The TV Column

Great White Way honors own tonight on CBS

Full disclosure: I'm not much of a fan of Broadway.

I don't follow the plays. I don't know what's hot or trending. I've never been to the Great White Way and don't really have the desire.

Still, along with the Oscars, Emmys and Grammys in their media, winning a Tony Award is the biggest deal in theater circles. Judging by the list below, a lot of notable Hollywood stars are planning to be at this year's ceremony.

CBS is filling all three hours of prime time tonight with the 68th anniversary of the awards, airing live from Radio City Music Hall. The festivities begin at 7, with Hugh Jackman returning for his fourth turn as host.

Jackman, who stars as Wolverine in the X-Men film series, is also a notable song and dance man. He won a Tony for his role in the musical The Boy From Oz in 2004.

Viewers will spot some real Hollywood A-listers by tuning in tonight. Scheduled to present the best of the season are Kevin Bacon, Matt Bomer, Wayne Brady, Zach Braff, Kenneth Branagh, Patricia Clarkson, Bradley Cooper, Fran Drescher, Clint Eastwood, Emilio Estefan, Gloria Estefan, Vera Farmiga, Will Ferrell, Tony Goldwyn, Anna Gunn, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Carole King, Zachary Levi, Lucy Liu, Kate Mara, Audra McDonald, Leighton Meester, Alessandro Nivola, Zachary Quinto, Emmy Rossum and Liev Schreiber.

Nominations have been announced in 26 categories and were selected by an independent committee of 33 theater professionals appointed by the Tony Awards Administration Committee.

Nominations for Best Play are Act One; All the Way; Casa Valentina; Mothers and Sons; and Outside Mullingar.

Best Musical nominations are After Midnight; Aladdin; Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; and A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, which leads all nominations.

For the record, here are the plays with five or more nominations this year.

A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder (10); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (eight); After Midnight (seven); Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (seven); The Glass Menagerie (seven); Twelfth Night (seven); Bullets Over Broadway (six); The Cripple of Inishmaan (six); Act One (five); Aladdin (five); A Raisin in the Sun (five).

Finally, even if you aren't a Broadway enthusiast, you can impress your friends by informing them that the official name for a Tony is the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre. Perry (1888-1946) was co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, the outfit that presents the awards.

So why aren't they the Toni Awards?

More honors. Cable's Logo television network will honor pioneers in the gay rights movement with a special award, to be presented during a telecast at 8 p.m. June 26. First recipients of the Trailblazers award will be Edie Windsor, whose challenge to a federal estate tax bill after her partner died led to a landmark Supreme Court decision, and her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe will be a featured presenter, along with Jared Leto, Kylie Minogue, Ariana Grande, Rita Ora, Iggy Azalea, and Tyler Glenn of musical group Neon Trees. Mary Lambert will also appear on the special.

Logo President Stephen Friedman tells The Associated Press he hopes the Trailblazers presentation can become a big signature event, much like the Video Music Awards on MTV.

Hmmm. I wonder how Syfy is going to cut out the juicy parts. The basic cable outfit has acquired the rights to all 39 episodes of Starz's swords and sandals (and sex) series Spartacus. The original, running as it did on a pay channel, was exceedingly (perhaps gratuitously) lusty, as well as bloody.

We'll find out how its been bowdlerized when Spartacus makes its debut at 9 p.m. June 26.

Sharknado week. You may want to plan your vacation around this. It will be that epic.

Syfy is building an entire event around the debut of Sharknado 2: The Second One. Highlights include the premiere of Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark (8 p.m. July 26) with Christopher Judge (Stargate SG1) and Elisabeth Rohm (American Hustle).

The documentary Sharkmania: The Top 15 Biggest Baddest Bloodiest Bites (8 p.m. July 27) highlights the best shark movie bites of all time.

Sharknado 2: The Second One airs at 8 p.m. July 30 and moves the toothy rain of terror to New York. Ian Ziering and Tara Reid reprise their roles from the original.

Finally, Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda rounds things out at 8 p.m. Aug. 2. Robert Carradine (Django Unchained) and Katie Savoy (Living With Models) try to survive a pteracuda -- half pteradactyl, half barracuda.

Fellow TV lovers, cheesy summer entertainment doesn't get any better than this.

Wait! Wait!: There's more! Syfy has announced yet another city will be inundated by flying sharks when Sharknado 3 premieres in summer 2015. No victim city has been named. Hopefully, Ziering and Reid will survive the second film to fight again in the third.

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Style on 06/08/2014

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