2024 Tony Awards — Page 3

Best Actor is a really interesting race

I mean you have Chip Zien, in a controversial show being the one element almost every review praises

He's very old and one of the only Broadway legends to never receive so much as a nomination

It'd be a huge deal for him to win the award and I really hope he does

Jonathan Groff, though, is giving one of the best performances of the decade in Merrily We Roll Along, and I really think he deserves to join the club of Tony winners

I think Zien, for all that he clearly deserves something for his incredible career, does not need a Tony Award, seeing as he's in the late stages of his performing years

And then you have Roger Bart, who I am in love with, giving a great performance in another very divisive show that is probably more disliked than Harmony

I feel like between those three Bart has the weakest chance

Roger Bart is an incredible performer with a very specific style, but Chip Zien is giving such a raw and powerful performance that feels like the culmination of his whole career and Jonathan Groff is leading a show that I just know is gonna get like twelve nominations

Merrily is just such a runaway hit and it makes me so happy

What I have discussed here is just my three favorite leading actors on Broadway this season, I am sure that the other performances that are eligible are also great

I don't think that both Rannells and Gad will get nominations, and if they do I doubt they'll win

As Nathan Lane says, you're only as strong as your material

Some roles are practically written for Tony wins, but Bud and Doug really, really aren't

They'll be lucky to get to perform on the Tony Awards

Like Andrew Rannells said on The Broadway Show, "it's an honor to be eligible"

It'd be awesome if they proved me wrong, but I just don't see it happening

I think the most likely winner is Jonathan Groff

But I personally really want Chip Zien to win

dramamama611 said: "No idea why this posted a response, I didn't write one. I THOUGHT one, sure."

What could be so bad that you'd choose instead to post nothing

rbfost said: "Hey y'all!

For clarity's sake re: Lead Actor in a Musical and Roger Bart, the Tonys Admin Committee has already determined eligibility for Back to the Future and Roger Bart is in Featured Actor, as he is billed under the title and a category change was not announced. Casey Likes, on the other hand, is in Leading Actor.

Also, looking ahead...barring a miracle for Harmony and/or How to Dance in Ohio...Back to the Future is going to be the only one of the 5 summer/fall musicals to still be open by the time the Tony nominators meet at the end of April. I know there's not been much love for the show here, but I'd count on Back to the Future doing very well with nominations, especially as the season's only hit new musical so far. Also of note, Days of Wine and Roses closes 2 days before nominations are announced, so while they may do well with nominations, garnering many wins seems...unlikely. This will be the 77th Tony Awards and a closed show has only won Best Musical once--Hallelujah, Baby! in 1968. Plus, with EIGHT! other new musicals running by the April 25 cutoff date, I'd look for those to score more nominations than say How to Dance in Ohio (likely closed for months by then) or Here Lies Love (definitely closed for several months by then).

There's a lot we don't know about some of these shows, how extensively they've been reworked for Broadway, and these noms will be competitive because there are just so many eligible productions. Yes, as previously stated here, per Tonys rules, when there are 9 or more eligible new musicals, there are automatically 5 nominees, unless there is a two or three-way tie for the last spot, in which case we could have 6 nominees (like in 2022) or 7 nominees--which would be the most Best Musical nominees in Tony Awards history. At this point, here's what I'm thinking in the top musical categories:

Best Musical

Back to the Future

Hell's Kitchen

Lempicka

The Notebook

The Outsiders



Best Revival of a Musical(at this point, only four nominees here, as there are 6 eligible revivals)

Cabaret

Merrily We Roll Along

Spamalot

The Who's Tommy"

Is there another recent example of a Best Musical winner that won revival within 20 years or less of its best musical win?

La Cage too, 21

LuckyDipster said: "BeingAlive44Ever said: "Roger Bart, who I am in love with, giving a great performance in another very divisive show that is probably more disliked than Harmony. Roger Bart is an incredible performer with a very specific style, but ... As Nathan Lane says, you're only as strong as your material. Some roles are practically written for Tony wins..."

