Tony, Tony, Tony

Last night was the first (and probably the last) time I ever watched the Tony Awards. Amy and I fast-forwarded through the "play" honors - but watched and rooted for "the musical" awards...

We rooted for "In the Heights" to win any/all of it's 13 nominations. (They won 4)

We saw the show Off-Broadway and loved it. We are actually going to see it on Broadway this Friday (buying tix pre-Tonys = smart)... ;)

Is that why we were rooting for it? - not really...You see, Amy and I are pseudo wanna-be friends with Lin Manuel and crew... I've been going (as has Amy) to FLS shows since early 2005 (or late 2004 - not sure). I introduced the show to a lot of my friends - including one friend who's been working with the guys for the past few years on various projects and is legitimate friends with them. We've kept up on their success on our own, but it's nice to hear that as people and friends - the members of the cast are cool, down-to-earth people...Totally randomly - I found out last week that the director of the play is actually my second cousin...

It's also nice to see "Broadway entertainment" that is geared towards my tastes. I've probably been to 15+ Broadway shows in my life -- and I've only liked 2 (Avenue Q and 700 Sundays). While I can acknowledge the extreme talent it takes to be a Broadway star -- I'm not a fan of the standard musical - where people break-out in a song and dance at every turn...or the standard drama "play" - where I can find something more relevant to me on the television or movie screen.

In The Heights mixes truly modern music of my tastes (hip-hop, R&B), modern dancing (no ballet or jazz-hands-Broadway), with a meaty plot and like-able characters.

I'm so happy for the people involved in the show, who took home 4 Tony Awards last night - including Best Musical (the crowned jewel of the night)...

UPDATED - Check out Lin's FREESTYLE acceptance speech at The Tonys:


I was shocked to see that I had never wrote a blog post on Freestyle Love Supreme or In the Heights. If you're friends with me, though, you've definitely heard about them both - and probably gone to see them. If not - it may be too late - as winning the Tony for best musical tends to make getting tickets for the show very difficult.