Ramblin' with Roger

The 2025 Tonys

Happy Happy Ending

I love the Antoinette Perry awards because they give me a gauge of how to assess the shows when they eventually appear at Proctors Theater in Schenectady or another regional venue in two to five years. The 2025 Tonys, taking place on Sunday, June 8, 2025, are no exception. Here is the list.

Even though I have seen exactly one of these productions, I’ve developed rooting interests.

Best Musical:

Buena Vista Social Club – I saw the 1999 movie documentary and own the soundtrack, both of which I love

Death Becomes Her – I saw the 1992 movie, which was technologically great in a so-so film. But I saw a story on CBS Sunday Morning about how they did the scene when one character falls down the stairs, and it was fascinating.

Maybe Happy Ending – the one show I saw on Broadway, which I loved.

Best Revival of a Play

Romeo + Juliet – I’ve seen several productions, including one in 2014, which Dan Van Riper reviewed.

Thornton Wilder’s Our Town – I appeared in a FOCUS churches production in the early 1980s

Best Revival of a Musical

Sunset Blvd. – I saw the 1950 movie on television several years ago, a suboptimal way for me to see a film.

“Unpack the Tony Awards History of the 2025 Nominated Revivals. Many of this season’s nominated revivals have been Tony-tested before. How did they fare? The past may not always be the best indicator of the future, but accolades of years past provide interesting insight nonetheless. Check out a complete list of who was nominated, in what categories, and most importantly… if they won!”

Stars

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

I’ll be shocked if Sarah Snook, playing 26 different roles in The Picture of Dorian Gray, doesn’t win.

But I loved this interview with Patti LuPone and nominee Mia Farrow of The Roommate.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

I saw the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck. George Clooney played CBS executive Fred Friendly in the film. In the play, he’s Edward R. Murrow, legendary newsman.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

Audra McDonald, Gypsy – here’s the NPR Tiny Desk concert of the show, featuring Audra

Jasmine Amy Rogers, BOOP! The Musical – Here’s the stage announcement of her nomination and her recording Where I Want To Be

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

Unsurprisingly, I’m rooting for Darren Criss from Maybe Happy Ending

Tony Nominations by Production

Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her, Maybe Happy Ending – 10 each
Dead Outlaw, John Proctor is the Villain, Sunset Blvd., The Hills of California – 7 each
Floyd Collins, Just in Time , Purpose, The Picture of Dorian Gray – 6 each
English, Good Night, and Good Luck, Gypsy, Oh, Mary!, Stranger Things: The First Shadow – 5 each

Not getting a nomination can be the death knell of a show. Idina Menzel was on CBS Mornings touting her new musical Redwood on April 8. But the show posted a closing notice for May 18 following the Tonys snub.

Stage fright

In other theater news: The National Endowment for the Arts has begun withdrawing approved and recommended grants.

“Arts administrators described the timing and delivery of the cancellations—via non-reply email addresses—as abrupt and disruptive, especially for organizations that had factored the funding into current programming and budgets.

“In Portland, Oregon, Portland Playhouse learned it was losing a $25,000 grant just one day before opening its production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. ‘Times are tough for theaters — we’re already pressed, and in this moment where every dollar matters, this was a critical piece of our budget,’ said Brian Weaver, the company’s producing artistic director.

“Some recipients were told that their “tentative funding recommendation” was being withdrawn, while others who had already received formal award notices were informed that their grants were terminated effective May 31, 2025.”

Trinity UMC is closing

At Lark and Lancaster in Albany

Trinity UMC is closing. From the Times Union: “Church members voted May 4 at a Special Charge Conference to discontinue Trinity United Methodist Church, the last Methodist church in Albany.” I knew it was coming, but it still hurts, even though I left there a quarter of a century ago.

As I’ve almost certainly told before, I didn’t attend church much from when I left for college in 1971 until 1982. My grandmother Gertrude Williams had died on Super Bowl Sunday in Charlotte, NC, but her funeral wasn’t until May, held at the Trinity AME Zion Church in Binghamton, NY. I sang in the choir and realised I missed singing in a church choir.

So, I started church shopping with my girlfriend at the time. In December 1982, a tenor from the choir named Gray Taylor stood in front of the congregation and announced that the choir was seeking more people. I said, “That’s what I was waiting to hear. ” In January 1983, I joined the choir.

Music

It was a good group, with 25-30 people singing. We’d participate in Christmas caroling sponsored by the local Business Improvement District. Many of us have kept in touch with each other even after I left the church in 2000. Indeed, a couple of them followed me to First Presbyterian.

I distinctly remember Eric Strand, a choir director in the early ’90s. We watched the Today Show when Bobby McFerrin performed a few songs from the Medicine Man album. A couple of years later, he had three of us sing the 23rd Psalm from that album. It was high in my range, so I sang it in falsetto; my now-wife said that somebody thought I must be gay, which I thought was absurd.

The administrative board decided to have an “interest” fair at the church, trying to get people to join small groups: knitting, card playing, or whatnot. Most of them didn’t stick, but one that did was a book club which lasted about a decade, once a month, ten months a year. I read many books I might not have; specifically, I chose A Handmaid’s Tale when we had to read a novel. Most of the group were women, mostly a generation older than I, whom I was very fond of.

