Drama League nominee Jon Michael Hill

Even though Superior Donuts closed on Broadway in January it's great to see one of the play's stars, Jon Michael Hill, get some recognition. He was nominated today for The Drama League's Distinguished Performance Award.

It seems Hill's next role will be on the small screen. He's filming a pilot for ABC called Detroit 1-8-7. And adding to my excitement, it stars another one of my favorite actors, Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher Molitsanti on The Sopranos.

Here's ABC's description:

"What does it take to be a detective on America's most dangerous streets? Get ready to be part of the action when a documentary crew rolls with some of Detroit's finest. The cameras give us an inside view of the homicide unit, capturing the professional crises, as well as the raw personal heartbreak and heroism of these inner-city cops."

Imperioli plays Detective Louis Fitch, a hot-tempered veteran with an impeccable record for closing cases. Hill is his new partner, Detective Damon Washington who, in addition to the pressure of his first day working in homicide, is also about to become a father for the first time.

The cast also includes James McDaniel of NYPD Blue and Aisha Hinds of True Blood.

And for some reason, the pilot was filmed not in Detroit but in Atlanta. (If you're wondering about the title, 187 is the police code for murder.)

Truthfully, I'm not a big fan of cop dramas. But I am a big fan of Imperioli from The Sopranos. I think his presence will draw some viewers, at least in the beginning. And I absolutely loved Hill in his Broadway debut in Superior Donuts.

I'm happy that Hill has this chance and more people will get to see this talented young actor. He joins a distinguished list of Steppenwolf Theatre Company members who move among theatre, television and movies.

Like them, hopefully he'll be back on stage soon. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing him on TV.

Update: It's official! The series is on ABC's fall schedule and will air Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Here's a picture of the cast:

Saying goodbye to Superior Donuts

I wish I could be in New York this afternoon for the final performance of Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts. The play, which opened Oct. 1 at Broadway's Music Box Theatre, is closing after 108 performances. It's one of my favorites and it deserved a longer run.

Theatergoing is a communal experience but whether or not a play grabs you is such a personal thing. When I think about all of the plays I've seen over the past three years what it comes down to is this: Don't lecture, tell me a story. And if you can surprise me, that's a plus.

Superior Donuts, the story of a rundown donut shop in a changing Chicago neighborhood, did both of those things for me. I laughed, I got choked up and there was a moment when I truly gasped. Most of all, I was entertained.

I thought Michael McKean as the worn-out shop owner and Jon Michael Hill as the eager young man who comes to work for him had terrific chemistry. They were so much fun to watch together and Hill especially was amazing in his Broadway debut.

Last year, some of the performances I enjoyed on Broadway in November were overlooked by the Tony nominators. So I hope they remember McKean and Hill when spring rolls around. (And James Schuette's set design also deserves a nomination. It was so detailed, down to the gum stuck underneath the tables.)

The cast is made up of mainly Chicago-based actors, all of whom transferred with the play from its premiere at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. In addition to McKean and Hill, they are Jane Alderman, Kate Buddeke, Cliff Chamberlain, Michael Garvey, Robert Maffia, James Vincent Meredith and Yasen Peyankov. I hope I get to see them on stage again.

It's a shame that there isn't room on Broadway for a play like Superior Donuts, a slice of life that's well-acted, with witty dialogue, memorable characters and a story that draws you in. This was a play of sweet, small moments, poignancy and humor from a terrific ensemble.

It's so different from Letts' previous work, the Tony and Pulitzer-winning August: Osage County, an acerbic, multigenerational family story. I love them both and I love the fact that they're so different.

(Although they share Letts' memorable characters and sharp dialogue and like August: Osage County, I think Superior Donuts would make a great movie. Spike Lee would be the perfect director for this gritty urban story.)

In an interview with the American Theatre Wing's Downstage Center program, Letts noted that Superior Donuts was his first play set in his adopted hometown of Chicago. While he didn't start out to write a work that would be smaller in scope, he does like to stretch himself.

"I have an impulse to mix it up. When I finish one thing, the next thing I work on I want to be different. I want to challenge myself in different ways. I want to explore different things, whether it's writing or acting."

I'm so glad Letts did challenge himself and I'm looking forward to his next play.

A sweet moment at Superior Donuts

Before the curtain closes on 2009, I have one final memorable theatre moment to relate. It happened last night on Broadway, while I was a few hundred miles away. And it's one of the nicest moments of the year.

The next best thing to seeing a show myself is turning a friend on to a play or musical I've enjoyed.

So when a coworker who was going to New York City with his wife asked for a recommendation, I was happy to suggest a few. And I was thrilled when they picked one of my favorites - Superior Donuts.

On Monday I tweeted James Vincent Meredith, who is terrific as Chicago police Officer James Hailey, that I was sending a couple of friends to see the play the next evening. He quickly responded, telling me to let him know if they wanted a backstage tour.

Well, I was floored by his kind offer. And of course they did!

After the show there was a brief talkback with the cast. Then Meredith took my friends onstage at the Music Box Theatre, where they got an up-close look at the set. Needless to say, they were thrilled. And they loved the play. And I am so jealous. (But in a good way!)

One of the joys of becoming a theatergoer has been a chance to see two productions on Broadway from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, both of which I've loved, August: Osage County and Superior Donuts. It's taught me how much great theatre there is all over this country.

I've been so fortunate to see playwright Tracy Letts' memorable characters portrayed by an incredibly talented ensemble of actors. And as James Vincent Meredith demonstrated, they're an incredibly gracious group, too. I know why my friend Steve on Broadway sings their praises.

