Band's Visit not worth 9 Tonys — Page 2

Broadway_Boy said: "uncageg said: "Just a question... Do the same group of voters vote for both Best Play and musical?"

The same voters all vote for all the categories."

Sound Design and Orchestrations are voted on by a much smaller subset of voters. The rest are voted on by all of the voters.

BroadwayMan5 said: "Haven't seen the show yet (seeing it this summer) so I can't really say my opinion on if it deserved it or not but I do get tired of these "sweep" nights. I also wish some really strong shows like Groundhog Day, Come From Away, and Waitress had opened in a year like this instead of in the Hamilton/Dear Evan Hansen/Hello Dolly juggernaut years"

I bet the producers wish that too. ??

I don't think The Band's Visit was a protest vote, even if Tony voters were voting to reject some of the commercialism on Broadway. The fact is that it was a stunning show (based on what I have read only, I concede) that did very well with off-Broadway awards last year (giving it a somewhat "known" quality, I imagine, for some voters). It was an artistic, subtle musical designed to appeal to a different audience than the other properties up this year, and it struck a chord with voters.

Now, that being said, the above doesn't necessarily explain the acting wins, and I can't comment because I haven't been fortunate enough to see the production yet, but it does explain some of the creative awards and the Best Musical nod. But as I understand it, Katrina Lenk thoroughly earned her Tony and was the frontrunner from the moment nominations came out, and Ari'el Stachel gave a very good performance. I haven't seen enough about Tony Shalhoub to comment, but as a non-Broadway actor he certainly has the chops to win IMO.

I liked The Band's Visit, but I do not think it would have won 10 awards in a lot of years. Let's face it, it was a lousy year for musicals overall and the competition was pretty bare. When they awarded Best Sound, I concluded that a lot of people just checked TBV every time they saw it. I actually had a problem hearing the words -- I had it in no other show that I saw this season, but I admit that I only saw about a dozen on Broadway.

I was happiest when it won Best Book, because I-- and I think everyone else -- thought that Time Fey was going to win because she was Tina Fey, and they hoped this would encourage her to do more Broadway shows. That was not reason to give her Best Book, and thankfully they did not (and I do like Tina Fey).

I'm still in disbelief Shalhoub won Best Actor in a leading role in a musical. He barely sang and only those people who sit in premium seats or front orchestra can see the emotions from his eyes (ok ok also those who watched the TV telecast closeups).

It can also be interpreted as an insult to the other nominees who literally sing and act their buns off 8 times a week!

Regardless of the Tonys, TBV holds no interest to me. Everyone of my friends who saw it thought it was boring or meh and said not to bother. I wouldn't even go with comps.

JayElle said: "Be it 9 or ten, I stopped counting. I still don't think it deserved all it got."

Well, I'm sure that your opinion will get the response that it deserves.

Kad said: "I'm just impressed that, apparently, hundreds of Tony voters of varying backgrounds all conspired to vote a certain way to send a message. What coordination!"

*cough*Russia*cough*

JayElle said: "If BVwas as great as everyone says, it should've been reflected in its box office numbers. And as you all know, the $ is what keeps shows alive and industry employees working. Bottom line, vote because the show deserves it and not because it sends a message. To do otherwise makes the messenger (voter) disingenuous and the outcome a farce."

Money keeps a show alive, true. I'm not sure which bad box office numbers you are seeing for this show, though? An average ticket price that never dipped under $100. No stars (sorry Tony), based on a movie few have heard of and even less have seen?

BUT even if you were right about the money (which you aren't), there is no correlation that money automatically finds a high quality show.

I saw all of the nominated shows in this category, and this was the clear, deserving winner.

I'm not sure if they are using protest vote accurately. I mean, sure, if it were a toss-up, and it went this way for some external reason like that, it would make sense. But what was the other show in the toss-up? It isn't even clear to me which would be the other show in this fictional narrative.

So if I'm understanding correctly, it's being argued that TBV didn't deserve its Tony's, but then again neither did any of the other crappy shows this year. That sure, TBV was probably the best show of the year, but Tony voters didn't vote for it for this reason, but because they don't like what Broadway is becoming...but still it was the best show of the year, but didn't deserve the Tony's it got. Am I getting this right?

It's true that the season was weak compared to previous seasons. It's true that TBV didn't immediately jump to the top of my favorite musicals list, but I thought it was clearly the best show of the year, and deserved everything it won. Why is it their fault that the other shows didn't stack up?

I thought it was clearly the best (new) musical of the season. By far.

I was a little surprised at Tony Shalhoub's win... only because that role is so quiet, and because he's been out of the show for so long. I saw Dariush Kashani, who I thought was excellent... but the role itself didn't strike me as something particularly award-worthy. Shalhoub must've given one hell of a transcendent performance!

But I think it deserved everything else it won, though I was personally pulling for OOTI in orchestrations. (Not that the TBV orchestrations weren't great,)

I made the mistake of going on Instagram this morning. Man are the tweens salty about SpongeBob/Frozen/Mean Girls not cleaning up! I couldn't help but laugh. (The REGINA GEORGE WAS ROBBED comments on the official Tony handle's post about Katrina Lenk are particularly hilarious. I thought Taylor Louderman was great, but the comments are so clueless that they're almost adorable.)

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 12:40 PM