A deep dive into the Tony race for "Best Actress in a Play"

by new contributor J.B. 

Tatiana Maslany, Glenda Jackson, and Annette Bening are just a few of the many acclaimed actresses in the running for Best Actress nominations on Broadway this season

In recent years, the Tony category of Best Actress in a Play has featured some of the most impressive line-ups of nominees of any major award show. Don’t believe me? Since 2015, 18 women have been nominated for the award. Of those 18, six are Oscar winners (four of whom are two-time winners), five are Oscar nominees, two are Emmy winners, one is a Golden Globe winner, one is a BAFTA winner, and one is a four-time Tony nominee who has only appeared in one Broadway production for which she was not nominated for a Tony. The five most recent recipients of the “Triple Crown of Acting” distinction have all won a Tony in this category within the past ten years. That trend continues this year, with a well-decorated and very star-studded group of women, including bonafide legends of both stage and screen, vying for spots in the race. But who will be nominated? Who should be nominated? And who will win?

Here’s a closer look at who’s in contention for nominations this coming Tuesday, and which factors will weigh in their favor and against it...

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Podcast: Cannes + Oscar + Listener Questions

by Murtada Elfadl & Nathaniel R

 

With the weekend bringing so few movies to theaters we opted for an all listener questions episode of the podcast. You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. We hope you enjoy our answers and provide some of your own in the comments.

So many good questions, thank you. Comment party in 3...2...1... Go! 

Listener Qs: Cannes, Oscar, More

Fosse/Verdon - EP 2: "Who's Got the Pain?"

Previously Ep 1 - "Life is a Cabaret"

No, no, I know who he is. The one with the hats.

by Nathaniel R

The premiere episode of Fosse/Verdon took place (mostly) in 1971 when Fosse was rehearsing Cabaret but linear storytelling isnt remotely 'on trend' in TV miniseries right now, so we're hopping backward for Episode 2 to 1955 when Gwen Verdon was flush from her breakout Tony-winning turn in "Can-Can" and cast in "Damn Yankees". At a lunch meeting Hal Prince (Evan Handler) tries to sell Broadway it girl Gwen Verdon (Michelle Williams) on his choice of choreographer. Gwen isn't sold, wiggling her hand dismissively for Fosse's most famous recurring choreographic accessory, the hat. It's but one of many fine gestural moments from a truly inspired Michelle Williams. Though it's too soon to know, she may well be giving us the performance of her career...

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April Foolish Predictions #10: Best Actress

Our annual inevitably foolish April Oscar predictions are now complete! 

There's so many questions to consider now that the first Oscar charts for Best Actress (and all other categories) are now up. We've asked you seven questions for the comment party after the jump...

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Another Look at 'Clemency'

by Murtada Elfadl

Hodge and Chukwu at ND/NF

Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency opened the New Directors/New Films fest in New York last night. I got the chance to see it again and any reservations I had about it went away. This is a new version that is tighter than the one I saw at Sundance. While the changes are miniscule, they really pull the film together and focus its story. At Sundance I praised the central performance of Alfre Woodard as a prison warden managing a prison that includes a death row. However I thought the film meandered and was repetitive.

Not anymore!

Now it centers Woodard’s dealing with the processing of one death row inmate (Aldis Hodge) and the forces both against him and defending him. The focus is still on the toll all this takes on the psyche of Woodard’s Bernadine; so she is still front and center and owns the film. What is around her now flows easier and the film’s message about capital punishment remains potent. Chukwu won Sundance grand jury prize making history as the first black woman to do so. Clemency announces her as an exciting new director.

Oscar Chances: Obviously Woodard is its biggest and perhaps only chance at Oscar. The performance is there and so are the critical plaudits, however she needs a patient release plan to allow the film to reach its audience (The Wife playbook if you will). Other than that I see this as a film that Gothams/Indie Spirits will fall in love with - with possible nominations for film, director and supporting actor (Aldis Hodge).