A Satisfying Award Show

I seem to spend most of Monday recovering from the weekend. I really need to get to bed earlier on Sunday night. But last night, I had to watch the Tony Awards and I couldn't watch them until most of the guests had left the birthday party I threw for my spousal unit.

The Tony Awards were pretty entertaining, and the show moved along quite well. In truth, that was probably helped along by being able to zip through the commercials, since we recorded the show and started at the beginning about an hour into it. My sister had called earlier in the evening to let me know the answer to the BIG QUESTION--how closely we needed to watch--because she had the results two hours before we did. The answer was "watch closely" because August: Osage County won best play, which meant my niece Kristina Valada-Viars would be going up on the stage with the rest of the cast for that acceptance speech.

Unfortunately, the camera crew never did a sweep across the cast to get a good look at all of the actors in the very large cast. It was disappointing to us watching a home, but I can only imagine the excitement my niece had being on stage at Radio City Music Hall, a place so big Len once set an aerial fight between Spider-man and the Green Goblin there (you can do anything in comic books.) I'm dying to hear who she met--Harry Potter himself was one of the presenters for best play. Kristina: if you're reading this, post a comment and let us know how the evening went.

August: Osage County took five of the seven awards for which it was nominated. It had two nominees for lead actress, so only the actress playing the mother won, and it lost for lighting design. It also won for featured actress, director, and one of the other technical awards (perhaps for set design, which is wonderful.) I suspect my niece stayed out late and slept in this morning.

Pulitzer Prizes

Congratulations to Tracy Letts, playwright of August: Osage County, for his well-deserved Pulitzer Prize. I expect my niece and the rest of the cast will be doing the happy dance when they prepare for the show tonight. I can only imagine this will extend the show and make a London premier more likely. Next stop: the Tonies.

And mega kudos for those talented people on the fifth floor of the Washington Post building (where I hung out for about five years) for their six Pulitzer Prizes. I read the Post every day, thanks to the wonders of on-line publication, and I still think it's the best newspaper in America (sorry NY Times, which I also read every day.)

And how about that Bob Dylan? Good thing there are liner notes so you can find out what he's singing.

Broadway Baby

My sister called me about 1 a.m. New York time to let me know that Kristina's Broadway debut was an absolute smash. And that she's going on again in today's matinee. How cool is that? I got e-mail from Jim Newman, director of What's My Line Live on Stage, who managed to get to the show last night. He wrote:

So I just returned from the theatre having seen your niece's Broadway debut. "August: Osage County" is a play full of great lines and great performances. Kristina fit right in. Had I not known that it was her first night on Broadway ever, I would have thought she'd been part of the opening night cast along with all the other fantastic actors.

She looked radiant and beautiful (what a head of hair!)

She did not appear in the first act of the three act play, but she opens the second act with a four page monologue! She got laughs and applause on her lines, she had a big old kissing scene. Her character was playful and nervous and fragile and self-deluding and Kristina nailed every aspect.

During the curtain call, as usual the actors with less stage time take their bows first and the leads come last. In this case the four leads take their bows together. There was Kristina in the final four. It was a big, meaty role.

Thanks for letting my know about this. I would have missed it otherwise and it's not the type of experience I would have liked to miss.

I thought it was great to get an unbiased opinion of the performance . My sister said she sat through the monologue with tears rolling down her face--not the reaction a director might want to see in the audience of a comedy, but she's incredibly proud of her talented daughters. Me too.

Enter Stage Right: Kristina Valada-Viars

What a week it has been. A number of friends of ours were nominated for Hugo Awards, Len was nominated for the Eisner Hall of Fame and tonight, my lovely niece Kristina Valada-Viars will make her Broadway debut.

Kristina was hired last fall to understudy Kimberly Guerrero's role as Johanna Monevata in August: Osage County when the play moved from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre to New York. The show opened to rave reviews and the run has been extended until at least July, although there will be a change of theaters next month. About a month ago, she was given two other parts to cover as second understudy and tonight she goes on as the youngest daughter of the Weston clan, Karen Weston.

You have no idea how excited I am for her. This is what she's wanted to do ever since she was old enough to express the desire. She made her stage debut when she was very little and she's had amazing training--starting with my sister's children's acting classes at the Des Moines Playhouse. She appeared at the Fringe Festival in Scotland in Agnes of God when she was 16. She studied in London while she was an undergraduate at Grinnell and earned her SAG card with her appearance in The Door in the Floor.

The news came too late for us to jump on a plane and may be too late to send flowers, but we'll be there in spirit and waiting for my sister to call with a review after the show is over. At least she and my niece Stephanie will be able to attend, which is the most important thing.