Should've Won the Tony

I love the Tony Awards. Tony Sunday is basically a national holiday to me, and every year I devote dozens of blog posts to analyzing the various races and predicting likely winners. As I point out every year, the person or production that wins the Tony is not always the most deserving, but the right combination of merit, proper positioning, and backstage politics. As with any artistic award (Oscars, Emmys, etc.) we're all at least subconsciously aware of these other factors, and in the grand scheme of things winning doesn't necessarily matter or affect career opportunities. But even knowing all that, the fact remains that Tonys are the most prestigious award in the industry, and it is just irksome when they get things wrong!

Below are a few of the more egregious oversights in the Tony Awards' 66 year history, people and productions that really deserved to win that damn spinning statuette. I want to make very clear that I am not saying the actual winner in each of these races was undeserving. Of all the Tony winning performances and productions I've been lucky enough to witness, I would be hard-pressed to name one that I thought was unforgivably awful. But if I could magically go back in time and alter the outcome of past Tony races, these nominees would be on the top of my list.

West Side Story for Best Musical (1958)

The original cast of the landmark 1957 musical West Side Story, arguably one of the most famous and beloved stage shows in existence.

Actual Winner: The Music Man

Meredith Wilson's The Music Man has many passionate fans, although I am not among them. In each of the many productions I've seen, I've always found Wilson's magnum opus to be a slight work, overlong and lacking in charm, but I will concede that I am in the clear minority and maybe I'm missing something. However, I bet all but the most diehard Music Man fans would hesitate to say the show is unequivocally better than the Arthur Laurence-Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim masterpiece, one of the most important and beloved shows in the entire musical theatre cannon. West Side Story rewrote the rules for what a musical could do, the types of issues it could tackle, and integrated dance into the story better than almost any musical before or since. Almost 60 years after its premiere, it still resonates with audiences around the world as a towering achievement in dramatic storytelling.


Ragtime for Best Musical (1998)

Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell in the near-legendary original Broadway production of Ragtime.

Actual Winner: The Lion King

To be fair, I understand why Tony voters chose The Lion King for Best Musical. Julie Taymor's eye-popping production is one of the seminal artistic achievements of the past 20 years, despite a pedestrian book and songs that range from stellar ("Circle of Life") to painful ("Chow Down"). Ragtime justifiably won Best Book and Score, which meant the only way to honor The Lion King as a whole was to give the show a Best Musical trophy. But just because I understand why the production won doesn't mean I have to agree, because Ragtime is a near-perfect show that also boasts one of the all-time great original casts. In addition to being unabashedly gorgeous musically, the show's observations about race, human nature, and the enduring spirit of the American dream make it a much richer piece that continually reveals new nuances during each subsequent production. The Lion King without Taymor's staging is just the animated film needlessly padded out; Ragtime is a moving and insightful piece no matter who is at the helm, and that is why it deserved a Best Musical win.


Kelli O'Hara in The Bridges of Madison County for Best Actress in a Musical (2014)

Kelli O'Hara in the sublime, underappreciated The Bridges of Madison County.

Actual Winner: Jessie Mueller for Beautiful

Jessie Mueller is a lovely individual who has continually proven herself both talented and versatile; she deserves a long and fruitful career filled with accolades, including a Tony Award or two. That said, she *stole* Kelli O'Hara's long deserved Best Actress statuette for what is sure to go down as one the golden-voiced soprano's greatest performances, Francesca in Jason Robert Brown's The Bridges of Madison County. Setting aside the fact that it is absolutely ludicrous the multitalented O'Hara is still Tony-less after five nominations in the past decade, her transcendent work in this sweeping musical drama was the kind of performance legends are made of. When people look back at her career many years from now, this will be the performance people won't believe she didn't win for, in the same way many people just assume Bernadette Peters won for Sunday in the Park with George (Peters lost to Chita Rivera in The Rink). The one small piece of solace to be found in this situation is that O'Hara publicly stated that if she couldn't win, she was rooting for Mueller.


