2021-22 Tony Nominations

[Big Magilla]

I agree down the line except that I still find DeBose's sudden celebrity puzzling. She seems to me like an over-eager star wannabe. She can dance, she can sing, she can joke, she can pet herself on the back (paraphrasing here: "I have an Oscar". "I am the Chita Rivera of today and tomorrow, just as I was the Rita Moreno of today and tomorrow on film").

The presenters were all good, with Patrick Wilson the standout. If he isn't Hugh Jackman's replacement in The Music Man, no-one is.

I still find Six the Musical an abomination, maybe not as bad as MJ but totally bizarre, a cabaret show, at best.

The In Memoriam segment was hideous. "On the Street Where You Live" turned into "On the Street Where You Lived" as a song for the dead? Cutting away to Billy Porter after every six names or so to make sure the segment didn't end before he stopped singing. Tacky.

And where was the tribute to Angela Lansbury? I made sure I didn't doze off so I wouldn't miss it only to find it was done during the pre-show and she wasn't even there. Was she ill? Was she miffed that it wasn't going to be on the main show? How long did the producers know she was going to be a no-show?

[Mister Tee]

Well, there were some surprises, at least from my view. I expected A Strange Loop to win up to half a dozen prizes; instead, it ranks with Two Gentlemen of Verona, 42nd Street, and Raisin, as shows that won best musical with only one additional prize. (Two Gentlemen won precisely the same two.)

I thought best actor in a musical was for sure going to Spivey. Instead, we got the embarrassment of a big award to a show everyone should be ashamed exists, plus the numbing sensation that musician biopics are going to take over the Tonys just like biopic took over the Oscars. At least Cher and Tina won over lackluster competition; this was awful.

More pleasing was Kalukango's win, at least based on her spellbinding delivery tonight. I'd thought Sharon D. Clarke would win, but the handicap of the show that closed continues. That lead role in Caroline, or Change is one if the most powerful in modern American musicals, and somehow it's managed to twice lose at the Tonys.

I was DELIGHTED by Deidre O'Connell's win -- I met her, through an actor friend, a few years ago, and she's a delightful human being...in addition to having had a long and honorable career.

The Lehman Trilogy seemed the logical choice, and voters managed to select one actor to honor for the whole. His "I bid you good day, sir" rings in my memory.

The show was okay, I guess. Ariana DeBose's showbiz heightened energy is not my preferred mode, but she did a fairly good job.

[Big Magilla]

Hudson would indeed complete her EGOT with a win as producer of Best Musical frontrunner A Strange Loop.

Something I find fascinating about this year's nominees is that two-time winners Patti LuPone and Sutton Foster, who both had huge hits with revivals of Anything Goes, for which LuPone was nominated and Foster won, are nominated for roles for which the originators of those roles were nominated in reverse categories.

Barbara Cook was the original Marian the librarian in The Music Man for which she won her only Tony as a Featured Actress. Foster is up for Lead Actress for playing that role in the current revival. Elaine Stritch was the original Joanne in Company for which she was nominated in Lead. LuPone is the presumptive favorite to win her third Tony for that role in the Featured Actress category.

[flipp525]

Jennifer Hudson is listed as a producer on A Strange Loop. Seeing as nothing seems to stand in that show’s way of taking Best Musical, does that mean that Hudson would receive a Tony and thus complete her EGOT?

[Greg]

From what I have read, if I had an opportunity to see any of these productions, the one I would want to see the most is The Lehman Trilogy.

[Big Magilla]

I really like the cast recording to Six, to be honest, but if there was any premise that was designed to be the anti-Magilla, this is it.

I don't know what that means, but it made me laugh!

