What would the Tonys be without a little controversy — a little tempest in tap shoes?
And I don’t mean the fact that the infantile “Bring It On” was nominated as Best Musical.
No, this little brouhaha pits Actors’ Equity against the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing, the two influential organizations that control the Tonys.
Every year, members of the League and the Wing dole out special Tony honors to people or theater groups that have made substantial contributions to the American theater. This year’s recipients include a show called “The Lost Colony,” which is described as a “symphonic pageant” about the first English colonies on Roanoke Island in North Carolina.
(Can’t wait for this one to transfer to Broadway.)
The show has been running every summer at the open-air Waterside Theater on Roanoke since 1937.
Nobody gave the award much thought until Actors’ Equity discovered that “The Lost Colony” employs quite a few non-union actors to dress up as colonists and Native Americans.
“The Tonys stand for excellence in the professional theater,” says an Equity source. “And this ain’t no professional theater.”
Another source familiar with the show says: “The quality of ‘The Lost Colony’ is a joke. Pasty white boys painting themselves orange, running around pretending to be Native Americans? Puh-leeze!”
Equity president Nick Wyman fired off an angry letter to Charlotte St. Martin, head of the League, protesting the award. He also pointed out that the chairman of the Wing, costume designer William Ivey Long, is the production designer of “The Lost Colony.”
Could that be a conflict of interest, Wyman (and others) wondered?
(Long did in fact suggest that “Lost Colony,” be honored, Tony sources said. I left a message for The Chairman, as I like to call him, but he didn’t get back to me.)
St. Martin wrote to Wyman expressing bewilderment. Why, she asked, should Equity be upset? After all, St. Martin wrote, the union’s executive director, Mary McColl and its former leader, Alan Eisenberg, were at the meeting at which the award was made.
Wrong!
McColl wasn’t there — and she’s said to be on the warpath (so to speak). Eisenberg was there but, sources say, voted against it. “Alan would never support a non-union production,” an Equity source says.
This is the second time the Wing and the League have promoted a non-union show. Last year, in a stunning display of bad taste, a scene from a tacky-looking cruise-ship production of “Hairspray” was broadcast on the Tonys. Equity protested because cruise ships are not required to use union actors.
“We thought we’d smoothed things over with the Wing and the League after last year’s debacle,” an Equity source said. “And then they go and do it to us again.”
Another Equity source says: “They don’t give a f – – k about the union. It’s very upsetting.”
The League and the Wing responded: “ ‘The Lost Colony’ provides work to both union and non-union actors . . . We are proud of our recognition of ‘The Lost Colony,’ which is one of the only federal/WPA theater projects still in existence and which has provided important . . . opportu-nities to countless pro-fessional and aspiring professional actors alike.”
I checked out “The Lost Colony” Web site. All I can say is, CBS better not broadcast a number from that “symphonic pageant” on the Tonys.
The ratings are bad enough.
‘Lucky Guy,” starring Tom Hanks, has recouped its $3.6 million in just eight weeks. That show has been going gangbusters ever since they took my advice and changed the poster art at the Broadhurst.
No need to thank me, Tom. I’m just doing my part for the American theater.
Maybe the Tonys will honor me next year!