Sadly, Superior Donuts closes Sunday. But you've got six more chances to see this warm and witty play about how we relate to each other as individuals, as a community, as Americans. It truly touched me and I'm so glad it touched my friends, too.

Superior Donuts

Gratuitous Violins rating: **** out of ****

If August: Osage County examined the tangled relationships among family members then Tracy Letts' new Broadway play, Superior Donuts, tackles an equally complex subject - how we relate to each other as a community, as individuals, as Americans.

Like its Tony and Pulitzer-winning predecessor, Superior Donuts arrives in New York from the Steppenwolf Theatre Company with a superb Chicago cast. It has Letts' clever, razor-sharp dialogue along with a great deal of tenderness and wit and some very insightful social commentary.

Yes, this is a small-scale character study but oh, what characters!

There's a scene near the beginning of the play when Franco Wicks, who's just been hired to work at a downscale Chicago coffee shop, pulls out of his knapsack a stack of notebooks and legal pads that comprise his Great American Novel.

Until that point, I'd been laughing hard at the banter between Jon Michael Hill's Franco and Michael McKean's Arthur Przbyszewski, the ponytailed Vietnam-era draft evader who owns Superior Donuts, the shop started by his Polish immigrant parents.

But when this earnest young black man shows Arthur his novel and quotes the African-American poet Langston Hughes, my eyes got moist and Superior Donuts grabbed ahold of my heart. As long as I can remember I've loved putting words to paper, so I've got a big soft spot for stories about aspiring writers.

Of course, I've been watching McKean for years, starting with Laverne & Shirley and This is Spinal Tap. Sometimes it's hard to lose myself in a performance by an actor I know from movie or TV roles but he's terrific as a weary, cynical man who's been beaten down by life.

Hill, in his Broadway debut, is a revelation. He's amazing as Franco - sweet, eager, a bit brash and totally engaging.

And these two actors have such great chemistry. The way their relationship evolves as Franco's irrepressible enthusiasm meets Arthur's seemingly incurable pessimism is a treat to watch. This is a story that could easily have turned into a cliche but under Tina Landau's direction, it maintains an edge.

Arthur's donut shop is located in a Chicago neighborhood that city planners might call "in transition." A Starbucks has opened nearby. The local video store owner and entrepreneur, a Russian immigrant named Max Tarasov, played by the hilarious Yasen Peyankov, is preparing to take on a Best Buy.

As James Schuette's set design perfectly conveys, Superior Donuts is one small business that's hardly prepared to compete with the gigantic chains. The paint on the radiator is peeling, the linoleum floor is worn, there's gum stuck under the tables and the ceiling tiles are filthy. The place looks greasy and unappetizing.

Once Franco comes along well, he has plenty of ideas - healthier food, bran muffins maybe, and poetry nights to attract a younger crowd. There's a hilarious scene where he tries his hand at making donuts. Arthur is skeptical, to say the least, about Franco's big plans.

While Arthur doesn't have many customers his regulars do make up a little community. There are the two beat cops - Kate Buddeke's Randy Osteen is a little flirtatious with Arthur and James Vincent Meredith's James Hailey is a delightfully nerdy Star Trek fan. Jane Alderman is great as a bewildered, slightly daffy bag lady.

One of the things I loved about August: Osage County was the way Letts illuminated the lives of women, demonstrating all of the pressures of being a wife, mother and daughter in a way that seemed so true to life.

With Superior Donuts, he does something else that I appreciate: he creates a young African-American male who's not a wisecracking character from a TV sitcom or a wanna-be rapper or professional athlete. It's tragic that we don't take as much care with smart, ambitious young men like Franco as we do with the teenagers who have a great jump shot.

Ironically, Franco urges Arthur to take off his Grateful Dead T-shirt and cut off his ponytail. (The only people who should wear ponytails are girls and ponies, he advises him.) Because sadly Franco, with his heavy winter coat, knit cap, baggy pants and unlaced boots, is just as likely to be judged.

But both Arthur and Franco defy expectations.

Franco's not someone you should be crossing the street to avoid out of fear. And Arthur, whose father called him a coward for going to Canada instead of Vietnam, isn't a man to run from a fight. He proves that by tangling with the mobster, played by Robert Maffia, who's trying to collect a debt Franco owes.

At one point, Superior Donuts brings out the biggest collective gasp I've ever heard from an audience. That's because the more you know about Arthur and Franco, the more you care about them and the more you root for them.

If it's not too much to ask, I wish Tracy Letts would return to Superior Donuts for a sequel in a decade or so. Because I really want to find out how they're doing, how America is doing.

My must-see fall shows, Broadway edition

Maybe it's the Obama Effect or just a coincidence but there are five shows opening on Broadway this fall that deal with the subject of race in America - musicals Ragtime, Memphis and Finian's Rainbow and plays Superior Donuts and Race.

Three of them - a revival of Ragtime and two new plays, Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts and David Mamet's Race - are among the shows I'm most looking forward to seeing as the 2009-2010 Broadway season gets under way.

Why those three? Well, I've always been interested in 20th century American history, not so much from the perspective of momentous events but from a social and cultural angle - where we come from and how we get along.

Ragtime, based on E.L. Doctorow's novel, with a score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, focuses on three families - African-American, Jewish immigrant and WASP - at the turn of the century. I loved the book and from listening to the music, I think it does a wonderful job of telling those intertwined stories.

Superior Donuts, fresh from the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, is a contemporary look at a diverse, changing Chicago neighborhood. After seeing so many terrific Chicago actors in August: Osage County, I'm eager for more, including Jon Michael Hill, who's making his Broadway debut. He's won raves for his performance as a teenager who works in a doughnut shop owned by Michael McKean. (From Spinal Tap! Laverne & Shirley!)

