2017 Tony Nominations React

Past Tony-winner Jane Krakowski and nominee Christopher Jackson announce the 2017 Tony Award nominees.

It's Tony Tuesday!!!! Early this morning Jane Krakowski and Christopher Jackson announced the nominees for the 71st annual Tony Awards, with Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 leading the pack with 12 nominations, followed closely by hot ticket revival Hello, Dolly! with 10. (You can see a complete list of the nominees here.)

I have lots of thoughts about this year's nominees, but first let's see how well I did with my predictions. An asterisks represents a nominee I correctly predicted, while an asterisk in parentheses is a wildcard selection that made the grade:

Best Musical
Come From Away*
Dear Evan Hansen*
Groundhog Day*
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812*

Best Play
A Doll’s House, Part 2
Indecent*
Oslo*
Sweat*

Best Revival of a Musical
Falsettos*
Hello, Dolly!*
Miss Saigon*

Best Revival of a Play
Jitney*
The Little Foxes*
Present Laughter*
Six Degrees of Separation*

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Christian Borle, Falsettos*
Josh Groban, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812*
David Hyde Pierce, Hello, Dolly!
Andy Karl, Groundhog Day*
Ben Platt, Dear Evan Hansen*

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Denée Benton, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Christine Ebersole, War Paint*
Patti LuPone, War Paint*
Bette Midler, Hello, Dolly!*
Eva Noblezada, Miss Saigon*

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Denis Arndt, Heisenberg*
Chris Cooper, A Doll’s House, Part 2
Corey Hawkins, Six Degrees of Separation
Kevin Kline, Present Laughter*
Jefferson Mays, Oslo

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Cate Blanchett, The Present*
Jennifer Ehle, Oslo
Sally Field, The Glass Menagerie(*)
Laura Linney, The Little Foxes*
Laurie Metcalf, A Doll’s House, Part 2*

That's 28 out of 35 correct guesses, which makes for a fairly good 80% accuracy rating. However, if I'm being honest that figure is misleading as I ended up prediction one more nominee in all of the production categories, figuring the breadth of work this season would lead to the close vote totals that cause category expansions. That was not the case, showing that the Tony nominators were generally in agreement on which shows they liked best.

As for the nominees themselves, they went pretty much as expected. I was clearly wrong about enthusiasm for The Great Comet having cooled, as it leads the pack in nominations including a somewhat surprising nod for lead Denee Benton as Best Actress. It's not a choice I'm entirely behind, but I'm probably biased due to my unadulterated adoration of Phillipa Soo in the show's Off-Broadway incarnation, and there isn't an actress I think is more deserving who was left off the list (including Soo, who is poorly used in the not fully realized Amelie).

I'm pleasantly surprised to see Dear Evan Hansen's Mike Faist and Falsettos' Brandon Uranowitz among the Best Featured Actor nominees, as I though both gentlemen did great work in somewhat thankless roles. (In particular, Faist's turn on a dime modifications to his character during the charming "Sincerely Me" number is some of the best subtle musical acting of the season.) Part of me also wishes Tony voters had found space for Hello, Dolly's Gavin Creel *and* Taylor Trensch in this category, as their Cornelius and Barnaby are both fantastic and neither performance would be as successful without the other's support.

As for omissions, I'm bummed about War Paint's relatively modest showing, although I can't say I'm surprised. I loved the show, but the Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle nominations made it clear that a lot of the New York theatre scene was lukewarm to everything about it except its sensational leading ladies. I will take solace in the show's $1 million+ weekly box office and the feeling that it will be a show people will slowly discover and appreciate as time goes on.

I'm genuinely shocked by Allison Janney's exclusion from the Best Actress in a Play race. I have not seen the show, but in my mind she is definitely the selling point and would be my primary reason for buying a ticket, and I've heard no rumblings about her being disappointing. I also wish they had found room for Jennifer Laura Thompson from Dear Evan Hansen, who is just as good as her rightfully nominated costar Rachel Bay Jones. And while I haven't seen enough of the Best Actor in a Play nominees to argue that Gideon Glick was snubbed, I do think he did exceptional work in Significant Other.

