Bizarre Acting Category Placements — Page 2

Nathan Lane in Angels in America. How is Roy Cohn a supporting actor? It seemed like a really obvious ploy to get both Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane their Tony's.

''Nathan Lane in Angels in America. How is Roy Cohn a supporting actor? It seemed like a really obvious ploy to get both Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane their Tony's''

Interestingly, this is the reverse of the original Broadway production of ''Angels in America'' (1993 ). Rob Leibman won a Leading Actor Tony for playing Cohn, and Stephen Spinella won a Featured Actor Tony for playing Prior Walter..(Granted, this was based only on the first part: ''Millennium Approaches.'' )

Updated On: 1/23/21 at 10:43 PM

Jeremy Shamos got nominated for the Drama Desk for Best Featured Actor in a Play for If I Forget. If his character wasn't the lead, I don't know who was.

Broadway61004 said: "This is slightly off topic perhaps, but I also find it interesting how different mediums treat the categories. For instance, Viola Davis winning lead at the Tonys for Fences and supporting at the Oscars; Bebe Neuwirth winning lead for Chicago at the Tonys and Catherine Zeta-Jones winning supporting at the Oscars; Brian F. O'Byrne being nominated for lead for Doubt at the Tonys and Philip Seymour Hoffman being nominated for supporting at the Oscars. Yes, there's of course differences in adaptations that could impact the sizes of the roles, but those three roles really didn't change much at all from stage to screen."



It's interesting how all 3 examples you mentioned are roles going from Lead to Supporting. I wonder if it has to do with the nature of the camera vs stage: the camera can place one person at the center of a story even more firmly than the stage can, because it can follow specific actors and force the audience to see from their point of view. And by extension, other characters can feel more supporting if we're not seeing things from their vantage point.

Whereas in theatre, you just have human bodies onstage, and the only view is from the audience. The playwright and director can manipulate the size of a role with lines and stage-time, but if two roles have roughly equal lines + stage time, it can be easier in theatre to say that they are both leads. Because they are just two people existing in the same space, and they don't disappear when the other person is speaking.

Good argument, but I also wonder if the whole Hollywood nomination system more political and strategic? I guess my default example is Zanuck trying to get Anne Baxter to accept a supporting actress nomination for All About Eve, so that she and Davis in competition wouldn't keep both of them from winning Baxter, of course, refused, and neither of them won.

Since the past 3 posters have all brought up the strategy/competition angle:

Yes, I agree this is also a major factor - as I did mention in my other post from last week (further up this page). I refrained from mentioning it in my most recent post because I didn't have a good enough idea of what the competition was actually like in those years to make this case - except for 2017 (with Fences). And the strange thing about Fences in 2017, is that the Best Actress category was not actually very strong, IIRC. Emma Stone was the frontrunner the whole time, but kind of by default. For the record, I like Emma Stone, and I liked her performance in La La Land, and I think most people did too. But in terms of her buzz, and the nature of the role, and the nature of the competition, I think Viola Davis could have easily beaten Emma Stone in the Leading category.

But anyway, more generally speaking: I don't know if I agree that film producers are any more strategic about their category placements than theatre producers are. Seems to me that it's the same game played on two different courts. In terms of strategy/competition, I think the main difference isn't the industry, it's the different pools. Viola Davis was competing against different people in 2010 Tonys than she was at the 2017 Oscars, so the landscape of the competition would have been totally different, which might account for the different placement.

The only reasons I can think of why film producers might be more inclined toward strategic category fraud are: (1) the fact that the Oscar contenders have to fight harder for attention, because there are hundreds of eligible films, while the Tonys only have to worry about 5-10 other shows. (2) The fact that the Oscars don't have official rulings on actor placements: it's based entirely on the campaign, and how each member ultimately ends up voting.

I don't necessarily know how or why these would impact their tendency to be more strategic than Broadway producers, but seems like they could be the variables?

Updated On: 1/29/21 at 12:31 PM

Blair Brown winning best featured actress for COPENHAGEN, an intense actor-driven three character play with all three continually on stage for the length of the play and she the only woman.