And Race - well, no doubt Mamet will have something interesting and incendiary to say. Plus, of all the big-name movie and tv actors who'll be treading the boards this fall, it has the one I'm most excited about - Richard Thomas. Yes, I realize James Spader is in it, and David Alan Grier and Kerry Washington. But c'mon, The Waltons! I grew up pre-VCR, pre-cable. Network tv was all I had. 'Nuff said.

I'm also pretty pumped about seeing A Steady Rain. Yes, I want to see how Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig will transform themselves into Chicago cops in Keith Huff's two-hander play. But no doubt about it, I'm also looking forward to staring dreamily at Hugh Jackman for 90 uninterrupted minutes. (Although the Playbill, which features their melded faces, is creepy beyond words.)

And I simply cannot miss the revivals of two Neil Simon plays, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound. I'm really looking foward to seeing what Chicagoan David Cromer, who directed the amazing Our Town, will do with them.

The plays are thinly veiled accounts of Simon's youth growing up in Brooklyn in the 1930s and '40s. Which means, I know, creaky, self-deprecating Jewish humor. What can I say? Lines like this truly make me laugh:

"I hate my name - Eugene Morris Jerome. How am I ever gonna to play for the Yankees with a name like that? All the best Yankees are Italian. My mother makes spaghetti with ketchup. What chance to I have?"

And this:

"And when they saw the Statue of Liberty they started to cry. The women wailing and the men shaking and everyone praying. And you want to know why, because they took one look at that statue and said, 'That's not a Jewish woman, we're gonna have problems again.' ''

Oy, I can't wait!

Julie White, jazz hands and Donuts crumbs

Even though it's 90 degrees outside, it's fall preview inside the pages of New York magazine. I've read over all the theatre previews and these are my favorite parts:

The illustrated Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig Show is clever and definitely makes me even more excited to see them as Chicago police officers in A Steady Rain.

Will Daniel Craig loosen up and shed his James Bond persona? Will Hugh Jackman be able to keep his jazz hands in check? I can't wait to find out. Previews begin Sept. 10 at the Schoenfeld Theatre

However, New York magazine, I was a little disappointed in your Q&A with playwright Tracy Letts. I love August: Osage County, too. But it would have been nice to have a couple of questions about Letts' newest transfer from Steppenwolf to Broadway, Superior Donuts, which begins previews at the Music Box Sept. 16.

The play, about the white owner of a decrepit Chicago doughnut shop (Michael McKean) and the black teenage employee who wants to change it for the better (Jon Michael Hill), is one of the shows I'm most excited about seeing this fall. But all I got were a few Donuts crumbs and more about Letts' previous work.

This is as much as we get:

NYMAG: Superior Donuts sounds a lot less personal than August.
Letts: "It was supposed to be an exercise. I thought, I wonder if I can write about people that don’t have any relation to me. But I can’t! I was writing about myself."

Finally, my first taste of how funny Julie White can be came in her Tony acceptance speech for The Little Dog Laughed.

And White is pretty amusing as as well in this interview about her off-Broadway role in The Understudy, which begins previews Oct. 9 at the Laura Pels Theatre. She makes me want to see a play I was on the fence about:

"It’s deep. Death is all over that play. But you know, I’m in it, it’s a Theresa Rebeck show, it’s gonna be funny. We did a reading of it at the Roundabout, and it just went over like a thousand bastards."

I'm assuming that's a good thing, although I can't be sure. I Googled "went over like a thousand bastards" and apparently Julie White is the first person in human history to ever utter it.

Goodbye to August on Broadway

As a tribute to this afternoon's final Broadway performance of August: Osage County, I wanted to list my favorite lines from Tracy Letts' play. Unfortunately, I can't find my copy. Someday I'd like to have enough bookshelves to display all of my books - but that day won't be today.

Instead, here's a Steppenwolf Theatre Company video with cast members Jeff Perry, Francis Guinan, Amy Morton and Mariann Mayberry, who talk about bringing a new play from Chicago to New York without any "movie stars."



You can find more videos on the Steppenwolf site, including all the Tony acceptance speeches from Letts, Deanna Dunagan, Rondi Reed, set designer Todd Rosenthal and director Anna D. Shapiro.

Also, the American Theatre Wing's Working in the Theatre program has a great hourlong video featuring a panel discussion with Morton, Perry and Reed.

And if you didn't get a chance to see the play on Broadway or in Chicago, you can catch up with it on tour. There'll be a different cast but the same memorable characters and witty, insightful dialog.

Finally, I can't say goodbye to August on Broadway without sharing Rondi Reed's Tony acceptance speech. I've talked with her twice and Reed, currently playing Madame Morrible in Wicked, is a genuinely warm and friendly person. Definitely a Gratuitous Violins favorite.

One of my favorite scenes happens early on, when her character, Mattie Fae Aiken, is sitting on the couch with Guinan, who plays her husband, Charlie. I was laughing hysterically. Like the great actors they are, they made their banter look so natural, so real.

When I met Reed at the stage door afterward, I mentioned that scene and she told me how much it helped that she and Guinan had known each other and worked together for years.

August: Osage County closing in June

Sadly, Tracy Letts' Tony and Pulitzer-winning play August: Osage County is closing June 28, after a total of 18 previews and 648 regular performances on Broadway.

I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed.

At a time when most Broadway plays have limited runs, August: Osage County, which began life at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, beat the odds. It was an original, contemporary American drama with an open-ended run. It will have played 18 previews and 648 regular performances since October 2007, first at the Imperial and then at the Music Box.

