We have heard nothing about Boop! The Musical being added to the list of shows performing at the Tony Awards tomorrow night…so either that ain't gonna happen or they've added it and are keeping it ultra-super-duper-secret to make it a huge surprise. Since the show's sets would have to be moved in and out at some point and the company would have to block and rehearse, it's tough to believe the latter is possible.
So I'll predict that the only love the show will get on the telecast will be a big audience cheering when the name of Jasmine Amy Rogers is read as a nominee for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical…an award she won't win. Something could be said if — and this, I hear, is likely — the show's director Jerry Mitchell wins for Best Choreography but I don't think that award is presented on-air.
It is worth reminding ourselves that award shows like this don't always get it right. As I've mentioned here, I was once on a committee for the Television Academy that looked into ways to make the awards for animated shows fairer. The committee never reached any conclusions — or if it did, I didn't participate in the final reaching. But the conclusion I came to on my own was that the awards weren't fairly decided and that all the people involved in this kind of thing wanted for was them to be looked on as important and as a really big, legitimate "win" for those whose names wound up in the envelopes.
A gent named Chris Peterson who heads up a widely-read blog about the theatre wrote this piece listing some times he feels the Tonys picked the wrong Best Musical…and it's certainly true that sometimes, a show which didn't nab the trophy has had a longer life and earned more respect than the one that did that year. I don't think I agree with all his examples but that's kind of the point.
Those backing Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" say it would do certain (good) things for Medicaid and other ways via much of the population receives its health care. Those opposing the bill say it would do other (bad) things to those people. FactCheck.org tackles the question of what it would really do…or might do.
Politifact takes a look at what's in the oft-mentioned Epstein Files. I'm kinda skeptical this will ever lead to anything major — maybe to some embarrassment but not to anything that will change the allocation of power in our government. In this article, a lawyer who's poked around in it says, "If they were playing partisan politics then Trump would have released stuff with Bill Clinton in it and Biden would have released the parts with Trump." But these guys were playing partisan politics…all of them.
Snopes has a primer on the end of the Donald/Elon bromance…so far.
And Steve Benen takes a look at Trump's insistence on investigating Joe Biden and the Biden administration while still admitting he has no proof of anything amiss.
Good Night and Good Luck is, among other things, the name of a play currently packin' 'em in Broadway. In it, George Clooney plays veteran CBS newscaster Edward R. Murrow back in the fifties, standing up to those who saw Commies hiding under every bed and in every closet. It's about to conclude a very successful limited run in New York and this Saturday, CNN (of all channels) will broadcast its next-to-last performance live. It starts at 7 PM Eastern Time. For more details, click here.
Ken Jennings, host and one-time champ of Jeopardy! writes about the value of facts in our society and how it's becoming beastly hard to find them at times. When the man's right, he's right.
The fine folks who run Comic-Con International today announced…
Don Glut, Sheldon Mayer to Receive 2025 Bill Finger Award
Don Glut and Sheldon Mayer have been selected to receive the 2025 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was once again unanimous.
"As usual, the judges considered a long list of names, but these two jumped out at us," Evanier remarked. "They're two men who made important contributions to the comic book industry and artform and who haven’t received proper recognition and maybe not proper compensation."
Don Glut and Sheldon Mayer
Don Glut in his teens distinguished himself as an amateur filmmaker before embarking on a career that would include becoming a professional filmmaker, having co-produced, directed, and written eight feature-length films. He has also written TV shows and novels and, most important to this award, comic books. Much of that work was for Gold Key Comics, where he co-created and wrote three series that formed a little "Don Glut Universe" within the company’s line: Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods. They attracted a loyal following then on the newsstands and more recently in fancy reprint collections. For Warren Publishing, Don authored tales for Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, and for Marvel, his writing could be found in, among others, Captain America, The Invaders, Kull the Destroyer, Solomon Kane, Star Wars, and What If…? Don also has more than 80 books to his credit, including The Dinosaur Dictionary and the authorized novelization of the movie The Empire Strikes Back.
