Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actress

[Uri]

Funny Girl, as you say, was a hybrid -- lots on on-stage stuff, but also People on a stoop and Don't Rain on My Parade on a tugboat..

And I'm The Greatest Star and Sadie Sadie Married Lady.

As for the if-it's-a-dream-sequence-then-it's-not-a-musical-musical - nahh. I'm not buying it. And it was done 60 years earlier, in Lady in The Dark (incidentally, starring - on screen - Ginger Rogers who also played Roxy Hart).

[Big Magilla]

I'd also like to address Magilla's observation, that "the previous four winners for musical performances in this category were playing iconic roles, as does Ariana DeBose." I don't dispute the characterization, but it's kind of remarkable that, of that group, only Hudson's role won a Tony. Zeta-Jones lost to Donna McKechnie; Randy Graff wasn't even nominated for Les Miz; Chita Rivera's category didn't list nominees, but Barbara Cook was the winner. This bad luck extends to the lead actress winners -- Streisand lost to Carol Channing, and Jill Haworth wasn't nominated for Cabaret (Natasha Richardson did win for the years-later revival). The men had far the better of it: all three musical winners -- Yul Brynner, Rex Harrison, Joel Grey -- had in fact previously won Tonys for the same role.

Quite so, which makes the DeBose push all the more puzzling. Debbie Allen was Tony nominated for playing Anita in the 1980 revival of West Side Story, but lost to Priscilla Lopez in the female lead in A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine for which she was pigeonholed into featured actress. However, Karen Olivo did win for the 2009 revival over Haydn Gwynne in the Julie Walters role in Billy Elliot: The Musical, so there is precedent.

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Anne Hathaway were name players when they won for Chicago and Les Miz, respectively. Zeta-Jones' role was really the film's co-lead. Hathaway had been previously nominated for Rachel at the Wedding. Jennifer Hudson was also well-known, having risen to fame on TV's American Idol. How many people remember DeBose as part of the ensemble in Hamilton or as Disco Donna (Summer) in Summer for which she was nominated for a Tony in support of LaChanze who was the show's name player, nominated in lead as Diva Donna?

I get why some people would vote for her, but the overwhelming majority of every award she's been nominated for over Kirsten Dunst, Ruth Negga, Ann Dowd, Martha Plimpton and others who did really impressive work in their respective films? Nope, I don't get it.

[Mister Tee]

Is Cabaret - the film , not the stage original - technically a full fledged musical? All the musical numbers but one are "realistic" ones, done onstage. (The other one is a singalong in a country tavern). Yes, it's a very stylized depiction of cabaret routines, but still, the initial setting is realistic. (Hence, for example, all the Frau Schneider's numbers are cut from the film version). So if we follow this (lame?) logic, along LLL, only Mary Poppins is a "legitimate" Musical, Funny Girl a hybrid one.

Great point, Uri. Though Cabaret is not a “biopic,” Tee’s exclusionary criterion, the fictionalized Sally Bowles, as created by Christopher Isherwood, is based on a real person, Jean Ross.

Remarkably, I have known this last fact since precisely last night, when I watched Christopher and His Kind on Britbox. The film is pretty much to Cabaret (or any earlier version of I Am A Camera/Berlin Stories) as Capote is to In Cold Blood -- a secret origin story.

The fact that Cabaret used only the onstage numbers, plus Tomorrow Belongs to Me, played a big part in the film seeming so completely contemporary at a time when musicals were seen as a stodgy genre. When I recommended the film to people, I often emphasized "It's not like a typical musical". This didn't assuage my father, who hated movie musicals (had walked out on An American in Paris); he and my mother went to see it, and my mother said he gave her an updated count every time a song started up.

Rob Marshall actively strove to imitate this approach with Chicago -- making all musical numbers either on-stage or fantasy sequences, so as to avoid the "bursting into song" thing that had come to seem so hokey to modern audiences. Ironically, its huge success paved the way for more traditional musicals, and both Dreamgirls and Les Miz won for numbers that used the earlier style.

Funny Girl, as you say, was a hybrid -- lots on on-stage stuff, but also People on a stoop and Don't Rain on My Parade on a tugboat.

I'd also like to address Magilla's observation, that "the previous four winners for musical performances in this category were playing iconic roles, as does Ariana DeBose." I don't dispute the characterization, but it's kind of remarkable that, of that group, only Hudson's role won a Tony. Zeta-Jones lost to Donna McKechnie; Randy Graff wasn't even nominated for Les Miz; Chita Rivera's category didn't list nominees, but Barbara Cook was the winner. This bad luck extends to the lead actress winners -- Streisand lost to Carol Channing, and Jill Haworth wasn't nominated for Cabaret (Natasha Richardson did win for the years-later revival). The men had far the better of it: all three musical winners -- Yul Brynner, Rex Harrison, Joel Grey -- had in fact previously won Tonys for the same role.

[danfrank]

By contrast, best actress has had only one such winner, Emma Stone, since Liza's win for Cabaret... The last such supporting actor winner was Liza's partner Joel Grey,

Is Cabaret - the film , not the stage original - technically a full fledged musical? All the musical numbers but one are "realistic" ones, done onstage. (The other one is a singalong in a country tavern). Yes, it's a very stylized depiction of cabaret routines, but still, the initial setting is realistic. (Hence, for example, all the Frau Schneider's numbers are cut from the film version). So if we follow this (lame?) logic, along LLL, only Mary Poppins is a "legitimate" Musical, Funny Girl a hybrid one.

