This season’s Tony Award nominations were announced Tuesday morning, and the teeth-gnashing and head-scratching has begun.
Because there are so many fewer eligible productions than there are, say, films vying for Oscar recognition, the snubs and surprise inclusions are much more remarkable. Typically, when stars from other media make the financial sacrifice of starring on Broadway ― a chore that mere mortals who are veterans of the theater would kill to have ― a “thank you” nomination is almost automatic.
But try telling that to Bette Midler, Alan Cumming, Sigourney Weaver and Alec Baldwin these days. Each was passed over for mention. While the nominating committee is strongly advised to err on the side of talent in currently running shows, these above-the-title box office draws were each overlooked in favor of performers in long-since shuttered productions. And in the case of Weaver and Baldwin, by less widely known actors in their own casts.
Hmm, maybe the Tony nomination process worked just fine this season.
As anyone who has seen the Tonys telecast in recent years knows, the awards ceremony is largely about the musical categories. This year was supposed to be a runaway for the already award-laden British import Matilda, based on a children’s book by Roald Dahl about a bookish tot with telekinetic powers.
But when the nominations were totaled up Tuesday morning, it was Kinky Boots, based on the movie about a floundering shoe factory’s offbeat attempt to stay afloat, that had the most nominations ― 13 ― to Matilda’s 12. Helping the former get that edge is the fact that it has two male leads (Billy Porter, Stark Sands), both of whom copped nominations, and the ruling that the four tykes who share the title role of Matilda in rotation would not be eligible for competitive Tonys.
What was supposed to be a slam-dunk for Matilda is now a horse race. A betting person would still back the kids’ show, but if the voters were like me, they were somewhat let down by the very hyped Matilda and found Kinky Boots to be more enjoyable than they expected.
In any case, Best Musical is surely a two-horse race, since those two shows are in the running against Bring It On: The Musical and A Christmas Story, The Musical, both long since closed.
The only category in which Matilda has an entry and Kinky Boots does not is Featured Actor, where Gabriel Ebert ― as the girl’s loutish used car salesman dad ― has to hope that the show has large coattails. The only new musical still running that did not make the cut in the Best Musical category is Motown, The Musical, which has an eager, built-in audience for this jukebox show, an audience that is probably indifferent to Tony Awards.
For Best Play, Richard Greenberg’s The Assembled Parties and Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike got predictable nominations. A nod for Lucky Guy could also have been foreseen, I guess, since it stars Hanks as tabloid reporter/columnist Mike McAlary and was written by the late Nora Ephron. So what if it got dismal reviews that might otherwise have killed the production?
The fourth Best Play slot was the surprise, since it went to Colm Toibin’s The Testament of Mary, a one-woman show about the Virgin Mary, talking about her son from her own unique perspective. Many, including myself, expected a nomination instead for The Nance by Douglas Carter Beane, about an effeminate gay performer in the final days of burlesque.
The Assembled Parties was the best-reviewed new play of the season, and it is probably the front-runner to win the category, but it suffered a couple of blows to its momentum when its director (Lynne Meadows) and its female lead (Jessica Hecht) both failed to earn Tony nominations.
You could safely bet the mortgage on the Best Musical Revival category, which will go to Pippin, in a creative new circus-based production directed by Diane Paulus. In her only other forays into the world of Broadway, this woman from the non-profit sector won the revival Tony for her resuscitations of Hair and Porgy & Bess. Pippin, the last show to open this season, has the momentum to trounce such family-friendly shows as Annie and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, as well as the long-closed The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Harder to handicap is the Best Play Revival race, between two still-running shows ― The Trip to Bountiful and Orphans ― up against two closed, but fondly remembered works ― Golden Boy and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? This one is a real toss-up.
Among the completely shut-out shows were I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers, which stars Midler as the renowned Hollywood super-agent, and Macbeth, a conceptual production of the Shakespearean tragedy set in an insane asylum, with Cumming playing numerous roles, including Mr. and Mrs. M. Also empty-handed was the new revival of Frank Wildhorn’s Jekyll & Hyde, which stars Constantine Maroulis in the title roles.
The most crowded and competitive category is probably Best Actress, Play, which includes 79-year-old Cicely Tyson (The Trip to Bountiful), Holland Taylor as Texas Gov. Ann Richards (Ann) and Kristine Nielsen, a long-time member of the Durang rep company (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike). Their shows are still running, but out-of-work nominees are Laurie Metcalf (The Other Place) and Amy Morton (Virginia Woolf?). The out-of-luck include Midler, Hecht and Fiona Shaw (Testament of Mary). Further proof that movie stars no longer get automatic nominations are the snubbed Jessica Chastain (The Heiress), Katie Holmes (Dead Accounts), Scarlett Johansson (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and Debra Winger (The Anarchist).
The 67th annual Tony Awards will be broadcast on Sunday, June 9, on CBS, live from Radio City Music Hall.