Tony Noms Debrief: Niche Rules and the Fall of Boomersicals

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At this point, we’ve all had a couple days to process the Tony nominations — and to enjoy Renée Elise Goldsberry’s very Girls5Eva attempt to find humor in Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s joke about the Tonys’ TikTok maybe getting deleted — so we’ll skip the by-the-numbers recap of the listings (congrats to the “13 going on the marquee” club, Stereophonic and Hell’s Kitchen) and cut straight to a hopefully deeper, wiser, sillier analysis of who and what is ahead and behind, and why, as we head into the chaos of May.

UP: Niche eligibility rulings. If you weren’t keeping up with the doings of the Tony Nominating Committee (the list of members is here, minus whoever had to drop out due to conflicts of scheduling or interest), you might not have noticed the finicky reasons why some productions ended up where they are. Notably, Appropriate’s a revival (thank the classics rule, and also a decision that separates it from Stereophonic); Gutenberg’s a revival (same); William Jackson Harper’s a lead of Vanya (both he and Steve Carell were petitioned up as leads; though, fun fact, George C. Scott also got a lead nomination for Astrov for the 1973 Mike Nichols Vanya); and everyone in Stereophonic is a featured player (no one’s billed above the title!).

UP: Big categories. If there are at least nine eligible candidates in a category, it’ll have five nominees; if there’s a two- or three-way tie for the last slot in a category, however, it expands. Thus, the wealth of featured players in musicals, musical scenic designers, etc.

DOWN: Boomersicals. The Who’s Tommy only secured a Best Revival nomination — no luck for its lead Ali Louis Bourzgui, who was being pushed hard — and The Heart of Rock and Roll wasn’t getting nominators beating at all (nor was Barry Manilow’s work in Harmony). Sure, Stereophonic has a lot of Fleetwood homage, but we may be moving into a different era of pandering, because …

UP: Millennial and Gen-Xsicals. Alicia Keys, born in 1981! Sufjan Stevens, born in 1975!

DOWN: The City of Chicago. Both The Notebook and The Who’s Tommy rode into town with warm notices from the Second City, and neither had a great day with nominations. Maybe it’s worth warning those who are staging tryouts there not to put too much faith in the hype. (“Now a warning?” go the producers of Death Becomes Her.)

UP: The debate over whether Oklahoma is part of the Midwest. Because if it is, we can add The Outsider’s sizable vote tally to Illinoise’s and Water for Elephants (they go to Chicago!) and argue there’s a big trend there. If not, we can just say congrats to The Outsiders, positioning itself across from Hell’s Kitchen in a “general middle of America”–versus–coast duel.

MOSTLY DOWN: The United Kingdom. That much-debated Cabaret still got the fourth-most nominations, but it must hurt that Rebecca Frecknall’s direction wasn’t recognized. The other late-season Brit-import Patriots had an even rougher go of it, only getting a nod for Michael Stuhlbarg (and he’s the American addition!). Still, we must respect Maria Friedman (a Brit) helming that big turnaround for Merrily.

UP: The Tunick strikes back. There wasn’t a Best Orchestrations category in 1981. But now, Jonathan Tunick, who did the original orchestrations for Merrily and these new ones (the original orchestra had 20 players; the revival has 13) is up for recognition. Hit the flutes!

UP: Significant revisions. It’s hard to imagine Suffs getting the amount of recognition it did on Tuesday if it had taken its Off Broadway incarnation uptown, but they (and specifically, double-nominated Shaina Taub) put in a lot of work and it paid off.

DOWN: The ability to make the joke that the nominating committee went “Gatsby? What Gatsby?” They remembered its costume design, otherwise it might’ve been funny. “The Wiz, what The Wiz?” doesn’t have the same ring to it.

UP: Woman directors. Four of the five nominees in musicals, and three of the five in plays.

UP: The Western Sky. Lindsay Mendez, Eden Espinosa, Shoshana Bean — aaaAAAaah. (Others have pointed this out, but we deserve minute partial credit for those graphics shamelessly quoting Jason’s description of Eden as “one of the best Elphabas of all time.”)

UP: Being a featured actor or actress in the play Stereophonic. It’s a bold gambit having your whole cast compete in two categories, and yet it worked. Special recognition deserved to un-nominated Chris Stack (award for playing to a click track) and Andrew R. Butler (award for generally chill vibes in the recording studio).

DOWN: Being a featured actor or actress not in the play Stereophonic. In a different year, there might be space for, say, Michael Imperioli in An Enemy of the People, or Will Keen’s Putin in Patriots (and he won an Olivier), not to mention the supporting work in Mary Jane, Jaja’s, or Vanya. It’s not the kind of performance awards bodies love, but I am pouring some vodka out for Mia Katigbak.

—Jackson McHenry

This week’s grosses are here. Jackson McHenry, Tom Smyth, Zach Schiffman, Brandon Sanchez, and Sara Holdren discuss.

Jackson McHenry: Not sure how to say “poor Lempicka” in Polish, but that. The Wiz will have to content itself with zero Tony nominations but lots of money.

Tom Smyth: No Tony just means more room on Wayne Brady’s shelf for fedoras.

Jackson: I do feel bad for whoever paid $303 for the most expensive ticket to The Great Gatsby, though maybe F. Scott Fitzgerald would appreciate the metaphor there about the tastes of the rich.

Zach Schiffman: Interesting how Suffs is down so much but still pulling an over-$100-ticket price. The audience of Suffsis rich, I feel, or richer than the rest of Broadway audiences, which are already rich.

Jackson: Yeah, the strategy of keeping the value of the ticket up even if you’re not at max capacity is interesting.

Brandon Sanchez: Also, bye Kimberly Akimbo. “As we go on / We remember / All the times we had together.”

Zach: Off to the Skater Planet in the sky.

Tom: Skater Planet in the sky, a.k.a. a national tour.

Jackson: It’s beeeeeen a great adveeeeeenture. A nation holds its breath waiting to see which beloved theater actress of a certain age will lead the tour.

Sara Holdren: My friend who’s a mom was like, “I couldn’t handle seeing Mary Jane, so I took myself to Kimberly Akimbo before it closed and now I am broken.”

Jackson: That Kimberly emotional devastation is sneaky!

Tom: Six Flags should give them a residency.

Zach: Best Score is such a funny category — two shows that are closed and a play. Best Actress in a Musical is such a snooze category this year. It’s Kelli’s to lose?

Jackson: Fingers crossed Sarah and Juliana split the vote for Featured Actress in a Play and Kara Young wins.

Dee Lockett: Why did they hate Gutenberg? Specifically, why did they hate Josh Gad? This is the one time not to hate him.

Jason P. Frank: Too bad the otherwise immaculate Featured Actor in a Play category was marred by J*m P*rsons. I’d even take Molina (in a show I didn’t like). I also wish one of the Mary Jane women could have gotten in, but I knew that was a pipe dream.

See the full list of nominees here.

“A lot of drugs! And a lot of music!”

– Man in the audience of Stereophonic