Once we had an intergenerational dance event. It must have been in the late ’80s, because I remember from some of the latter music included Bobby Brown’s My Perogative, with all the young kids, who are now about 50, dancing to it. I bought that Bobby Brown CD primarily in honor of that event.

Cathedral

I served as a docent for that building at least a few times. It’s a great building, and there are some very historic stained glass windows there. I learned a lot about the history of Methodism, from the racially tinged Central Jurisdiction to the 1968 merger of the Methodist Church and the United Brethren Church to form the UMC.

I was very involved in the lay leadership, serving on the Pastor-Parish Relations Committee. For a time, I was vice-chair of the Administrative Board; then the chair resigned, and I became chair. At a different point, I chaired the Council on Ministries, which served as the engine of outreach activities. Our church would table on Lark Street at various events.

We occasionally engaged in different types of services. There was a Taize series, which is a very meditative format. The church had two different Spanish language congregations there in the ’90s, which the church wanted, but the cultural divide became problematic.

There were several opportunities for Bible study, often led by Jim Kalas. I also participated in something called Disciple, which was held at my then former girlfriend/now wife’s apartment, during which I read the entirety of the Bible in 34 weeks; reading the whole thing wasn’t required, but if you if you’re gonna read 48 chapters of Genesis you might as well read the other two, right?

Food, of course

A social group called the Ogden Fellowship met monthly, which featured a speaker; local newspeople Chris Kapostasy Jansing and the late Ed Dague spoke at a couple of them. Fran Allee was that event’s chief cook, although she encouraged others to prepare food. Twice, my future wife and I prepared Shepherd’s pie for 40.

I experienced love and marriage at Trinity more than once. For certain, there’s a lot more I could share.

I stopped attending Trinity in 2000 over the Troubles, though I returned to Trinity one last weekend, singing at the funeral of campus minister Frank Snow on a Saturday. The next day, the weather was such that First Pres was closed, but Trinity, two blocks away, was open, so I sang there.

Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye

When there was a FOCUS service – First Pres and Trinity were both members – and it was held at Trinity, it was a tad awkward early on. Apparently, my choir music slot (#6, I was told) still had my name on it. Three and four years after my departure, people kept asking me when I would return to Trinity; that would never happen.

But I still feel enormously sad at the church’s demise. “On June 22, the church will host its last Sunday service, accompanied by a farewell video that members are encouraged to add to and share their favorite memories from the church.”

8647

James Comey’s seashells

More often than not, recently, the conspiracy wants to win out. My most reliable MAGA follower wrote regarding James Comey’s seashells in the shape of 8647: “Be arrested for ordering a murder on the President of the United States. That’s exactly what he did. He ordered a hit.” Well, no, he did not.

From here: What Does 86 Restaurant mean? Discover This Vital Term with a Positive Twist!

The term “86” can be used in different contexts within a restaurant:

Out of Stock: When an item is “eighty-sixed,” it typically means it is out of stock or has been removed from the menu.
Expelled or Barred: The term can also refer to a person who has been expelled or barred from a restaurant or bar for inappropriate behavior.
Removal: More generally, “86” can denote the removal of any item or person from a particular setting.

The restaurant reference is by far the most common.

Alternatively

From here:

“In 1933, newsman Walter Winchell published a column where he referenced the term in a ‘glossary of soda-fountain lingo.’

“86 may have developed because it rhymes with the word nix, which means to cancel.

“Another story relates to a bar in New York City named Chumley’s. The bar is located at 86 Bedford Street. According to legend, unruly patrons would be thrown out onto the street, where they would see the 86 over the bar door. This became known as ‘being 86’d.’

“To keep cowboys from getting too rowdy, the bartenders would slyly give them 86-proof liquor instead of the standard 100-proof.

“Another story relates to Article 86 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice… [which] deals with soldiers who have gone AWOL. Another military origin story relates to a Navy coding system that designated items for disposal. The code AT-6 was assigned to those items for disposal. It’s easy to see how this might, eventually, get transformed into 86”.

You may remember the spy comedy Get Smart (1965-1970), created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Don Adams played Maxwell Smart, Agent 86. “Despite being a top-secret government agent, he is absurdly clumsy. Yet Smart is also resourceful, skilled in hand-to-hand combat, a proficient marksman, and incredibly lucky; all of this makes him one of CONTROL’s top agents. Brooks decided on Smart’s code number, 86, as a reference to the slang term, meaning to forcibly eject someone, such as a patron from a bar or casino.”

I’m SHOCKED!

Re 86: “Many of the Republicans who said they were enraged by the use of ’86’ had previously directed the term at their own political opponents. In a February 2024 tweet, Matt Gaetz, then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida’s 1st congressional district, wrote that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, and Senator Mitch McConnell had been ’86’d’ from their leadership positions.”

