The Observer's John Heilpern was right. The Tony Awards last night at Radio City Music Hall was the night for the great Ms. Patti LuPone and the diva’s devoted followers known as LuPonistas. It had been almost three decades since Ms. LuPone won her first Tony Award for Evita. She was nominated in 1988 for Anything Goes and in 2006 for Sweeney Todd, but now she finally got the top nod again for her role as Mama Rose in Gypsy. "I was afraid to write a speech because I’ve written a couple before and they never made it out of my purse," she said in her acceptance speech.  read more »

Roger and Hammerstein's Broadway classic South Pacific was the big winner last night at the Drama Desk Awards at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall in Lincoln Center. Associated Press reports that the revival picked up five prizes including best musical revival, best actor and director for a musical, best musical set and sound design. August: Osage County, Tracy Letts' tale of a dysfunctional Oklahoma family, was chosen best play of the New York theater season, and Passing Strange was named best musical in awards given by the organization of theater journalists. Full list of last night's winners after the jump.

The complete list of 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards winners, courtesy of Playbill, follows (winners names are in bold with an asterisk).  read more »

South Pacific performers heard some "Happy Talk" this morning. The revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical at the Lincoln Center won four awards for the 58th annual Outer Critics Circle Awards, announced today. The Outer Critics Circle Awards are decided upon by a group of writers "covering New York theatre for out-of town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway," according to Playbill. While South Pacific nabbed the Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Director of a Musical, Actor in a Musical and Featured Actor in a Musical awards, Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama August: Osage County picked up three awards: Outstanding New Broadway Play, Director of a Play and Actress in a Play. Raul Esparza and Eve Best got rewarded for their acting in The Homecoming, although we're bummed our main Deadwood Dad Ian McShane was snubbed for his terrifying performance.  read more »

Call me a cockeyed pessimist. While everyone else in the audience at Lincoln Center’s loving revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 South Pacific seemed to be in heaven, I thought I was in a retirement home.

Now, now … before I’m drummed out of town, let me say that the score is an unequalled romantic gem. But you know that.  read more »

Tickets are now on sale for the first-ever Broadway revival of the classic musical South Pacific at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre, according to BroadwayWorld.com.  read more »