<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIf you follow this site, you know that in (completely unrelated) previous posts, I’ve railed about how Broadway couldn’t conjure up a ‘third revival’ this season. This is what I was talking about! There are only two musical revivals this year. It’s kind of embarrassing to look at this, especially since so many other categories had six nominees (also embarrassing, make your choices, you have one job). Oklahoma! is going to win and this is literally the least exciting category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis is a race between my girl Rachel Chavkin and Daniel Fish. Chavkin’s show should be winning like WHOA on Tony Night, and her creative, magical direction is a huge part of what makes the show great. She was also robbed (ROBBED)(okay the winner was worthy as always but still) of a Best Director Tony for Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 a few years back. Her inventive, unique vision is one of the most exciting things happening in modern theatre. But Fish is her main competition, having created a shocking, super-dark, super-relevant version of the beloved classic people thought they knew. This is my most interesting race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nSix nominees? What is this, the Emmy Awards? I can’t be too mad about including a play in this bunch since I adore Adam Guettel’s music (but the other musical writers this season can be!). I could say a lot about the overrated Be More Chill music, the surprisingly pedestrian Tootsie score from one of the best working composers (?? what happened Dave), the average Beetlejuice score, the sweet but not ground-breaking Prom, but all I really have to say is, Hadestown, guys. Anais Mitchell (not to be confused with Anais Nin, as I did in the past) has written a SCORE, babies. A score that is beautiful, original, soul-shattering, chill-inducing, just marvelous. Give her and this show all the awards; they deserve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nDespite how surprising the double whammy noms for The Prom are, I can’t be too mad, because it brings together O’Hara and Kinnunen as fellow nominees, years after playing mother and daughter in one of my all-time faves, The Bridges of Madison County (don’t knock it till you’ve seen in three times and cried the whole time and then seen the final performance sitting next to Keala Settle who is also sobbing but she’s also punching her fist in the air at every amazing moment, which is constant, because she’s hilarious and awesome anyway we’re besties). I’m so excited for both of them to be considered for #SteerOfTheYear (it’s a Bridges thing), but this is Block’s award, hundo p. She is the best thing about The Cher Show, along with the Bob Mackie costumes, which will also probably win. It’s a shame Eva (who is lovely but whose character is the least interesting in her show) is in while Rebecca Naomi Jones for Oklahoma! is out, but neither would win anyway. The real snub here is that of young Sophia Anne Caruso, the one Beetlejuice nom that should have been a lock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nSANTINO! This is Santino’s and I am HERE FOR IT! I’m going to pretend his Tony is also an Emmy for his work on Crazy Ex Girlfriend, in which he was impeccable<\/em>, but yeah his work in Tootsie is deeeefinitely winning. Well unless all these surprise nominations for Beetlejuice result in an upset here but that would be bad, BAD. Santinoooooo!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nSo this is that shit I was referring to in the beginning, about what constitutes a bad surprise. Strangely missing from this category is forking GLENDA JACKSON as KING LEAR. GLENDA. JACKSON. KING. LEAR. This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime pairings of actor and role, and she isn’t nominated? What the FORK, guys? And there are SIX NOMINATIONS! Emmy-style again! This is like when the Emmys nominated seven supporting actresses in a comedy and none of them were the best ones! Don’t make me go back to those dark times. The only salve for this burn is that Elaine May was always going to win anyway – Glenda’s deserved nom would have been a ‘it’s a shame she can’t also win’ situation – but STILL! All the other five nominees are great of course but getting in over Glenda Jackson is FORKING WEIRD. I’d be embarrassed, as I hope the voters are. Shaaaame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nOkay, we always knew this would be difficult. Horrible, even. Best actor in a play was the most stacked category this season, which we should see as a gift, I guess. But it’s hard not to bemoan the lack of one of the greatest actors ever, Tracy Letts, in here. Or John Lithgow, who is always wonderful. Or Jonny Lee Miller, or freaking Nathan Lane – you can always BET on Nathan getting nominated! It’s just too stacked. The real one that hurts here is the snub of Michael Urie, whose performance in Torch Song was one of those special ones that aren’t just like Letts or Lane or Lithgow simply “always” being good. Darn. As is, this is super hard, because Paddy and Bryan both won Oliviers for these roles, but Daniels is considered the frontrunner, and he will probably thank Rudin in his speech, which I guess he has to do but it would be cool if he was like ‘Hey Scott thanks for making this production and letting me star but also you are a mean old bully and you don’t actually love theatre if you don’t support theatre, anyway thanks everyone.’ I should be a speech-writer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nI am SO excited for Ali Stroker and I am SO excited for Mary Testa and I am SO excited for Sarah Stiles and I am SO excited for Lilli Cooper (even though she shouldn’t have been nominated over Leslie Kritzer for Beetlejuice or, most of all, Stephanie Styles in Kiss Me, Kate, or really Michaela Diamond for The Cher Show, who should have been a frontrunner, so I guess I’m not actually SO excited for some of them…) but this better forking be Amber Gray’s. Her command of the stage, of the audience, of the atmosphere in Hadestown is pure magic, a masterclass in humanity and humor and that ineffable quality that makes a star shine brighter when in the perfect role for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nI take it back, this is my hardest category. The two Hadestown guys, oh dear god, I wish they could tie. Page’s Hades should probably get the win, if only for his soul-shaking, earth-shattering performance during “Why We Build a Wall”, but I adore, ADORE, Andre De Shields’ wondrous performance that makes a narrator so much more. Congrats to the other nominees – and HELL YEAH Jeremy Pope getting two nominations this season! – but the absence of Corbin Bleu here (Kiss Me, Kate) is a damn shame that really taints the whole thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nThanks to the voters naming Nielson a featured role and not a lead (she’s the lead, right? come on) and thus likely having her split votes with her Gary costar Julie White, CKB will finally win a Tony, the Tony she was certain she was going to get a few years ago for The Glass Menagerie (okay she<\/em> wasn’t certain but the rest of the world was). I love me some CKB and she is always perfection, so this is a happy occasion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\nI LOVE ALL THESE MEN! I am most excited for Robin de Jesus (more fun if you don’t know to pronounce it in Spanish) to finally be a Tony nominee, but all these guys, man alive this is A WONDERFUL group. I have zero clue who will win and I am SO EXCITED to find out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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To quote Forrest, that’s all I have to say about that, at least at the moment. As for categories I didn’t picturize, Tootsie will likely win Best Book because it has a lot of funny jokes, and people think that’s what a book is (although, voters did prove that they know better last season when they awarded The Band’s Visit over Tina Fey’s jokes, so there could be a similar sitch of Hadestown also winning Book, which I wouldn’t be sad about nope wouldn’t be sad). The scenic elements and production design award are actually exciting this year, because you have the visually stunning Beetlejuice set against the beyond impressive King Kong puppetry, although with King Kong’s puppet team getting a special Tony, perhaps that changes things. I don’t know, all I know is this is a very interesting, strange year, and I am into it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More surprises than usual – both good and not so – make the 2019 Tony Awards already more exciting than you’d expect, especially considering how disappointing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n
Tony Award Nominations are Out! Thoughts, Snubs, Surprises, Rudins - Laughfrodisiac<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n