2018 Tony Nominee Predictions

It's that time of year again! Tony Award nominations will be announced on Tuesday, May 1st, and as always I will be doing my best to predict the nominees. While popular sentiment (including mine) states that this has not been the most exciting Broadway season in recent memory, there is still plenty of award-worthy work to be discussed, so let's get to it!

Best Musical

Erika Henningsen as Cady, Ashley Park as Gretchen, Taylor Louderman as Regina, and Kate Rockwell as Karen in Mean Girls.

Nominees: The Band's Visit; Frozen; Mean Girls; SpongeBob SquarePants
Wildcard: Prince of Broadway

This category seems pretty set in stone. The only other eligible productions, Escape to Margaritaville and Summer, are both critically reviled jukebox musicals that I can't imagine connecting with Tony voters. Band's Visit has felt like a Tony contender since the time it opened, and the eagerly anticipated Mean Girls is probably its greatest competition. Frozen is solid enough that I expect it to be nominated, but Disney's latest effort has left the critics somewhat cold. And based on the recently announced Drama Desk and Outer Critics' nominations, SpongeBob SquarePants will fulfill my prediction to be this year's "surprise" Best Musical nominee. If one of those shows somehow doesn't make the grade I suppose the Hal Prince revue Prince of Broadway could sneak in there, but that seems about as likely as Hamilton closing anytime soon.

Best Play

The cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway.

Nominees: Farinelli and the King; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Junk; Meteor Shower
Wildcard: The Children

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child's nomination and eventual win both feel like foregone conclusions at this point. It is the most awarded play in the history of London's Olivier Awards, where the new play is generally much more competitive than it is on Broadway (in the US, Off-Broadway and regional theatres are the hot spots for play development). In some kind of freaky alternate reality where Harry Potter wasn't a critically adored, money printing hit, Farinelli and the King is probably the next most likely candidate. I think Junk and Meteor Shower will get token nominations to round out the category, but I can also imagine either one being left out in favor of another British import, MTC's fall production of The Children.

Best Musical Revival

Lauren Ambrose (center) and the cast of Lincoln Center Theatre's My Fair Lady.

Nominees: Carousel; My Fair Lady; Once on this Island

There are exactly three eligible nominees in this category (Carousel, My Fair Lady, and Once on this Island), so everyone should get nominated by default. On a positive note, all three shows are strong enough to merit nominations even in a more competitive season. I suppose if the Tony voters were feeling extra ornery they could whittle this category down to two, but I have trouble believing they hate Carousel enough to do so.

Best Play Revival

Beth Malone and Andrew Garfield in Angels in America on Broadway.

Nominees: Angels in America; Lobby Hero; Three Tall Women; Travesties
Wildcard: The Iceman Cometh

This is the one category where it feels like there's a legitimate danger of a deserving show being left out of the mix. Angels in America is the clear front runner here; the play is pure Tony bait, and by all accounts the current Broadway revival is superbly done. The critics also went gaga over the Edward Albee revival Three Tall Women, and I would be shocked if the uniformly praised show was left out of the running. I also expect Second Stage to be rewarded with a Tony nod for Lobby Hero, the inaugural production of their newly renovated Broadway home, the Helen Hayes. For the final slot, I'm going with Roundabout's praised production of Tom Stoppard's Travesties, although if the heady language play proves too high brow for Tony voters the Denzel Washington fronted The Iceman Cometh could sneak in there.


Agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments! Lively discussion is the best way to keep this blog fresh and exciting for everyone.

By George, They've Got It!

Review: My Fair Lady

Harry Hadden-Paton, Lauren Ambrose, and Allan Corduner in Lincoln Center's lavish My Fair Lady.

Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady has quite the conflicting reputation. On one hand, this musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion is almost universally agreed to be an expertly constructed Golden Age book musical, overflowing with Loewe's beautiful music and possessing an exceedingly sharp, emotionally complex book by Lerner. But with each passing year, more and more people have rightly expressed discomfort with the way the show treats its protagonist Eliza Doolittle, who many feel is made over against her will to suit the ideals of misogynistic language professor Henry Higgins. Is it even possible to stage the show in a way that honors its original intent without alienating modern audiences who are increasingly aware of the mistreatment women have endured throughout history?

The answer is a resounding "yes" thanks to the brilliant direction of Bartlett Sher, who seemingly specializes in mounting supposedly dated classics to feel as timely and relevant as the day they first premiered (see his Tony-winning revivals of South Pacific and The King & I, also for Lincoln Center). Sher has largely solved My Fair Lady's perceived problems with an approach so straightforward it feels revolutionary: he has ignored the way the show is "traditionally" performed and refocused on the text, revealing it to be much more thoughtful and equitable than originally thought. The often thrilling, always fascinating result is a triumphant production that firmly refocuses the show on Eliza and makes her a much more active participant in her own narrative without changing a single line of dialogue.

