The 63rd annual Tony Awards® will take place on Sunday, June 7, broadcast on CBS live from the stage at Radio City Music Hall in a three-hour TV special.

The cut-off date for shows to open in order to be Tony-eligible is April 30, 2009.

Check out TonyAwards.com for more info.

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Yesterday was a great day at TonyAwards.com.  We taped six new Tony Memory videos that will go up on the site this year, featuring a half-dozen past winners telling us about what it was like to win a Tony.

The day began at 10:00 a.m. with Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde director/choreographer; Hairspray choreographer).  He came over to the CBS studios on West 57th Street and told us about--well, we won't give away what he said on camera.  You'll have to wait for the video to go up on TonyAwards.com in the next few weeks!  But after the shooting he talked a lot about his new coffee table book. It tells the history of "Broadway Bears," the annual fundraiser he created that benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.  The book comes out in July, with proceeds benefiting BC/EFA.

Next was the frighteningly talented Adriane Lenox, a Best Featured Actress in a Play Tony-winner for Doubt. Though she just completed performances in a fine Off Broadway play called Something You Did, she said she was getting back to doing musicals.  Let's hope she comes back to Broadway again soon!

Adriane bumped into Roger Bart on her way out of the studio, and it turns out they have worked together a number of times.  Roger's turn was next, and he kept us all in stitches telling funny stories about You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Tony Award) and The Producers (nomination). He also said that Megan Mullally and the rest of the Young Frankenstein crew are having a blast every night at the Hilton Theatre. 

Linda Lavin stopped by after lunch.  A four-time past nominee, she won in 1987 for Neil Simon's Broadway Bound.  Her hair has now gone completely white, and she looks radiant.  She now lives in Wilmington, North Carolina with her husband, Steve Bakunas. They run the Red Barn Studio theatre down there, which they founded two years ago. Linda was in town because she is currently appearing at Lincoln Center in Paul Rudnick's comedy The New Century, and, take it from us, she delivers what may be one of the funniest performances you'll ever see.

Next up was Boyd Gaines, a low-key, friendly guy who was as charming off stage as he is on.  He's been nominated four times in four different categories over nearly two decades – which is pretty amazing, if you think about it.  After telling a lot of funny stories about Tony Awards ceremonies past (he won for The Heidi Chronicles, She Loves Me, and Contact), we got him to talk about the current production of Gypsy, and how much fun he's having working with Patti LuPone and Laura Benanti.

Finally, Julie White.  Last year's Best Actress in a Musical winner for The Little Dog Laughed was running a little late, which was scary, because we were shooting right off the Channel 2 newsroom, and things get pretty hairy at WCBS as the 5:00 newscast approaches.  By Julie had a great excuse: just a few hours earlier, she closed on a new apartment, in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  Where does she keep her Tony Award?  Right now it's packed to move, boxed corrugated cardboard and wrapped in packing tape! What a hoot Julie is.  We're so glad she's back in New York.  Her first NYC appearance was the early Ahrens & Flaherty musical Lucky Stiff in 1988; she is currently performing on stage at Manhattan Theatre Club in From Up Here.

What a great afternoon.  Many thanks to Franca Braatz and all of her colleagues at WCBS, and especially to Steve, the expert cameraman she assigned to us.  We couldn't have done it without the assistance of Erica Ryan and Laura Ellis, who helped us chaperone the talent.  We're so grateful to them, and to the past winners who donated their time during the busiest part of the theatrical season.

New Tony Memories will be posted on TonyAwards.com weekly beginning early May.   

We had a great time on Monday night at the opening of "Writing to Character: Songwriters and the Tony Awards®," which is a free new exhibition at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.  Curated by Tony Award Productions' own John Johnson and Barbara Cohen-Stratyner from the Library, the exhibition is a fascinating collection of documents, manuscripts, photos, and other memorabilia that tell the story of how a show gets from an idea to opening night on Broadway.

It's a great show, and there are so many highlights it's hard to know where to begin.  One treat is a penciled version of what was labeled "Tevye Music" by Jerry Bock from Fiddler on the Roof.  There is also a draft of lyrics for "Cellblock Tango" written by Fred Ebb on the back of a dry cleaning bill from the hotel where he was staying when Chicago played its pre-Broadway tryout. 

And then there's the guitar—the actual instrument—on which Duncan Sheik plucked out the melody to "Mamma Who Bore Me," the opening number of Spring Awakening. 

Each show represented, from Kiss Me, Kate in 1949 to Spring Awakening last June, won a Tony as either Best Musical or Best Score.

At the opening we ran into composer/lyricist Mark Hollmann, who said how thrilled he was that his contribution, a draft of a segment from Urinetown The Musical, was in the same display case as works by his idols such as Rodgers & Hammerstein and Kander & Ebb.  And Lynn Ahrens was pleased to see, among other things, an opening night gift she had given the cast of Ragtime: a lyrical toast to the company set to the melody of "Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc."

The exhibition also includes several public performances and lectures.  It runs through June 14, the day before the 2008 Tony Awards.  Admission is free.  Enjoy!

