It’s kind of a pity that Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson had to go up against The Book of Mormon, The Scottsboro Boys, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown for Tony Award nominations this year.
On the other hand, who’s complaining? Those of us who perpetually worry that Broadway “doesn’t get it” have to give credit where due: The fact that such once-culty or controversial projects are in contention for the top commercially minded award in American theater means alternative audiences are being actively courted, not just being paid lip service to.
The Best Play nominees—David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People, Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Motherfucker With the Hat, Nick Stafford’s War Horse—all could be considered the sort of thing you’d be more used to finding Off or Off-Off Broadway or on regional stages. That might well have been the case for The Motherfucker With the Hat if Chris Rock hadn’t decided to star in it, or even for Jerusalem if it hadn’t arrived loaded down with so many British Awards, not to mention it’s already-got-a-Tony star, Mark Rylance. Yet, again—the corrosive Chris Rock in a Broadway play!
The shake-out for who actually got nominated for Best Musical resulted in two fairly conventional (if relatively modern) shows based on recent-vintage movies, Sister Act and Catch Me If You Can, going up against the sensation of the season, The Book of Mormon (14 nominations altogether) and The Scottsboro Boys (which adds a little gravity to the category; it got 11 other noms despite having already closed).
Likewise, New York theater royalty sewed up nearly all the top non-musical performance nominations: Rylance for Jerusalem, Brian Bedford for The Importance of Being Earnest, Vanessa Redrave (Driving Miss Daisy), Joe Mantello (who has two Tonys as a director, none yet as an actor) for The Normal Heart , Nina Arianda (hard not to get nominated when it’s the female lead in Born Yesterday), Frances McDormand (Good People), Lily Rabe (in Al Pacino’s Merchant of Venice; counts as royalty because of her lineage: David Rabe and Jilly Clayburgh) and of course Pacino, who’s glorified (and rightly so) every time he returns to the stage. Bobby Canavale (for The Motherfucker…) are Hannah Yelland are the odd man and woman out here, and even they are known quantities.
I could go on (and will, in other posts.)
But still, don’t you think this was a pretty diverse, progressive season, and that the Tony nominators noticed that?
Complete list of nominees at the Tony Awards website.