And the winners are ....

One Tony Award voter's opinion: Book of Mormon and War Horse are heavy favorites

"Book of Mormon"
Courtesy photo
"War Horse"
Photo by Simon Annand
"Priscilla Queen of the Desert"
Photo by Joan Marcus
"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"
"The Book of Mormon"
Courtesy photo

Editors' Note: With the 65th annual Tony Awards taking place Sunday night, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts president and Tony Award voter Fran Macferran shares his take on some of the latest shows to hit Broadway, what it means to be a Tony Award voter and who he thinks are the favorites to take away some of the night’s biggest awards.

For four years, I have participated in the Tony Awards voting ritual. There are around 700 theatre industry professionals — half based in New York and the remaining half scattered throughout the United States — who vote each year. One of the caveats to voting in any category is that you see all of the shows that have been nominated in that category. That makes for a busy schedule — in the past year I have seen around 35 Broadway shows in preparation for the voting season.

It is an honor to be a Tony voter and a responsibility that I take very seriously. I am eligible to vote because I am a member of The Broadway League (the national trade association for the Broadway industry) AND qualify in two classes: Out of Town (outside NYC) Theatre Operator AND Presenter.

It’s important for The Hobby Center to have a voice in the industry because we are dependent upon the product coming out of NYC for our Gexa Energy Broadway Series. I’m grateful for the opportunities that membership in the Broadway League provides us. We get to participate in the industry in meaningful ways.

With that said, here is my take on some of this year’s Tony nominated shows.

By the Book

The Book of Mormon is one of, if not THE most, talked about shows on Broadway right now. It received the most Tony nominations with 14 and I think it will sweep the Tonys this year. (The only other shows to receive more nominations are The Producers in 2001 and Billy Elliot, the Musical in 2009.) The two leading men of Mormon are dueling it out in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.

While it is one of the most popular shows right now, it is also one of the most seriously controversial. It’s an equal opportunity offender with plenty of crude humor and profanity. However, at the end of the day it is still incredibly clever.

The show is written by the authors of South Park and Avenue Q, which if you have seen those shows, will give you an idea of the type of humor I am talking about. Audiences who love those works won't be disappointed.

A real War Horse

Next up — War Horse. Simply put, it is exquisite. Theatre truly doesn't get any better than this.

I highly recommend War Horse as your straight play choice, a nice departure from the usual big and flashy musicals (of which there are many fabulous ones lighting up Broadway right now). If you don’t get a chance to see this in New York, all is not lost. The National Theatre of Great Britain just announced its production of War Horse will go on a 20-city national tour in 2012. No word yet if we will have the pleasure of having this show on the Hobby Center stage.

War Horse is nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Play and Best Direction of a Play.

Flashy musicals

Now for big and flashy musicals. To me, Priscilla Queen of the Desert defines big and flashy! The show is an incredibly fun night in the theatre. Fans of the movie (1994 Academy Award winner The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert) will be pleased as it stays true to the movie storyline, including many of the costumes and fabulous dance tunes. The score is Americanized slightly with the addition of some Madonna tunes.

For those unfamiliar with the show or movie here is a brief synopsis: Disco, drag queens, a rock-star-worthy bus and the Australian Outback … need I say more?

Tony Sheldon, reprising the same role from the London stage as Bernadette, steals the show. He's nominated for a Tony for his appearance (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical). Priscilla Queen of the Desert is also up for Best Costume Design of a Musical.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is one of the two revivals competing for Best Revival of a Musical. This is a smart show and a fun revival really well done. It is nice to see Daniel Radcliffe, who stars as J. Pierrepont Finch, sans his now iconic Harry Potter scar and glasses and in a non-dramatic stage role (his last turn on Broadway was the much more serious and dark Equus). The sets are great, and the supporting cast is phenomenal with a very skilled dancing ensemble.

John Larroquette (five-time Emmy winner for Night Court) making his Broadway debut as J. B. Biggley, was the perfect foil to Radcliffe. Larroquette is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical.

