TV v Theater

In the clip I had yesterday from "Book of Mormon," the actor Andrew Rannels briefly appears in it at the :35 second mark.  He had been the original lead a year earlier as Elder Price, and got a Tony nomination as best actor.  (And performed "I Believe" that year, which you can see here.)  But he'd left the show by the time the Tonys came around the next season and did "Hello."  I assume they stuck him in the scene as a cameo.

But it brought to mind a very funny piece they did on the Tonys that same year, I think. (Come to think of it, it just hit me why he was there at the theater!)  It features host Neil Patrick Harris and three other young theater actors singing about their experience in television.  The joke, of course, is that Harris is the only one with any success, and the others do their best -- very unsuccessfully -- to hide their bitterness which proclaiming that their true love is actually theatuh.

(It should be noted that subsequent to this, Rannells had a very funny two-part role in the final season of How I Met Your Mother with Harris.)

And by the way, if ever I have to do a comedy sketch on live TV, I am going to pay good cash money to fly in Debra Messing to be in the seats.  Because is one heck of an appreciative audience with an explosive, expressive laugh.  I say that because she's reacted that way in other such circumstances, most notably the great opening "Bigger" Tony opening number with Harris.  While most celebrities are too cool for school or show a bit of enjoyment, she just seems to have a great time and willing to let completely loose.  (Then again, I'm also partial to her because during the last WGA strike, she showed up in the picket line, God love her...)

But I digress.

Back to the show and the point of all this --