I still remember how excited I was about this play after reading Steve On Broadway's review of the Steppenwolf production, in August 2007, fittingly enough.

Luckily, one of my trips to Broadway coincided with the beginning of previews for August: Osage County. It was one of my most memorable theatre experiences. I'm so grateful I was able to see the play with its original cast, including the playwright's father, Dennis Letts, several months before he passed away.

What a wonderful ensemble, with witty, insightful dialog and characters and story that resonate. The 3 1/2 hours went by so quickly. I especially appreciate the way Tracy Letts illuminates the lives of women who find themselves pushed and pulled between the competing roles of wife, mother, daughter.

The national tour of August: Osage County kicks off in Denver in July, and if it comes near you, definitely go see it. I'm happy that it's coming to Boston's Colonial Theatre from May 4-16, 2010.

Estelle Parsons, who took over from Tony-winner Deanna Dunagan on Broadway, will play family matriarch Violet Weston. Although I never saw Parsons in the role, the Oscar-winner for Bonnie and Clyde is supposed to be terrific.

It's pretty amazing to think that come July, there won't be any American plays on Broadway. When Mary Stuart ends its limited run on Aug. 16, the only play on Broadway will be a very funny British import, The 39 Steps, until Sept. 15, when a revival of The Royal Family opens at the Friedman Theatre.

It's not that there aren't any great American plays in New York. I'm excited about seeing David Cromer's acclaimed production of Our Town, another transfer from the Windy City, at the Barrow Street Theatre in Greenwich Village next month.

(One of the things that August: Osage County made me realize is that in addition to being hog butcher to the world, Chicago has a lot of great theatre and wonderful actors.)

And if you want to see a contemporary American drama on Broadway, well you'll have to wait until sometime in September, when Letts' Superior Donuts, another play that originated at Steppenwolf, begins previews. It's definitely on my list.

England meets the Westons

Tonight, August: Osage County begins previews at London's National Theatre with most of its original Broadway cast intact, including Amy Morton reprising her role as Barbara Weston. To mark the occasion, check out an interview Kris Vire conducted with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company member that appeared earlier this month in Time Out Chicago.

Among other things, Vire asked whether she was done with August after London. Here's what Tony-nominee Morton, who left the Broadway run Oct. 12, had to say about that:

"You know, never say never. They’re talking about a tour. Who knows how long it will last on Broadway? Some of us might go back in, but I absolutely—my back and my neck feel so much better in the last week, I can’t even tell you! I lost about 15 pounds in New York just doing this dang play."

And on fame:

"The great thing about August: Osage County was walking out of the stage door and people saying, “This is my third time seeing it, my fourth time seeing it,” and wanting to talk about it and wanting your autograph because they loved what they saw, not because you’re famous."

And on acting:

"I mean, for as shitty as this business can be and as insulting as it can be, I still believe that acting is a noble profession. And actors get to fall in love, murder, fly, make out with people that aren’t their spouse—they get to do all this stuff on stage that everybody in the world has always wanted to do. Who hasn’t wanted to strangle their mother at one time in their life?"

My Tony thoughts

Whew, the Tony awards are over! Lots of observations:

Whoppi Goldberg is funny! I'm so happy for Rondi Reed! I love In the Heights! Lin-Manuel Miranda is one classy, talented guy! Patti LuPone is one fierce Mama Rose! Tracy Letts should have been given more time to talk! Paulo Szot is tall! During the musical number for Sunday in the Park with George, I think I saw Daniel Evans' tonsils! Stew has a weird sense of humor!

And a few questions:

What was Boeing Boeing's Mark Rylance talking about in his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Play? What does Anna Shapiro, who won for best director of a play for August: Osage County, have tattooed on her arm? Why didn't Stephen Sondheim show up to accept his lifetime achievement award? I understand why there's lots of love for musicals, and that was terrific, but couldn't there be a little more love for the plays?

In the Heights was my pick for Best Musical, so I'm ecstatic that it won, and I thought its musical number, "96,000,'' sounded great. I admired and respected Passing Strange but I loved In the Heights. It won my heart and made me want to dance, despite the sad fact that I was apparently born without a sense of rhythm. This is a musical that has a great message in its celebration of a Latino neighborhood at the top of Manhattan: we're a nation of immigrants, and we're better for it.

Plus, Lin-Manuel Miranda's acceptance speech in the form of a rap, when he won the Tony for Best Score for In the Heights, was terrific. And his reference to Stephen Sondheim was so sweet: “Look, Mr. Sondheim, I made a hat where there never was a hat and it’s a Latin hat at that.” Very nice. I hope Miranda stays in musical theatre. The funny thing is, I heard him during the red carpet interviews. He really doesn't talk like a rapper all the time.

Other highlights for me:

I'm thrilled that as expected, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of August: Osage County won for Best Play, Best Director, Best Actress in a Play and Best Featured Actress in a Play. And Todd Rosenthal, winning for Best Scenic Design of a Play, on the Tony preshow, started it all off. Seeing that big old three-story house was the first time I ever had an immediate, visceral reaction to a set on a stage. I was just fascinated by it, by the size and the clutter and the shabbiness, and I'm so happy Rosenthal won.

Rondi Reed winning for Best Featured Actress in a Play was the one I was really, really rooting for, because she's such a wonderful person as well as a great performer. Steve, Doug and I talked to her for at least half an hour after August: Osage County ended one night. She is a warm, funny, gracious, down-to-earth woman. And she is an absolute hoot in this play. (Unfortunately, Sunday was her last performance. She's headed back to Chicago).

