Are the precursor awards more competitive than the Tony awards?

[Sunny11]

Posted: 5/21/17 at 8:53pm

I understand that the Tony awards are  more prestigious than the Drama League/ Drama Desk and Outer Circle Critics awards but it seems to me that the latter three are harder to achieve. To get nominated for a precursor Broadway actors have to compete against those in Off- Broadway productions where as they have the Tony awards for themselves, the competition is shallower. 

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 5/22/17 at 1:30pm

In principle, you are correct: Since the Tonys are only for the Great White Way, a Broadway performer stands a better shot at a Tony nomination than an Outer Critics or Drama Desk (where you also compete for a slot, against Off-Broadway shows). I think many critics will agree this was not the strongest season for leading men in Broadway plays. Interestingly, Kevin Kline is the only Broadway actor nominated for Outstanding Actor in a Play by both the Outer Critics and Drama Desk. All the other slots were taken up by men in Off-Broadway shows (like Daniel Craig in ''Othello,'' David Hyde Pierce in ''A Life'' ). On the other hand, the Tonys needed to fill all 5 of its slots with only guys who appeared on Broadway.

That said, the Tonys (on the whole) tend to reflect more mainstream choices because there are about 50 nominators, as opposed to the Outer Critics (9) and Drama Desk ( 8 ). If you have a small group that is passionate about a certain show, that can really affect and skew the results. For instance, ''Anastasia'' got 13 nominations from the OCC and 9 from the Drama Desk, but only 2 from the Tonys. Similarly, last year, ''American Psycho'' got 8 nominations from both the OCC and Drama Desk, but only 2 from the Tonys.

 

Updated On: 5/22/17 at 01:30 PM