…and not just because it’s Monday.

Hugh Jackman, Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette all completed their highly successful runs in Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying respectively.

Living down the street, I was fortunate to see both shows multiple times.  They deserved all the critical and audience acclaim that was heaped upon them (much by me right here on The Egg).

But one stat from Jackman’s show deserves yet another mention.

While he earned over $14.6 million dollars during his 10-week run at the Broadhurst — setting records for that theatre alone — he also raised a record $1.8 million for the charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

I saw him raise $60,000 in one evening alone, auctioning simple meet-and-greets after the show.

The 2012 Broadway season has a hard act to follow!

Nice one, Shaun.

During her four days in Manhattan, we saw two Broadway shows, a taping of Anderson, a movie on a rainy day, shopping, holiday lights, more shopping, and lots and lots of food, drink and wonderful conversation.

She was also able to reconnect with three other friends who call New York City home.

And while I know the chance to see Hugh Jackman perform live on stage was the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that spurred the last-minute trip, having so much time together to simply talk and catch up was an incredible luxury.

Would we have traded some of that time to meet Hugh in person?

Duh — of course.

We’re good friends.  We know what we really like!

You are Entertainment Weekly’s ’2011 Entertainer of the Year!’

I couldn’t be happier for you.

I guess I could have told you so in person tonight. I was in the audience for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

For the third time.

I know, I know…but I simply had to take my friend Caroline to see it before she left town.  It’s that good.

And while I had already seen it in March and April…well, that was a long, long time ago.  Things might have changed.  People’s performances might have altered.

And I was right.

The show was even better.

I do.

I had just bought a combo VHS/DVD player — back when they were still pretty pricey — and a friend gave me the campy cheerleader cult classic Bring it On.  (It wasn’t a classic back then; just campy.)

It also wasn’t a musical, but it is now, and not on Broadway. My west coast friends have the bragging rights to this one.

Bring it On: The Musical may be playing at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles through December 10th, but they have recruited a bunch of Broadway award-winners to their team:

• Tony Award-winning writer Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q)
• Tony Award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (In The Heights)
• Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning composer Tom Kitt (Next to Normal)
• Tony Award-winning director/choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler (In The Heights)

It’s gotta be good, right?

Tweets from audience members, both celebrity and ‘regular folk,’ have been very enthusiastic. The critics appear to have their doubts.

But it’s early yet.  There’s lots of time to polish.  Bring it On: The Musical is on a national tour, although no Broadway dates appear to be scheduled.

Yet.

I’m sexy, I’m cute,
I’m popular to boot.
I’m wanted, I’m hot,
I’m everything you’re not,
I’m pretty, I’m cool,
I dominate this school,
Who am I? Just guess,
Guys wanna touch my chest,
We cheer and we lead,
We act like we’re on speed,
Hate us ’cause we’re beautiful,
Well we don’t like you either,
We’re cheerleaders,
We are cheerleaders.

• 1969: The Woodstock Music Festival opens.
• 1965: The Beatles play Shea Stadium.
• 1935: Will Rogers and Wiley Post die when their plane crashes after take-off in Barrow, Alaska.

Now, you might not put Will Rogers in the same music sphere as the Beatles, but for a Broadway fan, The Will Rogers Follies — winner of the 1991 Tony Award for Best Musical — is a pretty big deal.

Prior to that show, Will Rogers was just a name in the history books to me.  Once a year or so in movie theatres, I did see cans passed to raise money for the Will Rogers Institute, which funds medical research in asthma, tuberculosis and pulmonary diseases….but that was the extent of my knowledge.

Keith Carradine’s portrayal brought Rogers to life — his years in vaudeville and radio, his common sense approach to life, his wife, his politics and witticisms, and his love and support for the then fledgling aviation industry.

I used to listen to the musical’s soundtrack in my car driving back and forth to work…back when I had a car and actually worked in an office.  It has amazing energy and lyrics — perfect ‘pick-me-up’ music.

Who needs a car?  I’m gonna listen to Will today.

It is August 15th.

Winner of 9 Tony awards, including Best Musical.  Recipient of nary a bad review.

Well, get ready.

Obviously, I’m not gonna trash the show.  I’ve seen it twice.  It was a religious experience…the good kind.

What I do want to complain about is the barrage of celebrity backstage visits at BOM — with accompanying pics that get tweeted out into the stratosphere ad nauseam.

Case in point:  Katie Couric went to see BOM recently.  Early the next morning, she was tweeting all about it, with a link to a photo of her with the entire cast on stage. And is she holding a rose as well?

Talk about overkill.

Even the BOM producers bragged when Oprah descended upon the show this past Saturday night.  They immediately posted pics on their Facebook page.

Show lead Andrew Rannells tweeted out a snap with the goddess herself and Gayle, saying “I have no words for this.”

Well…isn’t that special.