The success of August: Osage County, a transplant from Chicago, is truly a testament to the great work being done on stages all over this country. Being on Broadway and winning a Tony must seem like a pipe dream to these actors who toil far from New York. August's Deanna Dunagan, who won for Best Actress in a Play, summed it up perfectly: "After 34 years in regional theater I never even thought about it. I watched it on tv like everyone else."

Hearing from the original cast from Rent was so moving, especially when they were talking about Jonathan Larson and how he came to write the musical at a time when so many people he knew were dying of AIDS, and then his own untimely death. It was cute to see Idina Menzel and her husband, Taye Diggs, who met while they were in Rent, right next to each other. And even though I saw The Lion King, with its incredible parade of animals, on Broadway a month ago, the giraffes are just as thrilling the second time around.

I loved Patti LuPone singing "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from Gypsy. Her standing ovation was well deserved. She is fierce. Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines looked terrified! They also really deserved their Tonys for Best Featured Actress and Actor in a Musical. I've said before that Benanti gave one of the best performances I've ever seen as she transformed from a shy, awkward teenager into a glamorous, confident stripper.

And LuPone, the Best Actress in a Musical, did have a great acceptance speech: "It's been 29 years!" Let the woman talk! I also liked the way she thanked her husband and son right off the bat, instead of going through her list of agents, producers, etc. So many winners at these awards shows end up having to shout out the names of their loved ones just as the music starts up.

Also, I was glad to see The 39 Steps pick up a couple of Tonys: Mic Pool won for Best Sound Design of a Play, and Kevin Adams won for Best Lighting Design of a Play. It is such a fun, inspired 90 minutes of theatre, and I hope the awards give it a little bounce.

There were a few spots where I thought the Tony producers slipped up.

When Lincoln Center's Andre Bishop accepted the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical for South Pacific, the camera should have been ready to turn immediately to Rodgers & Hammerstein's daughters, who were sitting together in the audience, not 20 seconds after Bishop mentioned their names.

Playwright Tracy Letts should have been given a little more time to accept his Tony for writing August: Osage County. I mean, how often do we get a major new American play on the scale of this one? (Perhaps he should have gotten a little assertiveness training from Patti!)

And the segment where they had Daniel Breaker, James Snyder and Kerry Butler do the little spiel about all of the American Theater Wing's educational programs mentioned the Wing's radio shows but failed to mention that they're available as free downloads from its web site, or as podcasts from iTunes. In fact, why not flash the Web site on the screen? Duh! Missed opportunity!

And what's up with taking the Tony for best choreography out of the televised portion of the ceremony? How can the Tonys not recognize the winner of that category on national television? I mean, so much of Broadway is musicals and choreography is such an important part of why we love them. Anyway, I'm glad that Andy Blankenbuehler won for In the Heights.

Apparently, some of the nominees were surprised that their categories were in the preshow, too. Passing Strange's Stew, who won the Tony for Best Book of a Musical, said he was looking in his pocket for some M&Ms when his name was announced. His speech was lame, so maybe he's serious when he says he was unprepared. And Stew turned me off with the funny nose and glasses he wore when they showed the nominees for Best Actor in a Musical. Ugh.

Ok, I may have more to say later, but that's enough for now. Except that I'm glad some of my favorites: In the Heights, South Pacific, Gypsy and August: Osage County did so well and I'm thrilled I was able to see so many amazing Tony-winning performances. I hope I get to see as many next season.

Reading August: Osage County

I read today that Estelle Parsons will be taking over Deanna Dunagan's role as family matriarch Violet Weston in August: Osage County on June 17. Lots of cast members will be leaving this month - Molly Regan succeeds Rondi Reed as Mattie Fae Aiken, Robert Foxworth takes over the role of Charlie Aiken from Francis Guinan, Jim True-Frost replaces Ian Barford as Little Charles and Frank Wood will play Jeff Perry's role of Bill Fordham.

(Regan and True-Frost will come from the ranks of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. After giving us the wonderful original cast of August: Osage County all I could think of was, does that place have an apparently endless supply of incredible acting talent or what! Hopefully every member of Steppenwolf will have a chance to rotate into this play during what I hope will be a long Broadway run.)

I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to see the play again, but I'd be especially interested in watching another actress tackle the role of Violet. At 81, Academy Award winner Parsons is actually older than what playwright Tracy Letts had in mind. He specifies that Violet is 65, and Dunagan is 68. I've always thought of Violet as someone who grew up during the Great Depression, and Parsons, who was born in 1927, would certainly have a stronger link to that period.

Coincidentally, I read August: Osage County today after having it in my to-read pile for a couple of months. Mostly, it reinforced how I felt when I saw it performed on Broadway last fall: Letts has done an amazing job exploring family relationships, the pressures on women's lives, the divide between baby boomer children and their Greatest Generation parents. There's lots of witty, biting dialog that makes for a quick read, and makes the 3 1/2-hour play go by very quickly on stage. I felt so much sympathy for the Weston daughters, who are facing their own anxieties about growing older.

Normally when I'm reading a novel, I'm creating my own picture of what the characters are like. This time, I couldn't help but think of the actors I saw portraying those characters on stage. Some were pretty similar to the way I would have pictured them even if I'd never seen the play. But where Dunagan summoned Violet from, I can't even imagine. She brought those words to life in a way beyond anything I could have pictured. Her performance was truly remarkable.

August: Osage County is sometimes compared with Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night. I think they do have a lot in common. Both are semi-autobiographical. Although in O'Neill's case, it's a lot more than semi. Both feature a dysfunctional family, including a mother battling addiction. Although Letts' short, snappy dialog seems more modern, more late 20th century.

