The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Tomorrow morning is one of my favorite days on the calendar...TONY NOMINATIONS day. This year should be interesting because--in spite of a doomed economy and the typical "theater is dead" naysaying--there were a shit ton of new shows on the boards this year, so few shows will be nominated just for showing up (except Revival of a Musical I suppose...unless I'm forgetting one? HAIR, WSS, G&D, PAL JOEY). But there is some real suspense as to what will be nominated in major categories, like Best Musical. Will SHREK get shut out? Will those scrappy kids from [tos] be one of the nomination committees 4 favorite things? And there are literally too many play revivals for me to wrap my head around (like those Mamets, and that play Katie Holmes was in, naked Harry Potter, Kristin Scott Thomas, and the 27 revivals currently playing). And to think of narrowing down the acting awards...I just can't, I can't. I'm sorry, it's been a long winter and my brain is just not capable of that level of computation. And these questions are, in many ways, more interesting than the outcome of the ceremony itself (spoiler alert: BILLY ELLIOT, GOD OF CARNAGE), pregnant as they are with possibility (for some) or scattered dreams (for Haley Joel Osmet).

With so much on the plate this season (and so much of it with ardent admirers...and detractors), there could very well be rioting in TIMES SQUARE (where they are telecasting the nominations on a ginormous screen).