Band's Visit not worth 9 Tonys- Page 4

[JudyDenmark]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 4:07pm

Kad said: "I always thought Moses was going to win, as an established and well-liked but under recognized playwright working on a very book-centric show. I also thought that Fey's book for Mean Girls reduced her screenplay. The show also did not have the same sort of affection going for it within the industry.

I did think Butz was going to take the prize, but had Stachel as the alternate choice."

Oh, I don't disagree with you that Moses deserved the Tony - the Band's Visit book was beautiful. But I was definitely surprised when his name was called!

[Loopin’theloop]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 4:21pm

JayElle said: "Don't see why it won sound, lighting, actor. There were better choices. The NY Times voter interviews made it clear their vote wasn't for talent, but to make a statement. And so it was made. The set is a depressing visual

Well therefore the set did it’s job perfectly because that’s the idea. 

and the sound uneventful.

Again, in a story that revolves completely around the coming together of people and their shared existence for a few days, the sound did its job perfectly. If there are huge events in the story then why the sound design need to be eventful? 

Tony was so understated, he was at times, boring.

He was playing an understated character: so again what do you want from that? I disagree that he was boring.

Awards and plaudits should not be awarded to the loudest and brashest shows/roles, the idea is that they go to the best. I can’t think of another eligible  show that was so successful in the creation of its world.

 

of course awards are political, they don’t always go to the most deserving and sometimes it’s the show off roles/designs/writing that gets honoured but in this case I think ‘The Bands Visit’ was truly deserving.

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 04:21 PM

[theatregoer3]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 4:33pm

Lots of of hate on the lighting design for this musical. I saw all of the nominees in this category and I thought this was definitely the frontrunner for lighting design. The other nominees had a very bland, wash about them whereas TBV had a great, specific, story-driven design that beautifully helped to pull me into this intimate little world. 

[VotePeron]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 4:52pm

I'm sorry, but anyone arguing that TBV winning 10 Tonys is anything other than a political statement from the ATW are wrong. It is a statement because it was the ONLY New Musical to win an award, besides Spongebob which won one (1).

Featured Actor, Lead Actor, Book, Lighting, Directing, all could have gone to other deserving shows.

It is very clear, at least to me, that this decision was a consensus amongst voters who wanted to prove that you can draw a line in the sand regarding what does belong on Broadway and what does not, or what is artistically worthy. It's very upsetting that while TBV is a wonderful, wonderful show, it took so much from other shows. 

This usually happens, but rarely to this extreme. The most recent example is no other new musical winning an award against Hamilton.

I'm not trying to argue that everyone deserves a trophy. I'm just trying to make a point that there IS enough awards to go around, and the Tonys don't seem interested in that, and I truly believe it's a disservice to our community. 

Because at the end of the day, we want to preach that "every show is a winner", except for the fact only 1 truly won anything. 

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 04:52 PM

[Impossible2]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 4:57pm

VotePeron said: "I'm sorry, but anyone arguing that TBV winning 10 Tonys is anything other than a political statement from the ATW are wrong. It is a statement because it was the ONLY New Musical to win an award, besides Spongebob which won one (1).

Featured Actor, Lead Actor, Book, Lighting, Directing,allcould have gone to other deserving shows.

It is very clear, at least to me, that this decision was a consensus amongst voters who wanted to prove that you can draw a line in the sand regarding what does belong on Broadway and what does not, or what is artistically worthy. It's very upsetting that while TBV is a wonderful, wonderful show, it took so much from other shows.

This usually happens, but rarely to this extreme. The most recent example is no other new musical winning an award against Hamilton.

I'm not trying to argue that everyone deserves a trophy. I'm just trying to make a point that there IS enough awards to go around, and the Tonys don't seem interested in that, and I truly believe it's a disservice to our community.

Because at the end of the day, we want to preach that "every show is a winner", except for the fact only 1 truly won anything."

I haven't seen Frozen but most of here hated it and I do think Spongebob should've got lighting and sound design, but apart from that the only other award that say Mean Girls was even close to deserving was choreography. 

Neither SB or MG were even in the running for best musical over BV so I don't know wtf everyone is crying about.

Yes they were enjoyable shows, but they weren't 'BEST' anything.

[Kad]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 5:00pm

Plenty of shows have swept the majority of categories. What line in the sand was ATW drawing when The Producers won 12? When Hello Dolly won 11?  When A Chorus Line won 9? When Billy Elliot won 10? When Hairspray and Sweeney Todd and Fiddler won 8?

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 05:00 PM

[rjm516]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 5:06pm

You're right it's worth 10 and deserved each one.

[theatregoer3]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 5:23pm

Hamilton came out in a relatively competitive year. It’s not that there weren’t any other new musicals that season. There were several other very good musicals that year and they were somewhat “shut out” by that show’s awards sweep.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 5:33pm

People are all focusing on the original musical awards, where in my opinion Band's Visit was the best new musical by a comfortable margin. I could see the show winning some of the musical awards open to revivals, but (almost) all? Were they making a statement against reviving Golden Age musicals?