[Okri]

It's weird how they slightly expanded the frame of supporting actor/play to fit all the Take Me Out guys, expanded it massively to cover the entire cast of The Lehman Trilogy (when I initially saw the list, I thought maybe they'd given it the Billy Elliott vote-for-all-at-once dispensation -- something they also did long ago for the two actors in Sizwe Banzi is Dead -- but evidently not)...yet didn't do a thing for the acclaimed ensemble of Six. In fact, Six was treated rather shabbily overall, considering how well-reviewed it was -- missing director. I'd heard murmurs it might be the mainstream alternative vote to A Strange Loop, but that seems unlikely, now.

a) Six did make the directors list for Armitage and Moss. That said, I really don't know how you handle the Six-ladies. The Olivier awards have no compunction about joint nominations. 7 actors and actresses just won best featured actor in a play for the stage adaptation of Life of Pi (for playing the tiger). Matilda, Six, Billy Elliot and other productions have gotten joint nominations. I think you should just give them a special Tony (a la Broadway's Matilda) and move on.

b) I'm always intrigued when a director gets a nomination for a show that makes neither show category, which is what Dana H got. Conversely, The Minutes only nomination was for best play.

c) Every musical and musical reivival got at least one nomination - including Diana

d) I'm basically pretending that MJ doesn't exist, if I'm being honest.

e) anonymous, Neil Simon was nominated for best book in 1963 for Little Me than had a Tony nomination for Plaza Suite the next year. But that's the closest I found.

f) I really like the cast recording to Six, to be honest, but if there was any premise that was designed to be the anti-Magilla, this is it.

[Big Magilla]

I agree the rules are odd, but they have some semblance of reason to them. Mary-Louise Parker's play is considered a revival because it is well-known enough to fit the Assassins rule for revivals. Her performance, however, is eligible because she had never performed the role on Broadway.

I get the distaste people have for the clean-up they did of Michael Jackson for MJ the Musical, but this is something playwrights and screenwriters have done forever. By setting the play in 1992, the year before the shit hit the fan, so to speak, they are presenting the Michael Jackson known to the world at the time. Unlike Bill Cosby and other potential subjects of theatrical biographies, he wasn't convicted of anything, so there's that in the producers' favor. I doubt, though, that they could do it as a film or TV presentation without massive upfront disclaimers.

I have the London cast recording of Six. I don't get the fuss. Turning the six wives of Henry VIII into bickering contemporary divas makes no sense and the songs pretty much stink. The best I can say for it is that it's better than Diana the Musical, but not by much.

[Okri]

I have to admit, I find the rules a little puzzling

If you've performed the role on Broadway, you're not eligible for a new production. Lonette McKee gave an acclaimed performance in the Prince revival from the mid 90s, but wasn't eligible as she'd done the role in the early 80s. Yul Brynner for The King and I is another example. And sometime in the early Aughts, the Tonys changed their production rules such that shows that played Off Broadway a yonks age ago could be eligible for revival if the original had a sufficient status (not sure what the language actually is). So Sam Shephard's two best play nominations (coming 17 years after the shows had original, award winning runs) wouldn't happen any more - so productions like Wit, Assassins, Lobby Hero, etc are recognized as revivals. In my head, I assumed that debate would've been stretched, at the very least. Now, I love the play (as it reads) and both performers, so I'm fine with the recognition. But it's a bit twisty in my head

[Mister Tee]

It is odd, as flipp notes, that Mary-Louise Parker won a Tony only 7 or so months ago -- but for a performance I saw in the Fall of 2019. So, it's to figure whether that disadvantages her or not. And I fall into exactly the position okri suggests: I saw her (and Morse) do How I Learned to Drive a quarter century ago. That, too, might have impact or might not. Her greatest strength is that her perceived largest threat is Deirdre O'Connell, who got massive raves for Dana H. But that show is long gone, and it's been very difficult for such candidates to win in recent years. I'm marginally biased in O'Connell's direction, because I met her through a friend and liked her immensely. But I can certainly celebrate another Parker win.

