That's not even accounting for the dueling divas on 44th Street (Sunset and Gypsy), two beloved Off-Broadway musicals finally landing on Broadway (Floyd Collins and The Last Five Years), and the more straightforward romps of Elf, Once Upon a Mattress, and Pirates! The Penzance Musical.
Meanwhile the plays have been celebrity-stacked and charging ticket prices to match. There are a number of plays this season I skipped for those prices alone (I wouldn't mind seeing Good Night, and Good Luck, if I could get a decent price on a ticket, but I'm not bothering with Othello, and I didn't bother with Glengarry Glen Ross or All In either). Still, there were some worthy pieces this year, including the forgotten early shows in the season, Job and Home.
Let's go!
What will win. Zelda's choice.
Best Play
English, Sanaz Toossi
The Hills of California, Jez Butterwoth
John Proctor is the Villain, Kimberly Belflower
Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola
Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
I truly regret that I missed English as I've heard nothing but good things. Timing got away from me, and it closed before I realized I'd missed my shot. For the other nominees, I liked Hills and Proctor best (sure, Proctor isn't subtle, but it's still a good piece). Purpose felt too long for me. Oh, Mary! wasn't to my taste, but I know it's popular, so that's my prediction. Honestly though this list is such apples and oranges that it feels ridiculous to try to rank them at all.
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| The cast of John Proctor is the Villain. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. |
Best Musical
Buena Vista Social Club, Marco Ramirez, Buena Vista Social Club
Dead Outlaw, Itamar Moses, David Yazbek & Erik Della Penna
Death Becomes Her, Marco Pennette, Julia Mattison and Noel Carey
Maybe Happy Ending, Will Aronson and Hue Park
Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, Zoë Roberts
Listen, I thought Dead Outlaw was fascinating and Mincemeat a pure delight from start to finish, but my heart has been with Maybe Happy Ending since I first saw it in previews. It's such a strange and delightful little musical, and pretty much perfect at everything it's doing. I know it struggled with ticket sales at first, but it got the word of mouth it deserved and it's the little robot musical that could. I would love for it to win.
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| Helen J Shen and Darren Criss as Claire and Oliver in Maybe Happy Ending. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
Best Revival of a Play
Eureka Day, Jonathan Spector
Romeo + Juliet, William Shakespeare
Thornton Wilder's Our Town
Yellow Face, David Henry Hwang
All four of these are now closed (so I guess we can only hope that the Tony voters managed to catch all four while they were running). I skipped Romeo + Juliet, for Sam Gold reasons, and did not care for the Our Town revival, which did not seem to understand the central themes of the piece. I thought Eureka Day and Yellow Face were both very strong pieces and would be fine with either winning. I'm giving the slight edge to Yellow Face, who are airing their PBS proshot just in time for voting.
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| Daniel Dae Kim and Ryan Eggold as DHH and Marcus in Yellow Face. Photo by Joan Marcus. |
Best Revival of a Musical
Floyd Collins, Tina Landau, Adam Guettel
Gypsy, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne
Pirates! The Penzance Musical, W.S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, Rupert Holmes
Sunset Blvd., Don Black & Christopher Hampton, Andrew Lloyd Webber
I ... I mean, they were fine? To a degree? But none of these were a slam-dunk for me. I'm predicting Sunset for the stunt of it, but I actually don't have a favorite on this list.
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| Nicole Scherzinger and Hannah Yun Chamberlain onscreen as Norma and her Shadow, with Tom Francis seated as Joe in Sunset Blvd. Photo by Marc Brenner. |
Best Book of a Musical
Marco Ramirez, Buena Vista Social Club
Itamar Moses, Dead Outlaw
Marco Pennette, Death Becomes Her
Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending
David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
My heart belongs to the robots. But I will say that Death Becomes Her was cleverer and funnier than it needed to be, which was a delightful surprise, and Operation Mincemeat is pretty much perfect. Dead Outlaw is so beyond strange I wouldn't mind if it won. I am a bit surprised Buena Vista's paper-thin book grabbed a nomination, but in looking at the rest of the list of new musicals, I don't know that I'd pick another of them to replace it.
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| The cast of Operation Mincemeat. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. |
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, Dead Outlaw
Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, Death Becomes Her
Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending
David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical
I'm sticking with the robots, but I bet you that Dead Outlaw takes it.
