Our Ultimate Theater Geek Trivia Contest: Tony Edition

In a reverie, Beth Malone as the older Alison sketches her younger self played by Emily Skeggs in Fun Home / Photos by Joan Marcus

In a reverie, Beth Malone as the older Alison sketches her younger self played by Emily Skeggs in Fun Home / Photos by Joan Marcus

After a theater season in South Florida with four, five even six openings in a single weekend, the production metabolism slows down this summer to only a dozen openings in a month — which gives us a chance to work on some reporting projects this summer and to entertain you with some of our lighter features.

So here, once again, is the latest installment of our patented theater geek trivia contest. This one is tied to the recent Tony Awards and the arrival next month of Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal in Love Letters at the Broward Center July 21-26. No cheating with Google, Boogle or anything else.

A musical number from The Last Ship appeared on the Tony Awards telecast last year even though it was not due to open for months. Finding Neverland had a musical number appear this year on the telecast even though it did not get any nominations at all. It Shoulda Been You was not nominated for anything in any category, but it also scored a coveted spot with a scene performed on the telecast. Last year, The Bridges of Madison County, which won two Tony Awards including Best Score, did not have a number performed on the telecast. As the Fun Home team tried to finish their acceptance speech this year, the telecast cut in with a performance from 2005’s Jersey Boys. One very specific mechanism was the reason for all these artistic judgment calls. What was it?//

Name four of at least 17 Tony Awards this year presented during commercial breaks this year.

In an attempt to jazz up the Tonys, two initiatives were tried out this year. What were they?

In theory, presenters have a connection to the Broadway theater. Jennifer Lopez, Nick Jonas and “Canadian singer” Kiesza, all of whom probably need a limo driver to find a Broadway theater, were co-presenters to introduce the number from Finding Neverland. Why? This is not a rhetorical question.

When Something Rotten lost the Best Musical Tony Award to Fun Home, it’s publicity staff rebounded by taking out large ads with the headline “Losers” and then listed the famous shows that also lost the Tony for Best Musical. We’ll list which show lost and the year, you supply who actually won.

West Side Story 1958
Gypsy 1960
Oliver 1963
Funny Girl 1964
Follies 1972
Chicago 1976
Dreamgirls 1982
Into the Woods 1988
Miss Saigon 1991
Wicked 2004
The Drowsy Chaperone 2006

Love Letters, A.R. Gurney’s 1988 play in which two actors read their characters’ letters aloud, is coming to the Broward Center with MacGraw and O’Neal. Scores upon scores of actors have performed the show because it involves very little rehearsal and no memorization.

Besides Love Story, how many times have MacGraw and O’Neal appeared in the same film?

How many straight theater credits do each of them have?

Who starred in Love Letters’ world premiere at the New York Public Library? (Hint: One of them was in Two And A Half Men)

It then moved the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut with which stars? (Hint: Nick & Nora and Getting Away With Murder)

Who starred in its 1989 off-Broadway bow that made it famous? (Hint: The son of a concert pianist and a very hot actress who spent some time in South Florida.)

When it finally made it to Broadway, what acclaimed married couple from stage and screen were the first pairing? (Hint: They were famous for playing lovers in a Eugene O’Neill play)

Who in this list has not done the show? Victor Garber, Julie Harris, George Hearn, Richard Kiley, William Hurt, Marsha Mason, Christopher Reeve, George Segal, Christopher Walken, Lynn Redgrave, Stockard Channing, Jane Curtin, Polly Bergen, Robert Vaughn, Timothy Hutton, Elizabeth McGovern, Swoosie Kurtz, Richard Thomas, Elaine Stritch, Cliff Robertson and Elizabeth Montgomery.

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