Sheldon Mayer (1917–1991) was a key contributor to some of the earliest comic books, with work traced back as far as the mid-1930s. After a brief stint at the Max Fleischer animation studio, he began writing and drawing for Dell Comics, producing some of the earliest original (i.e., not reprinted from newspaper strips) material featured in comic books. These included his semi-autobiographical strip Scribbly, about a boy cartoonist. In 1936 he began working with industry pioneer M. C. Gaines at the McClure Syndicate, and two years later he was the person who convinced Gaines to reconsider an oft-rejected submission. That submission — Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster — wound up appearing in DC Comics and revolutionizing the field. When Gaines (and partner Jack Liebowitz) formed the All-American comic book company in 1939, Mayer was their first editor and presided over the creation of many popular properties, including The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. He also found time to write and draw humorous comics, including a revival of Scribbly. When All-American was acquired by DC Comics in 1944, Mayer came along as editor, but four years later he retired from editing to create, write, and draw new features for DC, most notably The Three Mouseketeers and his masterpiece, Sugar & Spike. Mayer later wrote for DC's ghost comics, co-created and wrote The Black Orchid for Adventure Comics, and even adapted The Bible into a special edition DC comic. He passed away in 1991, but his granddaughter Chelle will be on hand to accept his Finger Award at the ceremony.
The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 at the instigation of the great comic book artist and cartoonist Jerry Robinson. It was his way of preserving the memory of his friend and colleague, William Finger (1914–1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the "unsung hero" of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics. Evanier explains, "When Jerry first suggested this award, it was the worst-kept secret in comics that Finger had co-created Batman and much of the mythos and supporting cast of that character. Nowhere on the comics or movies or TV shows was Bill Finger credited. That has changed, but there are still plenty of important, undercredited writers for us to put into the spotlight. Which is what this award is all about."
In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, cartoonist Scott Shaw!, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.
The major sponsor for the 2025 award is DC Comics; supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson.
The Finger Award falls under the auspices of Comic-Con International and is administered by Jackie Estrada. The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony at this summer's Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25.
I couldn't resist posting and replying to this message from David Daskal regarding this earlier post here…
Hi, Mark. Remember when we spoke last year about cold calls? Yeah, we did not.
I am a devoted fan of the blog, and there is no argument that your cold call stories provide you with non-stop opportunities for engaging content, but…why do you answer these calls?
I, and most other folks with Caller I.D., never answer calls from sources we can't identify. The State Lottery is not calling to tell me they found a missing million dollar ticket with my name on it. Hollywood is not calling to tell me they want to buy the rights to my life story (granted, in your case that may be a limited possibility). Even if similar circumstances were to occur, there is such a thing as Voicemail.
Meaning no disrespect, but certainly you never open e-mails from unfamiliar sources? (Speaking here about your personal email account) How is opening Spam e-mail any different than answering "mystery" phone calls? Do you secretly enjoy these telephone encounters?
Sometimes I think I might have missed meeting my ideal wife by not answering a Spam phone call (The male fantasy of redeeming a lost soul in a Strip Club may have been replaced by rescuing a desperate young woman from a Call Center). But then, I will readily admit I am delusional.
I will admit that once in a while, I enjoy sparring with Spam-Callers…but the real reason I answer calls of unknown origin is that in the past, I tried not answering them. And in so doing, I sometimes missed important calls that were, when the phone rang, indistinguishable from the calls trying to sell me a ten-year supply of War Surplus Mayonnaise or something. And when I say "important," I'm flashing back to the years when my mother was constantly in and out of the hospital…or later years when my lady friend Carolyn was in one.
I received a lot of calls from doctors or other medical personnel and when the phone rang, I dared not not answer. They were occasionally urgent and if I did let them go to Voicemail, it was sometimes a long and difficult process to get that person back on the line. My doctor and the folks in his office currently phone me from various numbers I can't know are or aren't legit without answering them.
And then the other day, a call came in — no Caller I.D. and I didn't recognize the number — and I took a gamble. I answered and it was someone I was glad I could speak to. I'm having a dispute over a bill I received. They think I owe them one amount. I think I owe them another with one less digit. It's impossible to reach anyone over there when I call them and it had been on my mind a lot. Talking to them then and there, we cleared it all up in my favor. If I hadn't answered what could have been a Spam call, I'd still be thinking about it a lot and they'd still be tacking on interest penalties. Now it's all settled and off my List of Things I Have To Deal With.
