Best & Worst Best Book of a Musical Tony Winners?

[Soaring29]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 7:23am

I did a post for the Best Original Score Tony Winners a while back and wanted to ask the same question but for Best Book which probably has a weirder history given some of the winners were for shows with little dialogue. Thoughts?

[ElephantLoveMedley]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 8:08am

The fact that Jagged Little Pill is a Tony winner for Best Book is a testament to how weird that year was. A truly horrible, overloaded book. I also think it's a travesty that Dear Evan Hansen won Best Book in 2017 against, well, literally any of the other three nominees from that year.

In my opinion, Hamilton has one of the greatest books of a musical ever written. I remember people that year complaining that the show doesn't really have a book since so little of it is outright spoken. But that's not what a book to a musical is. A strong book to a musical requires thoughtful structuring, careful pacing, and an intentional chronology of events. A strong book combines exposition with dramatic tension, character development, and furthering of plot. To me, accomplishing what Hamilton does in the span of two and a half hours remains one of the greatest feats of dramaturgy of all time.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 8:19am

Best...

Into the Woods

Ragtime

Matilda

 

I think the worst would have to be...

CATS

Memphis

Jagged Little Pill

[JBroadway]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 8:37am

I haven’t looked through a list (maybe I will later and amend), but Jagged Little Pill immediately jumped to mind. One of the worst pieces of writing I’ve ever seen, let alone worst musical books, let alone Tony winning-musical books. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 8:38am

Delete

Updated On: 12/19/22 at 08:38 AM

[Soaring29]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 9:41am

ElephantLoveMedley said: "The fact thatJagged Little Pillis a Tony winner for Best Book is a testament to how weird that year was. A truly horrible, overloaded book. I also think it's a travesty thatDear Evan Hansenwon Best Book in 2017 against, well, literally any of the other three nominees from that year.

In my opinion,Hamiltonhas one of the greatest books of a musical ever written. I remember people that year complaining that the show doesn't really have a book since so little of it is outright spoken. But that's not what a book to a musical is. A strong book to a musical requires thoughtful structuring, careful pacing, and an intentional chronology of events. A strong book combines exposition with dramatic tension, character development, and furthering of plot. To me, accomplishing whatHamiltondoes in the span of two and a half hours remains one of the greatest feats of dramaturgy of all time."

 

I always assumed the composers take up a lot of that development in a sung through show up to a certain extent. Maybe that is wrong?

 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 9:49am

I believe Gypsy and 1776 are among 2 of the best books written for the theatre, however, awards for Best Book, or Best Author were not given the years both those shows were eligible. 

[Soaring29]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 10:27am

bwayphreak234 said: "Best...

Into the Woods

Ragtime

Matilda



I think the worst would have to be...

CATS

Memphis

Jagged Little Pill"

 

 

Cats has quite an interesting concept honestly- I have always liked the show more than most. But a Best Book award is definitely a stretch, lol. Maybe Best Adaption or something lol.

 

Updated On: 12/19/22 at 10:27 AM

[OhHiii]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 10:48am

Diablo Cody's win for JLP is truly a blemish on the legitimacy of the award.

[JoeW4]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 10:50am

The weird thing with CATS (even if you assume that it deserved the award in the first place) is that the award posthumously went to T.S Eliot, because there was no one credited with adapting the book. Which is kind of ridiculous.

On one hand it kind of makes sense; sometimes it's weird to see people win Best Book just for transplanting a movie screenplay onto the stage, without giving the original writer the award too. So this is kind of a counter-example for that.

But on the other hand, Eliot had no involvement with the musical, and he didn't write it for that medium. So any PROBLEMS with the book obviously can't be blamed on him. And yet, here we are talking about the worst Tony-winning books - naturally Cats comes up, and who's the one writer's name attached to that win? It's a weird situation, that really should've been solved by crediting...maybe Webber and Nunn? Just Nunn? Just Webber? Someone else? I don't know.

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 11:04am

I thought Tootsie winning Best Book over Hadestown was a tragedy.

