2020 Tony Nominations Thread - Page 4

[ACL2006]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 1:43pm

I'd be curious to hear why McCarrell wasn't nominated. Did he not get one vote? I figured Lightning Thief would had two nominations, Best Score and Leading Actor. Yes it was a terrible show, but considering the lack of eligible shows, I figured they'd get two by default.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 1:46pm

Yikes... That would be humiliating.

It also would never happen. People mocking Aaron don't seem to understand he didn't create a global pandemic causing this to happen.

Can't be happy for him? Be quiet. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 1:46pm

A friend of mine said that people need 51% of a yes or no vote in their category in order to be nominated, so it would appear that “Lightning Thief” got “No” votes in all of them.

[unclevictor]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 1:49pm

Well...this is....huh.

1 nom in the best actor in a musical is kinda ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous.

This is just... uuuugh.

Another reason why they shoulda scraped the awards.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 1:52pm

As everyone has said - scrapping the awards would mean these shows wouldn’t be nominated until 2022 and that’s unfair to them since they’re still somewhat fresh in people’s minds. It doesn’t hurt anyone that they’re going through with this so I really don’t see why people are getting their panties in a twist. It’s weird but so is the world right now.

Updated On: 10/15/20 at 01:52 PM

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 1:53pm

I thought the Lightning Thief score was pretty decent! At least a nomination in such a screwy season.

I still stand by that Tveit was awful in Moulin Rouge. Great vocals, but the whole show came a halt whenever he had to speak. And the ending where he says her name after all that’s been built up was just laughably bad. Same for Olivio. Terrible accent and it all felt very forced and fake.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 1:55pm

One positive thing is that if things had been normal the Best Actress award would have been a fight between Adrienne Warren and Sharon D Clarke and now they both can get their awards.

[unclevictor]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:02pm

imeldasturn said: "The Best Leading Actor in a Musical category should have been axed. Like, congrats to Tveit, but winning by default is hardly an awkwardachievement"

EXACTLY!!

[unclevictor]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:03pm

WiCkEDrOcKS said: "This is all just beyond ****ing stupid. The fact that there are even nominees this year, let alone an awards ceremony, is ridiculous. The League should be ashamed. "

Agreed!

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:11pm

ACL2006 said: "I'd be curious to hear why McCarrell wasn't nominated. Did he not get one vote? I figured Lightning Thief would had two nominations, Best Score and Leading Actor. Yes it was a terrible show, but considering the lack of eligible shows, I figured they'd get two by default."

If I recall correctly, when there only three or fewer elegible performers to a category, the committee vote ''yes'' or ''no'' for each candidate and if they receive the majority of yes, they are nominated. So, the Tonys literally said NO to McCarrell.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:16pm

So excited that A Christmas Carol (especially the score) got some love and Derek Klena, Sahr Ngaujah, Kathryn Gallagher, Celia Rose Gooding, Robyn Hurder, and Myra Lucretia Taylor got nominated. Especially Sahr and Myra. They were my favorites (minus Adrianne, ofc) in their shows! And the Fantasia in me nearly jumped out of my chair when Derek got called. I'm personally happy about the Original Score category. The score in the plays deserve some love too.

Well unless the nominators vote no and give him an extremely awkward loss (As if being the only nominee isn't awkward enough), congrats to Tony Winner Aaron Tviet. He deserves this recognition and it's a shame this is how he gets it. But, they couldn’t even bother at least recognize Chris McCornell, Joe Tracz, and Rob Rokicki for The Lightening Thief?! Jesus. It is a hard enough year already for theatre artists. I feel truly so bad for them. 

 

[bjh2114]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:16pm

JBroadway said: "Surprised "A Christmas Carol" was eligible for score even though it was mostly just re-arranged versions of existing Christmas music. Also surprised it wasn't eligible for Best Orchestrations (if it had been eligible, there would have been 4 nominees instead of 3). I'm also surprised it got left out for Best Play in lieu of Grand Horizons"

Christmas Carol was eligible for Score because of all of the original music that underscores the entire show, not just the sung songs. The music was almost continuous throughout. Nightingale was nominated for music, not music and lyrics. Also, it WAS eligible for Orchestrations, but that still only guarantees 3 nominees. With 4 or 5 eligible productions, 3 shows are guaranteed a nomination with a 4th slot opening up if the 3rd and 4th place vote getters are separated by fewer than three votes, which obviously wasn't the case here.