The script has always had Eliza show up at Higgins' residence asking for elocution lessons, but Sher's production is one of the first to fully emphasize that she chooses to do so without being forced. Higgins has always explicitly stated the difficulty in what Eliza is attempting, and praised her for the speed at which she picks it up, but for the first time it all feels like genuine praise rather than insincere small talk. Eliza has always called Higgins on his appalling behavior, but this is the first time it hasn't felt like she's taken her critique back by the end of the show. The only thing one can argue Sher actually changed is the show's final tableau, but again, he hasn't changed a word, and his version of the ending feels much truer to the spirit of the piece than what has traditionally been done.

To achieve such a subtle but substantial reinterpretation of the text, Sher needed actors of the highest caliber, and he has found them in this top notch cast. Lauren Ambrose provides perhaps the best acted version of Eliza to date, up to and including Audrey Hepburn's beloved performance in the film. Ambrose sparkles with intelligence and strength from the very beginning, making it clear Eliza's cockney accent by no means indicates stupidity. Her expressive face and eyes radiate warmth while conveying volumes about her complex inner life, making it difficult to take your eyes off her. Whether Ambrose is relishing the small victories Eliza finds during her arduous dictation lessons, reevaluating and adjusting her behavior during her hysterical public debut as a lady, or visibly rallying herself prior to the embassy ball, she will have you utterly captivated. It is a testament to Ambrose's sheer magnetism that even when Higgins and his servants are gallivanting about the stage during "You Did It," the audience's eyes remain fixed on Eliza in the corner, as Ambrose charts her growing disgust with her situation.

Vocally, Ambrose is not as assured a singer as someone like Julie Andrews (Broadway's original Eliza) or Marni Nixon (who dubbed Hepburn's vocals in the film). She has some lovely moments and never comes close to sounding outright bad, rather just suffers a *tad* in comparison to some of the most accomplished sopranos in musical theatre history. And Ambrose's acting is so sensational that its difficult to hold any perceived vocal shortcomings against her, as its hard to imagine a more trained singer acting the role better. Ambrose's performance is that good.

Ambrose is excellently matched by Harry Hadden-Paton making an absolutely thrilling Broadway debut in a role virtually synonymous with Rex Harrison (who won both the Tony and the Oscar for his Higgins). It must be noted that casting Higgins as closer in age to Eliza goes a long way towards putting the characters on more equal footing, but the rest of the gap is closed by Hadden-Paton as perhaps the most compassionate Higgins in history. That's not to say the tart tongued linguist has lost any of his bite; Hadden-Paton can unleash a stream of insults with the best of them, with a natural charisma and intelligence that will have you laughing so hard you almost forget how thoroughly he's eviscerated his target. But this Higgins actually does care for Eliza, and Hadden-Paton makes it clear that for all his bluster he is genuinely horrified by the idea that he may have unknowingly mistreated her. You won't necessarily like this Higgins, but you will have far more understanding of him and his childish outbursts than you've likely ever had, all thanks to Hadden-Paton's excellent scene work.

The supporting cast is every bit as enchanting as the leads. Allan Corduner is outstanding as Colonel Pickering, an excellent foil for Hadden-Paton and a fascinating actor in his own right. Dame Diana Rigg makes the most of her relatively small role as Mrs. Higgins (Henry's mother), effortlessly cutting her misbehaving son down to size with little more than a look and a quick word. Jordan Donica offers up a beautiful sung, endearingly goofy Freddy, forever smitten with Eliza and waiting for her "On the Street Where You Live." And two-time Tony-winner Norbert Leo Butz takes the primarily comic role of Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza's father, and turns him into one of the most fully realized humans in the entire piece. The fact that he also leads the sensational chorus of 25 in a showstopping rendition of "Get Me to the Church on Time" is just an added bonus.

At this point, it is practically a given that Lincoln Center's revivals of these Golden Age classics will be visually sumptuous affairs, and My Fair Lady continues that proud tradition. Catherine Zuber's costumes continually astound, especially her lavender-tinted finery for the "Ascot Gavotte" and her breathtaking version of Eliza's iconic hat. Michael Yeargan's scenic design for Higgins' study is impressively grand on its own, but when the house begins to revolve and expose the residence's other rooms you may just let out a gasp of delight. Everything is beautifully lit by Donald Holder, and Marc Salzberg's sound design ensures you can hear every wonderful note of the score played by the massive orchestra under the baton of Ted Sperling. Describing the physical production as lavish almost feels like an understatement.

