Andy Karl tonight — Page 7

"1. Opening night is Monday. It will remain. This is a business and tickets have been sold. If you push it back a week you lose a week's revenue. Ouch. Why? How many people gonna show up and demand a refund if Andy Karl isn't on? "

They absolutely can push the opening back, they just need to open under the Tony deadline. People love to say they were at shows like this (see:Carrie), so I don't think there will be a lot of returns.. Even if that weren't true, the producers are likely willing to take a small hit now if it might pay off later. The understudy will not play to empty houses.

"2. Andy Karl will not go on tomorrow. If he was hurt enough to walk on a cane right after the injury with the adrenaline flowing, then he is too hurt to risk his entire adult life on screwing up an extraordinarily important part of his performing future. Besides, no producer in his right mind (nor their insurer) would allow it."

Also not necessarily true. See:John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig. I don't think #3 is true either, and there is precedent for that. Doesn't your #4 point contradict your #1 point?

Updated On: 4/16/17 at 05:49 PM

Mike66 said:

3. He will be nominated for the Tony, despite the rule. The rule exists so the person being considered with be the "person who created the role." He's already done that, in London and in NY up until now. We all Know that the understudy has been working his butt off to be "just like Andy" rather than to create a role. His job is to be as much like the guy he is replacing not just for the benefit of the audience, but for the benefit of the rest of the cast. People on these Boards know that.

This, unfortunately, is completely wrong. The only thing I will add to this thread of hyperbole and conjecture, other than that I obviously hope Andy Karl heals quickly, is that until it is determined who is playing tomorrow and the rest of this week, we cannot say "He will be nominated despite the rule".

For this reason: I happen to know for a fact that a good number of the Tony nominators (of which there are only around 30 or 40) have not yet seen Groundhog Day. It's required that all nominators see all productions, with no understudies in (frankly, it's also technically required that all VOTERS see all productions as well, and are expected to reschedule or return if there are understudies in, but that is policed far less than the nominators' attendance).

Remember there are still 9 shows yet to open this season (in the next week and a half), and the nominators are obviously scheduling and staggering those out however they and the shows' producers see fit. So if a significant number of the nominators have not yet seen the show, and are unable to see it with Karl in it before the cutoff of April 27th (and before they meet to determine nominees the first Monday in May), then regardless of whether the Tony administration committee 'bends' or 'amends' the rule as a one-time exception, it sadly simply wouldn't be possible (let alone fair) for nominators to vote for a performance they hadn't seen, over ones that they had.

Does this mean there's a chance that against all odds, neither Andy Karl nor Andrew Call would be nominated, but some unforeseen unexpected possibility, even by default? (Corey Cott in Bandstand, Derek Klena in Anastasia, Christian Borle as Willy Wonka?)

Absolutely. I think it's tragic, and still hard to believe, that the man who won an Oliver award less than a week ago might not even be nominated for a Tony award, and that some slightly less well-received dark horse might... but if a large percentage of the nominators simply haven't been able to see the Olivier-winning performance in question, then sadly that's exactly what will happen.

"If Andrew plays opening night, is he playing Phil in the OBC? If so, do they rerecord the album?"

It's possible, but I seriously doubt it. That's a pretty expensive proposition.

I would guess at this point that the show will open tomorrow as scheduled with AC in the role. If AK can return within a week or so I suspect that the producers will petition the Tony committee to make an exception to the rule and assuming that there will be enuf time for them to see his performance they would have to be total dicks not to grant it. of course, if the injury is more severe as it may be (I have given up my daily jog around the Central Park reservoir for these past 6 months due to a torn meniscus) they will have no choice but to consider AC for the Tony. Considering that AK has already recorded the OCR if he returns in a few months as time goes by he will be remembered as the original lead in the show and AC may benefit from a Tony Nom. Perhaps both of their careers will benefit from the publicity and their sheer talent to weather the ups and downs of showbiz

nycward said: "I would guess at this point that the show will open tomorrow as scheduled with AC in the role. If AK can return within a week or so I suspect that the producers will petition the Tony committee to make an exception to the rule and assuming that there will be enuf time for them to see his performance they would have to be total dicks not to grant it. of course, if the injury is more severe as it may be (I have given up my daily jog around the Central Park reservoir for these past 6 months due to a torn meniscus) they will have no choice but to consider AC for the Tony. Considering that AK has already recorded the OCR if he returns in a few months as time goes by he will be remembered as the original lead in the show and AC may benefit from a Tony Nom. Perhaps both of their careers will benefit from the publicity and their sheer talent to weather the ups and downs of showbiz



"

Even if Andy Karl is not able to perform at opening, and is not eligible, his understudy will not be considered for the award, nor will he replace him in the show, nor will they dub his voice on the recording. My money is that he is back tomorrow.