Both James Tyrone and Violet Weston grew up poor, and there's an intense, visceral fear of being poor again, a fear that their children clearly don't understand, simply dismissing it out of hand. But that fear drives Violet's actions in a very clear way. There's a great scene where she talks about the poverty and deprivation in which she and her husband grew up and pointedly tells her daughters, "You worked as hard as us, you'd all be president."

Violet and Mattie Fae are sisters who never seem to cut their children any slack. Reading the play, I was reminded again how absolutely vicious they are toward their children. They're constantly taunting them. Mattie Fae's son, Little Charles, can't do anything right. Violet does everything she can to make her daughters feel guilty. Yet her criticisms of them - what they wear, how they live their lives, just repel them and drive them further away.

If there's one complaint I have about August: Osage County it's that the male characters get a little shortchanged in terms of character development. I do wish Letts had spent more time with Charlie Aiken. Reading the play reminded me how thrilling and heroic Charlie is when he stands up to his wife and admonishes her for the way she constantly berates their son.

The printed version of August: Osage County has an epigraph, a quote from Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men that talks about how parents are constantly trying to reclaim their adult children. You can certainly see it in the relationship between Violet Weston and her three daughters, in Violet's fear at being left alone. And her daughters are afraid of being the one left to care for their mother.

When we're were born, Warren wrote, our parents lost something of themselves, and they are going to try and get it back. They are desperate to have their child sit in a chair for a couple of hours, then go to bed under the same roof. "They know they can't get it all back but they will get as big a chunk out of you as they can. And the good old family reunion, with picnic dinner under the maples, is very much like diving into the octopus tank at the aquarium." Hmmm, I wonder if Violet is the octopus?

Moving day

Today is moving day for August: Osage County, so it's time to show my favorite Broadway play some more love. Not that I need an excuse, of course - I can never say enough good things about Tracy Letts' witty, acerbic, immensely entertaining work, and the amazing ensemble from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company that brings it to life.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning multigenerational family drama was performed for the final time yesterday at the 1,443-seat Imperial Theatre. The Imperial's next tenant, Billy Elliot, isn't moving in until the fall, but it apparently needs quite a bit of prep time. So, August: Osage County is packing up its mammoth three-story house of a set and relocating next door, to the cozier confines of the 1,009-seat Music Box, where it reopens on April 29.

Last night, I watched a discussion from February on the American Theatre Wing's Working in the Theatre program that featured August: Osage County cast members Amy Morton, Rondi Reed and Jeff Perry, along with Laurie Metcalf, a Steppenwolf ensemble member who's also on Broadway, as a presidential speechwriter in David Mamet's November.

It was really interesting to hear Perry, one of Steppenwolf's cofounders, talk about the company's humble beginnings. The nine actors who would become the Steppenwolf ensemble met through high school and college in Illinois. Their first home, in the summer of 1976, was the youth center of a church basement in a Chicago suburb.

In the early days, Reed recalled, when guest actors would come to Chicago to perform with Steppenwolf, they'd always tell ensemble members that they didn't need to go to New York or California to have a career, they could make theatre right at home. "So of course we, like idiots, took that to heart and ran with it."

While ensemble members have gone back and forth over the years for various movie, television and theatre projects, they've retained a sense of loyalty to Steppenwolf. "There's been such a complete esteem for each other's work," Morton says. "These are the people I always aspired to. it's been the work that's kept everyone together."

Metcalf, who has had numerous film and television roles, and won three Emmy awards for Roseanne, tries to return to Steppenwolf at least every two years. "I feel like I have to go back every so often to recharge,'' she said. "It's the only time working as an actor where you feel like you're in charge, you can lead the audience where you want them. It's a really powerful feeling. There's nothing else like it. Maybe we all gravitate back toward theatre because we started out in theatre, I'm not sure. But once you get that bug, it never leaves. And we're still going to be doing this forever."

Morton brings incredible emotional depth to the role of Barbara Fordham, the stressed out and overburdened eldest daughter of the Weston clan. She recalled the first time Letts gave her the script of August: Osage County to read. When she looked at the thickness of it, she was a little daunted - and dismayed. Her first thought was a kind of resigned, "God, Tracy." But when she finished, "I immediately called him and said this is the most amazing thing I've ever read."

Perry, who portrays Morton's philandering husband, Bill, says that director Anna D. Shapiro connected with the play in way that no other assignment had before, relating its characters to members of her own family. "And I think that's true in some ways with all of us. It's deeply satisfying family territory."

The only actor Letts had specifically in mind when he wrote the play was Reed. She's hilarious as Aunt Mattie Fae Aiken, especially in the scenes with Francis Guinan, who plays her husband, Charlie. But incredibly, she initially turned Letts down. "I thought, you know, this isn't me," Reed said. "Why does he want me to do this? I've done this role before." Then, in rehearsal, during one of the rants her character goes on, she stopped and said, "Oh, now I get it. Now I see why you want me to do this, because I'm perfect for it."

Reed also mentioned rumors about taking the play to London or the West Coast. (And, I'm happy to report, there are plans for a national tour beginning next fall). "The play will live on for a very, very, very long time," she said. "It's a great thing for the American theater to have a new play written by, directed by and acted by kind of all unknowns. It gives a lot of hope to the American theatre."

Dennis Letts

I was so shocked and so saddened when I found out this morning that Dennis Letts died on Friday from cancer at age 73. Steve on Broadway has written a thoughtful, moving appreciation of Letts, pictured above at right with his son Tracy.

It's a bit of a strange feeling to think that someone I saw on stage at Broadway's Imperial Theatre just a few months ago has passed away.