Danny Burstein in Follies for Best Actor in a Musical (2012)

Danny Burstein during the transcendent "Loveland Sequence" during the most recent Broadway revival of Follies.

Actual Winner: Steve Kazee for Once

Like with O'Hara, the fact that Danny Burstein doesn't already have a Tony Award is one of the great oversights of the Tony Awards' past ten years. One of our greatest character actors, Burstein is equally at home in musicals and plays, whether they are comedic or dramatic, and Follies is arguably the greatest showcase he has ever had. Burstein took the least interesting of Sondheim's four leads and made him a fascinatingly complex and tragic character who remains unable to impress the one woman he truly loves. Burstein's performance was largely on the fringes during the musical's first act, but the one-two punch of "The Right Girl" and "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues" in Act II was revelatory for both the character and the production. Steve Kazee was perfectly charming (if a bit shout-y) as the lovelorn Guy in Once, but his performance was ultimately a lot less interesting and layered than Burstein's superlative work.


While I've got plenty more beef to pick with the Tony committee, my blood's starting to boil, so perhaps I should take a break for now. As stated in the intro, none of this is meant to imply that the actual winners were bad (although I really do hate The Music Man), just that the mentioned productions and performers were ultimately more deserving of Broadway's highest honor.

The Glorious Music of Something Beginning

Review: Ragtime in Concert

Ragtime concert director Stafford Arima with stars Norm Lewis, Lea Salonga, and Manoel Felciano

 

There were many stars on the stage of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall during last night’s concert presentation of the Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens-Terrance McNally musical Ragtime, but over the course of the evening it became clear that the biggest star was the work itself.  A staggering masterpiece virtually unequalled by anything in the musical theatre cannon, Ragtime juggles its interweaving narratives with a breathtaking assurance that is a feat unto itself, with the Flaherty/Ahrens score serving up an unending parade of some of the most soul-stirring music ever composed for the Broadway stage.  When the writers joined the cast onstage for the final bow, the unassuming trio fittingly received a thunderous ovation befitting a work of this magnitude.

Ragtime’s score draws upon a host of distinctly American musical genres, all of which were excellently rendered by the 36-piece orchestra under the baton of conductor Sheilah Walker.  Few musicals manage to have the breadth and musical variety of Ragtime while remaining a sonically coherent whole, but between Flaherty’s writing and the orchestra’s excellent playing nary a note sounded out of place.  In addition to the principals, many of whom were past Tony winners, the ensemble was rounded out by veterans of various other Ragtime productions and a hundred-strong chorus which gave the sumptuous score with even more oomph than usual.  The cast’s rendition of the sprawling opening number was positively electric, as was their take on the soaring ballad “New Music” and the triumphant final reprise of “Wheels of a Dream” that serves as the show’s finale.  But the truly transcendent moment came during the Act I closer “Till We Reach That Day,” which steadily built from a mournful solo sung by the sensational NaTasha Yvette Williams into a roof-rattling crescendo with an emotional intensity that shook the audience to its very core.

Among the principals, Tony-winner Lea Salonga made the strongest impression with her gloriously sung and exceedingly well-acted Mother.  After a somewhat tentative start which perhaps stemmed from overplaying the character’s reserved nature, Salonga steadily grew in confidence and intensity throughout the night to deliver a stunning sucker-punch of a performance.  By the time she reached Mother’s big ballad “Back to Before” near the end of the second act, Salonga’s command of the stage and inner strength fully enveloped the cavernous hall, creating a genuine showstopper which was appropriately greeted by rapturous applause.

