Tony Awards Live Broadcast

ETC Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati hosts its annual Tony Awards party at Paul Brown Stadium.

The Tony Awards happen on Sunday evening. What? You say you forgot to order your tickets and reserve a hotel room in New York City? Well, fear not: ENSEMBLE THEATRE OF CINCINNATI is your safety net. They'll import a sizeable taste of Broadway to downtown Cincinnati on Sunday for their fourth annual TONY AWARDS LIVE BROADCAST. The party begins at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday in the East Club Room at Paul Brown Stadium. "We are a proud producer of Tony Award-winning plays," says ETC's D. Lynn Meyers, citing Jeff Wright's I Am My Own Wife, which won the 2004 Tony for best play and subsequently appeared on ETC's stage, the first production of the work assembled outside of New York City. There's a good chance Meyers will be announcing her 2005-06 season during Sunday's party, perhaps including another Tony winner. A year ago, the CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK was honored during the Tony Award ceremony as the outstanding regional theater in the United States. (This year that honor is going to Theatre de la Jeune Lune, an innovative company based in Minneapolis.) Partygoers on Sunday will enjoy food, drinks and a silent auction; at 8 p.m. the big screen TVs in the East Club Room will be tuned to CBS for the broadcast of the 59th annual award program. Tickets for the full event are $150; if you prefer to come for the broadcast and snacks, it'll cost you $25. Tickets: 513-421-3555. ...

Speaking of the Tonys, you might want to keep a close eye on the production numbers presented for several of the shows nominated for best musical: two of the four feature graduates of UC's College-Conservatory of Music. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has Sara Gettelfinger (class of 1999) as a gold-digger who gets her comeuppance; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is overseen by Lisa Howard as a former bee winner who's now the hostess and commentator; Howard graduated from CCM in 1997. This has been a good year for Broadway, and several varied and well-respected shows are in contention for awards. The likely big winner is Monty Python's Spamalot, a hysterical musical based on the 1975 cult favorite film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which earned 14 nominations, the most of any show. The inside track for the winner for best play is John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, a story of a priest suspected of sexual abuse that's already won this year's Pulitzer Prize for drama. Other nominees in the play category are Michael Frayn's Democracy, August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean and The Pillowman by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, whose Beauty Queen of Leenane was a hit in New York and on regional stages several years ago. ...

You'll have to wait a while longer to hear about local award winners from Cincinnati's theater season, but not so long as in past years: The annual CINCINNATI ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS, which have been around for eight years as a blend of a local Grammy and Tony awards show, will this year be separated into two programs. Music awards will continue to be presented in November, but the CEA theater celebration is moving to late summer to be closer to the end of the season. The date's been set for Aug. 26 at UC's Corbett Auditorium. Nominations will be announced in July with ballots published in CityBeat and the option to vote online at citybeat.com. ...

SHOWBIZ PLAYERS, which has been a regular finalist in the community theater category for the CEAs over the last several years, this weekend opens its production of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (through June 12) at Xavier University's Gallagher Student Center Theatre. The cast features two previous CEA winners, Tom Cartwright as the do-gooder Pimpernel and Rick Kramer as his nemesis. Tickets: 513-981-7888.