TV Heartbeat! Will the 2014 Tony Awards Make History? Draco Malfoy on TV! More Veronica Mars! More Dreadful!

New and Notable The Tony Awards are on Sunday! Hosted by Hugh Jackman (always incandescent on stage!), there’s a starry list of presenters so look for Bradley Cooper, Kevin Bacon, Carole King, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Will Ferrell, Liev Schreiber, Emmy Rossum, Kate Mara, Zachary Quinto, Zachary Levi, Lucy Liu, Clint Eastwood, Patricia Clarkson, Leighton Meester, Ethan Hawke, Matt Bomer, Anna Gunn, Gloria & Emilio Estefan, Fran Drescher, Wayne Brady, Kenneth Branagh, Tony Goldwyn, Vera Farmiga and Alessandro Nivola.

Tonys

Although the Tonys are really a regional award (after all, it’s just Broadway, right?), it’s a great chance for the broader world to get a little taste of shows that will be traveling the country at some point through either local or touring productions. This year, the show will feature performances from Neil Patrick Harris as the transgender Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Alan Cumming in Cabaret, Idina Menzel in If/Then, Ramin Karimloo in Les Miserables and Zach Braff in Bullets Over Broadway.

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As a bonus, the Tonys will also include a celebration of Wicked’s 10th Anniversary, Sting will preview his new musical, The Last Ship, and Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Fantasia will take the stage for a performance with the cast of After Midnight.

Wicked

Odds are Audra McDonald (most widely known for Private Practice) will make Tony history by winning yet another Tony (her 6th!!!!!) to be the most winning actress in Broadway history AND to be the first actress to ever win all 4 acting awards over the course of her career – Best actress in a play, Best actress in a musical, Best featured actress in a play and Best featured actress in a musical.

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TNT’s hit drama Major Crimes is back for season three! Mary McDonnell and the gang will get a full marathon of season 2 starting early Sunday morning to lead into the new season premiere on Monday.

Major Crimes

TNT continues to clean up the streets with another crime drama – Murder in the First. Created by Steven Bochco, this show will spend the season examining one specific case. Sounds like Steven Bocho’s great Murder One, right? This time, Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson play homicide detectives investigating two murders that seem unrelated. As they delve deeper, they find the connection between the two cases — Tom Felton! Yep, Tom is making the transition to US TV. He’ll be accompanied by Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon A Time), James Cromwell (American Horror Story, Babe), Richard Schiff (The West Wing) and Steven Weber (Wings).

Murder in the First Taye

Murder in the First Felton

With DaVinci’s Demons’ second season in the books, Starz’s next original series is ready to launch – with a change of pace! Power, a contemporary drama, is about James “Ghost” St. Patrick who is a drug lord with a desire to lead the straight life. Power is previewing the pilot on Twitter so here’s how to view a sample of the new show!

Tonight: Hot in Cleveland (TV Land)
Thursday: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night (ABC)
Friday: Orange is the New Black premiere (Netflix)
Saturday: Power (Starz)
Sunday: Tony Awards (CBS), Cosmos season finale (Fox), Veep season finale (HBO)
Monday: Major Crimes premiere (TNT), Murder in the First debut (TNT)
Tuesday: Royal Pains premiere (USA), Covert Affairs premiere (USA), Pretty Little Liars premiere (ABC Family)
Wednesday: The 100 season finale (CW), Suits premiere (USA), Graceland premiere (USA)

Health check Showtime’s well-reviewed Penny Dreadful will be back next year! Showtime just gave the show a renewal for a second season AND added a few episodes — the second season will last for 10 episodes.

penny_dreadful showtime promo poster eva green josh hartnett

Elsewhere, not many people care who wants to Marry Harry so maybe Fox will stop creating reality shows featuring silly girls hoping to marry a pretender. We can hope, right?

Stream, stream, stream This week also has the premiere of the second season of Orange is the New Black. Since it’s on Netflix, you can have the pleasure of holing up all weekend and binging the whole season. It’s already been renewed for a third season so there’s more to come!

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The CW Seed, the CW’s online channel, has been working on a whole host of projects including the Veronica Mars spinoff – Play it Again, Dick. Yep, Dick Casablancas is back and Dicks’s trying to get a show made! With Ryan Hansen and Rob Thomas back to work on these 10 minute episodes, this should be fun. No word on a release date yet, but it might be complicated with Rob working on iZombie as well.

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If you’re feeling more impatient, CW Seed has other shows available now including L.A. Rangers (LA’s Griffith Park rangers do a Walter Mitty), Whose Line Is It Minis, The Cutrone Project (the judge from America’s Next Top Model’s take on pop culture) and Husbands, from Jane Espenson (Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Once Upon A Time). Husbands is a look at marriage equality and features a bunch of interesting guest stars from Espenson’s other works including Amy Acker, Michael Hogan and Seth Green.

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Stay tuned!

Comment below or email me at Erica@MikeTheFanboy.com
For more adventures, follow me on twitter: @Cambear

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