Bizarre Tony nominations- Page 3

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 8:28am

Bumping for 2015 TONYS

[aj88]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 10:50am

Thinking back to last year, I found it a little strange that Lauren Worsham got nominated for the Tony and won the Drama Desk while her co-star Lisa O'Hare only got a nomination from the OCC. 

To me, O'Hare just had...and I usually avoid using terms like this....that special "it" quality and whenever she was onstage, I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Add in her glorious voice and charming portrayal and I wish she had been nominated because she would've had my personal vote. 

Lauren Worsham was good, too, but she didn't leave as lasting an impression on me.

 

[followspot]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 11:02am

^I had the same experience.  I was utterly mesmerized by O'Hare and had that rare "a star is born!" thrill discovering her performance.  Then Worsham got the nominations and accolades.  (Worse still, O'Hare was the only one of the show's 4 stars not to be Tony nominated.  Ouch.)  But that's just one of many "Huh?" Tony moments for me.

[tazber]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 11:29am

Absolutely agree. I was posting all over the place how surprised I was that O'hare wasn't nominated.

I was thinking she would win before noms were announced.

 

This year, I was really surprised by the lack of costume and make-up noms for Side Show.

[vfd88]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 11:45am

Another vote for Lisa O'Hare. Nothing against Lauren Worsham, but O'Hare was by far the standout.  Why couldn't they nominate them both?

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 2:02pm

- Best Book of a Musical for Evita, which it won. The show is barely more than a string of songs with hardly a libretto, so I don't know how it got nominated in the first place.

- Speaking of Tim Rice, last year, he was nominated for Best Original Score for Aladdin even though he had nothing to do with the production other than having written the lyrics to some of the songs for the animated film 22 years prior. At least with the stage versions of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King (for which he was also nominated for the same award), he actually provided new lyrics for those shows. But Chad Beguelin wrote the additional lyrics (and book) for the Aladdin Broadway show.  Beguelin was nominated as well, but it was just weird to also nominate Rice, because he didn't provide new material for the stage version.

 

[aj88]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 2:05pm

Along with the EVITA mention, I must bring up the Best Book nomination that was given to "A Grand Night for Singing".

Basically, the show was probably 99% sung and maybe 1% dialogue....no monologues or anything earth-shattering. It is a lovely show, but there isn't really a BOOK to it.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 2:21pm

I forgot, Cats also won for Best Book, with the award going to long-dead T.S. Eliot, who obviously had nothing to do with that production other than his poems being the source for the show, which was entirely sung and had virtually no plot.

Updated On: 5/9/15 at 02:21 PM

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 2:39pm

The libretto, or book, of a show is not just the spoken dialogue.  It is the entire structure of the show; how it is pieced together.  Hence all operas having a credited librettist even though they are mostly through-sung.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 3:05pm

"I forgot, Cats also won for Best Book, with the award going to long-dead T.S. Eliot, who obviously had nothing to do with that production other than his poems being the source for the show, which was entirely sung and had virtually no plot."

Wow, I didn't know that Cats won Best Book. That has to be the winner for most bizarre Tony win. 

[rjm516]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 6:48pm

Yeah last year's lack of Steven Pasquale and Lisa O'Hare were the worst! I remember one of the NYT critics said O'Hare was giving the best musical comedy performance all season (or longer) and thought she should win, and then she wasn't nominated, like wtf. 

[BrerBear]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 7:40pm

Have to agree on Lisa O'Hare. Hard to believe she was passed over for a nomination last year, as her performance was one of the highlights of the season.

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 5/9/15 at 7:43pm

I hate to differ but Contact was not a musical. If I remember correctly no one sang. Is that correct? That should not have even qualified it in the category.  It should never have won for Best Musical. I found it really boring. It would never be done today even if the rights were available.

I just saw Kinky Boots, and although I haven't seen Matilda, I can't though Kinky Boots was unworthy of Best Musical and Best Score.  The last ten minutes were fun but all in all not a great night of theatre. I thought the book was the best part about it, and that was the Tony it lost.

[aj88]

Posted: 5/10/15 at 8:53am

^I agree with you.

Contact was just a strange case and probably one of the most forgettable shows I've ever seen. It was such a bizarre phenomenon where it got such great reviews but now it is often lambasted thanks to the Tony win. 

It was such a weak year as it was. Personally I would've voted for James Joyce's The Dead but that year along with 2009/2010 were the two weakest years in quite some time.

[MrJNLong]

Posted: 5/10/15 at 3:25pm

OK, so here is my question about the whole Elizabeth A Davis thing and the nomination process:

Because ya, that of all of the recent nominations stands out as the absolute strangest for me.

The only explanation I've heard is that maybe they were thinking that it was the nomination committee's way of honoring the ensemble cast of "Once."  OK cool.

But, if all of the nomination committee submits their ballots individually, and they just tally up the top 5 vote getters, how did so many of them land on Davis as their choice to honor Once?  Like I can see if someone thought 'hmm I'd like to nominate someone from Once' but it doesn't seem likely at all that so many would choose Davis...

Did they have some sort of discussion beforehand where someone suggested 'hey, if you'd like to maybe honor the ensemble cast of Once, let me just throw out here the idea of Elizabeth A Davis' You know? Otherwise, I don't understand how this happened, because it doesn't seem likely that someone without suggestion would have singled out that particular performance I don't think...

Does anyone have any insight on this process?

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/10/15 at 3:30pm

I can sort of understand Worsham getting nominated and not O'Hare. I thought both of them were great, but Worsham took a role that really isn't much on paper and made it into something pretty delightful, whereas O'Hare did great work that didn't really feel as surprising. Plus, Worsham's voice is one of the best soprano voices I've ever heard live.

[theatreguy]

Posted: 5/10/15 at 3:40pm

For whatever it's worth, I took my mother to Once shortly after it opened and at intermission the first thing she said was "Who is that girl on the violin? She's great!" So Elizabeth A. Davis certainly made an impression on at least some people besides the voters before the nominations came out.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/10/15 at 5:46pm

The dull revue SWINGING ON A STAR was nominated for best musical.