In the end, you'd be hard pressed to find much to fault in this production of My Fair Lady. Impeccably acted and gorgeously staged, it feels as fresh and relevant as the day the show first premiered, if not more so. Higgins is still undeniably a misogynist, but he no longer has tyrannical control over Eliza, and she has far more agency in her own story than one might expect. Popular opinion will ultimately decide if the show is too unsavory for modern audiences, but Sher and company have made a compelling argument for this classic to maintain its status as one of the crown jewels of the musical theatre cannon. Its examination of class and gender politics has plenty to teach us even today, all while entertaining us with one of the most glorious scores of the Golden Age.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Julie Jordan?

Review: Carousel

Jessie Mueller and Joshua Henry as Julie Jordan and Billy Bigelow in Carousel.

It is said that of all Richard Rodger's collaborations with Oscar Hammerstein, Carousel contained the composer's favorite score. The classic musical certainly has an abundance of soaring melodies, and it greatly develops the now ubiquitous concept of the extended musical scene, something that didn't really exist prior to the famed duo's groundbreaking work. And while the show certainly has artistic and historical merit, the extremely well done revival now on Broadway also fully unmasks the inherent problems in the script, the most glaring of which is the domestic violence issue embedded in the central romance.

*Note: If you aren't familiar with Carousel - I'd never seen it prior to this production - there are spoilers coming. There's no way to discuss the show in the context of 2018 without getting into them.*

There's no way around it: Carousel as written is inherently problematic. Carnival barker Billy Bigelow falls in love with and marries a young mill worker named Julie Jordan, who abandons her job just to get the chance to know Billy better (the mill Julie works at insists their workers maintain a "good girl" image which doesn't allow for late night talks with strange men). Then, in a scene we never see, Billy hits Julie; the town characterizes it as continual abuse, although Billy insists that it was just one time. But the frequency of the abuse doesn't really matter, because either way Julie insists there's nothing wrong with it despite the protestations of literally everyone she knows.

Note Julie never *denies* being hit. She claims people don't know Billy like she does, and that she understands why he hit her. But Julie - and by extension, Rodgers and Hammerstein - never verbalizes those reasons to the other characters or to the audience. In fact, her second act solo "What's the Use of Wond'rin," the song specifically designed to address this concern, essentially boils down to Julie saying she loves him, so what else can she do but accept the situation? And late in the show, when a now dead Billy is asked by a heavenly character called The Starkeeper if he regrets hitting Julie, Billy defiantly responds, "I regret nothing."

Now, obviously Carousel was written during a different time that had different attitudes about what was and wasn't acceptable behavior in a marriage. So while it is disappointing that the fairly progressive Rodgers and Hammerstein - who wrote the anti-racism creed "You Have to Be Carefully Taught" for South Pacific and centered The King & I around a strong, capable female protagonist - created such a problematic portrayal of the abused-but-we-don't-know-how-much Julie, it isn't entirely surprising.

What is surprising is that Tony-winner Jessie Mueller, who can pack a wealth of conflicting emotions into the space between her lines, isn't able to find some way to give more insight or depth to Julie and help us better understand her actions. Given that her last Broadway outing Waitress focused on a character in a similar situation, but with much more complexity and agency, it is downright baffling that Mueller chose this as her immediate follow-up.

Perhaps this disconnect explains why Mueller, normally a firebrand who you cannot take your eyes off of, feels oddly subdued throughout. She sings the role beautifully - is there nothing her mercurial voice cannot do? - and acts it as well as anyone can be expected to, which leaves no choice but to conclude the problem is with the material and not the performer. Put bluntly, Julie just isn't a very compelling character, especially contrasted with the other women in the show.

Julie's best friend Carrie Pipperidge manages to do what society expects of her in a way that makes it clear she's making a choice and not just resigned to whatever comes her way, and she is the first to express concern about Julie's home life. Lindsey Mendez is a delight in the role, beautifully adapting her vocal pyrotechnics to the more legit stylings of Carousel's score and landing the evening's biggest laughs. And opera superstar Renee Fleming is a revelation as the matronly Nettie Fowler; her rendition of the show's big anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone" is a masterclass in dramatic song interpretation, musically impeccable while still feeling spontaneous and unforced.