Heather Cox Richardson, a couple of days ago, on 86: “It is a common term, used by MAGA itself to refer to getting rid of somebody…until now. MAGA voices are insisting that this image was Comey’s threat to assassinate the president. [FOTUS] got into the game, telling Brett Baier of the Fox News Channel, ‘that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear…. [H]e’s calling for the assassination of the president…that’s gonna be up to Pam and all of the great people…. He’s a dirty cop.’ [His] reference to Attorney General Pam Bondi and law enforcement paid off: yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service are investigating Comey. He showed up voluntarily at the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., today for an interview.”

Aesthetics

I like the above design, which I stole from a guy on Facebook. One person thought it should be all dimes and pennies. Nah. 47 should be dimes and pennies, since it represents the rank order. But because 86 is a concept, I appreciate the quirkiness of the quarters.

Someone online joked that 8675309 threatens people living in ZIP Code 75309. Fortunately, ZIP Code 75309 “is not currently assigned to a geography.” But if it were, it would be in Dallas County, TX.

Marcia: my niece’s mother

Mecklenburg County

Last December, I received a notification from Ancestry asking whether this person named Marcia was my niece’s mother. Well, yes. I found it really funny that it didn’t ask me whether Marcia was my sister, which she is, as well as Alexandria’s mom.

The site gave me a lovely color picture of her graduating from high school in Charlotte, NC, in the ’70s. However, I can’t show you that one because it’s linked to many other people’s pictures with their names. So, it won’t allow me to show you the individual photo. Instead, I share another picture from around that same time.

I was always jealous of her ‘fro. I could never grow one like that. In fact, my hair started receding around the time of this picture or probably even earlier.

Interestingly, there is a Marcia Green, who graduated from Binghamton Central High School, my alma mater, in 1978. She is NOT my sister.

NC

It was 50 years ago last year that my parents and Marcia moved to Charlotte, NC, from Johnson City, NY, near Binghamton and in Broome County. My father went south first, Marcia, and then my mother.

Marcia had a different high school experience than our sister Leslie and me. She attended Johnson City High School briefly and then graduated from a school in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

When we have conversations on our Sunday ZOOM calls, we naturally have many similarities from growing up as a base of experience. But Leslie and I both attended Binghamton Central for three years, though she spent ninth grade at West Junior High School after they closed my K to 9 schools, Daniel S. Dickinson.

One of my random favorite thoughts is that I once sang for Marcia’s kindergarten class at Dickinson, though I’m not sure how that happened. Her teacher was Mrs. Burroughs, whereas Miss Cady taught Leslie and me.

Happy birthday, Marcia!

Sunday Stealing — Back to Bed

sarcophagus

Man with sleeping mask and earplugs in bed

Welcome to Sunday Stealing, Back to Bed.

“Last week, we shared questions about your bathroom. This week, with questions stolen from Manic Monday, we’re moving to the bedroom.”

1. Let’s say your alarm wakes you up with music. What would be the worst song to hear first thing in the morning?

It doesn’t matter. Any song with words is irritating to wake up to, even songs I like.

2. How many pillows do you sleep with?

Two. One doesn’t cut it at all.

3. What size mattress do you sleep on?

I share a queen with my wife.

4. Do you always sleep on the same side of the bed?

Yes, to my wife’s left, near my dresser.

5. Do you make your bed every day?

No. My wife often does. Back in the 1980s, I visited my sister in California. After I didn’t make the bed for a couple of days, she made it and said, “Won’t that feel better?” NO! Being in a well-made bed is like being in a sarcophagus. I’ll kick out a hospital corner in minutes.

6. Do you keep water on your bedside table?

No, I’d almost certainly knock it over.

7. How often do you change your sheets?

Once a week.

8. What’s under your bed?

A couple of bins of clothes, I think.

9. Do you sleep in total darkness or like to have a light on?

It’s mostly darkness. There’s a night light on the baseboard in the hallway, so I can see if I wake up in the middle of the night, which happens about two-thirds of the time.

My childhood room

10. What do you remember about your childhood bedroom?

Growing up, we lived on the first floor of a small two-story house owned by my maternal grandmother. I probably slept in the same room as my sister Leslie until my sister Marcia arrived.

There was no other room as such. In the middle room, my father built a wall that ran from the kitchen entrance about 2/3 of the way into the room, then another wall at a 90-degree angle from the first, leaving about an entrance to my room the size of a standard door, though I did not HAVE a door. Then he built a solid piece of wood – one large shelf – held up by the two new walls and the existing wall to serve as the frame for my “bed”. On top of that was a foam mattress.

I did have room for my stuff under the bed, including a very low dresser. Around the corner was my bookcase, filled with my Golden Book Encyclopedias, World Almanac, and other books.

One of those books described the solar system and gave the relative sizes of the sun and the planets. So my father painted the solar system on the ceiling in my room—a giant sun and the various planets, including their known moons at the time. I remember that according to the book, Jupiter had 12, Saturn 9, Neptune 5, Uranus and Mars 2 apiece, and Earth and Pluto 1 each.

Since the walls my father built didn’t reach the ceiling, a single ceiling light illuminated the middle room/my room. Anyone coming to visit us who went into the kitchen or bathroom was likely to see at least this massive star on the ceiling.

The Bed from the Broadway musical HAIR