This morning out actor David Hyde Pierce (who won a Tony last year for Curtains) and Grey's Anatomy's Sara Ramirez (who won a Tony herself alongside Pierce in Spamalot a few years ago) announced the Tony nominations for 2008.

Best Musical: Xanadu, aka Gayness on Skates, was nominated (also for Best Book), as well as gay-pedigreed Cry-Baby (Cry-Baby also snagged a nom for Best Score and Best Book).

Best Actor in a Play: Out actor Ben Daniels (Beautiful Thing) was nominated for his brilliant (and revealing!) performance in Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Best Actress in a Musical: Xanadu's Kerry Butler was nominated, as was Faith Prince for the gay-themed A Catered Affair.

Featured Actor in a Play: Out actor Raul Esparza (Pushing Daisies) was nominated for The Homecoming. And gay-fave actor Bobby Cannevale (Will & Grace) was nominated for Mauritius.

Featured Actor in a Musical: Out actor Robin De Jesus (Camp) was nominated for In the Heights.

Best Choreography: Xanadu and Cry-Baby were both nominated.

And gay composer Stephen Sondheim will be given the Lifetime Achievement Award (deservedly!). 

Of course, the big disappointment is that multiple-threat hunk Cheyenne Jackson wasn't nominated for Best Actor for his short-short-filling turn in Xanadu. Sigh. Well, we know we still haven't seen the best of him (at least, I know I haven't!). Congrats to all the nominees! The Tony Awards will be handed out on June 15th, and you can check out the full list on noms after the break!

Here he cooomes, Mr. Broadwaaay ... Suck It Up this week is all about pageants and glitter (and dancing like the manliest of men, of course!) so prepare yourselves. John and Colin also welcome an amazing guest: the winner of the second-annual Broadway Beauty Pageant, Marty Thomas!

Marty entered as Mr. Xanadu and roller-skated out of there with the title - and with that tiara! The fellas chat about Xanadu's origins, roller-skating injuries and his childhood owning of one Britney Spears on Ed McMahon's Junior Star Search. And oh yeah, they recap the most recent Damn Yankees-themed episode of Step It Up & Dance. Of course.

Check it all out after the break!

Yes, the Little Gay Rollerskating Musical That Could, Broadway's insanely camp Xanadu musical, has secured all of its leads through January of aught nine. Out lead Cheyenne Jackson, impossibly Newton-Johnny Kerry Butler, Tony Roberts, and bookend divas Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman have all renewed their contracts through next year.

Granted, I'm not a Broadway expert, but isn't that quite a hefty renewal? And for a show that no one thought would ever get off the ground, no less! Several AfterElton.com staffers (myself included, although I saw it pre-Cheyenne) have seen and loved the show, so we think this is great news. Can we credit newly-crowned Mr. Broadway (Xanadu's Marty Thomas) for giving the show the bump it needed to lock in for another nine months? We'll never know ... just go see it.

Seriously.

Billy Elliot: The Musical is one of the most eagerly anticipated Broadway shows of the year, and it's easy to see why. In case you don't remember Billy's story, here's a quote from the musical's site:

BILLY ELLIOT is a funny, heart-warming and feel-good celebration of one young boy's dream in a gripping tale of triumph over adversity. Based on the enormously popular film, this powerful new musical is the story of a boy who discovers he has a special talent for dance, while the boys all around him are more interested in boxing. An unprecedented smash in the West End, where it has won 9 Best Musical awards, broken UK box office records and continues to sell out nightly, BILLY ELLIOT has been created by the film's director (Stephen Daldry), writer (Lee Hall) and choreographer (Peter Darling), who are joined by music legend Elton John one of the most celebrated pop songwriters of the last 30 years. On October 1, 2008, BILLY ELLIOT lands on Broadway.

Elton has had a mostly successful track record when it comes to Broadway, with one notable exception. His biggest success remains his first, the stage adaption of The Lion King, which debuted in 1997. It won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and is still running over 11 years later. The following year he scored another hit with Aida, which ran for four years and won four Tonys, including Best Original Music Score for Elton and lyricist Tim Rice.

