A “Hamilton” Coronation in the Making There were few surprises on May 3 when Nikki M. James and Andrew Rannells announced the 2016 Tony Award nominations, the most of which went to the highly praised and much ballyhooed “Hamilton.” The multicultural megahit about the Founding Fathers received a record-breaking sixteen nominations, setting it up as a shoo-in as Best Musical when the awards are handed out on June 12. The show, which has already won a Grammy and a Pulitzer, has been one of the toughest tickets in Broadway history with a box-office advance of $80 million. That scarcity will only increase after the Tonys, the only suspense at which will be whether “Hamilton” can best the record of twelve wins set by “The Producers.”The show has the potential to reach thirteen and possibly more if there is a tie, since five of its nominations were divided among two categories: both Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom, Jr., were nominated for Best Actor in a musical, while Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, and Jonathan Groff will be competing against each other in the featured category. In fact, Miranda, the creative force behind “Hamilton,” may well walk away with three Tony Awards, including Best Actor, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Score.What musical can trip up its majestic march? The short answer: probably none. Rounding out the Best Musical category are “Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed” (10 nominations), “Bright Star” (5), “School of Rock” (4), and “Waitress” (4). Also in contention in the musical categories are the revivals: “She Loves Me” (8), “The Color Purple” (4), “Fiddler on the Roof” (3), and “Spring Awakening” (3). Foregoing a wave that carries it to total victory, there is a possibility that “Hamilton” can be denied a win in three categories. Cynthia Erivo stands a good chance of winning Best Actress in a Musical for her stunning Broadway debut as Celie in “The Color Purple.” Savion Glover’s kinetic and ground-breaking choreography for “Shuffle Along” received rave notices, and David Rockwell’s gorgeous set for the fin de siècle parfumerie in “She Loves Me” could finally mean a win for the famed architect. What of the plays? The competition for Best Play is widely considered to be a contest between two American plays: “Eclipsed,” Danai Gurira’s brutal exploration of women caught up in the Liberian Civil War, which was honored with six nominations, and “The Humans,” by Stephen Karam, which examines with wit and pathos the economic and emotional anxieties of a Pennsylvania family. Also in the mix is “King Charles III,” Mike Bartlett’s futuristic fantasia about the Prince of Wales finally assuming the throne, and French writer Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” starring Frank Langella as an 80-year-old sinking into the nightmare of dementia. In the Best Revival category, two Arthur Miller plays, “The Crucible” and “A View from the Bridge,” both directed by Ivo van Hove, will be competing against each other. Also included in the category are David Harrower’s “Blackbird,” Alan Ayckbourn’s “Noises Off,” and Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night.”What will be the most competitive categories among actors? Best Actress in a drama is no slam dunk given its nominees: Lupita Nyong’o (“Eclipsed”), Jessica Lange (“Long Day’s Journey into Night”), Laurie Metcalf (“Misery”), Sophie Okonedo (“The Crucible”), and Michelle Williams (“Blackbird”). It’s anybody’s guess who might go up to the podium to claim the prize, but there is a certain vindication that Lange and Williams have finally gotten nods after previously being shut out of Tony competition.Best Actor in a Drama is similarly filled with exceptional performances: Gabriel Byrne (“Long Day’s Journey into Night”), Jeff Daniels (“Blackbird’), Frank Langella (“The Father”), Mark Strong (“A View from the Bridge”), and Tim Pigott-Smith in the title role of “King Charles III.” Again, one would be hard-pressed to predict the winner, although Strong, as the tragic dockworker Eddie Carbone, might be hard to beat. Who was egregiously overlooked? Given just how impressive the work was this season, it would be hard to make the case that a slot in any one category was given to someone of lesser quality. However, the three most glaring omissions were Nicole Walker, Audra McDonald, and Benjamin Walker. Walker gave a galvanic performance opposite Mark Strong as the mistreated wife in “A View from the Bridge,” while McDonald, who holds the record of six Tony wins in all four acting categories, was surprisingly not nominated for her all-singing, all-dancing turn as Lottie Gee in “Shuffle Along.” But one need only look at who edged her out: the front runner Erivo (“The Color Purple”), Carmen Cusack (“Bright Star”), Jessie Mueller (“Waitress”), and Philippa Soo (“Hamilton”), all of whom gave stellar performances. Benjamin Walker, brilliant as Patrick Bateman in “American Psycho,” was also left out of an exceptionally strong category that includes Miranda and Odom, Jr. (“Hamilton”), Danny Burstein (“Fiddler on the Roof”), Zachary Levi (“She Loves Me”), and Alex Brightman (“School of Rock”). Walker may have been a casualty of the nominators’ lack of enthusiasm for “American Psycho,” based Brett Easton Ellis’s nihilistic novel of the materialist ‘80s. It received only two nods, for its lighting and sets. In typical fashion, the Tony nominators showed little love for stars who brightened marquees and in some cases spurred box-office sales, including Jennifer Hudson (“The Color Purple”), Al Pacino (“China Doll”), Keira Knightly (“Therese Raquin”), Matthew Broderick (“Sylvia”), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Fully Committed”), Jim Parsons (“Act of God”), Bruce Willis (“Misery”), James Earl Jones (“The Gin Game”), and Clive Owen (“Old Times”).On the other hand, one marquee name who emerged with two Tony nominations was Steve Martin for his Broadway debut as a librettist and co-composer (with Edie Brickell) of “Bright Star,” a blue-grass Southern Gothic tale of star-crossed romance. Despite opening to positive reviews, the show had been lagging at the box-office and could well use its five nominations, including Best Musical, to boost ticket sales. No doubt, it will be touting those in an advertising campaign, alas, without any hope of prevailing against “Hamilton.”
↧