Some pretty good people were running against them.

Bartlett Sher

Lauren Ambrose

Jessie Mueller

Joshua Henry

Harry Hadden-Paton

Norbert Leo Butz

Alexander Gemignani

Renée Fleming

I wonder who would have won the orchestrations award if Robert Russell Bennett had been posthumously eligible.

They need to create another membership level here. If I'm a Broadway Legend it must be too easy.

How about between Broadway Star and Broadway Legend:  Broadway Icon

[Alex M]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 8:58pm

JayElle said: "Haterobics said, "'m sorry the Tony voters did not validate your opinions. They failed you."

No, the voters failed performers. You're missing the point. Read the NY Times story and today's reviews. They're saying it was a protest vote which meant they didn't vote on its merits, but b/c they didn't like the alternatives. That's not a compliment.

Though many of you may not like Mark Reidel of NY Post, he wrote, "Its (BV) sweep of the Tonys is a sharp rebuke to the family-friendly franchise shows that are gobbling up Broadway.Broadway is in danger of becoming a theme park, but Tony voters staged a revolution Sunday night, saying, in effect: No more shows based on famous movies or cartoons."

He wasn't alone. Many other critics said the same. So it didn't win b/c it was worthy of its award, but rather to send a message. I could see the Best Musical b/c the others were less than rewarding, but to give it all just to send a message invalidated the voter'sintegrity. Sound or lighting for Band's Visit? Come on.

I was at MG and ran into a voter. Before the show even started, she said she only planned to stay 15 minutes because she had other things to do and asked me what the show was about and was it worth it. If that is what you have for voters, the whole thing is a farce.

Frankly, this year'smusical choices were sorely lacking. MG packs them in b/c it attracts the younger set. S/Bob couldn't figure out its audience. It was too long for a kid's show and too infantilefor adults along with the mindless and inconsiderate parents/children whotreated the theater like a playground andignored the stage. How the actors endured that was beyond me.

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."

I very much agree with this.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:07pm

Public opinion is not synonymous with artistic success.   Just because is (or isn't) popular has no bearing on quality.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:13pm

It at least deserved Musical, Book Score, Orchestrations, Leading Actress, and Lighting. The others weren't necessary and could had given to more worthy nominees. 

[willrolandsframes]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:44pm

This is a very interesting topic. Here's my opinion.

The Band's Visit is an incredibly beautiful piece of art. People always talk about how they want to see pieces on Broadway that "change the game". This changed the game. This show proved that subtle can win awards that it previously could not win. As we have seen over the last three years or so, Broadway now has widened its doors to allow all kinds of original content on its stages. Orin Wolf, David Yazbek, and Itamar Moses are just a few of the many people we can thank for this incredible production and what it did for Broadway.

With that being said, I would venture to agree that there was some obvious protest voting, and where it stands most apparent is with Tony Shalhoub's win. Shalhoub is not a "star" in the sense that Bruce Springsteen and Tina Fey are stars, so that does not explain his victory. Shalhoub barely sings at all in the show, so I find it hard to believe that the Tony voters would jump all the way from a power-belter to a subtle singer from 2017 to 2018, especially when that subtle singer is up against Billy Bigelow and Henry Higgins. Regardless of "who deserved it", I don't really see a line of thought that would lead the majority of Tony voters to vote for Shalhoub over Henry, Hadden-Paton, and Slater other than "It's between Shalhoub and Slater, and I'm sick of the commercialism."

There are other categories where this is present, but I'm sure you get the point. It wasn't that The Band's Visit wasn't deserving of the ten categories it won. The Band's Visit presented a superb candidate in each of those groups. However, the sheer fact that it received just one less win than Hamilton really does not adequately assess how this show should fairly stand against its competitors from the 2018-2019 season. The fact that Mean Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants went a combined 1-for-24 last night shows that the Tony Voters are sick of commercialism. I just felt that this was not the time nor the place for the Tony Voters to display their discontent.

P.S. I wish they would've shown their discontent with big, commercial hits back in 2009.

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 9:45pm

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "It at least deserved Musical, Book Score, Orchestrations, Leading Actress, and Lighting. The others weren't necessary and could had given to more worthy nominees."

It barely seems like a competition unless everyone gets a trophy.

[mpkie]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:08pm

I'm a fan of both Katrina Lenk and Tony Shaloub but this show is more of a sleeper than a sleeper hit, but I still liked it more than Hamilton. Everything that people have said they liked about the show left me lukewarm at best.

Ari'el Statchel was so unimpressive, maybe not cuz of him but of his character, so I was shocked when he won. However, Ari'el's acceptance speech made me cry, his win was almost worth it for just that. I mean TBV winners all gave really good speeches! LOL. But his was my favorite.

I kind of wish I could have seen it when it was off-Broadway, I imagine I would have liked it more. For one, it was definitely very dim... 

My friend who I brought along didn't have anything to say about it really. Me, I was disappointed. I went in there really wanting to like it.