As Tateh, a poor Jewish immigrant pursuing the American dream, Manoel Felciano (Tobias in the John Doyle-helmed Sweeney Todd) brought tremendous warmth and a soothing tenor to his many ballads, with his rendition of “Gliding” proving particularly moving.  Felciano also shared a genuine chemistry with Salonga that made their two duets (“Nothing Like the City” and “Our Children”) immensely satisfying.  The gifted actor held everyone in rapt attention whenever he was onstage, and it’s a shame New York audiences haven’t had more chances to appreciate this gifted actor’s many talents.

Rounding out the show’s central trio was Norm Lewis as Coalhouse Walker, Jr., the black piano player from Harlem struggling to rise above the many indignities he faced at the hands of intolerant bigots.  Lewis seemed less assured than Salonga and Felciano, failing to fully convey Coalhouse’s quiet dignity and occasionally struggling to meet the demands of Flaherty and Ahrens’ score. Despite these problems he still managed to sell the rousing ballad “Make Them Hear You,” even if the performance failed to fully eclipse the ghost of Brian Stokes Mitchell in the original Broadway company.

Michael Arden did excellent work a Mother’s Younger Brother, communicating the restless aimlessness of youth while using his piercing tenor to effortlessly reach the back of the balcony.  As Father, Howard McGillin remained true to his character’s racist tendencies while simultaneously showing Father’s softer side, thereby keeping the character from descending into cartoonish villainy.  Tyne Daly was a veritable force of nature as real-life anarchist Emma Goldman, and young Lewis Grosso made for a charmingly precocious Little Boy.

Unfortunately, there was one obvious weak link in the cast, and that was the Sarah of Patina Miller.  Any actress tackling the role of Coalhouse’s doomed lover has the unenviable task of living up to the memory of Audra McDonald’s legendary Tony-winning performance, but even grading on a curve the Sister Act star failed to impress.  Her voice is ill-suited to the role, as the belting on which Miller’s made her name is stylistically inappropriate to classically-influenced show, and in attempting to avoid that trap she became too preoccupied to give a good performance.  “Your Daddy’s Son,” one of the show’s most gut-wrenching songs, fell oddly flat when Miller sang it, although the actress mostly regained control of the role after that initial (and major) misstep.

As the inaugural production of Manhattan Concert Productions’ Broadway Series, this Ragtime has set an exceedingly high bar for any future installments.  Hopefully the organization will continue producing star-studded mountings of shows whose size and/or subject matter make them risky commercial ventures but that don’t necessarily fit the obscure Golden Age offerings City Center’s Encores! specializes in.  Even with a few hiccups, the evening was a resounding success, and yet another example of the unfettered brilliance of Flaherty and Ahrens’ most famous work.

What's So Speacial About the Original Cast?

There have been five Broadway productions of Gypsy, and for many the Ethel Merman original remains the best

One interesting phenomenon among musical theatre aficionados – really all theatre fans, but it’s more pronounced in musical theatre circles – is the near-universal belief that a show’s original cast is always the best one.  No matter how many times a show has been successfully revived or remounted, these fans insist the original group of actors represent the best possible incarnation of a property.  If the work is particularly beloved, suggesting different actors for the lead roles becomes tantamount to sacrilege, and eventually you get people who think the then 43-year-old Sarah Brightman is an appropriate choice to play ingénue Christine Daae in the 2004 Phantom of the Opera film.

The above example is extreme, but the thinking behind it is so widespread that people have paid good money to see a 37-year-old Adam Pascal play Roger in Rent or a septuagenarian Carol Channing do Hello, Dolly!  Those real-life examples can be explained away as people who missed legendary performances willingly suspending their disbelief in order to see great actors recreate their most famous roles, but such reasoning doesn’t justify the idea that no matter how many times Gypsy or West Side Story get done, the original cast will always be the best.