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| The cast of Dead Outlaw. Photo by Matthew Murphy. |
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Laura Donnelly, The Hills of California
Mia Farrow, The Roommate
LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Purpose
Sadie Sink, John Proctor is the Villain
Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray
I think we can all agree this is Sarah Snook's award. She's a fucking powerhouse in this show.
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| Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Photo by Marc Brenner. |
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!
Jon Michael Hill, Purpose
Daniel Dae Kim, Yellow Face
Harry Lennix, Purpose
Louis McCartney, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
I haven't seen Good Night, and Good Luck, so can't speak to Clooney's performance. Otherwise, this one is really tough. I'm delighted to see Jon Michael Hill in the mix, as I've been a fan since Superior Donuts, but he and Harry Lennix will probably cancel each other out. Until I saw Stranger Things I assumed Cole Escola was the frontrunner (and they may still be), but I was so blown away by Louis McCartney's full-body performance that he won my (non-awards-impacting) vote.
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| Louis McCartney as Henry Creel in Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Megan Hilty, Death Becomes Her
Audra McDonald, Gypsy
Jasmine Amy Rogers, BOOP! The Musical
Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Blvd.
Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her
It is a shame to see Helen J Shen left off this list, but it's such a heavy-hitter season. I've been assuming Audra to be the frontrunner since Gypsy was announced, and I'm not backing down now.
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| Audra McDonald as Rose in Gypsy. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. |
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending
Andrew Durand, Dead Outlaw
Tom Francis, Sunset Blvd.
Jonathan Groff, Just in Time
James Monroe Iglehart, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical
Jeremy Jordan, Floyd Collins
So this is an interesting one. Some online have been saying Darren Criss is the frontrunner since his show opened. I know Jeremy Jordan has been garnering a lot of praise for his aria section of Floyd Collins ("The Call"). I didn't see JMI in A Wonderful World (but James T. Lane was great!). Tom Francis won the Olivier, but I personally found him a bit too dead behind the eyes (especially with all those close ups) for me to ever care about Joe Gillis. I've adored Andrew Durand since Head Over Heels and he's great in this, but I'm not sure they'll want to award him when he spends half the show playing a corpse (though he is very good at it). Jonathan Groff is always charming, but you can really see how hard he's working, and I don't know if that's intentional (to show how hard Bobby Darin worked) or ... just something that's happening. But if we say Groff and Criss are the frontrunners (and it's my blog so let's say that), we can say that Groff is everything charming and talented and irl just a really likeable guy--but we all knew he would be great in this show, so in a way his performance isn't surprising. Criss has not always impressed me, but he brings a sweetness and precision to his performance in Maybe Happy Ending that did surprise me, and maybe that's worth honoring. If I was just picking my favorites in general, I'd go with either Durand or Groff. If I'm going off specific performances, I'm leaning Criss (it helps that the material is so strong--it elevates his performance). But knowing the buzz around the other contenders, I really don't know how this one will shake out.
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| Helen J Shen and Darren Criss as Claire and Oliver in Maybe Happy Ending. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Tala Ashe, English
Jessica Hecht, Eureka Day
Marjan Neshat, English
Fina Strazza, John Proctor is the Villain
Kara Young, Purpose
My missing English is making this one hard, with two of its cast nominated. Honestly though I'm wondering if this might be Jessica Hecht's year. She made what could have been a one-dimensional cartoon a real and complicated person.
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| Jessica Hecht as Suzanne in Eureka Day. Photo by Jeremy Daniel. |
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Glenn Davis, Purpose
Gabriel Ebert, John Proctor is the Villain
Francis Jue, Yellow Face
Bob Odenkirk, Glengarry Glen Ross
Conrad Ricamora, Oh, Mary!
I want Francis Jue to win so badly. I'm manifesting it. How do you manifest something? Do I need to hold a seance?
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| Francis Jue and Daniel Dae Kim as HYH and DHH in Yellow Face. Photo by Joan Marcus. |
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Natalie Venetia Belcon, Buena Vista Social Club
Julia Knitel, Dead Outlaw
Gracie Lawrence, Just in Time
Justina Machado, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical
Joy Woods, Gypsy
I tell you, it's really lovely to see Natalie Venetia Belcon not only back onstage, but also honored for her excellent work. I'm hearing a lot of people talking about Julia Knitel's excellent work in Dead Outlaw, and Justina Machado knows how to command a stage in Real Women, but I'm betting this might go to either Belcon or Joy Woods (I also would have nominated Erika Henningsen over Gracie Lawrence for Just in Time, but no one asked me).
