In The Chaotic Tonys Season, It Was An Honor To Just Open


If the list Tony Award nominees It looks weirder and more random than usual announced Monday, well, it’s been a weird and random season. For that matter, it really wasn’t even a season. With six or seven nominations in many categories, which this year usually received five nominations, the sheer number of mentions pales in comparison to the scope of eligible productions, the first of which (“Girl from the North Country”) opened in February 2020, just before the pandemic swept an 18-month hole on Broadway. If my math is correct, that was 100 years ago.

The pandemic, which disrupted the season, also disrupted the award process. Of the 34 productions that 29 candidates were allowed to consider, 15 opened in April – six in the last week of that month alone. It couldn’t be easy. I know it’s a maddening Whac-a-Mole game for critics, trying to hit every show as it unfolds before suddenly disappearing, fraught with shutdowns and star absences. In the end, I missed two: “Mr. “Saturday Night,” which received five nominations, and “The Little Prince,” which was ineligible and unnominated all accounts are incomprehensible.

The nominees probably missed none and honored 29 of those 34 eligible productions. No musical, not even scary “Diana, the Musical” skunked, even though there are some very good games including “To go past” and “Is this a Room?” they found themselves forgotten. Was it because they were among the first to step into the aspirational post-covid reopening of Broadway, which began in August? Maybe after they opened too early they definitely closed too soon.

But these shows also excel at commercial prizes that typically know how to handle them, using downtown theater formats to deliver compelling dramatic material. (“Pass Over” is a surrealist look at violence against young Black men; “Is This a Room” is the oral text of an inquiry into government secrecy.) Nominations show that you are willing to accept only one of these challenges – just as at the other end of the spectrum, form or they seemed ready to welcome games that were rigged in content but not both. The remake of Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite,” starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, received a nomination for costume design by Jane Greenwood.

Still, as I browse through my personal Tonys spreadsheet, which I keep in a private air-locked safe with my original cast vinyl records and Playbills printed on papyrus, I am impressed by the candidates’ determination to spread the wealth.

Of course, there are plenty of familiar names, including previous Tony winners Mary-Louise Parker. LaChanzeHugh Jackman, Sutton Foster, Phylicia Rashad and Patti LuPone — the last two excel in supporting rather than leading roles.

But there are also many groundbreaking names. Contesting for best performance by a lead actor in a musical seems likely to pit Broadway newcomers Myles Frost (the “MJ” star). Jaquel Spivey (star of “A Strange Loop”) — never mind Jackman or Billy Crystal in the same category. First time nominees Sharon D. Clarke (“Caroline or Change”) and Joaquina Kalukango (“Paradise Square”) are likewise the couple to be beaten for best performance by the lead actor in a musical – never mind Foster.

This highlights that the four leading contenders are Black. Tony’sLike the season itself, it’s making some headway in its efforts towards greater diversity. By my count, more than a third of the 136 total nominations honor shows and people you may not have seen on the Great White Road before – I think we can finally stop going by that name.

Not that you “see” all this diversity even now. We also tap into diversity behind the scenes, including many of the directors, designers and choreographers behind the films “For Suicidal Girls of Color/The Rainbow Is Enough”, “Heaven Square” and “Skin in Our Teeth”. If it is only public-facing, inclusion is insufficient.

Many of these newcomers to Broadway have arrived en masse rather than individually, thanks to Black writers, directors, and producers who have made different recruiting a priority. One of the consequences was that this was a season of ensembles, including the six “thoughts” featured in “A Strange Loop.”Thoughts of a Colorful Man” and the seven colors of “For Colored Girls”.

Some of these shows, as well as “Six”, “The Minutes”, “Clyde’s”, “Skeleton Crew” and “POTUS” do not have lead roles; The group is the star. When that’s the case, choosing just one artist from a carefully balanced company can seem perverse, even as the nominees nod to Kenita R. Miller in “For Colored Girls” and Rachel Dratch and Julie White in “POTUS.” ”and John-Andrew Morrison and L Morgan Lee on “A Strange Loop.”

These actors deserved nominations, but so did most of their co-stars; therefore, as critics and others have argued over and over, Tonys should create a pair of Best Ensemble categories for musicals and plays, and be rewarded when it makes sense to do so. It would make especially sense this year.

That’s not something Tony nominees usually do. I’m not a believer shyThe randomness inherent in a process where few candidates have covered so much space, except when I was somehow invited to my own birthday party, leaves me with mixed feelings about the effort.

Of course I am excited to see so much good work noticed in the candidates, many of them really new. But even to the grumpy critic, perfection doesn’t seem like the only important measure right now. As Pollyan as it may sound, I think anything that has managed to unfold in this hectic, often spooky season, and anyone who takes the stage in front of an audience with glowing masked faces deserves a nod, if not a nod.

I think even “Diana”.



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