I was a little shocked to see it left out of Best Play, but not by Grand Horizons. The shocker to me was Sea Wall/A Life.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:28pm

Ah, my mistake regarding the number of nominees. In that case, I would amend my comment: I'm even MORE surprised now, that it didn't receive a nomination for its beautiful orchestrations. 

As for the incidental music: I'm aware of all of that. But when I saw the show, I was listening pretty closely to the incidental music too (or at least I thought I was), and it seemed to me that even the incidental music was based on the melodies of Christmas songs. I didn't notice any original music, including in the underscoring. But obviously I just wasn't listening closely enough. 

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:29pm

''The Best Leading Actor in a Musical category should have been axed. Like, congrats to Tveit, but winning by default is hardly an awkward achievement.''

I'm glad the Tonys kept the category. The nominators voted that Tveit did Tony-worthy work, so congrats to him. But he hasn't won anything yet: 60% of the voters need to agree. And if they do (as I believe they will), Tveit deserves the triumph. That's not ''winning by default.'' That's winning by majority vote.

''I'd be curious to hear why McCarrell wasn't nominated.''

McCarrell was at a disadvantage. His show not that well-received, and McCarrell is a relative newcomer to Broadway (even though he played Marius in a recent ''Les Miz'' revival). I believe he deserved to be nominated.

Also, in his recent story about Tony underdogs, Sam Eckmann of GoldDerby.com addressed Tony nominators and wrote: ''Yes, I understand that you don’t care for shows aimed at kids. But Chris McCarrell gave an endearing, winning performance in “The Lightning Thief.” He certainly has a great future ahead, so pack away your genre bias and throw him a nomination, too.''

Updated On: 10/15/20 at 02:29 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:42pm

Wayman_Wong said: "I understand that you don’t care for shows aimed at kids....so pack away your genre bias and throw him a nomination, too.''"

 

I guess Eckmann has never heard of Spongebob, Frozen, Aladdin, Shrek, etc. Not to mention the wonderful, artistically creative TYA productions put on by companies like the New Vic. There's a difference between being "aimed at kids" and "intolerable to adults." I thought McCarrell's performance was terrible, but not necessarily through any fault of his own. Like the rest of the cast, he was royally screwed over by the tasteless director telling everybody to whine, scream, and flail their way through the show. 

Updated On: 10/15/20 at 02:42 PM

[VotePeron]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:45pm

People forget that Lightning Thief got mostly favorable reviews when it was at the Lortel, and a lot of raves during its 2019 national tour. Why the tides shifted so drastically when it came to Broadway, I don't understand.

[Wick3]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:54pm

Kudos to all who were nominated. I, too, was surprised Kyle Soller didn't get a nomination for his performance in The Inheritance.

It's been a tough year for the arts and the least thing the Tony folks could have done was give Lightning Thief one nomination and they chose not to. I thought the score was decent not great but at least it was original. 

Now in hindsight I wish the Prom had opened in this past season as it would have definitely won at least one Tony award.

[jonah3500]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 2:56pm

VotePeron said: "People forget that Lightning Thief got mostly favorable reviews when it was at the Lortel, and a lot of raves during its 2019 national tour. Why the tides shifted so drastically when it came to Broadway, I don't understand."

Toilet paper on a leafblower may work in an off-Broadway TheatreWorks production with free tickets given away, but not in the historic longacre theatre. People pay serious money to go see a Broadway show, so it needs quality.

[AADA81]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 3:12pm

I disagree that the awards should have been scrapped.  The Tony's are, yes, a marketing device to drum up business, but they also honor the work of people in the theater.  Most of the nominees had their jobs cut short by the pandemic, but at least the Tony's are making an effort to try to honor some work that might otherwise be forgotten.  I don't think that's a bad thing.  And I'd think we could all use a bit of Tony excitement right now.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 3:25pm

Jordan Catalano said: "One positive thing is that if things had been normal the Best Actress award would have been a fight between Adrienne Warren and Sharon D Clarke and now they both can get their awards. "

^^^ this!

[Kad]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 3:26pm

I’m seeing next to no enthusiasm or support for these awards from industry folks on my newsfeed.

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 3:30pm

These Tony’s are really just to celebrate theatre in a scary time, right? Especially the musical category is extremely thin. Therefore I find it annoying the nominators couldn’t swallow their pretension and give the Lightning Thief a best actor nod. I could see it fitting into score as well.

That being said I saw it at the Lortel so I may have had a different experience than those who saw it on Broadway. I enjoyed it but I love the books so I may be biased. I get it was by no means perfect and never would’ve deserved a best musical nom.

