So today was the final Tony eligibility meeting of 2006. Huge (as Don Summa would say)!
I am not going to really get into full detail on what I think about the decision to give Sarah Jones a special Tony and eliminate the Special Theatrical category this year. I will say, I believe it simply smacks of horrible planning. Did no one realize when they decided Bridge & Tunnel was in the Special Theatrical category that just that show and The Blonde in the Thunderbird would be eligible? I can just picture the light bulb moment of a committee member once s/he realized (probably from reading it somewhere) that it was either nominate Suzanne Somers or just hand over a Tony to Jones (both things of course would have led to same result). You know, I said I didn’t want to get into detail and I’m going to let it go right now. Seriously--onto billing issues!
Most of the decisions made are in line with what I previously wrote, even The Threepenny Opera decision, which I totally guessed on. I however was totally caught off-guard with the decision to place Tim Daly (Caine Mutiny) in the Featured Actor category. I’m also really, really surprised that Hot Feet didn’t petition to have Vivian Nixon be lead. It’s clearly the starring role, even though others sing more than her. The decision not to move her up (or maybe there was no decision—it’s possible the team just didn’t think about it) is probably completely irrelevant to either the featured of lead race, but, it’s still odd.
So, for those of you that can’t follow the stories on the websites, I will break down today’s rulings by what they mean for each show that was covered.
AWAKE AND SING
--All actors will be considered in the featured categories
THREE DAYS OF RAIN
--Julia Roberts & Paul Rudd will be lead; Bradley Cooper will be featured
THE THREEPENNY OPERA
--Alan Cumming & Nellie McKay will be lead; Jim Dale, Ana Gasteyer and Cyndi Lauper will be featured
THE HISTORY BOYS
--Richard Griffiths will be lead; Everyone else will be featured
LESTAT
--Hugh Panaro will be lead
THE WEDDING SINGER
--Laura Benanti and Stephen Lynch will be lead
HOT FEET
--All featured (though, again, I do not understand why)
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
--Sutton Foster and Bob Martin will be lead; Everyone else will be featured
THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE
--David Wilmot will be lead (though he doesn’t seem to have more stage time or lines than Domhnall Gleeson)
FAITH HEALER
--Ralph Fiennes will be lead; Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid will be featured
THE CAINE MUTINY COURT-MARSHAL
--David Schwimmer and Zeljko Ivanek will be lead; Tim Daly and the others will be featured
SHINING CITY
--Oliver Platt and Brian F. O’Byrne will be lead; Martha Plimpton and Peter Scanavino will be featured
TARZAN
--Josh Strickland and Jenn Gambatese will be lead; Everyone else will be featured
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Oh, I am so glad to have found you! After weeks of various google search attempts, you have finally resolved my one eligibility question and I can do my Tony nomination predictions with a clear conscience. I had been unable to determine the billing for Seascape, which I hadn't obviously seen. And as a bonus, you pointed something out that I had completely missed in the last eligibility press release -- that Vivian Nixon did not get bumped up to Lead. So thank you thank you, and whoever you are, drop me a line if you'd like to see my list of predictions (too long to post here, I assume...not knowing much about blogs...)
Luca
lucagrella@yahoo.com
Post a Comment