The Daily Star - Stay Tuned
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The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, June 10, 2011 2 coverstory Music to your ears Familiar faces appear to celebrate Broadway By Christina Davies TV Media T he American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, the organiza- tions that present the Tony Awards each year, bill the an- nual telecast as “The night America watches Broadway.” This year, as America watches, it will see quite a few familiar small-screen faces. Neil Patrick Harris will be hosting for the second time when “The 65th Annual Tony Awards” air on CBS on Sun- day, June 12. While he’s no stranger to Broadway, having performed in “Cabaret” and the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Proof,” Harris is cur- rently known for starring in the CBS hit sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” as Barney Stinson. He got his television start in 1989 as the prodi- gious 16-year-old title charac- ter on “Doogie Howser, M.D.” He first hosted the Tony awards ceremony in 2009. “I’m honored and stoked to have been asked to host the 2011 Tony awards,” he said in a statement. “It should be a great show -- we’ve got a fantastic mix of live performances, a few se- cret surprises, and since they’re closed for retooling, we’re using all the rigging equipment from ‘Spider- Man.’ What could possibly go wrong?” he added, poking Trying” is what earned him the Tony nomination, and the production is also up for best revival of a musical. Former TV star John Larroquette is nominated for a Tony this year fun at “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” for the musical’s notorious reputation for stunt-related injuries. “We’re thrilled to have Neil back as our host,” said pro- ducers Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, “and we’re even happier he fits in the ‘Spider- Man’ rigging.” Viewers of the broadcast can expect to see many other familiar faces from past tele- vision eras this year. Earning himself a nod for featured role in a musical is John Larroquette, who made a name for himself playing as- sistant district attorney Dan Fielding in the late-’80s NBC sitcom “Night Court.” He used his name as the title of his followup television project “The John Larroquette Show.” His role in the current staging of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Up for best featured actress in a play is Judith Light for her work in “Lombardi.” Light is best known for her portrayal of Angela Bower in the mid-‘80s/ early-’90s sitcom “Who’s the Boss?” and has most recently appeared on the small screen in “Ugly Betty” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Nominated in the same category, for her role in “The House of Blue Leaves,” is Edie Falco. Falco became a house- hold name when she took the role of Carmela in the HBO hit “The Sopranos,” and is cur- rently playing the title charac- ter in Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie.” The entry with the most nominations this year -- 14 in all -- is “The Book of Mor- mon,” from “South Park” cre- ators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Among the musical’s plethora of nominations, in- cluding the coveted best musi- cal, the pair is up for best book of a musical and best original score. This won’t come as a surprise to “South Park” fans, as the pair often injects musi- cal theater-style songs into the show and their movies, such as “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” and “Team Ameri- ca: World Police.” Parker and Stone have had praise heaped upon them by their entertainment-industry peers already, having earned three Emmys, a Peabody A/Auto Boutique B/The Green Giraffe 2 x 2 award, and an Oscar nomina- tion, and the possibility of adding a Tony to that list looks very promising. “Given the key contributors that ‘South Park’ creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone teamed with for their first Broadway outing, one might expect ‘The Book of Mormon’ to show the influences of ‘Spamalot’ and ‘Avenue Q,’” said Variety re- viewer Steven Suskin. “As it happens, this raucously funny new show surpasses both of those Tony winners, and hand- ily so: Every song enhances the hilarity, expert staging height- ens every gag, and the cast of fresh faces is blissfully good. Broadway hasn’t seen any- thing like it since Mel Brooks came to town with ‘The Pro- ducers,’ only ‘Mormon’ has better songs.” Whoopi Goldberg, current- ly co-hosting the daytime talk hit “The View,” is scheduled to present this year and is also nominated for her part in producing the musical incar- nation of “Sister Act.” Gold- berg starred in the original big screen version of the story in 1992, and its sequel, “Sis- ter Act 2: Back in the Habit” the following year. Other small-screen faces slated to present this year in- clude Alec Baldwin of “30 Rock,” Marg Helgenberger of “CSI,” Jim Parsons from “The Big Bang Theory,” Angela Lans- bury of “Murder, She Wrote” fame, and Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce, former co-stars on “Frasier.” Chirstopher’s Coins 2 x 2 hollywoodQ&A By Adam Thomlison TV Media Q: We really enjoy ABC’s “Castle” on Monday nights. Will it be returning in the fall of 2011? A: There apparently was never much doubt. ABC let the futures of all sorts of major shows, such as “Desperate Housewives” and “Off the Map,” remain un- known until their upfront presentation in May. However, it announced way back in January that “Castle” would be back for a fourth season. The series stars Nathan Fillion as crime novelist Richard Castle, who teams up with a police detective to help solve cases and find inspiration for his books. It has been slowly gaining a following since its debut. It premiered as a mid-season replacement in March 2009, but was back on the schedule the following fall. It was ini- tially given just 13 episodes for Season 2, and though Vari- ety called its ratings “decent, though not overly spectacu- lar,” ABC still decided to up that number to 22 episodes, and then 24. Later that same season, the show broke a 14-year ratings record for a scripted series in its time-slot (for the second part of a double episode featuring guest star Dana Delany, which aired March 29, 2010). The day after that episode aired the news broke that ABC had renewed “Castle” for a third season. A/Crazy Tom's B/Allstar Auto Wash 2 x 3 Have a question? E-mail us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town. P not be provided. ersonal replies will