Let's not joke around.. andy karl makes or breaks this show. I can't imagine many others that can pull it off like he does. It's one of those shows where the material works best with a particular actor.

Updated On: 4/16/17 at 10:16 PM

FrontLtGuy said: "nycward said: "I would guess at this point that the show will open tomorrow as scheduled with AC in the role. If AK can return within a week or so I suspect that the producers will petition the Tony committee to make an exception to the rule and assuming that there will be enuf time for them to see his performance they would have to be total dicks not to grant it. of course, if the injury is more severe as it may be (I have given up my daily jog around the Central Park reservoir for these past 6 months due to a torn meniscus) they will have no choice but to consider AC for the Tony. Considering that AK has already recorded the OCR if he returns in a few months as time goes by he will be remembered as the original lead in the show and AC may benefit from a Tony Nom. Perhaps both of their careers will benefit from the publicity and their sheer talent to weather the ups and downs of showbiz



"

Even if Andy Karl is not able to perform at opening, and is not eligible, his understudy will not be considered for the award, nor will he replace him in the show, nor will they dub his voice on the recording. My money is that he is back tomorrow.



Let's not joke around.. andy karl makes or breaks this show. I can't imagine many others that can pull it off like he does. It's one of those shows where the material works best with a particular actor.



I rather agree with you but I posit if the injury is as bad as it might be it will be all out of his control. If he has a torn meniscus he can't possibly do the staging as he is directed. I saw the show and love his work but its a matter of health. Of course if he's well enuf that would be great. just sayin'

It seems rather simple - if the members of the nominating committee can't see Karl's performance by April 27 (a week from Thursday), then they won't be able to nominate him, petition or not, because they must begin deliberations in order to announce the nominations by May 2.

If Karl has injured his meniscus (or worse), it seems unlikely that he'll be ready within 10 days to do a full physical performance (and personally, I don't think the role will be particularly impressive without the physicality).

So those are the ifs, and everyone will have to wait a while to see what plays out.

I wish they could rejigger the staging to allow Andy to perform with a cane, but I just don't see that happening. The performance I saw him give a couple of weeks ago was almost as frenetic as his Rocky Balboa and his Bruce in "On The 20th Century." So sad for him.

It feels like they've been silent about whether or not he'll go on tonight to create more intrigue. I personally think he'll perform, so everyone can say, "Look how dedicated he is," and I do think he is dedicated, but in my opinion, they should just announce it instead of trying to keep people talking (which is clearly working).

DramaTeach said: "It feels like they've been silent about whether or not he'll go on tonight to create more intrigue. I personally think he'll perform, so everyone can say, "Look how dedicated he is," and I do think he is dedicated, but in my opinion, they should just announce it instead of trying to keep people talking (which is clearly working).



I agree - it also seems like Orfeh may have disabled comments on her instagram post of her nails - given the amount of speculation I can't believe not one question has been asked about tonight on that post. Based on the glam factor of the manicure, I think if she were merely attending the opening to support the show with Andrew Call in it, she might have opted for a more toned down look, though then again it's Orfeh! But I'm with you - my money is on him going on. I just hope he's truly ok.

I thinm there's a good chance they haven't announced anything yet because they don't know for sure. Could be andy is hoping to go on but until they get on stage maybe this morning/afternoon to run through it he can't be 100% that whatever support/strapping he gets on that knee is going to be enough.

Just saw a Facebook post from a friend in the industry (I am not) asking what was happening tonight, and the comments from people who seemed like they were in the know said that it's going on with Andy at the helm. Take it with a grain of salt since that's obviously not an official statement, but seemed pretty clear to me. So happy for him that it's clearly not a very serious injury... if it was, I'm assuming if it was that tonight would be out of the question in such a physical show. Congrats to Groundhog Day on their opening day!