a funny comedy duo – their banter about George never winning an award and other adlibs had the audience rolling on the floor in laughter. Neither one had a ounce of ‘diva’ about them and they went with the spirit of fun this award show had without missing a beat.
Next up was the first award I was nominated for, Sound Design for a Play for my work on Valhalla. And just like last year, I won – kind of ironic that I keep winning sound design awards when everyone thinks of me as a director and actor and never even remembers I have done sound design on many shows I direct, but I can’t seem to win for acting or directing any more these days, though I keep getting nominated. I was still in my can-can outfit, so I had to go up onstage to accept in costume and gave my can-can skirt a little flip and a kick as I exited with my award.
I lost out in my next nominated category, Featured Actress in a Musical – I was nominated for what I still consider my dream role of a lifetime, Sister Amnesia and this was my best shot in a long time at winning an acting award, but it was not to be. The award instead went to my ‘Sister’ Robert Anne, Sherry – who seemed genuinely surprised when her name was called (especially since “Sister” was drinking alcohol from her cup at the time!)
After that category, the Sisters and I went to the dressing rooms to change into our habits, so I missed some of the other categories and Jay-Gar’s next entrance in drag. This year, part of the running theme/joke was that every time John came onstage, he would be dressed as another famous diva. While I was peeling off several layers of can-can makeup to look ‘demure and innocent’ (yeah, that’s why they call it acting), he apparently went from Satine to Chita in Kiss of the Spiderwoman which got a great response from the audience. At least I got to see him in that outrageous outfit when Jordan came to get us to take us backstage for our number and we were waiting until Michael and John introduced our song from Nunsense.
The light cues weren’t the same as what we’d rehearsed at tech so we kinda had to wing it at the top of our scene going into the song, but just as in the original show, Amnesia took over and reacted as only she could. We all thought the song went adequately, although vocally I was raspy and struggling to get any vocal power on the top (the weekend’s dust storm had taken more of a toll on my chords than I realized). Later though, everyone was telling us we sounded great and the number was wonderful.
After being a nun, finally I could change into the cocktail dress I had originally planned to wear and return to the audience and watch the rest of the awards. I was surprised but Valhalla lost out in most of its nominated categories, despite having strong nominees. Only my sound design win and Kelly’s win for playing Princess Sophie/Sally brought home awards for the show that everyone raved about last Fall…sigh…It was a brilliant and charmed show and we earned many nominations, just not the final awards, though it should have, in my humble opinion ;-)
The highlights later in the evening were John’s entrance as Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard in an ensemble that I want to steal – a leopard print floor length gown! After that scene stealing came the entrance and song by Stephanie. There was a giant constantly rotating windmill onstage (as part of the Moulin Rouge film motif) and when Michael introduced Stephanie, she was no where to be seen. Then we heard grunting offstage somewhere and when the giant windmill was shifted around, the back was open and there was Stephanie pedaling a bike as though she were the hamster on the treadmill providing the power to turn the windmill. What a great sport to do that! It was a great sight gag to see her in formal wear and jewels pumping that bike. Then she wowed the audience with Don’t Rain on My Parade (I think she held that last note longer than Streisand!)
Near the end of the evening, it was Christian Campbell’s turn to wow the audience and he sang Louder Than Words from Tick-Tick, with 2 local performers, Gary and Patty (who ironically had just been part of our Broadway Our Way cast in January where we closed our first act with our entire cast singing the same song!). Boy, does Christian have an amazing voice! Then Christian sang the funniest song I have heard in ages - and according to his story after it, the one he sang at the All My Children anniversary gala for all the Disney execs that he says soon got him fired from that show...well, let’s just say the repeating refrain of "skanky whore" might offend some Disney families. Then Christian presented the last big awards of the evening, and Valhalla and I lost out to other shows … sigh again … Once again, people chose ‘serious’ over brilliant comedy that balanced the absurd with pathos in ways most plays can’t…don’t get me started on the whole comedy is more difficult to do than drama issue again (even though it’s true!!!)
After the show, I went backstage to find Michael one last time to get him to sign the photo we’d taken together at the rehearsal. He was such a sweety and signed the photo (writing ‘stay beautiful’ – LOL!), and even took a quick picture with my “Sister Mary Leo” Quenby.
I took a few quick pics with friends after the show and then I had to head home as it was nearly midnight and I had to work the next day like a regular person again. I hope to have my pics posted from the rehearsal and the gala online soon.
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10:45 am
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I left out two important bits in the Award wrap-up
I forgot to mention two important awards from last night's Column Awards, the first being a new award for volunteer service to the theater named after Rudy Seppy, a wonderful man and longtime ICT mainstay who was killed in a fall from the flys during our tech week for Nunsense. Rudy's widow Maria was at the awards, there to honor Rudy, and it was great to see her infectious humor and smile again.
The second special award, that was a complete surprise to us, was that the cast and crew of Nunsense were honored with the Kathleen Freeman Award, given to honor those who overcome special hardships and persevere - go on with the show, as it were. We all went up onstage together and John told the story of Rudy's accident and how we decided as a group that we should go on with the show in Rudy's memory, and talked about being there opening night to see us go on and bring the house down for Rudy. I started tearing up a bit as I thought of all we went through and the loss we had suffered in putting that show up. It was a beautiful tribute to Rudy to be honored with this award and I know Rudy was up in heaven smiling with us as we stood onstage and received a big round of applause as we received the award.
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