
Neil Patrick Harris in Hedwig - H 2014
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NEW YORK – On Tuesday morning, nominations for the 68th annual Tony Awards will be announced, and for once, many of the principal categories are wide open, with no clear favorites to dominate the race.
That makes it a tough year to predict. And given the dearth of outstanding new musicals and plays this season, it’s a challenge to come up with four worthy contenders, let alone the five that are possible thanks to a tweak of the rules in the 2014 contest. Even at gunpoint, I couldn’t cough up a fifth new play contender. By contrast, there were only four musical revival candidates, all of which had their strengths, making that field a no-brainer.
In a season of more robust new writing, I can’t imagine including shows that I found to be ultimately unsatisfying, like Harvey Fierstein‘s play Casa Valentina or Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman‘s musical The Bridges of Madison County among my personal picks. But a weak year dictates a shift in criteria, meaning those works and others can make the cut by virtue of their ambition, their serious intentions, or simply thanks to stellar performances or a fine production that elevate the material.
It seems odd to consider a song-and-dance revue like the Harlem Renaissance tribute After Midnight alongside traditional book musicals. But that exhilarating jazz compilation is pure entertainment in a grand Broadway tradition, and in its own high-energy fashion, it tells a story as vivid as any other.
Narrowing it down to five nominations in most of the acting categories poses the opposite problem. The embarrassment of riches in terms of great performances this season inevitably means a few heartbreaking omissions. It was also a terrific year for play revivals. So in that race too, I had to leave out some gratifying theater experiences, among them the unexpectedly rich rediscovery of Terence Rattigan’s The Winslow Boy. But that’s the way it goes.
The Tony Awards include just four nominations each for direction of a play and a musical, but given that this is purely a wish list, I’m going with five. Superb staging, along with master-class acting, was one of this season’s chief rewards.
So without further ado, here are my fantasy Tony nominations. Note that these are not predictions, but preferences. I’ll be happy if at least a few match up with the official contenders in each category.
MUSICAL
After Midnight
Aladdin
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
The Bridges of Madison County
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
PLAY
All the Way
Casa Valentina
Outside Mullingar
The Realistic Joneses
REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
Cabaret
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Les Miserables
Violet
REVIVAL OF A PLAY
The Cripple of Inishmaan
The Glass Menagerie
Of Mice and Men
A Raisin in the Sun
Twelfth Night
LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Ramin Karimloo, Les Miserables
Andy Karl, Rocky
Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Sutton Foster, Violet
Idina Menzel, If/Then
Jessie Mueller, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Kelli O’Hara, The Bridges of Madison County
Michelle Williams, Cabaret
LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY
Bryan Cranston, All the Way
Michael C. Hall, The Realistic Joneses
Chris O’Dowd, Of Mice and Men
Zachary Quinto, The Glass Menagerie
Daniel Radcliffe, The Cripple of Inishmaan
LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Toni Collette, The Realistic Joneses
Rebecca Hall, Machinal
Cherry Jones, The Glass Menagerie
Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
Rachel Weisz, Betrayal
FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Brooks Ashmanskas, Bullets Over Broadway
Danny Burstein, Cabaret
Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway
Joshua Henry, Violet
James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin
FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Linda Emond, Cabaret
Lena Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Anika Larsen, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Adriane Lenox, After Midnight
Lisa O’Hare, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY
Reed Birney, Casa Valentina
Alessandro Nivola, The Winslow Boy
Jim Norton, Of Mice and Men
Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night
Rafe Spall, Betrayal
FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Sarah Greene, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Celia Keenan-Bolger, The Glass Menagerie
Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun
Charlotte Parry, The Winslow Boy
Anika Noni Rose, A Raisin in the Sun
DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL
Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Michael Mayer, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Leigh Silverman, Violet
Alex Timbers, Rocky
Darko Tresnjak, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
DIRECTION OF A PLAY
Tim Carroll, Twelfth Night
Sam Gold, The Realistic Joneses
Michael Grandage, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Anna D. Shapiro, Of Mice and Men
John Tiffany, The Glass Menagerie
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