2022-2023 Tony Award Eligibility Rulings Thread — Page 3

emilyfaye48 said: "I think the Brit Awards nominations this year are all the evidence we need for not combining the male and female categories. I'd be fine with them adding another category that is open to both sexes. Erasing distinctions by sex is just misogynistic and hurts women."

I don’t have the emotional bandwidth to unpack all of this, but maybe just start by reading the Wikipedia article on non-binary gender. We are having this conversation specifically because there are more and more actors who identity outside the gender binary, which a category for “both sexes” does not include.

emilyfaye48 said: "I think the Brit Awards nominations this year are all the evidence we need for not combining the male and female categories. I'd be fine with them adding another category that is open to both sexes. Erasing distinctions by sex is just misogynistic and hurts women."

Whether you intend it or not, this is an ignorant, "TERF" belief system, and it simply illustrates why the gender binary should be removed from awards bodies as long as there is gender parity (or close to it) amongst the voters.

To paraphrase Chris Rock when he hosted the 2016 Oscars, "should there be an award for Best Black Actor? Why do we have to separate men and women?"

It will be especially crucial for the Tonys to address this matter prior to Broadway getting a show where a major character is nonbinary, and I know there are several of such titles in development.

Updated On: 2/1/23 at 05:25 PM

The following is in the Playbill Spring Preview article about Susan Stroman and "New York, New York."

Don’t worry; the four songs Kander and Ebb wrote for the film—“But the World Goes ‘Round,” “There Goes the Ball Game,” “Happy Endings,” and the iconic title theme—haven’t gone anywhere. But jettisoned is the rest of the film’s soundtrack, a collection of standards by other songwriters. Kander has teamed up with Tony-winning Hamilton and In the Heights writer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda to pen 13 completely new songs for the stage score.

Is this true or is this misinformation? If true, this show would more or less qualify as Miranda's first new Broadway musical (lyrics only, of course) since "Hamilton" and would make it much less of a Kander and Ebb show. But Miranda has already stated that this is very much a Kander and Ebb show, so one has to wonder if Miranda has actually done lyrics for 13 new songs.

Updated On: 2/1/23 at 07:06 PM

So, those are the contenders as of now, right?



LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY

Amir Arison - The Kite Runner

Wendell Pierce - Death of a Salesman

John David Washington - The Piano Lesson

Corey Hawkins - Topdog/Underdog

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II - Topdog/Underdog

Gabriel Byrne - Walking with Ghosts

Mike Birbiglia - The Old Man and the Pool

Jefferson Mays - A Christmas Carol

Paul Bettany - The Collaboration

Jeremy Pope - The Collaboration



LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Audra McDonald - Ohio States Murder



LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Brian D'arcy James - Into the Woods

Casey Likes - Almost Famous

Will Swenson - A Beautiful Noise

Christian Borle - Some Like It Hot

J. Harrison Ghee - Some Like It Hot



LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Sara Bareilles - Into the Woods

Patina Miller - Into the Woods

Crystal Lucas-Perry - 1776

Victoria Clark - Kimberly Akimbo

Lorna Courtney - & Juliet

Luna - KPOP

Adrianna Hicks - Some Like It Hot

IdinaBellFoster said: "It’s hysterical that the committee stated that they could not change the rules once the season began, yet announced a rule change at the same time."

Angering, to say the least.

emilyfaye48 said: "I think the Brit Awards nominations this year are all the evidence we need for not combining the male and female categories. I'd be fine with them adding another category that is open to both sexes. Erasing distinctions by sex is just misogynistic and hurts women."

TERF

BJR said: "I've always wondered what would happen if they chose two winners from a non-gendered nominee list. It's likely they would be different genders."


Yes, 2 Best Performances in Lead Role, etc. I feel like times you might still get 1 male and 1 woman and there will be an outrage. I think the way toward a "happy medium" is giving out the same number of awards, but making them genderless. I still think there is a place for award shows.

I’m interested to see, since it’s certainly very possible Ghee will win, if they would use their acceptance speech to address the issue. Refusing to be eligible at all certainly makes a big statement, but I think that winning using that as a platform to highlight the issue might be the kick in the pants the committee needs to actually tackle the issue.

EDSOSLO858 said: "The sad truth is that award shows are becoming more and more irrelevant, way before this ongoing gender reckoning. Fewer and fewer people tune in every year (and this isn't only the Tonys), to the point where I don't even think awards mean much anymore.

I don't know if scrapping the Tonys altogether would do more harm or good."

Whether it's good or bad, the major award shows (Emmys, Oscars, Grammys, Tonys) still mean a lot even if the TV ratings for them are not what they used to be...

EDSOSLO858 said: "Mr. Wormwood said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "The sad truth is that award shows are becoming more and more irrelevant, way before this ongoing gender reckoning. Fewer and fewer people tune in every year (and this isn't only the Tonys), to the point where I don't even think awards mean much anymore.

I don't know if scrapping the Tonys altogether would do more harm or good."

Whether it's good or bad, the major award shows (Emmys, Oscars, Grammys, Tonys) still mean a lot even if the TV ratings for them are not what they used to be..."

The purpose of the Tonys is to honor excellence in live Broadway theatre. I don't think that purpose necessarily has to be upheld in the future by continuing to hand out competitive awards.

The Tonys, for one, need to be reworked. Perhaps the answer is a more collective celebration of sorts, mainly built on live performances. I feel like those generate more buzz these days than most of the awards do. Show off the best musical moments and play highlights from a given season, and forget about pitting artists against each other altogether.

Broadway is a community, after all, and we should lift each other up and support each other."

.......no

I feel like people have explained it pretty well in previous posts, so I'd maybe read over the past few pages if you're just jumping in to this convo.

In a nutshell: nonbinary actors are neither male nor female. Forcing them to pick a category is inherently invalidating their gender.

Now, everyone has brought up the problems with a single, genderless category as well, and there's no perfect solution (although certainly some interesting ideas if you read the discussion). But, that's why the conversation is happening.

Updated On: 2/2/23 at 12:22 AM

That's fine, you're welcome to your opinion. It just sounded like, since you said "What is wrong with having gender specific nominations like it is now?" that you didn't even understand why the conversation is happening. It's fine to disagree with changing it, but I think it's important to at least be aware of and acknowledge the group of people who are hurt by the way the awards are structured.