Check back in the coming weeks for my annual Tony predictions, as well as reviews of at least 3 more nominated productions I haven't quite had time to write yet. And feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts on this year's nominees in the comments!

2016 Tony Nominations React

Former Book of Mormon costars Nikki M. James and Andrew Rannells announce the 2016 Tony Award nominees.

They're here! The 2016 Tony Award nominations have been announced, and now the awards season can begin in earnest (you can view a full list of the nominees here). We'll get to my reactions to yesterday's news in a moment, but first it's time to see how I did with my annual predictions.

Below are the actual nominees in the Big 12 categories I predicted over the past couple of weeks. Nominees with an asterisk are ones I correctly prediction; if the asterisk is in parentheses, that means I listed the nominee as a wildcard pick but not an official choice.

Best Musical
Bright Star
Hamilton*
School of Rock(*)
Shuffle Along*
Waitress*

Best Play
Eclipsed*
The Father*
The Humans*
King Charles III*

Best Musical Revival
The Color Purple*
Fiddler on the Roof*
She Loves Me*
Spring Awakening*

Best Play Revival
Blackbird*
The Crucible*
Long Day's Journey Into Night*
Noises Off*
A View from the Bridge*

Best Actor in a Musical
Alex Brightman, School of Rock*
Danny Burstein, Fiddler on the Roof*
Zachary Levi, She Loves Me(*)
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton*
Leslie Odom, Jr., Hamilton*

Best Actor in a Play
Gabriel Byrne, Long Day's Journey Into Night*
Jeff Daniels, Blackbird*
Frank Langella, The Father*
Tim Pigott-Smith, King Charles III*
Mark Strong, A View from the Bridge*

Best Actress in a Musical
Laura Benanti, She Loves Me*
Carmen Cusack, Bright Star(*)
Cynthia Erivo, The Color Purple*
Jessie Mueller, Waitress*
Phillipa Soo, Hamilton*

Best Actress in a Play
Jessica Lange, Long Day's Journey Into Night*
Laurie Metcalf, Misery
Lupita Nyong'o, Eclipsed*
Sophie Okonedo, The Crucible
Michelle Williams, Blackbird*

Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Daveed Diggs, Hamilton*
Brandon Victor Dixon, Shuffle Along 
Christopher Fitzgerald, Waitress*
Jonathan Groff, Hamilton*
Christopher Jackson, Hamilton

Best Featured Actor in a Play
Reed Birney, The Humans*
Bill Camp, The Crucible
David Furr, Noises Off*
Richard Goulding, King Charles III 
Michael Shannon, Long Day's Journey Into Night*

Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple*
Renée Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton*
Jane Krakowski, She Loves Me*
Jennifer Simard, Disaster!
Adrienne Warren, Shuffle Along

Best Featured Actress in a Play
Pascale Armand, Eclipsed*
Megan Hilty, Noises Off*
Jayne Houdyshell, The Humans
Andrea Martin, Noises Off*
Saycon Sengbloh, Eclipsed*

For those keeping score at home, I correctly predicted 45 out of 58 nominees, or 78%. When wildcard picks that made the cut are taken into account, that increases to 48 out of 58 correct predictions, or 83%. This is slightly better than my 77% success rate last year when wildcards were taken into account.

I'm pretty proud of these results. I had a 100% accuracy rating in the Best Play, Best Musical Revival, Best Play Revival, and Best Actor in a Play categories, and wildcard picks allow me to add Best Actor and Actress in a Musical to that group. I'm a little mad at myself for missing Featured Actress in a Play thanks to my own oversight; I was going to include Jayne Houdyshell in my Best Actress predictions until I realized she wasn't eligible, and made a mental note to put her in Featured Actress but forgot.

