Below this short commentary, I exhort you to read up on iBroadway, which is not to be confused uBroadway, eBroadway or various other vowels, occasionally including y.
But seriously, iBroadway is impressive stuff. Totally smart marketing that I think will prove its value in short order. The theater tends to be about 14 years behind the curve. Time to trim that figure down.
But just one thing. How much does it suck if you don’t win? You don’t get on the thank-you cam!
And please forgive me if this question bears a snark mark, but at what point do the winners, especially the performers, rest? You’re already doing eight performances a week. We ignorant proles on the dark side of the footlights are so busy yawning or fawning we forget about the physical exertion needed to, oh, perform American Idiot eight times a week. Call a waaa!-mbulance, you say? It’s the theater? Quite true!
But seriously, the Tony nomination process on top of your job must be on this side of grueling. (Michael Reidel sort of alluded to this in his New York Post column last month, which also bothered me because I think New Dramatists is one of the theater’s true success stories and really should have been treated much more kindly.)
If you’re a Tony nominee, you go through this whole nomination-campaign-show-up-for-the-rubber-chicken process, except you generally don’t have to listen to Republican hate-mongering. Really, the Tony campaign process isn’t unlike an Oscar campaign process except this is New York and it’s the live theater. On the other hand, it’s not like you’re just showing up looking rested in order to fulfill some post-production personal-appearance clause in your contract, you’re working eight times a week and then working the whole Main Stem cluster-shtup.
Then, if you win a Tony, all hell breaks loose. It’s an honor — a dream of my own, too. (The Tony for best blogger goes to…surely someone other than Leonard Jacobs.) As with receiving any award, you’re expected to deliver a gracious, humble acceptance speech, then you’re expected to exit the stage to do a grand tour of the press (more graciousness, more humility). Then, per the information below, you’re asked (nay, expected!) to materialize before a thank-you cam to…oh, right! More graciousness, more humility! Mary, I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
Not that any stars on Broadway would dare complain, mind you. Nor should they. But it’s a haul. And, we hear, it’s the Broadway babies with the least stamina who are complaining off-the-record the most these days.
Now that I’ve thoroughly offended everyone — let’s celebrate iBroadway:
Thank You Cam Gives Tony Award Winners Chance to Give Additional Thanks
The Tony Awards have teamed up with iBroadway, a new free mobile app promoting all things Broadway, to produce the Tony Awards Thank You Cam Video Series. The series, which will be available exclusively at www.tonyawards.com and through the iBroadway app, will give fans the opportunity to be the first to hear from the 2010 Tony Award-winners as they first step off the stage at Radio City Music Hall. The Thank You Cams will escort the winners as they make their way backstage to the Tony Award press room – in vehicles provided by Avis – giving winners the chance to tell fans their initial thoughts and additional thanks. The exclusive Thank You Cam Video Series will be available for fans to view online starting on Sunday evening June 13, 2010.The Tony Awards, hosted by Sean Hayes, will be broadcast live in HD, from Radio City Music Hall on CBS, Sunday, June 13th, 8:00 – 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT time delay). The 2010 Tony Awards are presented by the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. To view the live Tony Awards red carpet and pre-telecast footage, please log onto www.TonyAwards.com at 6:00 p.m. (EST) on Sunday, June 13th.
iBroadway is a new free mobile app brought to you by Zumobi and Art Meets Commerce that expands the famed theater district’s reach and provides exposure for Broadway’s premium sponsors across the mobile platform. iBroadway promotes the music and drama of Broadway while engaging with fans everywhere at anytime. Exclusively available iPhone and iPod touch in the iTunes App Store (iBroadway.net/download). For more information please visit iBroadway.net.
