2024-2025 Tony Awards thread (Eligibility Rulings, etc)

First round of rulings is out

Nothing too earthshaking, but here are some highlights:

• Cole Escola will contend in Leading Actor in a Play for Oh, Mary
• Laura Donnelly will contend in Leading Actress in a Play for The Hills of California
• Yellow Face has been ruled a Revival

Alex Kulak2 said: "Offering a hundred bucks to whoever can successfully explain non-binary people to the Tony Eligibility Committee."

Oh good grief. Enough with this woke stuff.

Like other big cities, it's time for Best Lead/Supporting Performer in a play/musical. Men & women in same category. Then pick the top two performances of the year.

Updated On: 11/15/24 at 12:00 AM

Alex Kulak2 said: "Offering a hundred bucks to whoever can successfully explain non-binary people to the Tony Eligibility Committee."

Has it not been established that non-binary performers can choose which category they wish to be considered for? Short of eliminating gendered categories entirely, which is not the eligibility committee's purview, I'm not sure what else the committee can do here.

Updated On: 11/15/24 at 12:15 AM

DrMonicaDeMoneco said: "Alex Kulak2 said: "Offering a hundred bucks to whoever can successfully explain non-binary people to the Tony Eligibility Committee."

Oh good grief. Enough with this woke stuff."

I hope you never fall asleep

It's the same thing just genderless.

Also, what is the negative impact of having a single gender less category? Especially, where there are two winners? There is none.

This is all fine and good until the year 8 men and 2 women are nominated for Best Lead or all 4 acting categories go to the same gender. It's nice to sit here and think "that shouldn't matter" but you all know the pitchforks would be out in either scenario.

We agree. The directing categories have long deserved a split. They are very different. Revivals vs completely new show with that director from the beginning.

Shows like Maybe Happy Ending would probably be in the revival category however. The show is the same from all of the Asian runs. It's just a new production of an existing show. So it would fall into the revival category as the current directing/creative team saw video/photos and expanded on the previous versions with $ for Broadway. The director does not have to work with writer developing the script and show itself, which a normal new work director would. A simpler and less time consuming task. Same for plays like The Thanksgiving Play which was stronger under different direction at Playwrights Horizon than Broadway.

Shows like Swept Away, Tammy Faye, Redwood, Death Becomes Her, Boop, Smash etc would be in the "Director of a new musical" category with only 1 director attached to the show's current and previous production(s).

Updated On: 11/16/24 at 06:27 PM

But even in their own categories, sometimes someone equally deserving of the award loses. Ruthie Ann Miles gave an amazing performance in The King and I, but both Sydney Lucas and Judy Kuhn in Fun Home were equally deserving. Sadly, only one person can win. Unless they choose to award 2 winners in the categories, which some awards shows have done.

Statistics from awards shows that have moved to gender neutral acting categories have not shown favor towards men.

In the 2 awards shows they've held since the Independent Spirit Awards went gender neutral in 2022, 14 of the 20 nominees for best lead performance have been women.

Since going gender neutral in 2022, the Drama Desk Awards have nominated 9 women, 12 men, and 1 non-binary person in their lead performance in a musical category. 12 women, 7 men, and 1 non-binary person for their supporting performance in a musical award. 11 women and 12 men for their lead performance in a play award. And 11 women and 11 men in their best supporting performance in a play award.

Since going gender neutral in 2021, the Gotham Independent Film Awards have nominated 25 women and 15 men for lead performances.

We saw that women lacked opportunities in other fields, and therefore had less opportunity for nominations. For example, in 2018 women made up only 18% of the directors on Broadway, and only 13% in 2019. But last season 16 of the 38 shows that opened on Broadway were directed by women. And we saw that make a shift at the Tony's, where 4 of the 5 nominees for best direction of a musical were women, and 3 of the 5 nominees for best direction of a play were women.

New rulings out: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Tony-Awards-Administration-Committee-Rules-on-Eligibility-For-SUNSET-BOULEVARD-GYPSY-and-More-20250117

Biggest implications seem to be in Leading Actress in a Musical, where Jennifer Simard and Helen J. Shen will both be competing.

Cult of Love in Best Play (not a surprise). Eureka Day in Best Revival of a Play (more of a surprise and shakes up that category a bit, I think).

Considering Helen J. Shen is above the title, I don’t know why that was ever a question unless they attempted to petition her down to Featured (which would’ve been blatant category fraud) to avoid the clusterfunk of potential nominees.

JGJ getting designated for Lead Actor is absolutely the correct move and I’m glad that it happened since, as of right now, he is my strong favorite in that category.

Also, and perhaps most important, DeWitt Fleming Jr. getting the consideration for choreography alongside Rickey Tripp for AWW is absolutely deserved. That man put in WORK and I was surprised he didn’t have a co-choreographer credit (I don’t mean the small print “tap choreographer” one he does have), since they certainly had no problem listing 3 people for direction