And then there's Lestat. The musical, based on Anne Rice's horny vampire, opened to much fanfare on April 25, 2006 ... and closed on May 28, 2006, after just 39 performances. The reviews were dreadful, with the New York Times calling it a musical sleeping pill. Ouch.

Hopefully, Elton has put the memory of that mini-Carrie behind him, and he can charm us once again with Billy Elliot, which has already been a huge hit all around the world. After the break, you can see a clip from this week's CBS News on Logo where Sir Elton talks about the project and its special resonance for gay audiences.

Fans of Cheyenne Jackson can rejoice, he's just been nominated for "Distinguished Performance" at this year's Drama League Awards for the smash Broadway musical Xanadu!

That's the good news. The bad news is that there are 69 other nominees for the same award (it reminds me of when I was in 5th grade, and was elected class president ... along with every other student in class, because our teacher didn't want anyone to feel left out). Cheyenne isn't the only out nominee; others include Charles Busch for Die Mommie Die!, Ben Daniels for Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Nathan Lane for November, and Harvey Fierstein for the book for A Catered Affair.

Joining the out men are such gay faves as Christine Baranski, Bobby Cannavale, Angela Lansbury, Laura Linney, Faith Prince, and the most likely winner, Patti Lupone for Gypsy. Of special interest is nominee Terrence Howard, for his controversial performance in the revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

I'm not sure how they pick the winners, but if Cheyenne doesn't win, at least he'll be in fine company. After the break, you can see the clip that proves once again why he is deserving of all the accolades he's received, and still will receive (cross your fingers for a Tony nomination).

The eternally youthful looking John Cameron Mitchell turns 45 today, and the out actor/writer/director deserves showers of Gummi Barens, Necco Wafers and Sugar Daddies for creating two of the biggest cult hits of the decade.

In 1998, he wrote (along with composer Stephen Trask) and starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, an Off-Broadway musical about Hedwig, an East German transgender rock musician chasing after an ex-lover who plagiarized her songs. In 2001, he directed the feature film version of the play, reprising his role as Hedwig. There have been many film musicals this decade, but none of them even come close to fitting into Hedwig's Dorothy Hamill 'do.

Not one to rest on his laurels, his next film would be a major departure, and cause major controversy.

In 2006, he released Shortbus (you can read our review over here), a sexually explicit comedy drama starring many ... um ... flexible actors. John said he was trying to employ sex in "new, cinematic ways", and as to the film's use of unsimulated sex, here's what he said:

In the old days, when you couldn't show sex on film, directors like Hitchcock had metaphors for sex (trains going into tunnels, etc). When you can show more realistic sex, the sex itself can be a metaphor for other parts of the character's lives. The way people express themselves sexually can tell you a lot about who they are. Some people ask me, 'Couldn't you have told the same story without the explicitness?'. They don't ask whether I could've done Hedwig without the songs. Why not be allowed to use every paint in the paintbox?

After two of the most compelling projects of the decade, it appears that John is taking a break from filmmaking. Hopefully, it won't last too long, because we need his creativity and originality. After the break, you can see one of the greatest scenes from Hedwig, which involves a young and precocious Hansel, Armed Forces Radio, and an oven playhouse.

Neil Patrick Harris and boyfriend David Burtka at the Harold and Kumar premiere

It was a big gay night out for the casts and guests of upcoming comedy Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and Broadway's A Catered Affair. Enjoy!

Neil Patrick Harris and Harold and Kumar co-star Kal Penn

Out actor B.D. Wong at the A Catered Affair opening

More pics after the jump!

Gay icon Cher has made some rather dubious career decisions in the past, and I'm sure that if she could turn back time, she might skip a few choices, i.e. shilling detangler on QVC. But one thing you cannot say about the Oscar winner is that she hasn't taken chances, and never was that more apparent than on her 1978 primetime spectacle, "Cher...Special".