So what’s driving this belief?  Is there any substance to the assertion that the original cast is always the superior one?  In large part, I think the primary reason comes down to mere familiarity.  With musicals, many times the only thing resembling a permanent record of the show is the Original Cast Recording.  This is how the vast majority of fans are first exposed to a show, and it is just about the only way anyone can relive the experience of actually seeing a live production.  The particular set of mannerisms, vocal tics, and acting choices captured by the recording becomes subconsciously ingrained in the listener’s head, and through repeated exposure becomes the accepted or “correct” way the material should be done.  If the person has never actually seen the show in question, then the cast album becomes representative of the ideal version of the property that’s been created in the listener’s head.  Any deviation from this imagined ideal can prove off-putting, even with supposedly open-minded people.

But if the reasoning behind this preference for the original cast seems somewhat arbitrary, that doesn’t mean the resulting wisdom is entirely wrong.  The truth of the matter is that the originating actor often ends up being the best, or at least one of the best, people to tackle a particular role.  If the performer is lucky enough to have the part written expressly for them, the way Gypsy was written for Ethel Merman or The Producers was tailored specifically to Nathan Lane, then of course he or she is going to impress in the role.  Even if the writers don’t have a particular person in mind when creating a character, they will inevitably end up fashioning the part around the person chosen to play it.  If a scene or song isn’t working, any rewrites will almost certainly take the performer’s strengths into account.  In a particularly collaborative environment, the actor may have direct input into the character’s moods and actions, subtly but forever skewing the script towards that performer’s interpretation of the role.

Then there are the times when a performer proves so compelling in a role that it takes on a life of its own, becoming greatly expanded in order to fully utilize that actor’s talents.  Anyone who has read the novel Wicked will tell you Glinda is a much more prominent presence in the musical, because the writers wanted to put for focus on Kristin Chenoweth’s bravura performance.  Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens wrote the song “Sarah Brown Eyes” in Ragtime specifically to give Tony-winner Audra McDonald more to do, since she was simply too good to leave out of the second act.  Rory O’Malley’s Elder McKinley didn’t even exist is early drafts of The Book of Mormon, but Matt Stone and Trey Parker were so entertained by his antics in the ensemble they crafted a role to better highlight him.  When a role is so specifically tailored to the original performer, their take on it will naturally be one of the strongest.

Original casts (and premiere casts of revivals) also have the benefit of extended rehearsal time to explore their roles.  A typical Broadway musical has about a month of rehearsals and another month of previews, giving the performers plenty of time to discover the nuances of their characterizations and iron out any kinks.  Add to that the months or even years spent workshopping a modern musical, and you have an artist who is intimately familiar with their particular character.  By the time workshops, out-of-town tryouts, and previews are taken into account, Idina Menzel spent three to four years refining her Elphaba, whereas her many replacements got at best a couple weeks of rehearsal before their first public performance.

The massive investment of time, combined with the knowledge that they are the first person to portray a particular role, results in actors feeling a sense of ownership that is difficult to replicate.  The original cast of a show has a heightened investment in making the show succeed, and going through the journey of discovering their characters with the writers and director gives their performances a more fully-realized and believable quality.  In contrast, many subsequent actors are encouraged to replicate the original’s performance, which can create a feeling of inauthenticity in their work.  Even if the production is new, such as a revival with entirely original staging, the shadow of their predecessor can loom large over any actor.  Every woman who’s played Joanne in Company has had to choose between trying to mimic Elaine Stritch (thereby inviting director comparison) or veering from Stritch’s blueprint and likely being criticized for it.

As we have seen, there are a lot of factors that contribute to making the original cast of a particular show the preferred one.  Because of this, I will always try to see a show while the original company is intact, but I have also seen enough replacements and understudies to know that they can be every bit as strong as the original performers.  I’ve also seen some incredible revivals that surely must compare favorably with the originals, such as the Patti LuPone-led Gypsy or the most recent New York staging of Follies.  Ultimately, the right actor in the right role will make for amazing theatre, whether that actor is the first person to ever play that character of the hundredth.  That is what makes live theatre so exciting, and being able to see multiple interpretations of the same show is what keeps me coming back, time and again.