Great point, Uri. Though Cabaret is not a “biopic,” Tee’s exclusionary criterion, the fictionalized Sally Bowles, as created by Christopher Isherwood, is based on a real person, Jean Ross.

[Uri]

By contrast, best actress has had only one such winner, Emma Stone, since Liza's win for Cabaret... The last such supporting actor winner was Liza's partner Joel Grey,

Is Cabaret - the film , not the stage original - technically a full fledged musical? All the musical numbers but one are "realistic" ones, done onstage. (The other one is a singalong in a country tavern). Yes, it's a very stylized depiction of cabaret routines, but still, the initial setting is realistic. (Hence, for example, all the Frau Schneider's numbers are cut from the film version). So if we follow this (lame?) logic, along LLL, only Mary Poppins is a "legitimate" Musical, Funny Girl a hybrid one.

[Reza]

Probably the most predictable category of the night. De Bose will win an Oscar that should be given to Jessie Buckley, my favourite performance of the year.

Wholeheartedly agree. We DO need a shock win (although it would be most deserved) to make the show worth sitting through.

[Sabin]

Just like its brother category should be prefaced by "Without Mike Fast...", this one start begin with "Without Ruth Negga..."

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at how open and shut this category has been for a while now. For me, Ariana DeBose struck me as a solid player in the West Side Story but not the standout. She's fine. I remain baffled that her speeches don't mention Rita Moreno more.

At this point, I couldn't even tell you who's in the running for second place. Aunjanue Ellis doesn't really have much to do. Judi Dench has even less. I have no idea what clip they'll select -- if they do them this year. I never really believed Jessie Buckley as a younger version of Olivia Colman but she's quite good. I think she benefits in hindsight from being such a fresh, welcome presence in films these days. It's a little perplexing to me that Kirsten Dunst didn't really win anything for The Power of the Dog, despite how limited her role is. She's in arguably the strongest scene in the film, is the focal point of much of its empathy, and arguably serves as the catalyst for the story's engine. She's quite good and her (how shall I say this) increasingly exhausted presentation as of late convinces in this role. Were I voting, I would probably select Buckley or Dunst.

[Big Magilla]

If Kristen Stewart wins Best Actress this could be the first time that all four acting wins were for performances that I wouldn't have nominated. In all likelihood, it will be the first year in which I would not have nominated three of them. Will Smith and Troy Kotsur I get, but this one completely baffles me.

The previous four winners for musical performances in this category were playing iconic roles, as does Ariana DeBose. I can see her taking some awards for the performance, but what is it that she does to merit such across-the-board contention? She's good, but not as good as Rita Moreno was when she won for the same role 60 years ago. The only actor in the West Side Story cast to bring something new to his character was Mike Faist who was overlooked for Best Supporting Actor.

So, the question is, who if anyone, can pull an upset?

Jessie Buckley delivers an amazing performance in The Lost Daughter but she's not as amazing as Olivia Colman who is not favored to win Best Actress. She is, however, someone who it is easy to see as a future Oscar winner, so no one is likely to be upset if she doesn't do so this year.

Aunjanue Ellis delivers a strong performance as Venus and Serena's mother in King Richard but doesn't seem likely to win a second acting award for a film that revolves around King Will.

Judi Dench's deceptively simple performance in Belfast rings true for the legion of elder AMPAS members that might vote for her, but probably not in strong enough numbers to pull off an upset.

If there is any justice, the winner would be Kirsten Dunst who gives the best performance among the nominees. Hers, however, is the third best performance in The Power of the Dog for which the even better performances of Bendict Cumberbatch and Kodi Smit-McPhee seem destined to go down in defeat.

Should win: Dunst. Will win: DeBose.

[mlrg]

Probably the most predictable category of the night. De Bose will win an Oscar that should be given to Jessie Buckley, my favourite performance of the year.

[Mister Tee]

The nominees:

Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Judi Dench (Belfast)
Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

Might as well zip through this one, since there's so little to say.

The blogger dream is to make all acting categories slam dunks. Usually it take them till end of season to achieve this, but, with certain categories, they succeed right out of the gate, and such was the case with this one. DeBose managed a legit critics' prize (from LA), plus a bunch of the obscurer ones, and ran the table on the TV awards. With Ruth Negga omitted from the ballot, I don't even have a strong rooting interest in an upset. I guess I'd vote for...Dunst?...but I can't say I care that much.

The most interesting thing about this likely choice is, it'll be the fourth supporting actress this millennium from a musical movie (following Zeta-Jones, Hudson and Hathaway). By contrast, best actress has had only one such winner, Emma Stone, since Liza's win for Cabaret. (I'm speaking here of actual musicals, not biopics of singers, which are a different breed.) The last such supporting actor winner was Liza's partner Joel Grey, and the most recent such best actor winner was Rex Harrison. It's odd to me, how this one category has seemed to absorb all the Academy's musical-love. (In fact, with this win, and including Rita Moreno's 1961 victory, it'll take the all-time crown away from lead actress, which, thanks to its 60s/70s run of Andrews/Streisand/Minnelli, had been tied with it at 4.)

These are the things one's mind does, trying to make a dull category interesting.