The special aired on April 3, 1978 on ABC and was a huge ratings hit. From the website Just Plain Cher comes this synopsis:

Segments of "Cher...special" include guests Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart performing their hit songs "Two Doors Down" and "Hot Legs"; Cher and Dolly having a conversation by reciting lyrics from pop songs; and Cher working by day in a boring secretarial job but getting funky on the dance floor at night in the discos. Even Laverne, Cher's most famous character from the early days of "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour," stops by for a quick chat to give Cher some words of wisdom that only Laverne could deliver. The final segment was a big production number with a medley of songs performed by Cher, Dolly Parton, and The Tubes that has to be seen to be believed. Described as a "musical war to save Cher's soul," The Tubes try to lead her astray to the dark world of evil and sin while Dolly and several gospel singers try to save her and show her the light.

Most memorable of all, however, was the opening number, which featured Cher's mother Georgia, a "schoolgirl" Cher, and her tearful decision to star in her own version of West Side Story. In which role? All of them!

Even ignoring the obvious trans element (she plays both male and female parts) and striking visual effects for the time (multiple Chers at once!), the collision of one of the most beloved gay icons and one of the greatest songbooks of all time (from gay lyricist Stephen Sondheim) is true TV magic.

You can watch the entire, 12-minute, one-woman feverdream after the break!

Cultural Institution Sir Ian McKellen

In a continued effort to bring you all that is important in the world of gay entertainment and ensure that you are being spoon-fed images of gorgeous, commoditized manflesh, we present the newly-minted AfterElton Briefs. Following the usual assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• A Conversation with Sir Ian has been nominated for a 2008 Webby Award, under the "Cultural Institutions" category. I don't know that I'd put the man out to pasture just yet with that designation, but I suppose we've all probably been called worse things.

• I don't know if anyone has been catching EW's America's Next Top Doll webseries, but this week's makeover episode is just crazy enough reason to start tuning in. (I particularly like the mermaid's makeover, where they cut off her fins so she can be "where the people are".)

• Is He Who Blogs Behind the Rows really cleaning up his act? We'll believe it when the shocking footage of him rescuing a kitten out of a tree surfaces on TMZ.

• Why is Harvey Fierstein serenading Kathie Lee Gifford? Or is MadTV syndicating sketches to The Today Show now?

• Dan Savage, the outspoken gay writer behind Savage Love (I started reading him way back when it was called "Hey, Faggot") and the brilliant Skipping Towards Gomorrah, has lost his mother. His column today is a heartfelt remembrance of her, and our sympathies are with him and his family.

• Jerry Mitchell (whom we recently interviewed about Step It Up & Dance) is publishing a photo-filled book this summer about his other campfest, Broadway Bares, the strip-show that has raised a heck of a lot of money for Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS. The racy cover can be found after the break.

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Hot on the heels of Xanadu, the latest early 80's film to get the stage treatment is the classic comedy 9 to 5. Dolly Parton, who made her film debut in the workplace revenge fantasy, is writing the music and lyrics, and after playing in Los Angeles later this year, it will hit Broadway next year.

It's going to be tough to fill the high heels of the film's original cast, Dolly, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin, but the cast they've announced seems more than up to it. In the Lily role of the tough-as-nails office manager Violet is Emmy winner Allison Janney, and two performers from Wicked are playing the Jane and Dolly roles. Stephanie J. Block is the newly divorced Judy, and Megan Hilty is the sexy secretary Doralee. The press notes reveal that the musical will keep pretty close to the plot of the movie:

"In a series of farcical events, the women inadvertently remove their boss from the workplace and keep him otherwise engaged. Taking advantage of his absence, they begin instituting a host of new and welcomed office procedures such as flexible hours and day care, but their schemes quickly spin wildly and hilariously out of control"

After the break, you can see the title song from the movie, Dolly's Oscar nominated #1 smash. I think Dolly movies are a natural fit for the stage, and I've been doing some creative casting in my head. The greatest Dolly movie is of course, Rhinestone, and who else could fill the fringe and leather outfits of co-star Sylvester Stallone than out studmuffin Cheyenne Jackson?