I do not like Spam calls. I find them annoying and intrusive and often insulting. I've sometimes even said to such callers, "I'm sorry but I'm not quite stupid enough to fall for your offer." But I've sometimes inconvenienced myself more by not answering a call I wasn't sure about.
My friend Tom Galloway (who knows everything about everything) sent me this note about the video link just before this post…
FYI, the intersection they start off in, and return to a time or two, is Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, considered the busiest pedestrian intersection/crossing in the world. To the point where it's actually a tourist attraction (although being in a major shopping area doesn't hurt). At peak times, there can be literally thousands of people crossing in it. I'm curious how much work/time it took for them to get filming permits for their video there. Possibly worth looking at a YouTube video or two that just shows it in normal everyday use.
I am sometimes amazed (and at times, annoyed) at how much most cities in the U.S. are willing to discomfort and inconvenience their citizens if some movie or TV company wants to stop traffic or block off streets to film a scene for just about anything. I guess it's the same in Japan.
I don't know why I've become such a champion for Boop! The Musical, a show I haven't seen. I guess it's just that I've heard good things about it from friends who've seen it, I like the online clips I've seen and I'd like the show to still be up and running if/when I get back to New York later this year. (By the way, the cast recording will be released before this week is out.)
This morning when I woke up, the first thing I checked online was to see if the folks who program The Tony Awards had found a place for the show to present a number on their telecast this Sunday. No word yet even though the online petition has over 5,000 signatures. That's almost half the people who watch the Tony Awards each year.
Our floundering president is claiming that if the monstrosity he calls his "Big, Beautiful Bill" doesn't pass, the people of this country will suffer a tax increase of 68%. FactCheck.org explains the mathematical gymnastics required to arrive at that number.
And he's trying to sell that bill with a whole lot o' lying as The New York Times points out. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post also points out the untruths that Trump's minions are spreading about the Congressional Budget Office's scoring of the bill
Also, Steve Benen points out the efforts of G.O.P. leaders to prevent the C.B.O. from doing its job of analyzing bills like the supposed "Big, Beautiful" one. It's even working on some of their own…like Marjorie Taylor Greene who's now saying she voted for the bill without knowing everything that is in it.
Flashing back again to a time in my childhood when "home video" meant buying short 8mm movies, usually silent ones. A friend and I were buying whatever Laurel & Hardy films we could afford and my friend ordered a four-minute film advertised as Stan Laurel doing a crazy dance. But it wasn't Stan Laurel, though you could kinda see why the seller made that mistake. It was a different Brit — a man sometimes billed as The Greatest Eccentric Dancer. I can't dance at all but if I could, I'd like to dance like Jack Stanford…
Playbill has an article about the campaign to allow Boop! The Musical to present a number on this Sunday's Tony Awards celebration. Of note is that the show's director Jerry Mitchell says they have a presentation all ready to go. I don't know if it's even possible, this close to the telecast date to squeeze another show in. Even if it is, I'm not sure if a petition would matter, no matter how many people signed on to it.
What might: My friend Shelly Goldstein informs me that a lot of the Broadway pundits she's seen have predicted that the Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award will go, not to Audra, Megan or Nicole but to Jasmine Amy Rogers, star of Boop! The folks programming the award show have no knowledge of who'll win — or at least, they're not supposed to have any knowledge of who will win — but they sure hear from the Broadway community and it sure would make for Better Television if Ms. Rogers performed, then won.
Moreover: An umpteenth Tony to Audra will not make a bit of difference to her career and maybe not a lot to the box office at Gypsy, a show that is probably already well into profit. But Boop! seems to be struggling a bit to keep the footlights on. A Tony in that category might be life-saving. Lin-Manuel Miranda has been quoted as saying that when he did his show In the Heights, he prayed to win a Tony or two because that show needed to sell more tickets to survive. When he was later up for Hamilton, he didn't care as much because the show was already sold out for months and months.
I suspect a lot of those folks in the Broadway world think that way. If enough of them do, we may see an upset this Sunday. And that's always nice, especially when you're not the favorite.