This show certainly succeeds in doing justice to a Broadway classic and received eight Tony nominations.

Tony Award votes are cast by secret ballot, but there is of course a lot of speculation and buzz about who will take each award category. The “Rumored Favorites” below reflect my opinions only, and not necessarily even my personal favorites. They include:

Best Play: War Horse

Best Musical: Book of Mormon

Best Book of a Musical: Book of Mormon

Best Original Score: Book of Mormon

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Jump Ball – all strong contenders

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical:Sutton Foster, Anything Goes

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Al Pacino, The Merchant of Venice

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Vanessa Redgrave, Driving Miss Daisy

Best Direction of a Musical: Casey Nicholaw/Trey Parker – Book of Mormon

Best Direction of a Play: Marianne Elliott/Tom Morris – War Horse

Best Choreography: Casey Nicholaw – Book of Mormon

The Gexa Energy Broadway Series at The Hobby Center 2011-2012 Season begins in October with Memphis – a winner of four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. For more information on the entire season, click here.

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Movie Review

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero

Photo by Jay Maidment

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kraven the Hunter.

One of the oddest things about the blockbuster era we live in is that while Disney owns the rights to the majority of Marvel comic book characters, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man and any affiliated characters. Since they’re sharing Spider-Man himself with Disney, Sony has been trying to capitalize on those rights by making stand-alone films using niche characters that only comic book fanatics would know.

Having exhausted Venom and whiffed on attempts with Morbius and Madame Web, they’re trying again with Kraven the Hunter. Also known as Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a self-styled vigilante who, as the film tells it, travels the world exacting vengeance on the truly bad people of the world. He’s the son of Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a hard-edged Russian oligarch, and brother to Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who is relatively weak compared to the rest of his family.

The origin story has Kraven gaining his animal-like powers - including super-strength, speed, and jumping abilities - as a teenager from a mysterious serum given to him by a girl named Calypso (played as an adult by Ariana DeBose) after he was mauled by a lion. The two maintain a tenuous partnership as adults, with Calypso helping him hunt down other villains like Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).

Directed by J.C. Chandor and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, the film looks and feels enormously lazy, something made merely to hold on to potentially valuable intellectual property. Other than the tense family dynamic between the Kravinovs, little makes sense in the story. Kraven has an indecipherable moral code that has him going after poachers - because he’s part lion? - in addition to other high-powered criminals, with no clear goal except to … get back at his father?

The laziness extends to the action scenes, which feature Kraven being mostly impervious to any damage, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, knives, or guns. The CGI-heavy scenes don’t even allow moviegoers to enjoy an R-rated bloody free-for-all, as all of the blood splatter is computer-generated, too. Since apparently one Spider-Man villain is not enough, three others make appearances with abilities that are under-explained and CGI that is poorly done.

That’s not even counting Calypso, another Spider-Man villain whose purpose in this film is nebulous at best. Her early connection with Kraven is so coincidental as to be laughable, and her continued reasons for helping him as an adult strain credulity as well. The only saving grace of her presence is that the filmmakers don’t try to shoehorn romance into the plot; perhaps they’re saving that for the (inevitable?) sequel.

Taylor-Johnson has had one of the most prolific-yet-anonymous careers in modern Hollywood, with appearances in big films like The Fall Guy, Bullet Train, and Tenet that have made very little impact. Even as the star here, he fails to hold your attention, with the story and visuals doing him no favors. DeBose has followed up her Oscar win for West Side Story with schlock like I.S.S., Argylle, and this, which doesn’t bode well for her career. At least Crowe gets to chew the scenery.

With a contractual inability to mention the name “Spider-Man,” movies like Kraven the Hunter exist in a weird area that forces filmmakers to make up stories for characters to which most people have no attachment. And just like Sony’s previous efforts, it is a very poor way to spend two hours in a movie theater; avoid at all costs.

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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

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