Finleys 07- The Nominees Are

Thank you Kerri for the list! I will openly take my position here as one of the people against announcing the nominees. I acknowledge the ITA had to do it one year to see what the difference actually is. That said, I don't like it, can we please go back to the old way for next year! As someone who is involved in a load of productions every year in many different facets, (from directing right through to Front of Housing, or in this year's case tallying votes!) I always try to go to the Finley's if I can, because a show I have some emotional investment in is bound to get something, even if it's just a show a friend was in gets nominated for something. Admittedly I've only been once in the last 3 years but that's because Finley night has fallen on a performance night two of those years. Half of the excitement of previous years has been going in to the night blind, you have no idea who is going to get nominated for what. You have your ideas of who you think deserves a nod, and some of the nominees will be on your list, and some won't, and you have all of two minutes to digest that info before the announcement is made. It's a rush, it's a high! You are so delighted by someone's unexpected nomination that you totally forget it when someone else wins for something you thought was just ordinary. Then when it's someone you have an emotional investment in who pulls off a surprise nom AND then wins, the elation is incomparable! [I can still sometimes taste what it felt like when Nyree Hughes won Best Musical Theatre Performer for Anything Goes] And then if you are unlucky to have your own projects snubbed you don't feel it as badly because of your high for everyone else. [And I think we need to define snub here, I think both Gloria and I are using it in a different way to Jarrod and Louisa. I think Gloria meant snub as in unexpectedly not getting nominated, like Dreamgirls getting 'snubbed' for the Oscar last year, as opposed to a deliberate insult, which is how I think Louisa and Jarrod have interpreted her] This year, however, the excitement WON'T be as keen. There will be fewer surprises, both good and bad. There is certainly no where near the same level of excitement just reading Jacqui Warner's name twice, as opposed to hearing the buzz that would have been generated as someone read out her name a second time on the night. [BTW Jacqui if you read this, BIG congrats!] I'm sorry, I cannot see how announcing the nominees makes it more exciting! And let's put an end to the canard about attendance right now! There will be just as many people attending this year because they've heard the nominees beforehand as there will be deciding that there's no point going because they have no emotional investment in anything nominated. And yes, I know there are other awards, but if you have an emotional investment in only a couple of shows and you see they aren't nominated for anything, why would you go! Even if you do get a certificate, the certificates have now been degraded to the rank of some sort of consolation prizes: "Look, your show was crap at everything we consider important, but here, you were good at something we don't consider important!" I can just remember back to, was it 2004? when PlayLovers did Grease and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change! and between them grabbed ALL the nominations by musicals barring only Priscilla for Salad Days. Thankfully they didn't announce the nominations in advance THAT year! Where would the excitement been then?! In the last couple of years the Finley's have been getting better and better, I feel that announcing the nominees was a step backwards, but only a small step backwards. It was an experiment we had to have, but can we please not do it next year? BTW - Thank you for deciding to announce first, second AND THIRD musicals... It means that in those years when PlayLovers blitzes someone else at least gets thrown a bone! [Oh... and kudos to PlayLovers for so often being so graceful in victory! You guys rock!]