Hello, Dollies... it's the Tony Nominations for 2017
Tuesday, May 2, 2017 at 9:47AM
NATHANIEL R in Broadway and Stage, Hello Dolly, Tony Awards, musicals

by Nathaniel R

Oh hello Tony*, well hello Tony. It's so nice to have you back where you belong...

*Short for Antoinette, don'cha know

Christopher Jackson (Hamilton's original "George Washington") and musical comedy genius Jane Krakowski, both nominees last season, announced the 2017 Tony nominations this morning. Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 leads the pack with 12 nominations with Hello Dolly! close behind with 10. It's usually an original musical that leads. That's a result of the built-in advantage of having more categories devoted to them. Musicals have all the same categories as the plays but also choreography, orchestrations, score, and book. Musical revivals don't ever qualify for all four of those extra musical categories but sometimes two of them. A Dolls House Part 2 leads the original play nominees with 8 nominations and August Wilson's Jitney and Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes lead the play revivals with 6 bids each.

The nominees are...

Best Musical

Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812

Which do you suppose gets a film verison first?

Shows that were not nominated 
If voting is close, the category is triggered to expand to 5 contenders. So these four must have run away with the votes. Unlike the Grammys and the Oscars and the Emmys, the pool of eligible contenders for each category at the Tonys is easily understood (the number of theaters that house Broadway shows being finite). There were 13 eligible new musicals on the boards this season so the shows that missed this single most marketable of honors were: Amelie (reviewed), Anastasia, Bandstand, A Bronx Tale, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Cirque du Soleil Paramour, Holiday Inn, In Transit, and War Paint

Best Play

Jennifer Ehle & Jefferson Mays in OSLO

Cool statistic: ALL four of those playwrights are making their Broadway debuts. 

Shows that were not nominated
There were 10 eligible new productions so the shows that weren't nominated were: The Encounter, Heisenberg, Oh Hello on Broadway, The Play That Goes Wrong, The Present, and what was surely the biggest miss given the deep love some have for it... Significant Other.

Best Revival of a Musical

Bette Midler's opening night curtain call

Shows That Were Not Nominated: Because Sunday in the Park with George did not wish to be considered eligible (they didn't want to waste their profits on an awards run and free seats for voters due to a very short run and insanely high demand), it was not a possibility here. Too bad really as it seems like the only thing that would have been put up a formidable fight to Hello Dolly! There were only 5 eligible productions so the only snubbees are the Andrew Lloyd Webber duo of Sunset Boulevard and Cats. 

Best Revival of a Play

The Lovely Laura Linney is Regina with Cynthia Nixon as Birdie (though they switch roles every night!) in THE LITTLE FOXES

Show That Were Not Nominated: There were 9 eligible Revivals this year. The others were Arthur Miller's The Price, The Cherry Orchard, The Front Page, The Glass Menagerie, Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Of those Glass Menagerie had the most devout fans (but the revival has been quite divisive so this miss is not a surprise).

Best Leading Actor in a Play


Who missed out: Blanchett's other half Richard Roxburgh for The Present, and critical darling Gideon Glick for Significant Other

Best Leading Actress in a Play


4th times the charm?  Laura vs Laurie? They're both hugely respected stage actors and both on their 4th nomination with buzzy performances. WHAT A CATEGORY, HUH?

About the Linney nomination: Linney & Cynthia Nixon famously switch roles every night but Linney does "Regina" 4 times a week to Nixon's 3 times a week, was initially cast as just Regina, played her on Opening Night (the "official" night), and it was her idea to share the role. For all of these reasons, presumable, the Tony nominating committee opted to consider Linney "Lead" and Nixon "Featured" though they're both both simultaneously really if you follow. No Category Fraud, just an odd situation that happens to be exciting for those who love actressing. 

Better Luck Next Time: The big "miss" here in terms of a show that they obviously liked and that had just opened so people thought it might happen was Allison Janney for Six Degrees of Separation (which I'm actually seeing tonight - what timing!)... but memories of Blanchett's star turn (the only one of these shows that's not still running) must have got in the way. 

Best Leading Actor in a Musical


The nominations in this category met almost everyone's expectations. This will surely be a contest between Andy Karl and Ben Platt (from Pitch Perfect, and the current frontrunner)... unless default Tony habits to click the Borle & Pierce boxes get in the way. 