Letts portrayed family patriarch Beverly Weston in Tracy Letts' play August: Osage County, and he only had one scene. But it's the first scene, and it sets the tone for the entire evening. I can still picture him sitting in a swivel chair, interviewing a young woman who will be taking care of his cancer-stricken wife. While Letts' time on stage wasn't long, he was a deeply felt presence throughout this amazing 2 1/2-hour drama.

In hindsight, what was even more amazing about Letts' performance is that he was diagnosed with cancer in September, but chose to go with the rest of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company when August: Osage County made the move from Chicago to Broadway. I had no idea that the powerful actor I was seeing on stage was so ill. There was nothing in his portrayal that gave me a clue.

My thoughts are with Letts' wife and sons, and with his family in the wonderful Steppenwolf troupe. I will always feel tremendous admiration for his decision to keep working, and so privileged that I had a chance to see him on stage.

In a statement reported in the Chicago Tribune Tracy Letts said, "his choice to persevere with the New York production in the face of his devastating diagnosis is a testament to his love for the project and the people involved. “Dad had a full and fascinating life, and 'August Osage County' was the cherry on top.”

Dennis Letts' love for the project - and pride in his family - was always apparent.

In an article on Broadway.com, he wrote about the secrets of his success in life: his marriage to novelist Billie Letts, his three sons, "all good men, all funny, all so bright they make your hair hurt." Letts, who turned to acting after a career as an English professor in his native Oklahoma, said, "I'd already had a great run as an actor. Then came Steppenwolf and August: Osage County and an entirely new magical experience."

In November, he told a reporter for the Tulsa World: "Hey, you're talking to a fellow who's gone from Tishimingo Community Theater to Broadway. That's quite a step. And I'm in a great play my son has written. I'm the luckiest man alive."

When August: Osage County came out in paperback a few weeks ago, I bought a copy. Before I started to write this post, I picked it up to read Dennis Letts' part, but I got a little choked up at the dedication. It says simply: For Dad.

The Osage County-Seinfeld connection

Who knew? There two Seinfeld connections to August: Osage County.

Kimberly Guerrero plays Native American housekeeper Johnna in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company production that's become a hit on Broadway. Osage County playwright Tracy Letts, pictured above, an ensemble member since 2002, also acts. Both Letts and Guerrero appeared in separate - and classic - Seinfeld episodes. One of my favorite television series and one of my favorite plays are joined together for posterity.

I found out about the first connection when I saw the play on Broadway in November. In her Playbill profile, Guerrero mentions her role in The Cigar Store Indian, an episode from Season 5 that originally aired on Dec. 9, 1993. (Guerrero told me at the stage door that she included it because she thought it was something that would resonate with New York audiences).

Guerrero also plays a Native American woman, Winona, whom Jerry is interested in. Things get off on the wrong foot when she sees Jerry give Elaine a statue of a cigar store Indian as a peace offering, and is offended. They go downhill from there, as Jerry ties his tongue in knots trying to avoid saying the wrong thing and the most innocuous remarks become verbal minefields of political incorrectness.

There are a couple of other very memorable subplots. It's the episode where Kramer comes up with his idea about a coffee table book about coffee tables, and Elaine incurs the wrath of Frank Costanza, (the always hilarious Jerry Stiller), by taking his TV Guide to read on the subway, thus breaking up his prized collection.

(As someone who looked forward every week to TV Guide arriving in the mail when I was a kid, I share his pain. I can still remember how exciting it was when the Fall Preview issue came and I found out which movies would have their television premieres that season. It was always the fattest issue of the year. It's hard to believe now, but in the days before cable and VCRs, you had two options for watching movies: see them in the theater or wait until they came on network television. And yes, there were only three channels back then. I'm not even sure PBS existed yet).

Letts has a very small part in The Strike, an episode from Season 9 that aired on Dec. 18, 1997, but it looms large in Seinfeld history. It's the "Festivus" epsiode, celebrating the holiday that Frank Costanza invented because he hated the commercial aspects of Christmas.

For the uninitiated, the Festivus celebration includes feats of strength and the Airing of Grievances. As Frank explains it, after the Festivus meal, you gather your family around the table and tell them all the ways they've disappointed you throughout the year.

Letts only has about three lines and maybe a minute of screen time. He plays a counter guy at H&H Bagels, a New York City institution, where Kramer used to work before going out on strike 12 years ago. Now that the strike is settled, he tries to get his old job back.

I found out about Letts' connection to Seinfeld in an interview with Associated Press writer Colleen Long. In the interview, Letts talks about his writing process, the genesis of August: Osage County, his work with Chicago's Steppenwolf, and about the four years he spent in Los Angeles trying to make it as an actor. (Despite his success as a playwright, he tells Long that he's primarily an actor).

Letts sounds very happy that he returned to Chicago, and as an avid admirer of August: Osage County, I am, too. I've written before about the play's humor, emotional pull and true-to-life characters, and about the amazingly talented Steppenwolf cast. It deserves all the accolades it's been getting.

"The business was brutal, and the people in the business were brutal," Letts recalls about his time in Los Angeles. "I felt, ultimately, at the end of four years my options were to hide under the bed or go out and be humiliated, so I returned to Chicago and I'm really glad I did."

He says that Chicago suits him better, and he considers Steppenwolf his home. "No matter what happens, no matter how bad I get savaged, I get to go back to Steppenwolf and go back to work, as an actor, as a writer and as an artistic director," he says. "I have a place to go and work that supports me as an artist, and that's very rare in our business."

August: Osage County

As soon as I walked into Broadway's Imperial Theatre and got a look at the set for "August: Osage County," I was captivated. It was the most fascinating set I'd ever seen on a stage - the interior of a three-story house crammed with shabby furniture, taped-up windows and books piled up everywhere. Created by Todd Rosenthal, it just looked so lived-in, so real. What a perfect setting for the messy events that were about to unfold.

