‘Pirate Queen’ Surrender Goes (Mostly) Unnoticed Amid Rampant Tony Talk

What the theater bloggers (and chatters) are all in a dither about this week:

Not to be distracted by this week’s announcement of The Pirate Queen’s pending doom or even the delayed arrival of the Curtains soundtrack from Amazon, the loyal posters of All That Chat wasted no time sounding off on Robert Elisberg’s HuffPo piece “Why The Tony Awards Are Flopping on TV�.

In response to Elisberg’s somewhat West Coast perspective that the Tonys simply aren’t entertaining, Talkin’ Broadway poster fromthetop argued that musical-crazed kids nowhere near New York are actually the ones we can count on to keep the industry alive: “They know composers and styles in a way I didn’t when I was 15, from Sondheim to Jason Robert Brown. They quote lyrics. They ask for show tickets for Christmas. They got to cast Grease on tv.�

The rest pointed out Elisberg’s missteps but nodded to his general idea. Another poster, Makeitnew, took things further, saying that even a better-produced show couldn’t help the Tonys but that instead, all the actors holed up in New York just need to get out and meet America.

Our favorite came from perfectlyfrank, who suggested taking the mikes from trained performers and putting them in the hands of ABC’s brightest stars: “Imagine if the talents from top-rated shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, and American Idol were featured performing standards from Broadway shows or talking about shows they’ve recently seen and why they enjoyed them.� We can imagine it, and for the record, we’d pay good money to see Alex Karev belt out “Oklahoma.� —Jocelyn Guest