Not Eligible: Jake Gyllenhaal would have been an obvious nominee here given his spectacular reviews for Sunday in the Park with George but they opted not to pursue eligibility due to the short run. We hope this is not a harbinger of things to come with shows that get this kind of raves and are in high demand


Best Leading Actress in a Musical


This category was more competitive. Other women people thought might factor in were Philippa Soo despite Amelie being a disappointment, Christy Altomare for Anastasia, or Laura Osnes for Bandstand. This statue is obviously Bette Midler's to lose.

Not Eligible: Glenn Close won the Tony for Sunset Boulevard in the 90s. Since she was reprising her own performance, she was deemed ineligible


Best Featured Actress in a Play


Repeat? Houdyshell won this same category last year for the hit play Humans. But this is a tough category. So many lauded performances.

Left Out: Some big stage names that missed this list including Sherie Rene Scott for The Front Page, Kate Burton and Kristine Nielson for Present Laughter. 

Best Featured Actor in a Play


I'm surprised but totally pleased to see Richard Thomas in the mix for The Little Foxes. Linney & Nixon are getting all the attention with their role switching (and they're marvelous) but I was quite impressed with his work as Regina's dying husband. I hadn't looked at my program before the show began so I didn't know he was in it and when he got entrance applause and I'm like, who? (I didn't recognize him with the beard on stage) 

Missed the Nomination: Some high profile misses here include André Holland (fresh off Moonlight success) for Jitney, John Benjamin Hickey (love him) for Six Degrees of Separation, and anyone from the star-packed Front Page that wasn't Nathan Lane.


Best Featured Actress in a Musical


The fresh category. Some one will be a first time winner!

Missed Out: The big misses here might arguably be Caroline O'Connor (Our favorite Whore of the Apocalypse, "Nini" from Moulin Rouge!) from Anastasia and Laura Dreyfuss from Dear Evan Hansen


Best Featured Actor in a Musical


Fresh category Part 2. None of them have won yet, and it skews really young. (Broadway's love of Gavin Creel perplexes me a bit over the years but maybe he's great in Hello Dolly!?)

Misses: I'm sad not to see Nick Cordero in the mix for A Bronx Tale (I didn't see the show but LOVED him in Bullets Over Broadway a few seasons ago). Other misses were Geno Carr and Joel Hatch both from Come From Away, and Michael Xavier for Sunset Boulevard. 

Best Direction of a Musical

For what it's worthy Matthew Warchus is someone we really love. He directed the awesome Globe nominated gay & union workers dramedy Pride (2014) and he is trying to bring the musical Matilda to the bigscreen too. Interviewed right here a few years back.


Best Direction of a Play

Best Score

The frontrunners here are surely Benji Pasek & Justin Paul for Dear Evan Hansen. They just won the Oscar for La La Land, so they'll be halfway to an EGOT in a four month stretch of time if they also win this. What's more, Theater Mania reminds us that they composed the best number in that Flash musical episode last month called "Runnin' Home to You" so theoretically they could be up for an Emmy this coming September. 

If you haven't been watching The Flash here that's the song embedded above. It's great that they did a musical episode given how many members of that CW show's cast have spectacular voices (including Jesse L Martin from the original production and film version of Rent who plays Joe West) but it's frustrating that it was a weak episode overall given its script and stop to sing numbers that weren't really all that well plot integrated. 


Best Orchestrations


Best Choreography

Laura Osnes in BANDSTAND

Hello Dolly! was not eligible here since it was reusing the old choreography


Best Scenic Design of a Musical

Best Scenic Design of a Play

August Wilson's JITNEY


Best Costume Design of a Play


Best Costume Design of a Musical

Look, it's Caroline O'Connor in ANASTASIA


Best Book


Best Lighting Design of a Musical

Best Lighting Design of a Play

INDECENT is the backstage drama behind a controversial Yiddish play from 1922 that landed its producer and leading actor in jail

 

 

Though there's no Hamilton-sized behemoth that will run away with all the hardware this year we'll still want to be in the room where the Tonys happen because it's always always a good time. The 71st Annual Tony Awards will take place on Sunday, June 11 from Radio City Music Hall with Kevin Spacey hosting. 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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