Gold-Standard Roles: From Tony to Oscar

by Cláudio Alves

This season, Wicked hopes to translate some of its Tony glory to the Oscars, twenty years after the musical competed for Broadway’s highest honors. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, in particular, are now part of a long tradition of performers who took Tony-heralded parts and made them into Oscar success stories. Time will tell if either of them finishes the season with little golden men clasped tightly in their hands. Still, it’s already possible to contextualize them within this peculiar dynamic, this Tony-to-Oscar pipeline. Because we love lists and statistics here at The Film Experience, let’s recall every case when a Tony-nominated role earned itself AMPAS’ seal of approval…

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Tony Awards in Review

by Nathaniel R

To support the WGA or not to support the WGA? This is not, of course, even a question for the arts community and audiences. But the 76th Tony Awards, held last night at the gorgeous United Palace in Washington Heights, made an accidental case that maybe writers should be banned from awards shows moving forward (not as nominees -- but as, you know, writers of the ceremony).

Gone were the scripted jokes, awkward intros, and agonizing filler that disrupt the three-pronged reason we all watch awards shows in the first place: the drama of the awards and acceptance speech, seeing lots of celebrities, and enjoying "clips" of the nominated art. In the case of the Tony's the 'clips' are always live performance of nominated musicals...

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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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Tony Award Nominations! "Some Like It Hot" leads

by Nathaniel R

Christian Borle and J Harrison Ghee are 2 of "Some Like It Hot"'s 13 nominations

Lea Michele, still treading the boards in Funny Girl, and Myles Frost who won Best Actor in a Musical last season for the Michael Jackson musical "MJ" announced the Tony Award nominations this morning honoring the current season on Broadway. The nomination leader, far out front, was the musical adaptation of movie classic Some Like It Hot (review coming soon!) with 13 nominations. Jessica Chastain scored her first Tony nominations (with her second Broadway show) though other screen stars weren't as lucky this year. Though the Tony Awards are gendered for acting, two non-binary performers became the first to score nods for acting with their work in popular musicals: Alex Newell (Shucked) and J Harrison Ghee (Some Like It Hot). 

Nominations are after the jump...

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