And despite the problems with his character, it's undeniable that two-time Tony-nominee Joshua Henry has never been better than as carnival barker Billy Bigelow. His natural charisma makes it easy to see why Julie or anyone else would be drawn to him, and his performance makes it clear that his gruff exterior is masking a deep seated inner pain and self loathing. He also sings like a dream, making a famously taxing role seem easy and imbuing every song with a freshness that makes the show's well worn ballads sound new. His "Soliloquy," the seven minute monologue in song that ends the first act, is positively thrilling, his rendition easily among the best there's ever been. Henry's performance is the stuff Tony wins are made of, and a strong argument for the merits of color conscious casting. (The production never overtly references Henry's race, but it subtly informs his interactions.)

Director Jack O'Brien's thoughtful staging and direction is exactly what you hope for when one of these Golden Age musicals is revived. The show feels fresh and alive, almost like new, honoring the material without ever holding it so sacred that it feels like a museum piece. O'Brien wisely avoids any impulse to dress the material up with modern bells and whistles, letting the actors and musicians carry the day. The producers have also wisely employed NY City Ballet choreographer-in-residence Justin Peck to handle the musical's abundant dance numbers, including the patented Rodgers and Hammerstein dream ballet in the second act. Peck's choreography has a complexity and artistic maturity rarely seen on the Broadway stage, and is danced to perfection by the nimble men and women of the ensemble (who also sound fantastic during the group choral numbers).

From a physical standpoint, this Carousel is often breathtaking thanks to the lavish yet unfussy design work. Ann Roth's costumes have an attention to detail and carefully considered color palette that make them look like a million bucks, even though they are largely everyday casual wear. Santo Loquasto's stunning set wonderfully evokes a sleepy seaside town, with his stellar backdrops and multilayered sets giving the production an astonishing amount of visual depth. His take on the titular carousel is particularly striking, an image that will stay with you long after the final curtain falls. Both sets and costumes are gorgeously lit by Brian MacDevitt, whose sophisticated work greatly helps in the evocation of the story's many different moods.

All of the talent and care that has gone into this Carousel makes the show's dubious worldview that much more upsetting. These are clearly smart artists who are doing their absolute best to do justice to this show, but they have not been able to solve the central conundrum of getting us to understand and empathize with such a problematic relationship. The lead female role is basically a doormat, accepting and excusing any negative behavior that comes her way in the name of love, and putting that kind of message into the world in 2018 seems questionable at best. Rather than "fixing" Carousel for future generations, this production may have killed it once and for all by exposing it as inexorably linked to a bygone and now unacceptable social attitude. If O'Brien and company aren't able to satisfactorily address Carousel's problems, then who can?

Here He Is Boys, Here He Is World

Hello hello hello! As you may have noticed, I've been on a bit of a hiatus lately. This was not a conscious choice, something that just happened as life got busier (I'm engaged now!). Also, if I'm being 100% honest, the current Broadway season hasn't been particularly inspiring to me. It's not that the shows have been bad - some were lovely - but for whatever reason I haven't felt compelled to write about them.

Anyway, for the time being at least, I'm back. I don't promise new posts with anything resembling regularity, and it's highly possible that I fall behind again. But a couple of people have expressed interest in hearing my thoughts on the current Broadway season, which is both encouraging and humbling, and if interest continues then I will do my best to keep things somewhat current.

Since I haven't been posting about this current season, I am obviously behind when it comes to reviews. There's no way I'll have the time to go back and write reviews for productions I saw months ago, so below I've compiled my brief thoughts about the Broadway shows I've seen since my last blog post.

The Play That Goes Wrong

An hysterically funny farce by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, The Play That Goes Wrong has understandably been compared to the pinnacle of the genre, Noises Off. And while it isn't quite as airtight as that masterwork, this tale of the Cornley University Drama Society trying and failing to perform a murder mystery is comedy gold. Anything that can go wrong does, including missed cues, actor injuries, and a set that is literally falling apart at the seams (for which designer Nigel Hook rightly took home a 2017 Tony Award). I saw the show's now departed original cast, who all nailed the specific mix of desperation and naivety which would allow a group of amateur actors to keep going in the face of missed cues, concussions, and multiple mid-show cast replacements. And I have rarely seen slapstick executed with such effortless precision, recalling the screwball comedy of a Three Stooges short. I'm sure the current cast is just as delightful, and I'd highly recommend The Play That Goes Wrong for anyone in search of a laugh.

