News

Wilma Theater Is Winning a Tony, and Philly 2024 Is Suddenly an EGOT Town

Plus: The Vice President orders a cheesesteak, the Philly Music Fest announces a lineup, and Ranger Suarez remains unbeaten.

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Scene from the Wilma’s production of James Ijames’s Fat Ham. The Wilma will win a Regional Theatre Tony. / Photo by Johanna Austin

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Tony Loves Wilma; Philly Earns an EGOT

Philly’s beloved and boundary-expanding Wilma Theater just learned that they’ll be winning the 2024 Regional Theatre Tony Award. This is the first time a company in this city or even this state has won the prestigious annual honor. A few Jersey companies (McCarter, Paper Mill and Crossroads) have taken the prize.

The Regional Theatre Tony (or “Reggie” as no one calls it) honors a “regional theatre company that has displayed a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally,” and comes with a $25,000 grant. The Reggie will be officially awarded June 16th at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

Starting June 4th, you can see Hilma — a world premiere contemporary opera about queer mystic/artist Hilma af Klint — on the Wilma’s Broad Street stage.

And yes, this means Philadelphia 2024 has achieved EGOT status:

People, we have seven months for a Joker to emerge so we can pick up the ultra-rare JEGOT.

Sounds Like a Plan

The annual Philly Music Fest just announced (most of) the lineup for this year’s line-up, with bands and artists like Sheer Mag, Reef The Lost Cauze, Hurry, Amos Lee, Catbite, Anna Shoemaker and more set to play stages all over town October 21st to 27th. One surprise headliner is still to be announced. (My guess? The Joker.)

Meanwhile, Questlove has announced that a Cheesesteak Diner Pop-Up will appear at next weekend’s Roots Picnic (June 1st & 2nd at the Mann) serving plant-based Impossible 2.0 steaks and Stella Artois.

By The Numbers

2: Here’s Kamala Harris in the entrance of Jim’s West yesterday. The veep reportedly tried to get provolone on the two steaks she ordered. But they talked her into wiz because this town loves to make a big stink about its cheesesteak rules.

32nd: Where Philly’s parks rank amongst other U.S. cities, according to the Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore system of blah blah blah. Doesn’t matter. This is what you do? You go around ranking parks?

70 percent: That’s the discount at Fat Jack’s, the beloved comic book institution at 20th & Sansom — for now. Word is that their rent’s gone up, and they’ve got to close up the shop in a hurry. I just called and spoke to Henry; he says they’re hoping to reopen in a new location in a few months.

Right now everything in the place (besides the brand-new issues) gets that deep 70-percent discount until May 28th. Regular customers can pick up their usual stacks at Fat Jack’s Comicrypt in Oaklyn. Growing up in South Jersey, I spent a lot of time at the ’Crypt flipping through boxes of old Justice League and Shade the Changing Man. I hope there will be a new Jack’s in the city soon; till then this will be a big loss for kids and collectors, and Philly in general.

$1,000: The value of an exotic bird allegedly stolen by an unknown couple in Pennsauken. My two cents: Birds should be free.

And From the Ain’t-No-Stoppin’-Us Sports Desk …

The Phillies played the Rangers last night and not, as I falsely reported to you, the Rockies. Jon Gray was pitching for them, and Ranger Suárez was on the mound for us.

Last season’s world champions got on the board in the third with a single, a steal and a double, but after Brandon Marsh walked, a Johan Rojas ground-out put him at second, and he scored on a Kyle Schwarber single. Bryce Harper led off the Phils’ fourth with a double — yep, a double — and scored on an Alec Bohm single. Jacob Latz came on for Gray in the bottom of the sixth and dealt a solo homer to Harper. Hooray! Nathaniel Lowe led off the Rangers’ seventh with a single, but a double play got Ranger out of trouble vs. the, um, Rangers. After he walked the next batter, he finished the inning, and his night, with a strikeout.

It was Jeff Hoffman for our eighth, and he promptly dealt up what after a review was ruled a solo homer to Corey Seager. Hoff was pulled for Matt Strahm with two out and two on, and Strahm got a fly out to end the threat. Schwarbs and J.T. Realmuto led off the bottom half with singles, and Bohm brought Schwarbs home with another double: 4-2.

And we got one more on a Stott sac fly that looked like a hit, except for a great Ezequiel Duran catch. On came José Alvarado, on his birthday, and he managed to get the job done despite a single and an error by Bohm by striking out Seager. Hey, check it out!

They play again tonight, same time (6:40), same place.

All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.

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