TONY AWARDS 2011

On Sunday, June 12^th, Broadway comes to television for the annual Tony Awards hosted by audience favorite, Neil Patrick Harris.  This year should prove to be very interesting due to one show in particular – The Book of Mormon, by Southpark co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.  Their new hit musical about two naïve Mormon missionaries who are sent to Uganda to share their scriptures with the native people is one that immediately makes you fold into yourself and wonder, what the heck is going to happen? The two love pushing the envelope and thank goodness for that! Live theater is about in your face take no prisoners sock it to me with all you’ve got passion! And they do it with this show. But we can’t forget the others who also cause us to stop and use our brain.  

Broadway has always been at the forefront of subject matter that takes you out of your comfort zone, whether it is drama or comedy.  A topic that people are afraid to discuss, or something having to do with everyday life, where you are suddenly knocked on the head with the realization that, wow, that’s me, that’s my life, is what theater is all about. It’s pure emotion that suddenly turns physical. It’s confrontation.

The Tony Awards gives us a glimpse of this and more.  We can’t all be in New York to view these exciting productions, but the show allows us to maybe venture out to view and support theater in our own town. 

I wish good luck and a long run to all of the shows that are nominated, and hope that they inspire to create dialogue between us all. Broadway is the home of the true spoken word. 

 To view a list of nominees, click here.

HOP TO IT!

The Soundtracker was feeling very tired and sleepy from having stayed up the previous night until two o’clock in the morning writing on my horror screenplay, when I decided to put work aside, and go sneak off to see the movie Hop.  I’m so glad I did.  Yes, the theater was filled with parents and their children, but even that was ok, because I felt like a kid again.  The movie like the Easter Bunny – E.B., was adorable!  It is the perfect family Easter movie.  Sure the ending was rushed, and if I think about it too long, it will bother me, but the rest of the movie made up for it.  That’s as far as I will go in critiquing the film.  What’s important to me is how the film and the music made me feel.  And for an hour and a half, I was swept away to a time when all I had to worry about was eating my long eared chocolate bunny before it melted, and finding as many Easter eggs as I could in order to put into the huge basket my mother gave me every year!

This film had something for everyone – young and old alike.   It was funny, sweet, and magical.   And the music!  How fun was that?  The 80’s tune, “I Want Candy” by the group Bow Wow Wow, had you leaving the theater humming that classic one hit wonder.   E.B., the Cutest Bunny in the world drummed to Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground.  Unfortunately, these songs are not on the soundtrack that was just released, which is all instrumental, but again the opening song ‘Easter Island’ is fun and gets you hopping in your seat.  Hopefully, they will release another soundtrack that includes these. 

All in all, the Hop soundtrack helped transport me back to a time when as a child, life was so wonderfully simple, unlike the day to day struggle of life as an adult.  But this afternoon, I sat in the theater, and felt Happy.  That’s what a good film and soundtrack should always do, touch on memories and emotions.  I hope you see this film, and get to escape to Easter Island for a little while.  You’ll be HAPPY that you did.

The Soundtracker