More info on the exhibition is at TonyAwards.com.

The Tony Honors luncheon is always a special occasion for those of us in the theatre world.  This is the day that folks who work behind the scenes get their well-deserved recognition for their artistry and service to Broadway.  Recipients of the Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre are craftspeople for whom there is no specific category at the American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards®.  But without their contribution, the show would not go on.

This year's Honors ceremony took place in the Crystal Room of the world-famous Tavern on the Green, the restaurant located in New York City's Central Park. It was certainly a star-studded event.  Tommy Tune, winner of nine Tony Awards, was the master of ceremonies.  Other luminaries in attendance included Marian Seldes, Patti LuPone, Mark Lynn Baker, Kathleen Marshall—to name just a few. 

The afternoon started with a cocktail reception where attendees got a chance to mingle with and say hello to friends and colleagues.  The program began promptly at 12:00 noon with a lunch of roast beef, green beans and couscous.  The presentation opened with remarks by Sondra Gilman and Douglas B. Leeds, the Chair and President (respectively) of the American Theatre Wing, and Gerald Schoenfeld, the Chairman of the League of American Theatres and Producers. Those are the two organizations that jointly present the Tonys.

There were four honorees this year.  The first was legendary dancer, choreographer and teacher Gemze de Lappe.  Ms. de Lappe was a member of the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre and is known for her recreation of Ms. de Mille's dances, as well as those of Jerome Robbins and others, for ballet companies and theatres around the world.   Leslie Denniston and Francis Jue provided an excerpt of the "Shall We Dance" scene (sans dance due to space considerations) from The King and I, which they performed this summer under Ms. De Lappe's supervision at the St. Louis Muni.  Then Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, introduced Ms.de Lappe, who recently celebrated her 85th birthday, though you would never know it.  A diminutive woman, Ms. de Lappe accepted the honor with a short but gracious speech in which she expressed her feelings of gratitude and humility.

Also honored was the CEO of Hudson Scenic Studios, Neil Mazzella, who was introduced by producer Emanuel Azenberg, whose name has been above the title of most of Neil Simon's comedies.  Hudson Scenic is responsible for building many of the sets for today's Broadway shows and has more than 200 Broadway productions to its name.  The entertainment for this segment was a special treat – a sneak preview of one of Hudson Scenic's current Broadway productions, The New Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein, which is now in previews. A quintet from the show performed an a capella number called "Welcome to Transylvania."

Wardrobe supervisor Alyce Gilbert was the next honoree.  Ms. Gilbert's credits include working with such theatre legends as costume designers Theoni V. Aldredge and Susan Hilferty, as well as directors Michael Bennett and Tommy Tune.  Ms. Gilbert was the wardrobe supervisor on the entire original run of A Chorus Line and is now working as the wardrobe supervisor for Wicked.  In tribute to Ms. Gilbert, the current leads of Wicked, Katie Adams and Julia Murney, sang "For Good."

Seymour Press, known universally in the theatre simply as "Red," was serenaded by Patti LuPone. She performed her own rendition of "You'll Never Get Away from Me" from Gypsy with inspired new lyrics incorporating Red's name.  Mr. Press is a musician and musical contractor who is celebrating his 50^th year on Broadway.  As presenter Jack Viertel pointed out, he first worked on Broadway in 1957 on a one-woman show starring Shirley MacLaine. Before that he performed in the Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey bands.  "I learned to play the saxophone in the Bronx with Stan Goetz and Alan Greenspan," Mr. Press said, referring to the jazz great and the former Federal Reserve chairman, who was also a Bronx boy.  Fortunately (or not), said Mr. Press, Greenspan wasn't a particularly talented musician.

Andrew C. McGibbon

Website Manager, TonyAwards.com

The Tony Awards Administration Committee has announced the recipients of the 2007 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre.  There are four honorees, all of whom have worked for many years behind-the-secnes to create magic on stage.  Multiple past Tony-winner Tommy Tune will host the Honors ceremony on October 30. 

The recipients are a replicator (of choreography by Agnes de Mille and others); a wardrobe supervisor; a scenery constructor; and a music coordinator.  It's a distinguished group--congrats to them all!

To find out who the honorees are and to read more about them, visit TonyAwards.com.

We were thrilled to hear yesterday that the CBS 60th annual Tony Awards telecast--that's the 2006 awards show, last year--has received a couple of primetime Emmy nominations!  The noms are in the following categories:

Outstanding Special Class Program
Executive Producers: White Cherry Entertainment - Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss;
Tony Award Prodictions

Outstanding Music Direction
Elliot Lawrence, Musical Director

Mr. Lawrence has been music director of the Tonys every year since their first national telecast in 1967 (wow!), and has previously won three Emmys.  Messrs. Kirshner and Weiss won a Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special in 2005 for the 58th Annual Tony Awards.

The Emmy winners will be announced in September. Fingers crossed!

And congratulations to all the Broadway performers and creatives who were also nominated for their TV work.