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| Audra McDonald and Joy Woods as Rose and Louise in Gypsy. Photo by Julieta Cervantes. |
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Brooks Ashmanskas, Smash
Jeb Brown, Dead Outlaw
Danny Burstein, Gypsy
Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
Taylor Trensch, Floyd Collins
Each of these performers was a true standout in his respective show. I'm a bit bummed Thom Sesma was left out, but it's a tough category. While I'd love for Brooks Ashsmanskas to finally win his Tony, and while Taylor Trensch was probably my favorite part of Floyd Collins, I have to vote for Jak Malone for his repeatedly scene-stealing roles in Operation Mincemeat, including standing almost perfectly still for six minutes and breaking our hearts with "Dear Bill."
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| Jak Malone as Hester in Operation Mincemeat. Photo by Johann Persson. |
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Marsha Ginsberg, English
Rob Howell, The Hills of California
Marg Horwell (Scenic) and David Bergman (Video), The Picture of Dorian Gray
Miriam Buether (Set) and 59 (Video & Visual Effects), Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Scott Pask, Good Night, and Good Luck
See, this right here is why Projection and Video Design need their own category. Rob Howell's labyrinth house of floating doors and endless stairs for Hills is a wonderful physical design. It doesn't make sense to rank it against what's going on in either Stranger Things or Dorian Gray. Not every use of projection design is good (glaring at the lazy design for the revival of The Wiz here), but it deserves its own place. I think Stranger Things will win this, and it's really good, but it's a shame for Howell's excellent work on Hills.
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| The company of Stranger Things: The First Shadow in a world designed by Miriam Buether and 59. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Rachel Hauck, Swept Away
Dane Laffrey (Scenic and Additional Video) and George Reeve (Video & Projection), Maybe Happy Ending
Arnulfo Maldonado, Buena Vista Social Club
Derek McLane, Death Becomes Her
Derek McLane, Just in Time
Listen (yes I'm still ranting about this) if you want to argue that there aren't enough notable Video and Projection designs to warrant two categories, I'm fine with a joint one covering both plays and musicals. Anyway, this list. McLane's work is consistently solid, and I appreciate his transformation of Circle in the Square to the fabulous Art Deco club, including finding ways to activate different parts of the stage. As the lone nominee for the short-lived Swept Away, Rachel Hauck deserves her place on this list--the transformation of the space midway through is gasp-worthy. Even though I'm still annoyed about [see above], I think the marriage of scenic, lighting, and video and projection design for Maybe Happy Ending deserves recognition.
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| Helen J Shen and Darren Criss as Claire and Oliver surrounded by the design work of Dane Laffrey and George Reeve in Maybe Happy Ending. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
Best Costume Design of a Play
Brenda Abbadandolo, Good Night, and Good Luck
Marg Horwell, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Rob Howell, The Hills of California
Holly Pierson, Oh, Mary!
Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
I don't have a rant for this. Good work all around; I'm voting for Dorian Gray and all the weirdness happening there.
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| Sarah Snook in Marg Horwell's costume design for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Photo by Marc Brenner. |
Best Costume Design of a Musical
DeDe Ayite, Buena Vista Social Club
Gregg Barnes, BOOP! The Musical
Clint Ramos, Maybe Happy Ending
Paul Tazewell, Death Becomes Her
Catherine Zuber, Just in Time
I was at first assuming Paul Tazewell's fabulous costumes for Death would walk away with this (lovely and impeccable as is the work of DeDe Avite and Clint Ramos), but honestly the costume design in BOOP! is the best thing about it (aside from its delightful lead actress), and if that show is going to win anything, it should win this.
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| The company of BOOP! in Gregg Barnes's costume design. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Natasha Chivers, The Hills of California
Jon Clark, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Healther Gilbert (Lighting) and David Bengali (Video/Projections), Good Night, and Good Luck
Natasha Katz (Lighting) and Hannah Wasileski (Projection), John Proctor is the Villain
Nick Schlieper, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oh look, for this one Projections was paired with Lighting. GIVE THEM THEIR OWN CATEGORY.
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| The company of Good Night, and Good Luck under the lighting design of Heather Gilbert (and I assume David Bengali's video projections are a part of this but again I haven't seen the show). Photo by Emilio Madrid. |
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Jack Knowles, Sunset Blvd.