[kurtal]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 11:36am

My Top Five:

Fun Home
Into the Woods
Passing Strange
Ragtime
Urinetown

My Bottom Five (alpha order):

Cats
Memphis
On the Twentieth Century
Sunset Boulevard
Two Gentlemen of Verona 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 11:39am

Soaring29 said: "I always assumed the composers take up a lot of that development in a sung through show up to a certain extent. Maybe that is wrong?"

Note that Lin-Manuel Miranda was the Tony-winning bookwriter for Hamilton. Similarly, Tim Rice won Best Book for Evita. Other than the odd Cats situation discussed in other posts, I wonder if there are any examples of through-sung musicals where the bookwriter is not also a composer or lyricist. 

Anyhow, I think you may be right - that the songwriters basically create the book for through-sung shows - but they're still separate achievements. One can easily imagine a show packed with great songs with a messy story and structure (perhaps the original London Chess might be an example), or a great story told through mediocre songs.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 11:44am

poisonivy2 said: "I thought Tootsie winning Best Book over Hadestown was a tragedy."

But I remember so many people saying that Horn's book for Tootsie was one of the funniest books in a very long time, so I wasn't surprised. IIRC, the feeling was the score for Hadestown was the strongest that season, and the award for score would eclipse a possible award for book.

[blaxx]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 6:52pm

fashionguru_23 said: "poisonivy2 said: "I thought Tootsie winning Best Book over Hadestown was a tragedy."

But I remember so many people saying that Horn's book for Tootsie was one of the funniest books in a very long time, so I wasn't surprised. IIRC, the feeling was the score for Hadestown was the strongest that season, and the award for score would eclipse a possible award for book."

Truly, the only funny thing about Tootsie was that anyone thought audiences would find it funny.

[LuPita2]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 7:06pm

I enjoyed Tootsie but I didn't think it was worthy of ANY awards, honestly. 

[jo]

Posted: 12/19/22 at 8:05pm

kurtal said: "My Top Five:

Fun Home
Into the Woods
Passing Strange
Ragtime
Urinetown

My Bottom Five (alpha order):

Cats
Memphis
On the Twentieth Century
Sunset Boulevard
Two Gentlemen of Verona"

 

Sunset Boulevard was a musical adaptation of Billy Wilder's great film noir ( rated very highly by the American Film Institute). Wilder himself said that the musical faithfully  adapted about 85% of his original work. As a matter of fact, some of the song lyrics were lifted from dialog in the film classic.

Quoting from Wiki --

"Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for 11 Academy Awards (including nominations in all four acting categories) and won three. It is often ranked among the greatest movies ever made. As it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.[4] In 1998, it was ranked number 12 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century, and in 2007, it was 16th on their 10th Anniversary list."

Why do you think the musical has  a bad book?

Updated On: 12/19/22 at 08:05 PM

[BETTY22]

Posted: 12/20/22 at 11:21am

I sooooooo admire book writers.

It is almost impossible to underestimated how important and difficult this job is. 

My hats off to those who do this work. 

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 12/20/22 at 12:04pm

A Little Night Music has one of the sharpest books ever written for a musical.

Now, I wouldn't rank it among the best books, but I'm always amazed by how faithful, concise and coherent the book of Les Miz is, it's probably thr only satisfying adaptation of Hugo's novel

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/20/22 at 12:28pm

I did quite enjoy the book for Tootise, and I actually felt the book for Hadestown needed a bit more work--overall it's adequate enough that it doesn't take away from the show but I keep thinking about things that would've made it ever so much better.

I'd definitely agree that Into the Woods has one of the best books, and while not necessarily on the same level, I'm always surprised with how much Book of Mormon manages to accomplish with its humor but also the many themes it lays out despite its crassness 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 12/20/22 at 3:32pm

Best to me: Gypsy, 1776, Ragtime, Fiddler, Les Mis, The Producers, Hamilton, She Loves Me, A Gentleman’s Guide, Urinetown and Cabaret.

