Playhouse shows shut out at 62nd Tonys fete
“Cry-Baby” and “Xanadu,” two current Broadway musicals with production ties to La Jolla Playhouse, were shut out at the 62nd annual Tony Awards Sunday, June 15, having been nominated for eight top honors between them.
Each had been in the running for Best Musical, Best Musical Book and Best Choreography. “Xanadu,” about a starving artist’s excursion into roller disco, was also nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. “Cry-Baby,” a “Grease”-style entry about a bad boy’s crush on a good girl, was up for Best Original Score.
“Cry-Baby” had its premiere at La Jolla last fall. “Xanadu,” directed by Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley, will open at the Playhouse in November.
“In the Heights,” a Latino-flavored celebration of life in upper Manhattan, won the 2008 Best Musical award.
“A Catered Affair,” Harvey Fierstein’s coming-of-age musical that premiered last fall at The Old Globe Theatre, was nominated for three awards, none of which it won.