Once On This Island

Full confession: Once On This Island was the first show I ever performed in, and I would not have my love of theatre if not for that experience, which is a roundabout way of saying I'm a bit biased here. That said, director Michael Arden's stellar revival of Ahrens and Flaherty's very first Broadway musical does not disappoint. It thrillingly embraces everything that makes live theatre magical, presenting a gorgeously realized island fairy tale through the use of found objects and consistently excellent staging. (Arden is given a major assist by set designer Dane Laffrey and lighting designers Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer.) The performances are uniformly excellent, particularly Hailey Kilgore in her Broadway debut as leading lady Ti Moune, and Alex Newell's roof-raising performance as Asaka that culminates in a showstopping rendition of "Mama Will Provide." And a special shout out to the entire creative team for their willingness to think outside the box when it comes to casting the show's four gods, breaking racial and gender norms to find the absolute best collection of actors for those roles. The best thing I've seen so far this season.

The Band's Visit

The highbrow hit of the fall, I have to admit The Band's Visit left me cold. A slice of life drama following an Egyptian band who winds up stranded in a small Israeli town for one evening due to a scheduling error, I knew ahead of time it would be more of a character study than a plot-driven show and I still couldn't bring myself to care. The performances are all fine, including Katrina Lenk's much heralded performance as the female lead (although I would rate her as solidly "good" rather than "great"). And at 90 intermissionless minutes, it certainly doesn't have the bloat of some Broadway shows. But beyond David Yazbeck's beautifully ethereal score, I think people are mistaking novelty for quality with this one. It's really more of a play with music than a musical, and not a particularly groundbreaking play at that.

SpongeBob SquarePants

The surprise of the season. Despite its very corporate origins, SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the more inventive, whimsical, and just plain fun shows to arrive on Broadway in the past few years. As someone with only a peripheral knowledge of the TV show, I was still thoroughly amused by the denizens of Bikini Bottom and their zany antics. Book writer Kyle Jarrow capitalizes on the cartoon's particular charms, which gleefully insist you take whatever surreal flight of fancy the creators throw at you in stride, be it a megalomaniac plankton married to a literal computer or a Texan squirrel who lives underwater. David Zinn's costume and scenic designs reference the cartoon without literally recreating it, using found objects and simple stylistic choices to create the show's world. And director Tina Landua has coached her first rate cast to delightfully realized, lived in performances that honor their cartoon counterparts without feeling like slavish impersonations. Ethan Slater is perfectly cast as the titular sea sponge, and there are especially delightful scene stealing turns from Gavin Lee as a tap-dancing Squidward J. Tentacles and Wesley Taylor as the diabolical Sheldon Plankton. Mark my words, this will be a "surprise" Best Musical nominee come Tony time.

Frozen

Anna, Elsa, and the denizens of Arendelle have arrived on Broadway in Disney's big budget stage adaptation of their record setting animated smash hit. And while money clearly prompted the show's creation, I'm happy to report it's a fairly solid adaptation. The stage version adds plenty of new material without the disjointed feeling that sometimes plagues Disney musicals, probably due to Broadway's Frozen having the exact same creative team as the movie. The costumes and sets by Christopher Oram are gorgeous, with all of it beautifully lit by Natasha Katz. The performances are uniformly solid, with particularly standout work from Patti Murin as Anna; she manages to be at turns quirky, endearing, earnest, and even genuinely moving, all while singing like a dream and displaying excellent chemistry with her various costars. Cassie Levy nails all of Elsa's big numbers (the self-exiled queen gets several more Wicked-esque solos onstage), although she doesn't pop as much as Murin due to spending a good chunk of the show alone in her ice palace with no one to talk to. I will say Michael Grandage's staging is not particularly inspired, and the show could stand a few more "wow" moments when it comes to the special effects, which occasionally cross the line from "simple" into "cheap looking." But there are far worse ways to spend a night in the theatre, and the core audience of young girls will eat it up.

Mean Girls (DC Tryout)

I have not seen the Broadway production of Mean Girls, but I *did* make my way down to Washington DC for the show's out of town tryout last fall and found it to be sooo fetch. Tina Fey has adapted her now-classic teen comedy for the stage in a way that honors everything you love about the endlessly quotable film while also adding enough new material and modern updates to keep things fresh (the Plastics have cell phones and social media now). Fey's book is laugh out loud funny, both the lines you know  by heart and the abundance of new jokes and references. The high energy cast is a uniform treat, particularly Taylor Louderman, Ashley Park, and Kate Rockwell as the titular mean girls Regina, Gretchen, and Karen (Rockwell deserves a Tony nod for her especially riotous work). Casey Nicholaw has staged the show with his usual sleek production value, and if the songs by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin aren't the most memorable they definitely keep things moving. My biggest criticism out of town was that the show sometimes felt a bit manic, but I had a similar reaction upon first seeing Legally Blonde, a show I now find quite delightful. My current pick for Best Musical of the year.


If you have more specific questions about any of the above, let me know in the comments! And please share this blog with friends or family you think would enjoy it!