Hanging Out at the Helen Hayes Awards

The Helen Hayes Awards were a terrific time, and while Nick didn’t receive the award, it truly is, cliches be damned, “an honor just to be nominated.” Unfortunately, Big River won only one of the awards it was nominated for, but the six nominations it received were the most the Ford’s Theatre has ever received, so everyone was very pleased, nonetheless. Nick stayed in a 10th floor, corner suite at the venerable Washington Hotel with an unobstructed view of the Washington Monument out one window and the White House out another; all arranged by the terrific staff at the Ford’s. Big thanks for that.

Shenandoah, starring Scott Bakula, which is now playing at the Fords, is a real treat. Nick saw it the night after the Helen Hayes Awards and was enormously impressed. Jeff Calhoun did a remarkable job reconceiving the show and Steve Landau’s re-orchestration and musical direction is as good, if not better than the work he did on Big River. Nick believes the show has a bright future and wishes them tons of success with it. Scott does a fantastic job as the father of the clan and is as wonderful a person as he is an actor.

Fanny Hill will be a clue on Jeopardy on May 11 in a category entitled “Off-Broadway”; everyone is very excited. And perhaps more excited for the Drama Desk nominations that were received by Nancy Anderson for her role as Fanny and Michael Bottari and Ronald Case for their fantastic set design.

Nick is orchestrating and conducting the music for the Kean University Graduate and Undergraduate Commencement exercises. The Graduate Ceremony will be held on May 9 at NJPAC and the Undergraduate Ceremony will be held on May 11 at the PNC Center. Nick has another terrific group of singers and musicians to work with and is looking forward to both events greatly.

This summer, Nick will the musical director for the Pennsylvania Center Stage production of Sisters Of Swing, directed by Richard Sabellico. PCS is a professional company on the campus of Penn State University. The show is loosely based on the lives of the Andrews Sisters and contains all the greatest hits of the singers repertoire. A six-piece band will accompany the five actors in the cast.

The Academy of New Musical Theatre (ANMT) will be doing a reading of Nick and Scott Guy’s newest work,Cinderella, in preparation for it’s premier at the Nine O’Clock Players in Hollywood in the Spring of 2007. Nick won’t be in attendance for the reading, but several producers and investors interested in the life of the show after the NOP run will. Keep those fingers crossed.

Nick has begun work on a new piece with Scott Guy that he’s not saying much about yet. All he’ll say at the moment is: “It’s a dance oriented piece with a primitive story and a powerful score that has both Scott and I and our potential choreographer very excited.” More to come.