Same.(To the extent that I am flying over from the UK to see him in the show soon.) He is indeed a very good actor and singer whose BIG stage roles don't always give him a chance to show his range (unlike some of his film and TV work). I agree that Doc Brown doesn't feel like an award winning character. To use a pantomime analogy, he's the Widow Twanky of BTTF-TM. A ton of fun, but not designed to compete with the big hitters.

"

I was just informed that apparently he has below-the-title billing and is therefore only a featured actor

I was completely under the impression that Roger Bart was going to count as the leading actor considering the fact that he has the biggest role in the show and is also the show's only previously Tony award winning star so I find it very strange to put him in the featured category but evidently that's what's happening

That being said, he has a much better chance of winning for Featured Actor in a Musical than Leading, even if I don't really agree with the placement

It's a shame, though, because this has gotta be the best he's been onstage since You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

It really sucks that he's always in divisive or mediocre shows and he's always so excellent in them

I mean, Producers was initially near universally praised, but he had such a teensy role in that

Young Frankenstein is the closest thing he's ever had to a star vehicle

I think he's probably one of the least successful Tony Award winning actors on Broadway, which is so sad because he just has such an incredible style and personality that could without a doubt have a cult of similar proportions to Jeremy Jordan if somebody just wrote a really great star vehicle for him

On the subject of range, though I know you meant his range as an actor, I wanna point out just how insane his vocal range is for a contemporary Broadway singer

High and bright tenor with a bunch of second octave notes?

While he uses a sort of rock snarl on his high C's in Back to the Future, look back at some live recordings as well as his Suppertime and you'll realize he effortlessly belts multiple high B's in a row

And the way his voice so naturally flows between full and false...

And yet literally no role has taken advantage of everything his voice can do, which just isn't fair

Most actors with insane voices get something to use the whole thing at some point

Think Kristin Chenoweth in Wicked and On the Twentieth Century

And Roger Bart gets a bone once in a while but has inexplicably never been attached to any historical and really incredible musical, other than arguably The Producers

If he gets a Tony Award this season, maybe he can get something cool in the next few seasons

Embarrassingly, I can't imagine what that would look like

There aren't many classics that haven't had recent revivals that he'd fit all that well

And he is getting pretty old

Such a tragedy, but at least he has some fans other than me

imeldasturn said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "BoringBoredBoard40 said: "Is there another recent example of a Best Musical winner that won revival within 20 years or less of its best musical win?"

I don't think so, butNineand42nd Streetcame very close (both won revival 21 years after winning musical)."
La Cage too, 21"

There was a show nominated for Best Musical that won Best Revival less than twenty years later, that being Sweet Charity, which lost Best Musical in 1966 and won Best Revival in 1986, but I'm assuming you're asking about rather it's possible for Spamalot to win Best Revival despite being only twenty years old and previously winning best musical

I think that would probably be a first

"Such a tragedy, but at least he has some fans other than me"

Why so dour? The man has won a Tony Award, has starred in numerous Broadway and other noteworthy productions, and was a featured actor in one of the biggest successes in Broadway history. He has had a laudable career by any measure, even if he hasn't had many opportunities to show off his full range.

Rentaholic2 said: ""Such a tragedy, but at least he has some fans other than me"

Why so dour? The man has won a Tony Award, has starred in numerous Broadway and other noteworthy productions, and was a featured actor in one of the biggest successes in Broadway history. He has had a laudable career by any measure, even if he hasn't had many opportunities to show off his full range."

That's a much more optimist view

Thank you for that

I think that it's all a matter of perspective in a way

Like, nobody knows who Jack Eric Williams is, so it's incredible that he got a role in Sweeney Todd

But I guess with Roger Bart

I feel like he's both prominent and capable enough to have done so much more than what he has

I guess it's not the worst thing to ever happen

It's not like he's done, anyways

For all I know, something amazing could come along

scripps said: "This conversation has taken an interesting turn but as someone who has been a fan of Roger Bart's since the 90s ... where has the time gone ... remember that he didn't "break out" until his late 30s and that the money from tv/film was likely much more lucrative when raising two daughters hence absences from the NY stage for lengthy periods of time.