When it comes to surprises in this year's nominees, there are a few big ones. I would say the most shocking is the strong showing of Bright Star, which managed 5 overall nominations including high profile nods in the Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical categories. The Steve Martin-penned, bluegrass-scored musical has been struggling at the box office since previews began, and I honestly had it pegged as being one of the first shows to post a closing notice after a poor showing this morning (that dubious honor unfortunately went to Disaster!). These nominations mean Bright Star's producers will surely keep things running through the Tony ceremony, and it may even be the start of the show's fortunes turning around.

I am honestly gobsmacked to see Audra McDonald excluded from the Best Actress in a Musical race. This is only the second time in her lengthy career that the most awarded performer in Tony history has failed to net at least a nomination in her eligible category. This is even more puzzling considering that Shuffle Along did very well overall, with 10 nominations spread throughout multiple categories.

It's also clear that Tony voters did not go for American Psycho as much as I thought they would. While I have heard the show is divisive, its strong showing in the other awards races tricked me into assuming it would make a much stronger showing here. We'll see if that has any affect on the show's box office over the next few months.

Some other noteworthy thoughts:

-Hamilton can add another record to its lengthy list of achievements. Thanks to multiple acting nods, it is now the most nominated show in Tony history with 16 total nominations, breaking the record jointly held by The Producers and Billy Elliot. If Hamilton manages to sweep the awards, it will have won a total of 13 statuettes, thereby also breaking The Producers' record for most Tony wins. I find this unlikely thanks to stiff competition in the acting categories, but it is possible!

-I am *thrilled* to see Zachary Levi make the cut in the Best Actor in a Musical race. He absolutely nailed his role in what is probably my second favorite production of the season (after Hamilton of course), and 110% deserves this nomination.

-There is obviously some close competition in the production categories, as the only way to force category expansions is by having very close votes during the nominations process. Since Best Musical, Best Musical Revival, and Best Play Revival all have one more than the minimum number of slots required, several shows must have been neck and neck.

-Overall I am extremely happy with these nominees. The only person I'm inclined to say was snubbed is Audra McDonald, who is excellent as always in Shuffle Along (review coming soon!), but having not seen all the nominated performances I cannot definitely say she was unfairly excluded from what is a very competitive category.

*Sidenote: I only consider someone having been "snubbed" if I can look at one of the nominated performers and honestly say I would exclude the nominee for the person who was overlooked.

Over the coming weeks, there will be plenty more Tony coverage here at Broadway, Etc., including my annual predictions of the winners. This is shaping up to be one of the most exciting, competitive seasons in recent memory even with the presumed dominance of Hamilton in the writing and production categories, and I can't wait to discuss it with all of you. Keep an eye on this space for more predictions and reviews as the countdown to June 12th has officially begun!

2014 Tony Nominations React

Previous Tony-nominee Jonathan Groff and tenuously-connected-to-Broadway Lucy Liu announce the 2014 Tony Award nominations.

They're here!  The 2014 Tony Award nominees were announced bright and early this morning, and there is plenty to discuss (some of it surprising, some of it less so).  But before we go any further, here are the complete list of nominees in the Big 12 categories.  The asterisks indicate nominees that I correctly predicted, and the asterisks in parentheses indicate Wildcard picks that succeeded in making the cut.

Best Play
Act One
*All The Way 
*Casa Valentina 
*Mothers and Sons
*Outside Mullingar

Best Musical
*After Midnight
*Aladdin
*Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
*A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Best Revival of a Play
*The Cripple of Inishmaan
*The Glass Menagerie
(*)A Raisin in the Sun
*Twelfth Night

Best Revival of a Musical
*Hedwig and the Angry Inch
*Les Misérables
*Violet

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Samuel Barnett, Twelfth Night
*Bryan Cranston, All The Way
*Chris O'Dowd, Of Mice and Men
Mark Rylance, Richard III
*Tony Shalhoub, Act One

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
*Tyne Daly, Mothers and Sons
(*)LaTanya Richardson Jackson, A Raisin in the Sun
*Cherry Jones, The Glass Menagerie
*Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
*Estelle Parsons, The Velocity of Autumn

