Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tony Award Nominations Announced

Tony Awards Nominations Announced

While the 2006-07 Theatre Season technically ended last week, the season's epilogue is currently playing out as the 61st Annual American Theatre Wing's Tony Award nominations were announced this morning by Jane Krakowski and Taye Diggs.

The Tony Awards were named for the legendary actress and director Antoinette Perry who had her hand in 27 Broadway productions over nearly 40 years -- including her career capper directing the celebrated comedy Harvey -- until her death in 1946.

The 2006-07 nominees are:

Best Play
The Coast of Utopia (Tom Stoppard, author)
Frost/Nixon (Peter Morgan)
The Little Dog Laughed (Douglas Carter Beane, author)
Radio Golf (August Wilson, author)

Best Musical
Curtains
Grey Gardens
Mary Poppins
Spring Awakening

Best Book of a Musical
Curtains - Rupert Holmes & Peter Stone
Grey Gardens - Doug Wright
Legally Blonde The Musical - Heather Hach
Spring Awakening - Steven Sater

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Curtains - Music: John Kander; Lyrics: Fred Ebb, John Kander & Rupert Holmes
Grey Gardens - Music: Scott Frankel; Lyrics: Michael Korie
Legally Blonde The Musical - Music & Lyrics: Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin
Spring Awakening - Music: Duncan Sheik; Lyrics: Steven Sater

Best Revival of a Play
Inherit the Wind
Journey's End
Talk Radio
Translations

Best Revival of a Musical
The Apple Tree
A Chorus Line
Company
110 in the Shade

Best Special Theatrical Event
Jay Johnson: The Two and Only!
Kiki & Herb Alive on Broadway

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Boyd Gaines, Journey's End
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Brían F. O'Byrne, The Coast of Utopia
Christopher Plummer, Inherit the Wind
Liev Schreiber, Talk Radio

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Eve Best, A Moon for the Misbegotten
Swoosie Kurtz, Heartbreak House
Angela Lansbury, Deuce
Vanessa Redgrave, The Year of Magical Thinking
Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Michael Cerveris, LoveMusik
Raúl Esparza, Company
Jonathan Groff, Spring Awakening
Gavin Lee, Mary Poppins
David Hyde Pierce, Curtains

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Laura Bell Bundy, Legally Blonde The Musical
Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens
Audra McDonald, 110 in the Shade
Debra Monk, Curtains
Donna Murphy, LoveMusik

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
Anthony Chisholm, Radio Golf
Billy Crudup, The Coast of Utopia
Ethan Hawke, The Coast of Utopia
John Earl Jelks, Radio Golf
Stark Sands, Journey's End

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Jennifer Ehle, The Coast of Utopia
Xanthe Elbrick, Coram Boy
Dana Ivey, Butley
Jan Maxwell, Coram Boy
Martha Plimpton, The Coast of Utopia

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Brooks Ashmanskas, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
Christian Borle, Legally Blonde The Musical
John Cullum, 110 in the Shade
John Gallagher, Jr., Spring Awakening
David Pittu, LoveMusik

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Charlotte d'Amboise, A Chorus Line
Rebecca Luker, Mary Poppins
Orfeh, Legally Blonde The Musical
Mary Louise Wilson, Grey Gardens
Karen Ziemba, Curtains

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Bob Crowley & Scott Pask, The Coast of Utopia
Jonathan Fensom, Journey's End
David Gallo, Radio Golf
Ti Green and Melly Still, Coram Boy

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins
Christine Jones, Spring Awakening
Anna Louizos, High Fidelity
Allen Moyer, Grey Gardens

Best Costume Design of a Play
Ti Green and Melly Still, Coram Boy
Jane Greenwood, Heartbreak House
Santo Loquasto, Inherit the Wind
Catherine Zuber, The Coast of Utopia

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Gregg Barnes, Legally Blonde The Musical
Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins
Susan Hilferty, Spring Awakening
William Ivey Long, Grey Gardens

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Paule Constable, Coram Boy
Brian MacDevitt, Inherit the Wind
Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner and Natasha Katz, The Coast of Utopia
Jason Taylor, Journey's End

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kevin Adams, Spring Awakening
Christopher Akerlind, 110 in the Shade
Howard Harrison, Mary Poppins
Peter Kaczorowski, Grey Gardens

