1969 tony award question

[musicalsaregreat]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 3:03am

I was looking at the Tony Award website and discovered that in 1969 there was no listing for a best score of a musical. Was the award not given out that year?

[theatreguy]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 3:50am

That was one of the years when there was only Best Musical and no seperate awards were given for score or book.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 4:06am

Yeah, in both 1969 and 1970 there were no separate awards for score and book. In fact, there was no separate book award between 1966 and 1970.

Then in 1971, there were separate awards for music and lyrics (the only year that's happened, although in 1962 instead of Best Score, there was only Best Composer, which worked out OK because each of the four nominees was written by one person), as well as book.

In 1972, the Tonys went to the solution that they' ve stuck with ever since: Best Musical goes to the producer, with additional, separate awards for score and book.

If you look through the history of the Tonys with these awards, you'll see several different schemes were used during the first 25 years or so of the awards.