Tyler Micoleau, Buena Vista Social Club
Scott Zielinski (Lighting) and Ruey Horng Sun (Projections), Floyd Collins
Ben Stanton, Maybe Happy Ending
Justin Townsend, Death Becomes Her
So here's an awkward thing: Sunset Blvd. relies heavily on a giant screen and live video feed. But they're not nominated for Scenic Design. Whoops. Maybe because the other musicals that utilize Video and Projections have a set beyond that? Anyway, this is about Lighting Design; I just got distracted. By, you know, another Projections design showing up here. Anyway, this will probably go to Sunset, right?
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| Tom Francis and the company of Sunset Blvd. under the lighting of Jack Knowles. Photo by Marc Brenner. |
Best Sound Design of a Play
Paul Arditti, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Palmer Hefferan, John Proctor is the Villain
Daniel Kluger, Good Night, and Good Luck
Nick Powell, The Hills of California
Clemence Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray
I don't always have strong opinions about Sound Design, because I'm just not knowledgeable enough, but this one is a definite toss up between Stranger Things and Dorian.
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| The company of Stranger Things. Pretend you can hear Paul Arditti's sound design! Photo by Manuel Harlan. |
Best Sound Design of a Musical
Jonathan Deans, Buena Vista Social Club
Adam Fisher, Sunset Blvd.
Peter Hylenski, Just in Time
Peter Hylenski, Maybe Happy Ending
Dan Moses Schreier, Floyd Collins
Hmmm. Do we give it to one of the two musician shows (Buena Vista or Just in Time)? To Sunset for its Times Square stunt? I kinda wanna give it to Floyd Collins for the echo work. Part of the challenge overall for me this season is I thought Buena Vista was very deeply fine, but it's tied with Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending for the most nominations of the season at 10 each. And that means other people thought this was stupendous. And I shouldn't be discounting that out of hand, just because subjectively this show wasn't for me.
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| The company of Buena Vista Social Club. I actually can kinda hear the sound on this one. Photo by Matthew Murphy. |
Best Orchestrations
Andrew Resnick an Michael Thurber, Just in Time
Will Aronson, Maybe Happy Ending
Bruce Coughlin, Floyd Collins
Marco Paguia, Buena Vista Social Club
David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sunset Blvd.
Y'all have no idea how tempted I was to be a little shit and pretend one of these was also a projection design. You know, projection like in a psychological way. Anyway, this one I think is well-deserved by Buena Vista.
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| The company of Buena Vista Social Club. Photo by Matthew Murphy. |
Best Choreography
Joshua Bergasse, Smash
Camille A. Brown, Gypsy
Christopher Gattelli, Death Becomes Her
Jerry Mitchell, BOOP! The Musical
Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, Buena Vista Social Club
There's a lot of good splashy work nominated here. I'm leaning toward Jerry Mitchell's work in BOOP! but Camille A. Brown might take it for the first Broadway production of Gypsy to not be framed around Jerome Robbins's work.
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| The company of BOOP! dancing to Jerry Mitchell's choreography. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
Best Direction of a Play
Knud Adams, English
Sam Mendes, The Hills of California
Sam Pinkleton, Oh, Mary!
Danya Taymor, John Proctor is the Villain
Kip Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Every moment, every breath, every raised eyebrow, and every crew member dashing across the stage to reset a prop, is meticulously crafted and choreographed by Kip Williams. If he doesn't win the Tony I'll be pretty bummed.
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| Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray as directed by Kip Williams. Photo by Marc Brenner. |
Best Direction of a Musical
Saheem Ali, Buena Vista Social Club
Michael Arden, Maybe Happy Ending
David Cromer, Dead Outlaw
Christopher Gattelli, Death Becomes Her
Jamie Lloyd, Sunset Blvd.
Will Jamie Lloyd get it for the weirdness onstage at the St. James? Will David Cromer, who's really just fantastic at shaping an ensemble, grab it? With Christopher Gattelli win the voters over with the comedy gold in Death Becomes Her? Will Saheem Ali's sculpting of the two timelines do it? Or will my beloved robots win again, with Michael Arden once again knocking it out of the park with his visionary directing that always beautifully marries form and content? Yes, I'm biased. But I actually don't know who will win. It might be Jamie Lloyd.
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| But I'm posting a picture from MHA anyway. Helen J Shen in Maybe Happy Ending as directed by Michael Arden. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
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