Best Direction of a Play
Michael Grandage, Frost/Nixon
David Grindley, Journey's End
Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia
Melly Still, Coram Boy

Best Direction of a Musical
John Doyle, Company
Scott Ellis, Curtains
Michael Greif, Grey Gardens
Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening

Best Choreography
Rob Ashford, Curtains
Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear, Mary Poppins
Bill T. Jones, Spring Awakening
Jerry Mitchell, Legally Blonde The Musical

Best Orchestrations
Bruce Coughlin, Grey Gardens
Duncan Sheik, Spring Awakening
Jonathan Tunick, LoveMusik
Jonathan Tunick, 110 in the Shade

Regional Theatre Tony Award
Alliance Theatre (Atlanta, GA)


No surprise by the overall success of Spring Awakening or Grey Gardens, which garnered 21 nominations between them. But Curtains showed amazing strength by earning 8 nods. The biggest surprise on the list is Mary Poppins' unexpected nod in the Best Musical category (although readers in this space called it by a nose via my SOB Poll), which appeared to narrowly edge out Legally Blonde, given the latter's prominent placement among tuners in other major musical categories including Best Original Score and Best Book.

The biggest goose egg comes up for The Pirate Queen, which I frankly thought would pull at least one nomination for its star Stephanie J. Block (Laura Bell Bundy of Legally Blonde overruled her). Even High Fidelity earned one nomination. Unless something dramatic happens to ignite its box office, expect to see the vultures swirling around The Pirate Queen for closing notices sooner than later.

It's noteworthy that two of the current most underperforming Broadway shows have reaped significant nominations: Journey's End and Company. The former was nominated for 6 awards, including in the Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor in a Play and Best Direction of a Play categories; the latter was nominated in the parallel musical categories. I'm predicting now that Journey's End will ultimately triumph by winning the Best Revival of a Play honor, while Company will win in both the Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical categories.

There was only one surprise in the Best Play category: the showing of The Little Dog Laughed, which I guess one could say got the last laugh (with the exception of this show, you called all of them correctly in my last SOB Poll -- the fourth place finisher in the poll was Coram Boy). The Coast Of Utopia marathon nearly tied Spring Awakening's nominations by earning 10 nods -- quite a triumph for a straight play. Expect it to steamroller its competition in all but the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, which I believe will be won by Frank Langella and Eve Best, respectively (Coast Of Utopia had no nominations in the latter category).

Which productions do you think will win the Tonys for Best Musical, Best Play, Best Revival of a Musical and Best Revival of a Play? For the first time ever, I have four SOB Polls running simultaneously on the right-hand column of this site, so I invite you to vote now in all four, and feel free to share your comments about why you've voted for each, as well as share which shows you'd vote for if you had the chance!

The 61st Tony Awards will be telecast at 8 pm EDT, Sunday, June 10 on CBS.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:
New York Posts Picks For Tony Nods (May 11, 2007)
Which Shows Will Be Tony-Nominated For Best Play? (May 8, 2007)
Which Shows Will Be Tony-Nominated For Best Musical? (May 3, 2007)
Tony Award Nominations Announced (May 16, 2006)

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Tuesday, May 15, 2007

2 Comments:

At 15 May, 2007, Blogger Mike said...

Unfortunately, "The Pirate Queen" seems to be doing OK box-office-wise, while some much more worthy shows -- "Journey's End," primarily -- are struggling. Then again, it's a damn expensive show to put on...

 
At 15 May, 2007, Blogger Steve On Broadway (SOB) said...

Mike, While I agree that The Pirate Queen appears to be doing OK at the box office (last week it grossed $648,484 playing to a capacity of 73.5%), if you look deeper into the numbers, you'd find that it's become one of Broadway's cheapest tickets.

The average priced ticket is now at $61.32 -- that's lower than any other musical, except for 110 In The Shade ($50.27), Rent ($53.53) and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee ($51.83).

I'm hoping that both Journey's End and Company will enjoy a well-deserved box office bump. Perhaps no show is more deserving that Grey Gardens, which just last week played to a capacity of only 56.1%.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

Technorati blog directory Blog Directory & Search engine
Visitor Map

Powered by FeedBurner