Tony Award Nominations Announced Today

Fela! and revivial of La Cage aux Folles got the most nominations this year with 11 each.  The revivial of the play, Fences, was next with 10 nominations.  Here are the major Tony Award Nominations announced today:

Best Play
In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play
Next Fall
Red
Time Stands Still

Best Musical
American Idiot
Fela!
Memphis
Million Dollar Quartet

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
The Addams Family
Enron
Fences
Memphis

Best Revival of a Play
Fences
Lend Me a Tenor
The Royal Family
A View from the Bridge

Best Revival of a Musical
Finian's Rainbow
La Cage aux Folles
A Little Night Music
Ragtime

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Jude Law in Hamlet
Alfred Molina in Red
Liev Schreiber in A View from the Bridge
Christopher Walken in A Behanding in Spokane
Denzel Washington in Fences

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Viola Davis in Fences
Valerie Harper in Looped
Linda Lavin in Collected Stories
Laura Linney in Time Stands Still
Jan Maxwell in The Royal Family

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Kelsey Grammer in La Cage aux Folles
Sean Hayes in Promises, Promises
Douglas Hodge in La Cage aux Folles
Chad Kimball in Memphis
Sahr Ngaujah in Fela!

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Kate Baldwin in Finian's Rainbow
Sherie Rene Scott in Everyday Rapture
Montego Glover in Memphis
Christiane Noll in Ragtime
Catherine Zeta-Jones in A Little Night Music

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
David Alan Grier in Race
Stephen McKinley Henderson in Fences
Jon Michael Hill in Superior Donuts
Stephen Kunken in Enron
Eddie Redmayne in Red

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Maria Dizzia in In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play
Rosemary Harris in The Royal Family
Jessica Hecht in A View from the Bridge
Scarlett Johansson in A View from the Bridge
Jan Maxwell in Lend Me a Tenor

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Kevin Chamberlin in The Addams Family
Robin De Jesús in La Cage aux Folles
Christopher Fitzgerald in Finian's Rainbow
Levi Kreis in Million Dollar Quartet
Bobby Steggert in Ragtime

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Barbara Cook in Sondheim on Sondheim
Katie Finneran in Promises, Promises
Angela Lansbury in A Little Night Music
Karine Plantadit in Come Fly Away
Lillias White in Fela!

Click here for the complete list of nominations.

Pass On the Salt -- Wisdom for Your Brain

I thought I would start providing some tips on improving your (and my) health.  John Tesh has a syndicated radio show where he provides "Intelligence for Your Life."  So here is my version I call, "Wisdom for Your Brain." 

The first one is about sodium. As someone who has had heart disease galore in their family tree, salt is something I should think about as I get older. 

Generally, 1.5 teaspoons of salt a day is sufficient to obtain the recommended 3,000 milligrams of sodium. However, the average American ingests two to four times that much each day. Too much salt in the diet causes extra water to be drawn into the blood vessels. This increases the pressure on the artery walls, causing high blood pressure.

According to today's Express newspaper, extra salt can be hiding in foods you may not think would have much salt.  Salt solutions are pumped into chicken parts to plump them up.  That can add 60 mg of sodium to one chicken breast.  Also, there is lots of sodium in some breakfast cereals.  A big bowl of corn flakes (2 cups) has 532 mg sodium. 

Another surprise for me was cottage cheese.  It has 918 mg of sodium per cup!  Now I'm glad I don't like the stuff. 

If you eat a lot of frozen dinners, they are usually jammed full of sodium.  Check labels and watch to see if the foods you eat are loaded with extra salt.  Also, add salt to your food sparingly.  Use more pepper or try other non-sodium seasonings that flavor foods that won't kill you in the long run (or make this one).