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
*Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
(*)Ramin Karimloo, Les Misérables
*Andy Karl, Rocky
*Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
*Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
(*)Mary Bridget Davies, A Night with Janis Joplin
*Sutton Foster, Violet
*Idina Menzel, If/Then
*Jessie Mueller, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
*Kelli O'Hara, The Bridges of Madison County

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
*Reed Birney, Casa Valentina
*Paul Chahidi, Twelfth Night
(*)Stephen Fry, Twelfth Night
*Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night
*Brian J. Smith, The Glass Menagerie

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Sarah Greene, The Cripple of Inishmaan
*Celia Keenan-Bolger, The Glass Menagerie
*Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun
*Anika Noni Rose, A Raisin in the Sun
*Mare Winningham, Casa Valentina

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
*Danny Burstein, Cabaret
*Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway
*Joshua Henry, Violet
*James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin
*Jarrod Spector, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
*Linda Emond, Cabaret
Lena Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
*Anika Larsen, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
*Adriane Lenox, After Midnight
(*)Lauren Worsham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder


First of all, I'm pretty damn pleased with the accuracy of my guesses.  If you only look at my official predictions, I have an 80% accuracy rate, which jumps to 91% if you include Wildcard predictions as correct guesses.  Now here are some more thoughts on the nominees:

-Considering that most critics felt this was a weak season for new plays on Broadway, I'm surprised to see five nominees in that category while the Best Musical race remains unexpectedly limited to four contenders.  And I'm especially surprised that The Realistic Joneses didn't make the cut even with an expanded field; I guess the nominations committee found the play more off-putting than the press (which was still sharply divided).

-Speaking of Best Musical, I personally am bummed they didn't see fit to nominate The Bridges of Madison County for the top prize.  The show is by no means perfect, but it has an artistic ambition rarely seen on Broadway these days, and I wish that had been acknowledged with a nomination (ditto for If/Then, although having not yet seen that show I don't have as strong an opinion about it's exclusion).

-I try not to actively root against shows, but I feel validated by the relative scarcity of nominations for Rocky.  Apparently the Tony committee was as nonplussed about that misfire as I was.  Note:  While it is not a category I predicted, Alex Timbers' exclusion from the Best Director race is one of the major surprises of the day.

-Why would the Tony committee go through the trouble of deeming Cabaret eligible for Best Revival (when according to the rules it really shouldn't be) only to not nominate it?  That seems unnecessarily cruel and a bit of a slap in the face to Roundabout.  Note:  The exclusion of Cabaret from the category was my Wildcard prediction for that race.  Just sayin'.

-Twelfth Night was undeniably amazing (and easily the best production of that play I've ever seen), but I am gobsmacked by just how well the show did in the acting nominations.  There are five total nods shared among its ensemble, including a surprising but well deserved nod for Samuel Bartlett's Viola.  Sidenote:  In my midseason predictions, I mentioned Bartlett as a dark horse contender, but by the time I made my official predictions I thought some of the heat for this production had died down.  Clearly I was wrong.

-I never considered her a serious contender to win, but I am still shocked by Marin Mazzie's exclusion from the Best Featured Actress in a Musical race.  That role was highly sought after and she beat out some of the industry's biggest name to secure it.  Considering Mazzie has been rather forthcoming with her desire for a Tony Award (despite 3 career nominations she's never won), this can't be what she wanted or expected to happen.

-Congratulations to Mary Bridget Davis for breaking into the extremely competitive Best Actress in a Musical Race.  While I personally skipped A Night with Janis Joplin because that music doesn't appeal to me, I heard nothing but complimentary things about her and she should be proud that she made enough of an impression to get nominated despite her show being long closed.

-I really really REALLY wish the committee had nominated Lisa O'Hare's acidic Sibella Hallward along with Lauren Worsham's equally deserving Phoebe D'Ysquith.  A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder has one of the most talented quartet of leads of any Broadway show right now, and it would have been wonderful to see all four of them recognized with nominations.



