The latest episode of Three on the Aisle, the twice-monthly podcast in which Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I talk about theater in America, is now available on line for listening or downloading.
In this episode, Peter, Elisabeth, and I, indulging ourselves in a slight touch of vulgarity, talk about the Tony Awards and their perennial discontents:
Instead of the customary who-will-win-who-should-win checklist, the 30TA critics decided to go their own way, taking a cold-eyed look at what’s gone wrong with the Tony telecast (whatever happened to on-air excerpts from the best-play nominees?) and how it reflects fundamental problems with the awards themselves, which implicitly present what gets performed on Broadway as the best of American theater in general. Not only are off-Broadway shows routinely ignored, but this year’s Regional Theatre award is actually going to a long-established New York troupe, La MaMa, instead of being used to publicize a company outside Manhattan….
In the second half of the podcast, we present our own individual “anti-Tony” awards, recognizing achievement in and out of New York
As usual, we wrap up the podcast by discussing recent productions, in New York and elsewhere, that we’ve seen and liked.
To listen, download the episode, read more about it, or subscribe to Three on the Aisle, go here.
In case you missed any previous episodes, you’ll find them all here.
Titus Techera, who hosts a podcast for the American Cinema Foundation on which he and his guests discuss important films of the past and present, invited me to talk about Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which turns sixty years old next month, for his latest episode. Our forty-five-minute chat, which I found hugely stimulating, is now available on line. Titus and I went into considerable detail about the film, its legendary cast, the unforgettable score, and—above all—Hitchcock himself. If, like me, you find Vertigo endlessly fascinating and involving, you might want to check out the results. 
