Steve On Broadway (SOB)

2010 Tony Award Nominations Announced

2010 Tony Award Nomina-tions Announced

At 8:30 a.m. EDT this morning, Jeff Daniels (God Of Carnage) and Lea Michele (Spring Awakening) announced the nominees for the 2010 Tony Awards.

The top nominees are musicals Fela! (a new musical) and La Cage Aux Folles (a revival), each earning 11 nominations. The revival of Fences scored the most nominations among plays with ten nods. With 7 nominations, Red is the highest ranking new play of the season.

While I fully expected the Tony nominators to try and prove that they exude cool by selecting American Idiot among the Best Musical nominations, they also demonstrated an incredible degree of stodginess by placing Million Dollar Quartet in the same category. Fela! is the show to beat in this category.

It was great seeing some love shown for two musical revivals that closed prematurely: Ragtime (7 nominations) and Finian's Rainbow (3). Nevertheless, the critically-acclaimed La Cage Aux Folles is the odds-on favorite to win Best Revival of a Musical.

As for new plays, Red and Time Stands Still were expected to be nominated, but the eleventh hour Pulitzer Prize nomination (and ultimate snub) for In The Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play) assured its place among Best Play nominees. Expect to see Red win. Fences will likely win Best Revival of a Play.

Notable shows with few nominations, include The Addams Family (2), A Behanding In Spokane (1), Race (1) and Superior Donuts (1). Despite the year's most spectacular star turns, Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, as well as A Steady Rain, were shut out of this year's nominations.

Among acting nominations, Jan Maxwell has earned two well-deserved nominations both for her leading performance in The Royal Family and for her featured role in Lend Me A Tenor. It's interesting to note that in that latter category, she'll be competing against her Royal Family co-star Rosemary Harris, who herself was nominated for Best Actress in the same lead role as Maxwell back in the 1975-76 production.

Here is the full list of nominees. Those with an asterisk (*) were on my list if I had been nominating. Those with two asterisks (**) were among those I accurately predicted the Tony nominators would actually choose (that truncated list only went as far as lead acting nominations).

Best Play
In The Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play)** - Author: Sarah Ruhl
Next Fall - Author: Geoffrey Nauffts
Red* ** - Author: John Logan
Time Stands Still* ** - Author: Donald Margulies

Best Musical
American Idiot**
Fela!* **
Memphis* **
Million Dollar Quartet

Best Book of a Musical
Everyday Rapture* - Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott
Fela!* - Jim Lewis & Bill T. Jones
Memphis*- Joe DiPietro
Million Dollar Quartet - Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
The Addams Family* - Music & Lyrics: Andrew Lippa
Enron* - Music: Adam Cork Lyrics: Lucy Prebble
Fences* - Music: Branford Marsalis
Memphis* - Music: David Bryan, Lyrics: Joe DiPietro, David Bryan

Best Revival of a Play
Fences* **
Lend Me A Tenor* **
The Royal Family* **
A View From The Bridge**

Best Revival of a Musical
Finian's Rainbow* **
La Cage Aux Folles* **
A Little Night Music* **
Ragtime* **

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Jude Law - Hamlet**
Alfred Molina - Red* **
Liev Schreiber - A View From The Bridge
Christopher Walken - A Behanding In Spokane**
Denzel Washington - Fences* **

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Viola Davis - Fences* **
Valerie Harper - Looped* **
Linda Lavin - Collected Stories* **
Laura Linney - Time Stands Still* **
Jan Maxwell - The Royal Family* **

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Kelsey Grammer - La Cage Aux Folles
Sean Hayes - Promises, Promises
Douglas Hodge - La Cage Aux Folles* **
Chad Kimball - Memphis*
Sahr Ngaujah - Fela!* **

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Kate Baldwin - Finian's Rainbow* **
Sherie Rene Scott - Everyday Rapture* **
Montego Glover - Memphis* **
Christiane Noll - Ragtime* **
Catherine Zeta-Jones - A Little Night Music* **

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
David Alan Grier - Race
Stephen McKinley Henderson - Fences
Jon Michael Hill - Superior Donuts*
Stephen Kunken - Enron*
Eddie Redmayne - Red*

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Maria Dizzia - In the Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play)*
Rosemary Harris - The Royal Family*
Jessica Hecht - A View From The Bridge
Scarlett Johansson - A View From The Bridge*
Jan Maxwell - Lend Me A Tenor*

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
Kevin Chamberlin - The Addams Family*
Robin De Jesús - La Cage Aux Folles*
Christopher Fitzgerald - Finian's Rainbow*
Levi Kreis - Million Dollar Quartet*
Bobby Steggert - Ragtime

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Barbara Cook - Sondheim On Sondheim
Katie Finneran - Promises, Promises*
Angela Lansbury - A Little Night Music*
Karine Plantadit - Come Fly Away
Lillias White - Fela!*

Best Direction of a Play
Michael Grandage - Red*
Sheryl Kaller - Next Fall
Kenny Leon - Fences*
Gregory Mosher - A View from the Bridge

Best Direction of a Musical
Christopher Ashley - Memphis*
Marcia Milgrom Dodge - Ragtime
Terry Johnson - La Cage Aux Folles*
Bill T. Jones - Fela!*

Best Choreography
Rob Ashford - Promises, Promises
Bill T. Jones - Fela!*
Lynne Page - La Cage Aux Folles
Twyla Tharp - Come Fly Away

Best Orchestrations
Jason Carr - La Cage Aux Folles*
Aaron Johnson - Fela!*
Jonathan Tunick - Promises, Promises
Daryl Waters & David Bryan - Memphis

Best Scenic Design of a Play
John Lee Beatty - The Royal Family*
Alexander Dodge - Present Laughter*
Santo Loquasto - Fences
Christopher Oram - Red

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Marina Draghici - Fela!
Christine Jones - American Idiot*
Derek McLane - Ragtime
Tim Shortall - La Cage aux Folles*

Best Costume Design of a Play
Martin Pakledinaz - Lend Me a Tenor*
Constanza Romero - Fences
David Zinn - In The Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play)*
Catherine Zuber - The Royal Family*

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Marina Draghici - Fela!*
Santo Loquasto - Ragtime*
Paul Tazewell - Memphis
Matthew Wright - La Cage Aux Folles*

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Neil Austin - Hamlet*
Neil Austin - Red
Mark Henderson - Enron*
Brian MacDevitt - Fences

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kevin Adams - American Idiot*
Donald Holder - Ragtime
Nick Richings - La Cage Aux Folles
Robert Wierzel - Fela!

Best Sound Design of a Play
Acme Sound Partners - Fences
Adam Cork - Enron*
Adam Cork - Red
Scott Lehrer - A View from the Bridge

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Jonathan Deans - La Cage Aux Folles
Robert Kaplowitz - Fela!*
Dan Moses Schreier and Gareth Owen - A Little Night Music
Dan Moses Schreier - Sondheim On Sondheim

This year's Tony Awards will be televised on CBS during a three-hour live broadcast on Sunday, June 13.

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Labels: Broadway, Fela, Fences, La Cage Aux Folles, Red, Tony Awards, Tony Nominations, Tony Predictions

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Tuesday, May 04, 2010