Worst: there are so many, so I limit it to hits or at least shows that ran for awhile or had incredible talent at the helm: Cats will never be surpassed for me as the worst.  Mack and Mabel, Chess, Funny Girl, Pippin, Woman of the Year, Bullets Over Broadway and Dear World also belong in that list.  I also HATED the award winning books for City of Angels and 2 Gentlemen from Verona.  

Until I saw the revivals for Merrily and Company, I would have had those on the worst list.  While I think there are issues with both, I would no longer cite them as worst. I guess Harold Prince — IMO the greatest director of musicals in the last 60 years — deserve yes primary blame for the original Merrily disaster.  Re Company, Elliott did a better job of hiding the fact that most of the book was pretty lame.

Updated On: 12/20/22 at 03:32 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 12/20/22 at 10:41pm

JBroadway said: "I haven’t looked through a list (maybe I will later and amend), but Jagged Little Pill immediately jumped to mind. One of the worst pieces of writing I’ve ever seen, let alone worst musical books, let alone Tony winning-musical books."

For the record, I did end up looking through the list of winners in this category: Out of the 56 winners, there are only about 11 that I'm not familiar with (i.e, I've never seen the show in any form, so I can't comment on the book - even if I know the story, broadly, from listening to the score). Of the remaining 45, I can confirm that Jagged Little Pill is, without a doubt, the worst of the bunch IMPO.

As for Tootsie, I remember many people at the time seemed to feel that Tootsie had the superior book, and deserved its win. I disagreed, and still disagree. I tend to think that it won the award mostly for its jokes, which is all well and good if the award was called "best jokes that take place during scenes of spoken dialogue." I'll admit that Hadestown's book is a little messy, and I can see why some people preferred the book for Toosie, which was somewhat more traditional, and therefor a bit more cleanly structured. But to me, Hadestown's book is BY FAR the more impressive achievement in storytelling overall. Not even close.

 

BETTY22 said: "I sooooooo admire book writers"

I admire book writers in theory, in the sense that it's an extremely difficult job, and most people undervalue the importance of the book. But it's hard for me to say that I truly admire the actual output of "book writers" in general, when 90% of musicals these days have a bad or mediocre book.

[dennisferrari769]

Posted: 3/29/23 at 8:54am

Jarethan said: "Best to me: Gypsy, 1776, Ragtime, Fiddler, Les Mis, The Producers, Hamilton, She Loves Me, A Gentleman’s Guide, Urinetown and Cabaret.

Worst: there are so many, so I limit it to hits or at least shows that ran for awhile or had incredible talent at the helm: Cats will never be surpassed for me as the worst. Mack and Mabel, Chess, Funny Girl, Pippin, Woman of the Year, Bullets Over Broadwayand Dear World also belong in that list. Just spend few minutes to read about a sorrowful woman, it`s a great book for all ages. I also HATED the award winning books for City of Angels and 2 Gentlemen from Verona.

Until I saw the revivals for Merrily and Company, I would have had those on the worst list. While I think there are issues with both, I would no longer cite them as worst. I guess Harold Prince — IMO the greatest director of musicals in the last 60 years — deserve yes primary blame for the original Merrily disaster. Re Company, Elliott did a better job of hiding the fact that most of the book was pretty lame."

Agree with you, especially about City of Angels.

Updated On: 3/30/23 at 08:54 AM

[DaveyG]

Posted: 3/29/23 at 9:59am

Tootsie winning Best Book was a travesty. However, I think the book for Hadestown is its weakest attribute. I would have given the award to The Prom. Original, heartfelt and genuinely funny. 

[djjd007]

Posted: 3/29/23 at 11:30am

Sunset Boulevard’s book reads like they put the movie quotes into ChatGPT and instructed it to write a two act musical. But that year, the only other new musical was the revue, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, so it was a very uncompetitive year. While SB is one of my favorite shows and many productions have overcome the book, it remains incredibly weak. 

Awards season that year was a mess. Out of all the questionable wins for Sunset, it didn’t snag best costume design, which actually was award-worthy. 

Updated On: 3/29/23 at 11:30 AM