Mormon Actor at the Tony Awards

[Moksha]

Rollo added this on another forum:

Will Swenson, that is. He played "Jonathan" in the two "Singles Ward" movies (and the 'bad boy' best friend of Kirby Heyborne in "The RM"). He now has the lead role in "Hair" on Broadway, which won "Best Musical Revival" last night (Will was nominated as best actor, but I don't think he won). Anyhoo, at one point in the show Will (with very long hair) and his fellow hippie castmates did a great musical number while running throughout the audience. Here is how Entertainment Tonight described it:

The Hair hippies, who scored Best Musical Revival, gave a rousing performance of their title song and managed to mingle with the stars in the process. Nominees Will Swenson and Gavin Creel shook it on, above or with Gandolfini, Anne Hathaway, Edie Falco and Frank Langella.

I thought it was great to see a guy from all those goofy Mormon films make it big.

[dazed-and-confused]

dang......i'm old enough to remeber HAIR the first time around......and i wasnt LDS then either.........lol....just an old LDS hippie

[pam]

Okay everyone sing it together:

Let it fly in the breeze and get caught in the trees

Give a home to the fleas, in my hair

A home for fleas, a hive for the buzzing bees

A nest for birds, there ain't no words

For the beauty, splendor, the wonder of my hair

[Seanette]

Trust me, pam, you really don't want me to sing (even a song I know). My cat sings better than I do, as I have to remind my ward choir director periodically.

[pam]

Hey but with cybersinging..we wouldn't really know that.

[FunkyTown]

Ohmigosh! Will Swenson is nominated for a Tony? Go Will! I watched one of his movies last night.

[goofball]

yeah but he did some stuff on Broadway that has definitely gone away from his Mormon roots and done some nude work.

Broadway.com - Will Swenson: The Naked Truth About Starring in Hair - Broadway Tickets

[talisyn]

He didn't do what Bret Michaels did I hope. But I have to confess I watched the Bret Michaels incident about 5 times and died laughing each time. I'm gonna burn in heck, I just know it ><

[Seanette]

He didn't do what Bret Michaels did I hope. But I have to confess I watched the Bret Michaels incident about 5 times and died laughing each time. I'm gonna burn in heck, I just know it ><

I must be really out of touch, since I have no clue what you're talking about. More info, please?

[Churchmouse]

Okay everyone sing it together:

I'm in. When it comes to singing I get requests.

But I sing anyway.

[Moksha]

As they always say, "Hair today gone tomorrow".

Hope Will Swenson makes it to Hollywood. Wouldn't it be great to have Steven Speilberg direct Will in a Slumdog Millionaire-type movie set in Salt Lake City?

:)

[prospectmom]

when cyber singing you are always in tone and sound wonderful. :}

[prospectmom]

I loved watching the Tony's it was so nice to see snipits of so many plays and musicals..... I loved Hair and was nice to see it revived..... I also liked Carrie Fisher's Musical ..... is that her name???

[Churchmouse]

It should have been called "Hairball". Something the cat spit up. Anything that Playboy Mag thought was a great play, I have doubts about.

[StallionMcBeastly]

I must be really out of touch, since I have no clue what you're talking about. More info, please?

As he was walking off stage, a backdrop was lowering and it caught him right in the head and close-lined him LOL!

[Seanette]

OWIE!!! I hope he's OK!

[Moksha]

Headlines: Audra McDonald and Will Swenson to Star in Utah 110 in the Shade

by Broadway.com Staff

Audra McDonald & Will Swenson

Four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will reprise her Tony-nominated performance as Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade at Utah’s Hale Center Theater Orem in summer 2010. The community theater production, which will run June 28 through August 7, will also star current Tony Award nominee and Hair star Will Swenson, a Utah native, as Bill Starbuck. The two Broadway powerhouses will appear for the first two weeks of the run, donating their time to the production, which benefits the nonprofit Hale Center Foundation for the Arts and Education.

[pam]

Wow that's awesome.

[Maxel]

It frustrates me when I see a Mormon actor lowering his/her religion's standards for the sake of his/her career. We are a city set upon a hill; we cannot and will not be hid. Whenever a Mormon who has made covenants with God denigrates the name of Christ by participating in such vile practices as public nudity, it frustrates me to no end. I think this is largely because, being an ardent fan of the theatre my whole life, I am well aware that such "shock" practices aren't needed to make an impactful production.

[Prodigal_Son]

Will? All I gotta say is this:

Being a prematurely balding guy, you make me sick.

[Just_A_Guy]

First the female lead in The Other Side of Heaven does a topless scene in Brokeback Mountain, then Richard Dutcher goes apostate, then Kirby Heyborne advertises beer, and now Will Swenson's doing nudie work.

What's happening to Mormon cinema?

[JPL1234]

I read on the internet that he is no longer a Mormon - he's left the church.....