It's weird how they slightly expanded the frame of supporting actor/play to fit all the Take Me Out guys, expanded it massively to cover the entire cast of The Lehman Trilogy (when I initially saw the list, I thought maybe they'd given it the Billy Elliott vote-for-all-at-once dispensation -- something they also did long ago for the two actors in Sizwe Banzi is Dead -- but evidently not)...yet didn't do a thing for the acclaimed ensemble of Six. In fact, Six was treated rather shabbily overall, considering how well-reviewed it was -- missing director. I'd heard murmurs it might be the mainstream alternative vote to A Strange Loop, but that seems unlikely, now.

I'd guess Clarke and Spivey are the leading candidates for musical actress/actor -- unless there's hidden sympathy for Billy Crystal. Actor in a play might be the toughest of the main acting slots -- Threlfall got pretty exceptional reviews, but one of the Lehman guys (Beale, I'd guess) might poke through.

Considering it was once again not quite a real season, the roster of plays is pretty damn solid. Musicals are not bad, either.

danfrank, I'm in total agreement with you about MJ. I assume the show was well into development before the Leaving Neverland doc removed all doubt of Jackson's perfidy, and, at that point, I expected them to drop it. It's astonishing it's up there selling tickets as if nobody's heard the news. I guess Those Hilarious Cosby Years can't be far behind.

[flipp525]

Johanna Day was snubbed in the Featured Actress in a Play for How I Learned to Drive. She was really fantastic (especially in her monologue late in the play when she’s playing Li’l Bit’s aunt).

So glad that both Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse were nominated. MLP should easily win this year. Her performance is truly one for the ages - just an astonishing performance. I saw it in previews last month and it was a high point in my theater-going experience.

Do you think the fact that she's a recent winner ans that this isn't a "new" performance will hurt her?

Fair question, Okri. I think the pandemic has slightly skewed the parameters of the Tony season a bit. MLP’s win for a play that was closed over two years ago (The Sound Inside might not seem as fresh in the memory for voters as it might have during regular times. I see no qualms awarding actors back-to-back Tony awards if it’s warranted (Laurie Metcalf, for a recent example).

Granted, I have not seen the other nominees that she is up against so I can’t she is the “best.” But I saw her performance and was blown away.

I don’t think the fact that she originated the role twenty-five years ago off-Broadway will affect her.

[Okri]

Johanna Day was snubbed in the Featured Actress in a Play for How I Learned to Drive. She was really fantastic (especially in her monologue late in the play when she’s playing Li’l Bit’s aunt).

So glad that both Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse were nominated. MLP should easily win this year. Her performance is truly one for the ages - just an astonishing performance. I saw it in previews last month and it was a high point in my theater-going experience.

Do you think the fact that she's a recent winner ans that this isn't a "new" performance will hurt her?

[flipp525]

Johanna Day was snubbed in the Featured Actress in a Play for How I Learned to Drive. She was really fantastic (especially in her monologue late in the play when she’s playing Li’l Bit’s aunt).

So glad that both Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse were nominated. MLP should easily win this year. Her performance is truly one for the ages - just an astonishing performance. I saw it in previews last month and it was a high point in my theater-going experience.

[danfrank]

Nottage may be a very talented writer—two Pulitzers would seem to verify this— but I have no respect for anyone associated with MJ. From the NYT review:

“In agreeing to write what is essentially an authorized biography — the show has been produced ‘by special arrangement with the Michael Jackson estate’— Nottage apparently made a compromise: She would note his minor oddities while avoiding the most troubling accusations against him.”

I find it pretty sickening that there’s a big-budget Michael Jackson jukebox musical passed off as family entertainment that celebrates his life but ignores that he was a serial child molester. The Jackson family will reap millions, I’m sure. And the Tony voters are all too glad to bestow oodles of nominations on it. Just ick.

[Big Magilla]

I have a question! Lynn Nottage is nominated for both Best Play and Best Book of a Musical in the same year. Has that ever happened before?

No:
Two-time nominee Lynn Nottage received a congratulatory message from How I Learned to Drive playwright Paula Vogel. "@Lynnbrooklyn mazeltov you record breaker you! TWO nominations! So happy for you." Nottage is nominated for Best Book of a Musical for MJ the Musical and Best Play for Clyde's.