Oh, but we loved the band playing at the end though and wanted more of that!! And there's only one real number with harmonies and those harmonies were beautiful. It needed more of that, too. The rest of it was a half conscious lullaby, and it that floats your boat so be it.

It definitely felt like a write-off year for new musicals. I don't have any complaints for their Best Musical win but I wish Tonys did spread the love on the other awards (Featured Actor...), Lighting Design makes me laugh, I can almost feel myself straining in the dark right now. Also, I really wanted Michael Arden to win for OOTI.

Updated On: 6/11/18 at 10:08 PM

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:42pm

mpkie said: "Ari'el Statchel was so unimpressive, maybe not cuz of him but of his character, so I was shocked when he won. However, Ari'el's acceptance speech made me cry, his win was almost worth it for just that. I mean TBV winners all gave really good speeches! LOL. But his was my favorite."

1) Def his underwritten character, not him. 

2) Agreed! His speech & his parents' reactions make up for it for sure. He sounds like a humble, stand-up guy.

[Robbie2]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:45pm

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "mpkie said: "Ari'el Statchel was so unimpressive, maybe not cuz of him but of his character, so I was shocked when he won. However, Ari'el's acceptance speech made me cry, his win was almost worth it for just that. I mean TBV winners all gave really good speeches! LOL. But his was my favorite."

1) Def his underwritten character, not him.

2) Agreed! His speech & his parents'reactions makeup for itfor sure. He sounds like a humble, stand-up guy."

 

Jeeze 

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:49pm

mpkie said: "I'm a fan of both Katrina Lenk and Tony Shaloub but this show is more of a sleeper than a sleeper hit, but I still liked it more than Hamilton."

Not sure why anything necessarily has to be compared with Hamilton, but also... the one piece of information that we can point to without bias is that the show is a hit. Six months and the average ticket price never going under $100 seems like a good place to be...

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:49pm

Not sure if this has been mentioned here yet, but I thought it's worth noting that The Band's Visit has joined South Pacific, Sweeney Todd, and Hairspray to become one of only FOUR shows in Broadway history to win all of the “Big Six” awards (Musical, Book, Score, Direction, and Leading Actor and Actress). Pretty major.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 10:57pm

When someone says they didn't like this show, I take it personally. I think it says something about your character. It kind of suggests that you're a shallow person. I'm a total b*tch so none of us are perfect, but still. Saying SpongeBob and Mean Girls should win anything is straight up against my beliefs as a human being and makes me gag. I know this reads as sarcastic or some bs like that, but it's not. I'm 100% serious. Just speaking my mind. They say that's good to do. Thanks ya'll.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:12pm

Robbie2 said: "Jeeze"

What???

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:21pm

Lol. I'm laughing at the comment saying that the characters are underwritten. Wow musical theatre audiences are so shallow. If you don't screlt your face off and literally spell everything out for an audience they won't grasp it. Downright lazy.

[UncleCharlie]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:43pm

haterobics said: "disneybroadwayfan22 said: "It at least deserved Musical, Book Score, Orchestrations, Leading Actress, and Lighting. The others weren't necessary and could had given to more worthy nominees."

It barely seems like a competition unless everyone gets a trophy."

I don't know dude. The gift bag each nominee gets was pretty rockin'. And the nominee lunch? *kisses fingers* Spectacular.

These are some of my favorite threads. I always enjoy reading comments from people who simply can't for the life of them understand how a majority of 870 Tony voters didn't see things EXACTLY as they did. So entertaining.

[broadwaysfguy]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:50pm

broadway concierge
love the big six recognition for the bands visit
and the exclusive company

bands visit also joins very exclusive company for musicals with 10 or more tonys
producers 12
hamilton 11
the bands visit, hello dolly, south pacific, billy elliot 10

[Oak2]

Posted: 6/11/18 at 11:53pm

It deserved everything it was awarded with, just as every single Tony award that has ever been awarded was deserved by the recipient. There is NO SUCH THING as an "undeserved" Tony - if the Tony voters chose it, then it deserved it because it was good enough in the eyes of the Tony voters to get the award.

Them winning a Tony does not mean you are not allowed to dislike it. It does not mean that you are not allowed to wish a different show would have won it instead, nor does it invalidate your love for the shows you do love. You can be happy for a show finding its audience (as I hope all shows that put the effort in to exist do, in a perfect world), and be happy for any show getting critical acclaim even if you dislike it.

I personally have no desire to see The Band's Visit and from everything I know about it, it is not for me. But that does not mean it did not deserve its awards. It clearly did because many people DID love it, and the Tony voters agreed on the same thing. If SpongeBob was chosen instead, it would have deserved it too. As would Mean Girls or Frozen. 

The Band's Visit winning its awards does not in anyway invalidate my own opinions and tastes, so I can be happy that it found popularity and acclaim even if I do not like it. Shows of all types deserve an audience and acclaim. While I am sad shows I do enjoy did not get similar acclaim, I am happy for the show that did.

May we all ultimately get a plethora of shows that cater to our own tastes and preferences without being at the detriment of the others.