I will of course have lots more Tony coverage in the coming weeks (including some reviews for more Tony nominated shows), but before I go I want to leave you with one final thought.  Every year there is a lot of talk about who gets "snubbed" by the Tonys, and this year there seems to be even more chatter than normal.  But let's not allow the grousing and griping to take away from the achievement of the people who did get nominated; it is quite an achievement, and they deserve to be celebrated.

Check back all month for more Tony coverage!  And for a more in-depth look at my nominee predictions, look here:
Production
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Featured Actor/Actress

2013 Tony Nomination React

Emmy Award-nominee Jesse Tyler Ferguson and two-time Tony-winner Sutton Foster announcing the 2013 Tony Award nominations.  Interestingly, both of these self-professed Broadway babies have left the Great White Way for the big, fat paychecks offered by Hollywood.

Well, that was interesting.  The 2013 Tony nominations were announced this past Tuesday, and it was a curious case of the predictable and the surprising.  It seems like most categories shaped up the way prognosticators (including me!) predicted, and yet almost every race includes one curve ball either in the form of a surprise inclusion or omission.  Below you can see a list of the official nominees in the eight categories I predicted, with the starred entries indicating the productions and people I guessed correctly.

 

Best Play

*The Assembled Parties
 *Lucky Guy
 The Testament of Mary
 *Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Thoughts:  Three out of four ain’t bad, and to be honest I doubt many people could have predicted the surprise inclusion of The Testament of Mary (even among this season’s solo shows, I wouldn’t have called it a frontrunner).  The fact that the show posted a closing notice hours after the nominations came out is even more puzzling, and pretty much guarantees that Mary has no chance of actually winning this award.

 

Best Musical

(*)Bring It On: The Musical
* A Christmas Story: The Musical
 *Kinky Boots
 *Matilda: The Musical

 Thoughts:  I’m actually pretty thrilled with this category.  It lines up with what I consider the four strongest new musicals of the season (although to be fair, I haven’t actually seen Matilda or Motown yet).  I’m especially happy the highly entertaining Bring It On made the cut, as I had thought the show too long gone to be in serious contention.  Occasionally the Tony committee surprises us all by getting things right.

 

Best Revival of a Play

*Golden Boy
 Orphans
 *The Trip to Bountiful
 *Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Thoughts:  Orphans?  Really?  I never even considered the Alec Baldwin vehicle for this slot, as the reviews ranged from “it wasn’t terrible” to “this script should never have made it to Broadway.”  But this has been a two horse race between Woolf and Golden Boy since late fall anyway, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

 

Best Revival of a Musical

*Annie
 *The Mystery of Edwin Drood
 *Pippin
 *Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella

Thoughts:  A perfect score in this category.  Not that picking these four was hard, as there was no way in hell the Tony committee would bring itself to nominate Jekyll & Hyde.

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

 *Tom Hanks, Lucky Guy
 *Nathan Lane, The Nance
 *Tracy Letts, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
 (*)David Hyde Pierce, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
 Tom Sturridge, Orphans

Thoughts:  The moral here is never, ever bet against David Hyde Pierce.  I think a lot of people (myself included) were surprised to see Alan Cumming shut out of this category, as a nomination for him would have been a way to acknowledge both his performance and the production itself.  And I don’t think Tom Sturridge was on anyone’s radar heading into Tuesday morning; getting nominated is an accomplishment in and of itself, but beating out his high profile costar Alec Baldwin is the real win here.

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

 *Laurie Metcalf, The Other Place
 *Amy Morton, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
 Kristine Nielsen, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
 Holland Taylor, Ann
 *Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful

Thoughts:  Several surprises in this category.  I’m not necessarily *shocked* that Holland Taylor made the cut, as it is a nice way for the Tony committee to recognize both her performance and playwriting skills, but I didn’t expect them to go for her over both Bette Midler and Fiona Shaw.  It’s also surprising that Shaw’s The Testament of Mary managed to crack the production category but the actress herself wasn’t nominated; maybe they were trying to spread the wealth?  Kristine Nielsen’s inclusion shows that there is a fair amount of love for Vanya and Sonia… (as does the play’s strong showing overall), but Richard Greenberg’s The Assembled Parties may not be as beloved as the reviews suggested.  The omission of its leading lady Jessica Hecht is surprising, especially since she received better notices than costar Judith Light (who was nominated in the Supporting category).

