"A Strange Loop" and "Company" lead the musical nods for the 75th Annual Tony Award Nominations

by Patrick Ball

A STRANGE LOOP leads the nominations. Photo © The New York Times / Sara Krulwich

Pulitzer winner A Strange Loop led the Tony nominations this morning but only by 1. Paradise Square a period musical about NYC's five points neighborhood, and the Michael Jackson musical MJ each scored 10 nominations. While Stephen Sondheim's Company was the clear frontrunner among the Revivals with 9 nominations. Voters nearly shut out two big glitzy musicals (Funny Girl and Mrs Doubtfire scored just 1 nomination each!) and the year's priciest ticket had mixed results with The Music Man scoring just 6 nominations. If you believe nomination counts predict winners (they do sometimes) your big winners in June will be the popular gender bent revival of Company, the box office struggling revival of for colored girls (which could get a big boost from these nods), and for original musicals and plays, A Strange Loop  and the already-closed The Lehman Trilogy respectively. 

The nominations after the jump include a lot of well loved stars (Jackman, Foster, Rashad, Negga, Crystal, Dratch, Aduba, Winningham) though several other "names" were snubbed (SJP, Feldstein, Craig) were left out...

Click to read more ...

Which shows will be Tony Award nominated next week?

by Patrick Ball

Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga in a modern "Macbeth"

It’s only been 8 months since last year’s long delayed Tony Awards, but it’s time to celebrate the best of The Great White Way once more. This year’s crop represents the first full season since 18 months back when Covid chaos  closed the industry that depends on gathering patrons en masse in close quarters. Though at times it was a bumpy road back to anything approaching normal for Broadway, come Tony season we actually have a pretty robust roster of new shows ready for their turn in the awards season sun.

Nominations will be announced by Tina: The Tina Turner Musical’s Tony Winning Adrienne Warren and Joshua Henry on Monday May 9th. The Tonys will be broadcast live June 12th on CBS and Paramount+ and will be hosted by our newly minted Oscar winner and former Tony nominee Ariana Debose. 

Unlike the Oscars, the Tonys are in a bit of a world unto themselves in the landscape of theater awards...

Click to read more ...

Gangster Chic & Patriarchy Toppling? Tell Me About It, Stud.

On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

1877 Edmund Gwenn is born. Wins the Oscar seventy years or so later as Kris Kringle, helping adults to believe in Santa Claus again in Miracle on 34th Street (and yes, that's one of the all time best wins in Supporting Actor. Do you agree?)
1888 T.S. Eliot, one of the 20th century's great poets, is born. Though few movies are made from his work he did lead to Cats on Broadway. He was played by Willem Dafoe in the movie Tom & Viv (1994)
1898 A true musical genius George Gershwin is born in Brooklyn. Movies and TV shows still use his music today.

gangsters and musicals after the jump

Click to read more ...