Mike Hughes on TV

For theatergoers, this is both a great week and a wretched one.

The good news involves the Tony Awards. On Sunday (June 7), they'll bring together the best of Broadway, both musicals ("Billy Elliot" is the front-runner) and plays ("God of Carnage" is the front-runner, with the entire cast -- including Jeff Daniels, founder of the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea -- as nominees and presenters). Below, I've included my story viewing the Tonys through Neil Patrick Harris, this year's host.

And the bad? BoarsHead Theater, in Lansing, has eliminated the artistic director position held by Kristine Thatcher. She's an extraordinary talent -- a skilled director, actress and playwright -- and a vibrant personality.

I'll comment more on this later; please add your comments now. Meanwhile, here's my story about the Tonys:

To the big-city, Broadway world, the Tony Awards (8 p.m. Sunday on CBS) are just a typical day times 10.
All the big musicals will be there, including the front-runner. "This year is all about 'Billy Elliot' and what kind of juggernaut it will be," said Neil Patrick Harris, who will host.
Harris says "Billy Elliot" -- adapted from the movie about a blue-collar boy who wants to dance ballet -- is "a wonderful show," but he's also fond of "Next to Normal," the ultimate underdog. It's "sort of the anti-juggernaut Broadway show -- small cast, amazing score."
Both shows will have musical numbers Sunday, with "Billy Elliot" being joined by its celebrity composer, Elton John. There will also be numbers from the other nominated musicals ("Shrek" and "Rock of Ages"), the nominated revivals ("Hair," "West Side Story," "Guys and Dolls," "Pal Joey") and three shows on the road ("Jersey Boys," "Mamma Mia" and "Legally Blonde").
There will be the plays, plus more music -- Liza Minnelli, Dolly Parton (with her "9 to 5" cast) and what Harris calls "a big, giant opening that is bigger than, I think, anything they've had in Tony history."
For the people who live near Broadway, this is just a typical day only more so.
For the rest of the country, however, it means more. The Tonys are a once-a-year peek at a different world.
Harris spent his early years in Ruidoso. That's a New Mexico town of 4,600; it's alongside an Apache reservation, 60 miles from Roswell and worlds from Broadway.
"There wasn't a lot of theater ... and I was always sort of intrigued by it," Harris said. "And once a year, ... I just loved that you could see live numbers from big, giant shows."
Heading into high school, Harris went to a New Mexico State University theater camp. By sheer chance, he said, he was in the group that worked with "Children of a Lesser God" playwright Mark Medoff, a professor at the school. "He ... had written this movie 'Clara's Heart' and thought (I) would be a good fit."
Suddenly, the small-town kid was working with Whoopi Goldberg. He did more films, then at 16 starred in ABCs's "Doogie Howser, M.D."
When he wasn't filming in Hollywood, Harris was doing high school shows back home. "We moved from Ruidoso (to) Albuquerque, with a school that had a theater department," Harris said."So I was in hog heaven."
Taking breaks from TV stardom, Harris was doing high school shows -- Lazer Wolf in "Fiddler on the Roof," multiple roles in the frantic "Tuna, Texas."
Much later, he would reach Broadway. He did replacement gigs in "Proof" and "Cabaret"; he did multiple roles -- including Lee Harvey Oswald -- in a reworking of Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins."
And now he's the host. The kid from New Mexico leads the one night when Broadway reaches everywhere.