Now, I get as star struck as the next person, but in this instance, I have to cry FOUL.

Ever since the show was declared “the musical of the century” by The New York Times, BOM tix have been near impossible to procure by mere mortals like you and me.  Celebs are a different story altogether.

If anything, the backstage and onstage photos ops should be given to Joe and Jane Nobody — not the folks who are already breathing the rarefied air in the premium seats.

Come on, BOM — God is watching.

Tourists.  Jammed sidewalks.  Street vendors.  More tourists.  Theatres.  Traffic.  Hey look — more tourists.

But ads for the Mormons — not the musical, the church — on every surface?

That’s a bit surprising.

The ad campaign by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was launched last week in Times Square in an attempt to re-brand the Mormon faith as “normal.”

The ads feature photos of ethnically-diverse, regular people.  One guy is even riding a motorcycle.

Yep.  Looks pretty normal from here.

Why the LDS church chose now to launch their campaign can be debated.  Is it because of the upcoming presidential campaign, which includes a Mormon GOP candidate?  I don’t know; he’s run before without their intervention.

Or is the timing and location of the campaign in response to the wildly successful Broadway show The Book of Mormon, which won nine Tonys (including Best Musical) and will no doubt go on to do a national tour?

If so, Church Fathers, worry no more.  The Book of Mormon is one of the most positive things to happen to your religion since the golden plates.  Everyone who walks out of the theatre knows more about your faith and the commonalities it shares with their own.

The humor unites us.  The ads?

They’re just more traffic.

It happened last night, quite by accident, while I was still basking in the glow of Sunday’s incredibly entertaining Tony Awards.  (A lineup of stellar performances + The Book of Mormon’s awards domination + the incomparable Neil Patrick Harris = GREATNESS.)

I plopped down on the couch for an evening of sloth, and what did I find on HBO?

Down with Love

Did you see it?  This 2003 romantic comedy was an homage to the 1960′s sex comedies starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day.

In Down with Love, Renee Zellweger plays a bestselling author who advises her readers to ‘give up men,’ a credo much at odds with journalist Ewan McGregor’s playboy lifestyle.  The two get involved in a relationship that is not what it appears.  Hilarity ensues.

I love this movie.  The script is smart and funny and filled with double entendres.  (These are my people.)  In one scene, the two leads work out separately yet together via split-screen; the effect is very, very naughty.

The costumes and set design are amazing as well.  The characters live in a New York City that alternates between cotton candy pastels and race car brights, not unlike the world imagined in this year’s Broadway smash How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.

I imagine Down with Love as a musical; the movie was not, although Zellweger and McGregor did sing the title song over the movie credits.  And both can sing.

Oh, to have Ewan McGregor on Broadway.  Tony-winner David Hyde Pierce was in the movie version as well.

This may be my best idea to date.  Let’s bring Down with Love to the Great White Way!

As excited as I am to see the incomparable Neil Patrick Harris host the festivities, and watch performances from the most exciting lineup of nominated shows in years…

I’m really psyched about the red carpet.

You see, the Tonys are in my ‘hood this year, at the Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side.  You may remember it as the site of Comedy Central’s Night of Too Many Stars, A Benefit for Autism, hosted by Jon Stewart.

Rory and I happened upon that red carpet quite by accident.  A small crowd of people had gathered on the sidewalk across the street from the red carpet, so we stopped to see who we could see.

Most of the celebs got out of their cars and went straight into the media tent, but a few acknowledged the crowd.  Amy Poehler and Will Arnett waved.  Jack Black did a high energy running high-five.

And Jimmy Fallon kissed my dog.

I was holding Rory in the crush of people.  Jimmy was shaking hands and working the crowd — this was right before Late Night went on the air.  When he stepped in front of me, he said “Your dog is so cute,” and then kissed Rory right on the mouth.

Rory never heard from Jimmy again.

Success will do that to a person, I guess.

Not the character in Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables — the Jean Valjean that I have most often seen on stage, actor Colm Wilkinson.

He turns 67 today.

Colm originated the role of Jean Valjean in London’s West End and again on Broadway.

When the show transferred to New York City in 1987, Actors’ Equity wouldn’t allow Wilkinson to play the role because he wasn’t American.  So producer Cameron Mackintosh refused to open the show.

Luckily for all of us, Actors’ Equity quickly changed their minds.

Les Mis is one of the reasons I love Broadway today. I’ve seen the show an unprecedented 13 times, most recently a couple of years ago at an anniversary performance here in New York City.

The theatre was smaller, and the show scaled down from its original glory.  But the story was just as moving, the music still thrilled.  And as I sang each word, albeit under my breath…

I could hear Colm Wilkinson singing.

God on high
Hear my prayer
In my need
You have always been there

He is young
He’s afraid
Let him rest
Heaven blessed.
Bring him home
Bring him home
Bring him home.