To-NEE! To-NEE! To-NEE!

Ahh, a day to savor in efrex-ville: First, a surprise early afternoon Mets game, courtesy of our friend whose company has season tickets and doesn't know what to do with them. The Mets won (go ahead and be snarky: "Well, you did say it was a surprise, didn't you?" Nyah to you too), and I got to savor a rare experience: buying kosher meat at the same price as the treif stuff. Of course, I'm using the word "meat" loosely, since we're talking about stadium hot dogs here, but it's still nice to see (although a $4.50 price tag on a boiled sack of miscellaneous beef parts is perhaps even harder to swallow than the dog itself). Then home for a quick nap, and then up to catch the 58th annual Antionette Perry awards (Thanks to Rachel & Tamar for letting us invade their apartments for the evening). Well, what can I say? It sure don't suck to be Q, not after they pulled off one of the more stunning upsets in recent years. Also great to see three different Rent alumni (Idina Menzel, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Michael McElroy) nominated (plus a fourth in the audience): I know there are many folks who hated the show, but I will always have fond memories of the XXXX times I've seen it, and it was great to play the "What the #@!@$ is Idina WEARING?!" game again. Okay, on to the show itself:

• SOMEBODY write Hugh Jackman a new star vehicle now. Failing that, lock him up as Tony host for the next century. He simply made me forget all the horrors of the previous hosts, and has more charm, wit, and talent than is fair.
  
• Sean Combs and Phylicia Rashad together simply embody "The ridiculous and the sublime" better than anything I will ever see. Rashad may always be Mrs. Huxstable, but that woman has every bit of grace, style, poise and genuineness that I would love to someday acheive. Brava, and what I just said about Jackman above goes for her too
  
• Audra Mcdonald's gonna need a new mantelpiece if she keeps collecting these things. Maybe she can find out where Harold Prince gets his furniture.
  
• If you can prove to me that ONE person out in TV-land bought a single theater ticket because they saw Mary J. Bilge torture "What I Did for Love," or LL Cool J rap "Hello Dolly" then I'll graciously accept the necessity of their appearance on the show. Otherwise, PLEASE stop trying to appeal to the "non-traditional" audience like this. If you want to attract new people, produce new shows, and market 'em to the right crowd, k? Someone on All that Chat made a great Freudian slip referring to Blige's "diva rifts" during the song. "Rift" is right; she tore the damn thing to shreds.
  
• Tonya Pinkins may have had major vocal trouble, but "Lot's Wife" looks like powerful theatre to me, and I'm off to see "Caroline or Change" as soon as I can. Memo to Michael John LaChiusa: that's how you write a complex musical theatre song: Make the music serve the words and the character, not the other way around.
  
• Glad to see the clip from "Big River." Too bad they didn't show the big climactic moment of the show, but still a fascinating take on what's usually considered a mediocre piece
  
• The strict time limit on speeches actually has some major advantages, in that it lets the awardees go off in a burst of joy and emotion. Only one really egregious cut-off, and I can see why it was needed.
  
• "Tradition" looked great, and the "Wonderful Town" number did not. 'Nuff said on that
  
• Finally, congrats to Mark Hartman and the rest of "Q" town on the second biggest upset of the evening. That now makes two former Eighty-Eight's people playing for Tony winners... come back, Karen, we'll make you a star, too!