Well, everyone in attendance at that Liz Smith / Barbara Cook dinner party were right.Frank Langella won the award for Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Play for his work in FROST / NIXON at tonight's Tony Awards ceremony.
As that CBS announcer told us...
Oh, I HATE that announcer. You know the one I'm talking about.
That horrific woman who gives us the play-by-play of the winner's accomplishments as they walk up to the stage to accept their award; and she does so in a tone that's slightly smug, incredibly insincere and sort of belittles but the winner and their award.
To prove my point, this is EXACTLY what she said as Mary Louise Wilson was walking up to the podium to accept her award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her work in the musical, GREY GARDENS..."A 44 year veteran actress on Broadway, Mary Louise Wilson takes home her FIRST Tony Award..."
Placing "veteran" in the same sentence as "first Tony Award" is not only bitchy - - it should be grounds for justifiable homicide! I know she doesn't write the copy, but her tone seemed to say...
"Well, she's been goin' at it for so friggin' long, we decided to toss the old battle axe a bone to shut her the Hell up and keep her off the damn stage."
But I digress...
The bitchy announcer with the bad attitude pointed out that this is Mr. Langella's third Tony Award - - his first in the Leading Actor category.
He received his first Featured Actor Tony Award in 1975 for SEASCAPE by Edward Albee and his second in 2002 for FORTUNE'S FOOL by Ivan Turgenev (adapted by Mike Poulton).
But it is one of his Tony nominations that he didn't win that interests me.
Nope, not his 2002 nomination for Stephen Belber's MATCH.
No, I'm talking about his role in the play (and later on the film) of DRACULA in 1978.He was nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor for DRACULA, but sadly he did not win (He lost out to Bernard Hughes in DA).
And now, nearly 30 years later, he's playing Nixon. And this time, he wins the award.
Now, I have seen him perform on the Broadway stage and I firmly believe that Mr. Langella is one of the greatest actors of our time, but still...
I think the Tony voters gave Mr. Langella this award to make up for DRACULA's loss to DA.And actually, recognizing Frank's performance as Nixon is the perfect way to right the wrongs of 1978.
Why? Because Langella is, at the core, playing the same character today that he played in back then...
...albeit with less sex appeal..
Let's face it...
Dracula and Nixon are EXACTLY alike.
Two dark, brooding men with eerie, sunken eyes and receding hairlines who sucked the life out a large group of people.
Except Nixon never wore a cape... That I know of...
7 comments:
I didn't watch...(although I'm hearing wails of dismay this morning that Kiki and Herb didn't get anything). Who WAS the bitchy CBS announcer? They're all usually bitter wash-ups themselves, who couldn't even snag a trophy at a dog show (of course, if you refuse to smell the judge's ass, these things happen).
Aaron - The announcer was that same woman who does the announcement's for most of the other awards shows. It's as if Mary Alice from DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is hovering over every celebrity award telecast.
Note to Self: Smell the judge's ass.
Could you pass that note on to the peope in the finals at this week's WINDY CITY GAY IDOL? :)
I doubt they'll need encouragement, Stephen...after all, consider the population!
Aaron - You're so wrong and oh, so right! :)
Whim - Oh, I just can't stand her.
Grade A sounds a little lofty. More like Grade D rotten eggs.
Aaron - You have a brilliant and lyrical way of cutting through the bullshit and getting right to the truth. That announcer was a Grade D rotten egg of a woman!
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