Tattle Tales

SEVEN TONY NOMINATIONS INCLUDING BEST MUSICAL FOR "THE WILD PARTY": Yes, in this season marked by a paucity of new Broadway musicals, when the emphasis is on musical revivals, it’s refreshing that a new, different and entertaining show like "The Wild Party" has been at the Virginia Theater since Apr. 13th.

This intermissionless show, which runs for two solid hours, and is consequently a bit of a bladder tester, is particularly noteworthy because it introduces to Broadway a brand new musical star, Toni Collette, who hails from Australia and is making her Broadway bow. She plays Queenie, a vaudevillian at whose home this 1920s Jazz Era Revel takes place. Toni Collette is young and pretty, as well as a fine singer and dancer. I’d never heard of her prior to falling under her spell when she did the show’s opening number, "Welcome To My Party." In my book, she’s certain to win the Best Actress In A Musical Tony when the statuettes are handed out a few weeks from now.

Surprisingly, the show has also been nominated for Best Book Of A Musical. I say surprising because what there is of the book tells the tale of all–night drug–and alcohol–driven debauchery at Queenie’s home, which she shares with her vaudeville partner, Burrs, played by Mandy Patinkin (also in line for a Tony Award as Best Actor In A Musical). It’s all inspired by the 1926 poem, "The Wild Party," written by Joseph Moncure March.

Without a doubt, this is a party F. Scott Fitzgerald and/or Gertrude Stein would have loved to attend. Well, we don’t get them, but we do get an ersatz Al Jolson, as depicted by Mandy Patinkin in Blackface. Patinkin does his Jolson bit during one of the party’s peak scenes. He is so tense and manic as the black face performer that he is very likely to garner the show’s third Tony Award.

A display ad in the New York Times of this past Sunday which calls attention to the show’s many Tony nominations also quotes the Daily News as having dubbed it "The First Musical Triumph of The New Century." this being a century that’s only five months old, that it most certainly is.

"THE NUMBER 1 MOVIE IN THE LAND": That’s the billing accorded "Gladiator," which is also the number 1 grosser for the past several weeks at the College Point Cinemas in Whitestone, where I saw it. Starring Russell Crowe as a Roman general forced by circumstances to do battle with sword and shield in the arena, this first-class thriller directed by Ridley Scott, will make you want to see more films of the sword and sandal genre. It won’t make you forget "Spartacus" and "Quo Vadis," but it will renew your appreciation of spectacle drama.