Playwright Tracy Letts, director Anna D. Shapiro and fellow members of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company have created a portrait of American family life that is searing, emotional, hilarious, witty, tragic and oh so very true. I was mesmerized by it and I can only imagine that this is how audiences felt when they saw "Long Day's Journey Into Night" or "Death of A Salesman." "August: Osage County" definitely belongs in a league with those American classics. The 3 1/2 hours I spent in the theater just flew by.

The play is set during a sweltering Oklahoma summer, and you can feel the heat on the actor's faces. It opens with patriarch Beverly Weston talking to Johnna Monevata, a young Native American woman he's hired to look after his wife, Violet. Weston, liquor bottle at hand, is played by Dennis Letts, the playwright's father. He explains that he drinks and his wife, who has mouth cancer, takes an assortment of pills. A poet, Weston gives the woman, played by Kimberly Guerrero, a volume of poetry by T.S. Eliot. (Interestingly, Eliot's first wife, whom he deserted, suffered from physical and emotional problems and was eventually committed to an asylum).

From the moment she enters, Violet Weston, played by the remarkable Deanna Dunagan, creates an unforgettable portrait of a sick, addicted, bitter, miserable, lonely woman. Still in her pajamas, her hair tousled, she stumbles down the staircase, her walk off-kilter, her speech slurred, her face twisted into a permanent scowl. Not only does she have mouth cancer, but almost everything that comes out of her mouth is acerbic, vindictive and cruel. Letts told TimeOut New York that Violet is based on his grandmother. When he finished the play, he gave it to his mother, novelist Billie Letts, to read, and her first comment was, “I think you’ve been very kind to my mother.”

When Beverly Weston disappears, the couple's three daughters are left to cope with their mother. In many ways, the relationship between Violet Weston and her daughters is the heart of the play. Violet Weston is judgmental, overly critical, and desperately afraid of being abandoned. And her daughters are desperately afraid of having to deal with her.

"August: Osage County" is about the lives and struggles of four generation of American women, a trajectory that runs from Violet Weston's own (and unseen) mother, through her life, and that of her daughters and granddaughter. Letts writes with razor sharpness, wit, empathy and total believability. My only criticism is that he writes so well for female characters, the male characters end up a little overshadowed.

Barbara, the eldest daughter, played by Amy Morton, lives in Colorado with her philandering husband, Bill (played by Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry) and pot-smoking daughter Jean. Ivy, the middle child, played by Sally Murphy, lives nearby and is afraid and resentful that she will have to deal with her mother alone once her sisters leave. Karen, the flighty youngest daughter, played by Mariann Mayberry, lives in Miami with her fiance, Steve, played by Brian Kerwin. Also in the picture are Violet's sister, Mattie Fae, played by Rondi Reed, her husband, Charlie, played by Francis Guinan, and their son, Little Charles, played by Ian Barford. Madeleine Martin, who plays Jean and Troy West, portraying Sheriff Deon Gilbeau, round out the cast. Everyone except Martin and Kerwin are veterans of the play's sold-out Chicago run and they are all superb.

Letts gives Morton some of the best dialogue in the play. Her dilemma is all-too-recognizable for many American women, caught in the "sandwich" generation, struggling to take care of her child and her aging, increasingly needy mother, while holding down a job and trying to salvage her marriage. Her outburst midway through the play, when she's at her wit's end from the strain, is devastating. As someone who's experienced some of that same strain, I was blown away by the honesty of Morton's performance.

Guerrero also deserves special mention. She's probably best known for playing Jerry's girlfriend Winona in a very funny "Seinfeld" episode, "The Cigar Store Indian." In "August: Osage County," she hardly has any lines, yet I felt myself drawn to her no matter where she was on stage, bringing food from the kitchen to the dining room, or simply curled up on her bed on the top floor of the house, reading the book Beverly gave her. She is the servant who is almost unseen and yet sees everything. In a key piece of dialogue, she reminds us of the importance of family ties. I thought she was remarkable - because she had so little to say, yet her presence said so much.

Through the course of 3 1/2 hours, we learn how angry this family is at each other, the secrets they have kept from each other, and the ways they have hurt and betrayed each other. Failure casts a pall over this house: marriages are failing, parents are disappointed in their children, and we learn that after his first, early success, Beverly Weston never publishes a second volume of poetry.

But "August: Osage County" is more than angry outbursts. The banter early on between Mattie Fae and her husband, Charlie, is hilarious. And Letts has some very pointed, witty observations about how the Greatest and the Baby Boom generations view each other. "If you worked as hard as we did, you'd be president," sneers Violet. What made them the Greatest Generation, Barbara asks sarcastically, "because they were poor and hated the Nazis?" Everybody hated the f---ing Nazis."

Before I saw "August: Osage County," I only knew the Steppenwolf Theatre Company through its famous alumni - including Gary Sinise, John Malkovich, Joan Allen and John Mahoney. I walked out in awe of Steppenwolf and this amazingly talented group of actors. Regional theaters like Steppenwolf truly are national treasures. Where else, after all, would a 3 1/2-hour serious play by a relatively unknown playwright have a chance of getting produced, much less transferred to Broadway?

I'm afraid that once the stagehands strike ends, it will be serious plays like "August: Osage County," without recognizable stars, that will suffer. And that would be a shame. So if you're planning a trip to Broadway, please put this riveting, thought-provoking work at the top of your list. It deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. I guarantee you will see people - and situations - that you know from your own life. You will be thoroughly entertained and thoroughly moved.