TONYS: FIRST BLACK BEST DRAMATIC ACTRESS

From the Houston Chronicle:

Assassins, the bold Stephen Sondheim musical about misfits who set out to kill U.S. presidents, pulled into the lead with five wins during the first half of the Tony Awards ceremony broadcast live Sunday night, but it was Houston's Phylicia Rashad who made history.

The former Cosby co-star became the first African-American actress to win the prize for a leading dramatic role with her first Tony as best actress in a play as A Raisin in the Sun's indomitable matriarch.

"It takes effort and grace — tremendous self-effort and amazing grace. And in my life that grace has taken numerous forms. The first was the family into which I was born, parents who loved and wanted me and a mother who fought fearlessly, courageously, consistently so that her children above all else could realize their full potential as human beings," she said of winning the award.

Her mother, Vivian Ayres, and sister Debbie Allen were in the audience at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

Click here for more coughing and wheezing from the New York theater scene.

Don't get me wrong: it's quite cool that Rashad (who I had no idea was from Houston--you go, girl!) won a Tony, and I'm sure that some of these plays are pretty great. However, it is important to note that Broadway continues toward its eventual destiny as a pandering tourist trap. Most of the actors mentioned in the Chronicle article are movie stars, and there's nothing wrong with that by itself; it's just that in the current context of the White Way's demise, it's hard not to see such casting as evidence of a cynical ploy to fill seats by any means necessary. Indeed, the play for which Rashad won her award also features Puff Daddy (eek!)in a major role.

Alas, now that I'm going to take a stab at being a professional actor, I guess I need to keep better track of such things.

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