Doc Brown is a wonderful role for him though, but it never crossed my mind that it would be considered a lead. It's a beloved character but a featured one so that seems right on target to me. And to be quite frank, making your living as an actor with many, many accolades along the way is something that the great many can only dream of, so Roger has done pretty alright for himself."

Maybe it's just odd to me how Christian Borle (who I also think is amazing but not to the same extent) got two Tonys in a few years and then got a huge revival done basically for him and then got a whole new musical written for him and yet Roger Bart has always been slightly unlucky in terms of what he's gotten to perform

Roger Bart has definitely been successful, more so than a lot of people, Chip Zien hasn't even been nominated for a Tony Award and he's incredible, but it's just strange how some people are so, so lucky

I mean, to be fair, the Christian Borle example is a larger than life personality in an age so severely lacking in those

So it makes a lot of sense that he would get everything

Some people just get everything and some people don't I guess

But I really don't agree about Doc Brown being a featured role

When I saw "Casey Likes will be a leading actor" I was like "oh wow another show with two people eligible for leading actor"

I mean think about just how many people have won Tonys and other awards for considerably smaller roles that have been considered leads

But I really don't think he'd have any chance at winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor this year

So I guess Featured is probably the best place for him, even if I firmly believe it is a leading role

jkcohen626 said: "Have you seen Back to the Future? The musical or the movie, it doesn't matter. Doc Brown is VERY clearly a featured/supporting role. Any talk of him as a lead is silly. That's very clearly Marty.

Also, sorry to burst your bubble. But, he has no chance at winning either way. Jesse Green described him as "sometimes seeming to extemporize a different show entirely" and Oleksinski called his Brown "a clown who is impossible to care one iota about." Those aren't the mentions of someone on track to win a Tony in one of the most crowded seasons of all time.

"

I don't expect him to win

I just mean he has a way better shot in Featured

I just feel like

If Edna Turnblad is a lead

If Miss Trunchbull is a lead

If freaking Joanne is a lead

Then Doc Brown is a lead

LuckyDipster said: "BeingAlive44Ever said: "I mean think about just how many people have won Tonys and other awards for considerably smaller roles that have been considered leads"

So the category designation is not determined by stage time? This wholeis Doc Brown a leading rolething is something that I had been thinking about for a while. I mean, he is on the poster and everyone thinks of BTTF as the Doc & Marty show, but Marty is on stage for about 95% of the show whereas it feels like Doc is only around for half of that time. In fact, if it was stopwatched, I wonder if George McFly would have more minutes than Doc.

As for his vocal range, I can't comment on the technicalities because I wouldn't know a B or a C if it bit me on the backside. All I know is that there is something about his voice that scratches the itch in my brain just right and I do enjoy the various different styles I have heard him singing in.

Although it is fair to say that certain other Broadway guys do get more attention or roles in better shows, I think he is very happy with his lot and he seems very grateful to still be doing it (and in his favourite role so far)."

Yeah I'm very happy for him but I think that the same sort of thing that motivated me in teenage years also makes me perpetually feel like minor things are huge injustices

But I do want to point something out about stage time

You're probably right that he's not in as much of the show as other characters

But, as I said, and I hate that this is the best example, but take Edna Turnblad in Hairspray

Featured in four songs

No solo

Doesn't dance in the ensemble

In less scenes and songs than Seaweed and Link, which are both considered featured roles

Although, to be fair, Edna has more lines than any character other than Tracy, but a considerably smaller amount to sing than many other characters and maybe 30% stage time tops

But Harvey Fierstein took home a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for that role, and Michael Ball got an Olivier for it as well (though the Oliviers are a lot looser with what counts as a leading role)

Or The Trunchbull in Matilda, who is in I believe five scenes of the entire show

She sings two solos, has one line in the curtain call, has one line in one of Matilda's narration things, and only shows up in two scenes that don't contain a solo for her

But Bertie Carvel was nominated for that same Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical

But what do these two roles have in common?

