Tony Awards Tonight (!!!) Last Minute Predictions

by Patrick Ball

"Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical" will perform tonight despite being shut out of the nominations. Photo credit: Matthew Murphy

The day is upon us, the 2023 Tony Awards are here! But, this isn’t your grandma’s Tony Awards, expect a bit of a different show this year. Due to complications from the ongoing WGA writer’s strike, the awards show telecast was initially canceled, then was subsequently given the green light providing it does not rely upon a written script. In other words, we won’t see any presenters reaching for their glasses to read a teleprompter. Also expect little banter or much at all from host Ariana Debose after her (presumably not original) Opening Number. It looks to be mostly a straightforward show of performances and awards. And boy, they’ve packed the show with performances. Not only are all the nominated musicals performing, but we can expect performances from non-nominated shows like A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical, a performance from Lea Michele currently starring in last season’s Funny Girl, then a misfire, now a smash, and one from Joaquina Kalukango, last year’s Actress in a Musical winner who brought the house down with her performance of “Let it Burn” from the ill-fated Paradise Square. 

And how was the year in “thea-turh” on The American Stage? From the looks of these nominees, it was a great season...

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Chastain or Comer -- Who will inch closer to the Triple Crown?

by Matt St Clair

When looking at the recently announced Tony nominations, you might have noticed that the Best Actress in a Play lineup has only four nominees. That's because there were fewer than nine leading actresses from the 23 eligible plays during the 2022-23 Broadway season. Due to Tony rules and regulations, only four women were able to nab a spot. As a refresher, those four women are Jessica Chastain for A Doll’s House, Jodie Comer for Prima Facie, Jessica Hecht for Summer, 1976, and Audra McDonald for Ohio State Murders. Given that Hecht and McDonald are the only nominees for their respective plays, the potential winner is surely a contest between Jessica Chastain and Jodie Comer...

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Oscar Volley: Look at that -- Best Picture is actually a good time!

Team Experience has been pairing or tripling up to discuss the Oscar categories. Here's the (presumed) final award of Sunday night with Elisa Giudici, Nathaniel R, and Eric Blume...

NATHANIEL: Hello team. The final category. Best Picture is such a big big topic, 1434 minutes big. Or 24 and a half hours big if you wanted to watch all the films back to back... though, really, why would you? That's a lot of movie and it's also a lot of Movie-Movie since these mostly aren't shy and self-effacing films. With the exception of Women Talking, if all of these movies were at a party together they'd each try to be the life of it. Or at least life-adjacent. Banshees of Inisherin might just gab away in a corner and The Fabelmans might just watch everyone / everything... but quite enthusiastically! 

I picture Avatar The Way of Water arriving first, because it can't be bothered with a schedule and eager to scope out the scene and really become the vibe. TAR will arrive last with a big flourish and bold gestures expecting the party to shape-shift around it. I'm starting with a party-theme because I am willing myself to stay positive...

And also because I confess I really love a full half of these movies (which is rare). I think we all know who is leaving the festivities with the most party favors from that naked gold host but we don't have to start there.

Please enter this party festively and tell me what you think of the room...

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T'was the night before Oscar...

... are you ready for your Oscar night parties tomorrow? We're keeping it super low key this year chez moi though I miss the salad days of huge parties and more time to devote to Oscar mania. But it is what it is. Time marches on and things change. But while we have a few days to go to wrap up this particular Oscar season given that there is always the need for a bit of post-mortem, I wanted to go over my personal predictions quickly since you've read the Team Predictions and the Oscar Volleys. I feel less secure than usual... and that's fun! Unpredictable Oscar nights are much more interesting.

Here are very quick notes on each category. Links go to the Oscar charts for that category. If a category has a "lock" by it that means any other winner would be a total shock. Categories in red are true mysteries. It really feels like multiple outcomes (not just two) are possible so those envelope tears will be exciting... 

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Oscar Volley: Best Documentary Feature captures the real world

Team Experience is teaming up to discuss each Oscar category. Here's Glenn Dunks and Baby Clyde...

GLENN: Hi Baby Clyde, are you ready to talk documentaries? I just published my best documentaries of the year feature here at The Film Experience so I am ready to tie this year's world on non-fiction in a bow.

Will Laura Poitras win a second Oscar to go with her Golden Lion?

First things first, what do you think of this year's batch of nominees for Best Documentary Feature? As is pretty common for this category as of late, I don't think there's a bad film in the bunch, with a good coverage of American and international fare. It's a line-up that even has the added bonus of featuring the best documentary of the year in its ranks (that would be Laura Poitras' All the Beauty and the Bloodshed). Last time that happened was just two years back with Collective so the category, for me, continues to remain strong and getting stronger as the number of contenders rises and rises...

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