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

 *Bertie Carvel, Matilda: The Musical
 Santino Fontana, Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella
 *Rob McClure, Chaplin
 *Billy Porter, Kinky Boots
 Stark Sands, Kinky Boots

Thoughts:  The exclusion of Annie’s Anthony Warlow from this category is one of this year’s biggest snubs, as his portrayal of Daddy Warbucks is easily more accomplished than the likable but bland Santino Fontana and Stark Sands.  If it were up to me Warlow would have Fontana’s spot, since the latter’s cloying Prince Topher comes across as the work of a reasonably talented high school student.  I’m surprised the love for Pippin didn’t transfer to its leading man, although the more subdued nature of his performance probably prevented him from standing out.

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

 *Stephanie J. Block, The Mystery of Edwin Drood
 *Carolee Carmello, Scandalous
 Valisia LeKae, Motown the Musical
 *Patina Miller, Pippin
 *Laura Osnes, Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella

Thoughts:  Yawn.  There are some very lovely, very talented actresses among this group of nominees, and I don’t begrudge any of them their nominations.  It is especially nice to see the hard-working Stephanie J. Block get her moment in the sun after years as a reliable replacement or the star of stalled works like The Pirate Queen.  But for the first time in years, this category lacks the kind of electrifying diva performance which is usually its hallmark.  Even when the category only had four nominees back in 2011, one of those women was Sutton Foster doing career-best work in Anything Goes.  Everyone in this category is talented, but I don’t think any of them have found their signature role yet.

 

For those of you keeping score, I correctly guess 26 out of 36 of these nominees, for a 72% success rate (which is slightly worse than the 82% I did last year, but jumps to 78% if you include my runner-up predictions as correct guesses).  Some final thoughts:

 

-In some ways it’s sad this is even a celebration, but I am thrilled that the entire Best Score category comes from actual musicals this year instead of plays.  I’m especially happy to see the incredibly promising team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul included, and I think this is that start of great things to come from the University of Michigan grads.

-It has become clear to me that the Tony committee and I simply don’t see eye to eye on Douglas Carter Beane, but his nomination for Best Book of a Musical still enrages me.  I don’t know which is the greater crime: the fact that he completely disregards the tone and spirit of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s work, or that his writing is an unfunny, unfocused mess that drags the entire enterprise down with it.  Sister Act, Lysistrata Jones, and now Cinderella all had enormous structural issues that made me wish the characters would just shut up and sing, and yet Beane has been Tony-nominated for every single one of them.  What a travesty.

-I am thrilled to see Carrie Coon nominated for her hilarious work as a completely plastered Honey in last fall’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  I can’t recall that last time I’ve seen someone play drunk so effectively onstage.

-I’m happy to see both Will Chase and Terrance Mann nominated for their scenery chewing work in Drood and Pippin respectively.  All aspiring hams should look to these two for a lesson on what appropriate mugging looks like, as both men scored major laughs without once distracting from their works’ overall narrative and pace.

-I would just like to point out that Kenneth Posner has three of the four Best Lighting Design of a Musical nominations.  I expect he will be even more prolific in the future.

-I’m really really REALLY rooting for Diane Paulus to win Best Director this year.  She is the most consistently exciting director working in musical theatre today, and this Pippin (just like Hair and Porgy and Bess before it) wouldn’t have been nearly as good without her involvement.

 

That’s all I can think of at the moment, but rest assured I have plenty more to say about this year’s Tony Awards.  In the coming month look for plenty of posts predicting the winners, as well as the return of the Broadway, Etc. Podcast for a roundtable discussion about some of this year’s more interesting races.  And there will probably be a review or two thrown in just for fun, especially since Matilda garnered twelve nominations and I’ve yet to see it.  Stay tuned!