In a year when the Motion Picture Academy was widely excoriated for the exclusion of people of color among the ranks of Oscar nominees, the Tony nominating committee showed how to be inclusive. In the forty nominees in the acting categories, fourteen of the nods went to actors of color.The boost came largely from the celebrated “Hamilton,” which alone took six of the nominations for the actors of color in its multi-cultural cast, including one for its creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in the title role. His chief competition will be Leslie Odom, Jr., who plays Aaron Burr in the same musical. Also nominated in the leading actress category is Philippa Soo (Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton), whose father is a first-generation Chinese-American doctor. Elise Goldberry, as her sister Angelica Schuyler, also got a nod, as did Daveed Diggs (Lafayette/Jefferson) and Christopher Jackson (George Washington). A seventh acting nomination went to Jonathan Groff, whose turn as King George III made the most of his ten minutes of stage time.Another three nominations went to the actors of color in “Eclipsed,” the Danai Gurira drama about the Liberian civil war. At the play’s center ofwere three wives of a warlord, played by Lupita Nyong’o, Saycon Sengloh, and Pascale Armand. “The Color Purple” accounted for two more. Cynthia Erivo, as the hapless Celie, is the frontrunner for the Tony. And Danielle Brooks was nominated for her no-nonsense Sofia, the role created in the movie version by Oprah Winfrey who is co—producing the revival with Scott Sanders.“Shuffle Along,” which features only one white actor (Brooks Ashmanskas) among its large ensemble, nabbed two nominations, one for Brandon Victor Dixon’s exuberant composer Eubie Blake, and another for Adrienne Warren in a breakthrough performance. Noticeably omitted from the roster was Audra McDonald, who won raves for her performance as Lottie Gee, the then-celebrated-but-now-forgotten lead in the 1921 musical that the show celebrates and deconstructs. “She’s probably relieved,” said a friend of the actress. In her ten Broadway appearances, McDonald has previously been nominated for eight of them, winning a record six in both dramatic and musical categories.Sophie Okonedo, born in Britain of a Nigerian father and Jewish mother, earned her nomination as the wronged wife in the revival of “The Crucible.”“We’re reminded yet again that we are stronger, we are smarter, and we have more fun when we include each other,” Odom told Elyse Gardner of USA Today. In fact, its impossible to underestimate the impact that “Hamilton” has had in promoting diversity on Broadway. There’s nothing like a megahit to open the door to unconventional casting and unorthodox subject matter — which, in retrospect, seem like the stuff of a slam-dunk.
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