There’s no denying that 2010-11 has been a superior Broadway season, which means that the Tony nominators would face hard choices. The good news is that the picks that were announced today are mostly spot-on, and I don’t have any big disagreements. The bad news is that some of my personal favorites didn’t make the cut, but even then the number is fairly small. Ultimately, this means we have really competitive races this year; I may even make it to the end of the Tony broadcast without falling asleep.
No surprises in the Best Play and Best Musical categories. “Jerusalem” is wildly overrated but I’m not sure what I would have replaced it with. “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” would be the closest possibility, but it’s just not a very good play. Or maybe Moisés Kaufman’s pedestrian staging didn’t do the play justice — could one of those highfalutin’ British directors have done a better job? Because if one thing is striking, it’s that when it comes to staging plays, those Brits take more risks.
Which brings me to Best direction of a play: I was bummed to see that Emma Rice was ignored for “Brief Encounter.” I would have swapped her in the slot taken by Daniel Sullivan, whose staging of “The Merchant of Venice” is fine but not particularly awe-inspiring. (He did a much better job with “Good People.”) Clearly Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris should win that category for their “War Horse.”
But back to the biggies. Best musical was a no-brainer, no problem there. The head-scratching issue is for the Tony voters who handle touring shows — reputedly an influential voting block. I’m not sure which of “The Scottsboro Boys” or “The Book of Mormon” has the least good prospects on the road. I’d suspect these shows are a double negative as far as touring guys are concerned.
Incidentally “The Scottsboro Boys” has scored an unexpectly large number of noms, which makes me very happy. I gave both that show and “Mormon” a four-star rating so I won’t cry in my soda if either wins, but “Scottsboro” is a superior work of art.
I’ll be reasonably happy with whoever wins as Best actor/actress in a play, but the single biggest surprise is Best actor in a musical, where Daniel Radcliffe was snubbed. And yet I love all the nominees so no biggie there — except for the Tony broadcasters, who no doubt would have loved to have that cute fellow sing and dance live on the big night.
Tate Donovan (“Good People”) was robbed in Featured actor in a play (I would have put him in there instead of Billy Crudup), while I would have traded out Elizabeth Rodriguez (“The Motherf–ker with the Hat”) in favor of Lia Williams (“Arcadia”) in Featured actress in a play.
For Best choreography, I’d have picked Jerry Mitchell, who in “Catch Me If You Can” managed to come up with winners despite a self-defeating concept that put the orchestra on stage and took away precious space. And for Best costumes in a musical, I’d have swapped Susan Hilferty (“Wonderland”) in the spot occupied by Ann Roth (“The Book of Mormon”).
