The stats are in for the Broadway season that ended May 24, and it was a record-breaker.
The 2014-2015 season had the highest attendance and highest total box office ever, with ticket sales topping out at $1.365 billion. Of course, it helps that ticket prices are at their highest ever. Most major musicals top face-value tickets hovers around the $150 mark with Book of Mormon, the four-year-old show still in high demand, being the chutzpah leader with a $299 ticket price. At that rate, only Mitt Romney can afford to go and he probably wouldn’t want to.
So look for Broadway to be crowing on Sunday, June 7, at the 69thannual Tony Awards telecast, the prime national marketing tool of the commercial theater. At usual, though, the Tonys will not really be celebrating the best of the season, but the best of those shows still running, either because of proven staying power or because they opened late in the year. Early closers like such admired musicals as Side Show, The Last Ship and Honeymoon in Vegas, as well as such plays as Constellations, A Delicate Balance and a head-scratcher called The River enriched the season, but since they’re now gone they have been largely ignored for Tony nominations.
Nevertheless, this crowded season has brought enough popular productions to yield no clear front-runners for the top Tonys. Nor are there many film and television stars — other than Bradley Cooper (The Elephant Man) and Elisabeth Moss (The Heidi Chronicles) or the headliners of Skylight (Carey Mulligan, Bill Nighy) — to carpetbag the awards, as has happened in recent seasons.
In musicals, though, stage adaptations of movies still reign, on the theory that theatergoers buy tickets to stories they are already familiar with and have affection for. A stage musical of An American in Paris seems unnecessary, but the choreography (by Christopher Wheeldon) is said to be quite good and the show, based closely on the 1951 Best Picture Oscar winner, just might win the Tony too, bolstered by the road presenters voting bloc which wants a commercial hit to sell.
Cognizant of the importance of those road voters, the dark, arty, but emotionally potent Fun Home — which sounds like a musical romp until you realize that the title stands for “funeral home” — has announced that it will be mounting a national tour and hitting the road this fall. If it had a few major Tony wins to its credit, selling it in the hinterlands would be easier.
Touring non-musicals has become exceedingly rare, but the superb The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has also announced plans to criss-cross the country. It looks like the likely — and well deserved — winner for the best play Tony, as well as for its direction and design.
The critically panned Dr. Zhivago, a $12 million production, closed up after only 23 performances once it received no Tony nominations. The same goes for the Renée Fleming comic vehicle, Living on Love, which folded even faster. Several current shows are hanging on tenuously, hoping for the box office boost of a Tony win or two. Notable among them is The Visit, perhaps the final Broadway musical by John Kander and the late Fred Ebb, starring 82-year-young Chita Rivera. Hardly the best work for any of them, wins would be strictly sentimental career recognitions, unlikely in this season of stronger musical contenders.
By comparison, 69-year-old Helen Mirren is a mere child, but she is masterful in The Audience — albeit reprising the role of Queen Elizabeth II that already has won her an Oscar. It is possible that she could be beaten by Mulligan as the young lover in David Hare’s Skylight, but the smart money is betting on another coronation for Mirren.
Co-hosting the Tonys telecast from Radio City Music Hall will be Kristin Chenoweth (a probable winner for headlining the faux-operetta On the Twentieth Century) and Alan Cumming, beginning at 8 p.m. on CBS-TV. With ratings likely to be low again, the running time will be kept to a tight three hours, even with most of the design awards given out beforehand. Notice how the broadcast will become increasingly frantic just as the most important awards are given out. And if the approach of recent years is repeated, expect very little airtime to be devoted to the nominated plays in favor of promotional production numbers of the musicals.
That’s show biz these days, at least on Broadway.
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Alas, with no clear front-runner in the musical categories, predicting the winners of this year’s Tony Awards is a fool’s errand, but that does not stop Hap Erstein. He simply asks you not barrage him with derisive remarks afterwards.
Best Musical: An American in Paris
Best Play: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Best Revival of a Musical: The King and I
Best Revival of a Play: You Can’t Take It With You
Leading Actor in a Musical: Michael Cerveris, Fun Home
Leading Actress in a Musical: Kristin Chenoweth, On the Twentieth Century
Leading Actor in a Play: Alexander Sharp, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Leading Actress in a Play: Helen Mirren, The Audience
Featured Actor in a Musical: Andy Karl, On the Twentieth Century
Featured Actress in a Musical: Ruthie Ann Miles, The King and I
Featured Actor in a Play: Matthew Beard, Skylight
Featured Actress in a Play: Annaleigh Ashford, You Can’t Take It With You
Best Director, Musical: Sam Gold, Fun Home
Best Director, Play: Marianne Elliott, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Best Book, Musical: Lisa Kron, Fun Home
Best Score: Jeanine Tesori, Fun Home
Best Scenic Design, Musical: Michael Yeargan, The King and I
Best Scenic Design, Play: Bunny Christie and Finn Ross, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Best Costume Design, Musical: Catherine Zuber, The King and I
Best Costume Design, Play: Jane Greenwood, You Can’t Take It With You
Best Lighting Design, Musical: Natasha Katz, An American in Paris
Best Lighting Design, Play: Paule Constable, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Best Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon, An American in Paris
Best Orchestrations: Christopher Austin, Don Sebesky, Bill Elliott, An American in Paris