The 2008 Tony Award nominees were just announced, and looking over the list we’ve got to admit that it was a pretty good year for Broadway, at least in terms of quality. The phenomenal rock musical Passing Strange picked up seven nominations, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Lead Actor (Stew, pictured). Also competing in the Best Musical category are the tepidly received Cry-Baby, the harmless Xanadu, and the underdog Latino musical In......

Although the mass media informs us that our nation was monolithically united around last night's final Sopranos episode, we believe a small pocket of dissenters were tuned into CBS, where the 61st Annual Tony Awards were broadcast over the span of three hours. We know from The Playgoer’s pithy live-blogging that there were big musical numbers by each of the nominated musicals, a (“thankfully”) drunk Eddie Izzard and an appearance by American Idol sensation Fantasia......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The 61st Annual Tony Awards (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WCBS 2) If you are a theatre fan you probably know this is already on. If you haven’t seen anything this year, think of this as a highlight reel. It also appears that they have broken tradition and have gone hostless this year. The Sopranos (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., HBO) Undoubtedly this will be the most watched Tony on Sunday,......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: Identity (WNBC 4 Monday, 9:00 p.m., Tuesday-Friday 8:00 p.m.) Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller hosts this 21st century remix of What's My Line. Yet another of NBC-Universal's NBC 2.0 budget saving measures, which focus on cheap bad programming like this. Ten years ago NBC was promoting the quality shows they had; now it is this retread schlock. NBC would do better by putting MSNBC's Countdown with......

Broadway's big night celebrated two hit shows, both with word "Boys" in the title. "Jersey Boys," the musical about singing group, The Four Seasons, won Best Musical and two actors won Best Actor (John Lloyd Young) and Best Featured Actor (Christian Hoff), and "The History Boys," a play about British education, won Best Play, Best Direction and Best Actor (Richard Griffiths). The speeches were all very heartfelt, touching and classy - Frances de la......

EVENT: NYC Photobloggers will take over the Apple Store again tonight, for the 7th of their events there. The A-list...um, list, of past photographers is a long one. Six more will join the ranks tonight, as they are the centerpieces for this event. They are: Jay Parkinson of darkshapesprowl.com Kevin Walsh of forgotten-ny.com Kara Canal & Amit Gupta of photojojo.com Ed Leveckis of leveckis.net Matt Weber of urbanphotos.com Justin Ouellette of chromogenic.net Gothamist is sponsoring......

The Reverend Al Sharpton is not much of a speller. He joined the cast of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee during the Tony Awards telecast yesterday and participated in the bee. He was given the word "dengue," which pretty much means diarrhea to the hundredth degree, though the CDC doesn't really expound that part at length. Now, we're not sure if Sharpton was playing playing a poor speller or just badly spelling,......

The rarified air around tippy-top Broadway shows is abuzz this week with anticipation of the Tony Awards. Clicking through the official website, Gothamist couldn’t help but snort at some of the pomposity going on for a ceremony that no one outside theater could care less about, but it’s probably to be expected. With celebrity presenters ranging from Julia Stiles and Allison Janney to James Earl Jones and Alan Alda, the Tonys have to keep up......

Where can I take beginner Bollywood style dance classes? Mary, Lower East Side Bombay Dream was not among the winners at last week's Tony Awards, but that doesn't mean people arent' still interested in all things Bollywood. Bollywood Axion offers lessons in a convenient Times Square location. Classes for beginners are held on Sundays from 4 - 6 PM. There are also two sessions on Monday evenings, one starting at 7 and one starting......

There were gasps when Avenue Q, the underdog musical because that's what you call a musical that started off-Broadway and features puppets, won best musical last night at the Tony Awards, but considering that the show won best book and best score earlier on in the night, it seemed clear that it would be a night on Avenue Q, and Gothamist couldn't be happier. Avenue Q could be called a kinder, feltier variation on the......

The Tony Awards are tonight, and if you're like Gothamist, you're going to watch the shows because you secretly know more than you should, given how few musicals and plays you actually saw last year, about all the nominees because you just have too much time your hands (we love Audra McDonald, but if she gets her fourth Tony tonight, we're officially calling the Tonys the "Emmys"). That and Wolverine shimmying around in sequins. Yes,......

With the Tony nominations announced yesterday, everyone is buzzing about Wicked (this year's uneven and "quirky" Tony story; will Kristen and Idina cancel each other out?), Bombay Dreams (a little Andrew Lloyd Webber Schadenfreude), how Puffy wasn't nominated but the three other actresses all were (when you get "meh" reviews, what does he expect - this isn't the MTV Video Music Awards) and how hunky Hugh Jackman is...and they talk about how the Times's public......