The Tony nominations were announced this morning. Of particular interest: Tracey Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning August: Osage County picked up seven nominations—Artists Reperatory Theater has a world premiere of Letts’ adaptation of Chekov’s Three Sisters next season, which is pretty cool. Hopefully a slew of awards will be enough to drum up some interest in the show? Although they’re currently running Alan Bennet’s History Boys, which won six Tonys, and the theater was half-empty on Friday… granted, that show is about 4 years old, and there’s no “world premiering” going on. (On a somewhat related note: Did anyone ever see the film adaptation of Letts’ Bug? The play is great—Artists Rep’s production a few years back is one of my favorite Portland shows to date. I’m curious about the movie, but I think I heard it was terrible.)

Anyway, Conor McPherson’s “The Seafarer,” also at Artists Rep next year, also got a nod for best play. Good on Artists Rep. I have not been terribly impressed with them this year, compared to years past, but they’ve got an exciting season of premieres lined up for 2008-2009, so here’s hoping things start to look up.

Douglas Carter Beane’s Xanadu was nominated for best musical; you can still catch Beane’s The Little Dog Laughed at Portland Center Stage through June 15. It’s a fun show, I recommend it; it’s very funny and it has the good kind of nudity, and I’m pretty sure they still do $10 rush tickets before shows if it’s not sold out (somebody at PCS want to confirm or deny that? I just called but the box office isn’t open yet).

UPDATE:

From the comments:

“Yes, Alison, you are absolutely right. $10 rush tickets are available on the night of the performance. The rush line usually begins about half an hour before the show.

Also, you can get 2 for 1 advance seats (and guarantee that you’ll get in) if you are willing to sit separate from your date. Pick seats on opposite sides of the theater and compare the “views” at intermission…

You can get the details on both options by calling the box office at 503.445.3700.”

And I THINK what Trisha is euphemistically trying to say—far be it from me to put words in her mouth—is “compare the views of the naked men’s junk.” But I could totally be wrong. She could mean, like, compare your views of different angles of the set. Or whatever.