Posted: 10/15/20 at 3:37pm

I'm especially happy for Blair Underwood, Danny Burstein, & Adrienne Warren.

(My two cents from middle America.)

Underwood & Burstein should delight in impressive career longevity. 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 3:40pm

bdn223 said: "I honestly wonder if voters will solely consider Aaron Tveit’s Performance in Moulin Rougue, or more consider this does he deserve a career achievement award based on his path past performances. If voters think with the former I could see him not winning, just because I’m sure many of them think it’s stupid that only one person is nominated therefore they shouldn’t with an award for being the only person. If they go with the latter which I agree with I think his career in the theater is deserving of some recognition, especially his snub for his performance in Next to Normal. I also think it’s really in poor taste that the committee left to be in a lose lose situation Due to the to their decision not to nominate Chris McCarrell for Lightening Thief. Even in years where there are only two revivals of a musical and one is really bad they still nominate both. The same could be said of the best score category, which is happened in 2010. When we started to get the then thought to be filler Play score nominations, making it appear that Memphis didn’t win best score by default. Is having a nomination to your name so secret for Tony voters that I couldn’t stop this situation Where the Award itself is now considered illegitimate to many in the community."

A 'career achievement award' at his age, particularly given his past performances.  Excellent in N2N, totally lacking in charisma in Catch Me If You Can.  Besides MR -- in which he sang beautifully, looked really handsome, and also showed no charisma (bad for the lead in a huge musical IMO), what am I forgetting??  I did read that the bylaws require that 60% of the voting(?) committee members support his actually receiving the award.  That would be more embarrassing to me...to get nominated and then not receive the award when you have no competition.  A lose / lose situation for Tveit, which is a shame.  And verification that the people on the nominating committee are not capable of original thinking.  They refused to adapt to the reality of this season...I am sure the nom is bitter-sweet for Tveit, who would have been nominated but not won in a fuller season.  If he loses, it is not because someone else was preferred...it was because the committee did not think he was a serious contender.

On another front, re the drama categories, looking at the actual nominees, I am inclined to think that the collective list of nominees for this partial season is more impressive than the lists of nominees from MANY past full seasons.  No one in the drama categories should feel that their nomination or eventual win (for some) should be considered as anything other than well-deserved, not a consolation prize.  

Also, the majority of the nominees from musicals would have been nominated in a lot of seasons, even if as the fourth or fifth choice.  Bottom line for me: given that the season was cut short dramatically, I think that most of the nominees would have been nominated in many full seasons.  For me, the only problematic categories are best music (which was clearly originally intended for musicals, but which introduced plays IMO to fill voids left by fewer musicals per season, juke box musicals, bad seasons for musicals, etc.).

Maybe it is time to create a 'best music for a play' category.  It would be fairer to the composers of plays to actually have a chance at getting a Tony in a normal season.  This season is still an aberration because all of the musicals are juke box musicals.  Who knows...maybe I am 180 degrees wrong.  With the love of juke box musicals, maybe we will see a time when the only nominees in a full season are for plays because there are no original scores to consider.  I don't think so, but who knows.

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 10/15/20 at 3:40pm

''I guess Eckmann has never heard of Spongebob, Frozen, Aladdin, Shrek, etc.''

I imagine he has, but I believe there is a ''genre bias'' against perceived ''kids shows.'' ''Spongebob,'' ''Frozen,'' ''Aladdin'' and ''Shrek'' all lost to more ''serious, adult shows'' for Best Musical. ''Spongebob'' won 1 Tony out of its 12 nominations; ''Frozen'' went 0 for 4; ''Aladdin'' won 1 out of 5, and ''Shrek'' won 1 Tony from its 8 nominations. Ethan Slater gave a Herculean, song-and-dance performance in ''Spongebob'' and won Best Actor in a Musical from the Drama Desks and Outer Critics. But at the Tonys, he lost to Tony Shalhoub, who basically has a non-singing role in ''The Band's Visit.''

''People forget that Lightning Thief got mostly favorable reviews when it was at the Lortel, and a lot of raves during its 2019 national tour. Why the tides shifted so drastically when it came to Broadway, I don't understand.''

I imagine critics went to a Young Adult Off-Broadway musical with much lower expectations than they have for a Broadway show. Off-Broadway, ''The Lightning Thief'' got 3 Drama Desk nominations, including Best Musical, alongside ''The Band's Visit,'' ''Come From Away'' and ''Hadestown.''

Updated On: 10/15/20 at 03:40 PM