When they are onstage, the audience just eats it up

They command the show, even though their stage time is far less than even some supporting roles, and they are a huge part of the show's heart

Now, what's funny is that Roger Bart actually won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Snoopy, which is a role that checks all the same boxes

In fact, I would argue Snoopy is a lead role since most of the time every character in that show is on stage and Snoopy is the only character with two full length solos, one of which happens to be a five minute long showstopper that Roger Bart demolished

He opens act two, he has the first full length solo in the show, he has the eleven o' clock showstopping number, he's present in various ensemble numbers, as Kristin Chenoweth puts it he "owns the show"

... And that's a featured role



It almost seems like the Tony committee just sees certain kinds of performers as being specifically leads

Like how silly does it sound to call Harvey Fierstein a "featured" anything?

If he shows up for ten seconds, the audience will remember for ten years

Give him a tiny corner of the show and he conquers the whole thing

And because that's the image that we associate with him, he'll never be anything but a leading actor

Bertie Carvel is absolutely a mystery to me

He gave one of the best performances on Broadway of the 2010's, no doubt, but I did not feel the same sort of stage presence from him that elevates somebody like Harvey Fierstein to being exclusively billed as a lead

Altogether, I find it most likely that the Tony committee sometimes has a lot of trouble deciding what constitutes a leading role and sometimes the results are people like me being all pedantic about how their favorite actors should be in a different category even though any award or nomination at all is an honor

ChairinMain said: "With the musical field so wide open, we're not going to be able to make accurate predictions in the acting categories until most of the reviews are in and the dust settles in April, but I'd be surprised to see Bart get a nom, it's a crowded field. Right now the performances I'm watching in Supporting Actor in a musical are Dan Radcliffe and Brandon Victor Dixon in Hell's Kitchen, and the guys in Cabaret. Chip Zien might sneak in as well. I feel like Bebe Neuwirth has the biggest Supporting Actress buzz and the race for leading performers is pretty wide open; with the girls from Lempicka having the edge of excellent out-of-town word of mouth. If Sunset Blvd does indeed transfer from London, that could change the shape of the race pretty drastically."

I read your name as "Chair in Man" as in "Man in Chair" from Drowsy Chaperone and I was gonna say "there's another Leading Role with less material than the supporting roles" but then I realized it actually says ChairinMain and felt stupid

I was like 99% sure that Chip Zien was billed above the title in Harmony, though

Is he

Is Chip Zien considered a featured role this year????

That role is absolutely, without any doubt in my mind, the lead role of the show

BeingAlive44Ever said: "ChairinMain said: "With the musical field so wide open, we're not going to be able to make accurate predictions in the acting categories until most of the reviews are in and the dust settles in April, but I'd be surprised to see Bart get a nom, it's a crowded field. Right now the performances I'm watching in Supporting Actor in a musical are Dan Radcliffe and Brandon Victor Dixon in Hell's Kitchen, and the guys in Cabaret. Chip Zien might sneak in as well. I feel like Bebe Neuwirth has the biggest Supporting Actress buzz and the race for leading performers is pretty wide open; with the girls from Lempicka having the edge of excellent out-of-town word of mouth. If Sunset Blvd does indeed transfer from London, that could change the shape of the race pretty drastically."

I read your name as "Chair in Man" as in "Man in Chair" from Drowsy Chaperone and I was gonna say "there's another Leading Role with less material than the supporting roles" but then I realized it actually says ChairinMain and felt stupid

I was like 99% sure that Chip Zien was billed above the title in Harmony, though

Is he

Is Chip Zien considered a featured role this year????

That role isabsolutely, without any doubt in my mind, the lead role of the show"

oh it SHOULD be Chair in Man, but a decade ago I didn't proofread it, so if anyone should feel stupid here it's me.