#26
Posted: 10/10/14 at 2:04pm
The award for best scenic design is not the same as "Tony Award for Biggest Set"
Bizarre Tony nominations — Page 2
#27
Posted: 10/10/14 at 2:06pm
^ Not in the case of Once, but it usually is. See: Act One over Glass Menagerie.
#28
Posted: 10/10/14 at 2:10pm
While I meant Starmites, Once certainly applies to my comment as well
#29
Posted: 10/10/14 at 2:10pm
"The award for best scenic design is not the same as "Tony Award for Biggest Set""
I agree, but moving chairs and such is directorial, not design. Anyone can say "let's put twelve chairs on a stage", that doesn't mean it's Tony-worthy, even if it's effective because of what the director does with it.
I agree, but moving chairs and such is directorial, not design. Anyone can say "let's put twelve chairs on a stage", that doesn't mean it's Tony-worthy, even if it's effective because of what the director does with it.
#30
Posted: 10/10/14 at 3:40pm
To be fair, the Scottsboro boys also had those 3 askew proscenium arches, which was a pretty interested scenic design choice -- not saying that alone made it worthy of a nomination, but it wasn't actually just 12 chairs and bare stage
#31
Posted: 10/10/14 at 4:14pm
Recently, Tammy Blanchard's nomination for HOW TO SUCCEED...
And, to be honest, Lena Hall.
And, to be honest, Lena Hall.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Updated On: 10/10/14 at 04:14 PM
#32
Posted: 10/10/14 at 4:16pm
I did not see Elizabeth A Davis in Once, but rather her understudy. So I can't comment directly on what she specifically brought to the role, but I found the nomination puzzling, based on the role itself. She had very few lines and no character development. There was some solo instrument playing but I don't think there was much, if any, solo singing. It's an ensemble part, and a completely respectable part, but not one I would think would be singled out by awards committees.
I also find the Tony win for the Once set design to be baffling. The set is a perfectly fine set, but it's not particularly inspired or interesting or complex. It's fine. It's especially weird that it won against the Spider-Man set. Spider-Man wasn't the most satisfying theatrical experience, but the set was much more interesting and, IMO, much more worthy of the Tony. (The other nominees were Ghost and Newsies.)
I also find the Tony win for the Once set design to be baffling. The set is a perfectly fine set, but it's not particularly inspired or interesting or complex. It's fine. It's especially weird that it won against the Spider-Man set. Spider-Man wasn't the most satisfying theatrical experience, but the set was much more interesting and, IMO, much more worthy of the Tony. (The other nominees were Ghost and Newsies.)
"What was the name of that cheese that I like?"
"you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"
"well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
#33
Posted: 10/10/14 at 4:21pm
I think one of the oddest was nominating a show with recorded music, no book, and no songs or lyrics for Best Musical.
What's more bizarre is that it WON Best Musical. Even Wikpedia refers to it as "three dance plays". No wonder the next year they started a new category -- Best Special Theatrical Event.
Well, it was more like three short ballets (though requires acting skill usually not sought in ballet). No category existed for that, so it was put in the category where music is a substantial material component of the show and what separates it as its own piece of work (as opposed to the plays, novels or screenplays from which some musicals are adapted, like another nominee the same season, The Dead). The Theatrical Event category was ditched after a couple of years because it really was erroneous. There are the occasional shows that don't neatly fall into one of two buckets, but those that require the creation of a new category, for which there are hardly enough nominees for competition, are extremely rare. To me, the nomination of Lady Day as a play could easily be understandable as a bizarre choice considering how the music was both substantial and material, but I can't say I entirely disagreed with the choice.
Loved Contact. An absolutely stunning work. Beautiful, poignant and entertaining. A runaway smash hit and critically acclaimed. To NOT have won Best Musical would have been more bizarre.
And, to be honest, Lena Hall.
Wow. I didn't find anything bizarre about her nomination or win. A performance I'll always cherish having seen.
What's more bizarre is that it WON Best Musical. Even Wikpedia refers to it as "three dance plays". No wonder the next year they started a new category -- Best Special Theatrical Event.
Well, it was more like three short ballets (though requires acting skill usually not sought in ballet). No category existed for that, so it was put in the category where music is a substantial material component of the show and what separates it as its own piece of work (as opposed to the plays, novels or screenplays from which some musicals are adapted, like another nominee the same season, The Dead). The Theatrical Event category was ditched after a couple of years because it really was erroneous. There are the occasional shows that don't neatly fall into one of two buckets, but those that require the creation of a new category, for which there are hardly enough nominees for competition, are extremely rare. To me, the nomination of Lady Day as a play could easily be understandable as a bizarre choice considering how the music was both substantial and material, but I can't say I entirely disagreed with the choice.
Loved Contact. An absolutely stunning work. Beautiful, poignant and entertaining. A runaway smash hit and critically acclaimed. To NOT have won Best Musical would have been more bizarre.
And, to be honest, Lena Hall.
Wow. I didn't find anything bizarre about her nomination or win. A performance I'll always cherish having seen.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Updated On: 10/10/14 at 04:21 PM
#34
Posted: 10/10/14 at 5:38pm
"I also find the Tony win for the Once set design to be baffling. The set is a perfectly fine set, but it's not particularly inspired or interesting or complex. It's fine. It's especially weird that it won against the Spider-Man set. Spider-Man wasn't the most satisfying theatrical experience, but the set was much more interesting and, IMO, much more worthy of the Tony. (The other nominees were Ghost and Newsies.)"
Set Designer Bob Crowley was asked about that after winning...11:38
Set Designer Bob Crowley was asked about that after winning...11:38
#35
"Loved Contact. An absolutely stunning work. Beautiful, poignant and entertaining. A runaway smash hit and critically acclaimed."
I actually agree pretty much with that. But every year people talk about one musical or another and they say "no, the book isn't very strong", "the music is memorable enough", "the orchestrations were weak", or the dialogue wasn't effective enough". All those things could have been said about Contact (and were) but all were ignored.
It's as if some wonderful magician got up on stage and gave an absolutely amazing evening of magic acts and then he is awarded Best Play. Sure he may deserve some award, but when his show really doesn't fit the standards for a category by which all other shows are judged, how does that make sense? 'Gee, we loved this and although it doesn't fit the category we want it to win something so we'll just ignore the usual guidelines and give it the award for something that it doesn't fit.' Yea, good idea.
Posted: 10/10/14 at 5:59pm
"Loved Contact. An absolutely stunning work. Beautiful, poignant and entertaining. A runaway smash hit and critically acclaimed."
I actually agree pretty much with that. But every year people talk about one musical or another and they say "no, the book isn't very strong", "the music is memorable enough", "the orchestrations were weak", or the dialogue wasn't effective enough". All those things could have been said about Contact (and were) but all were ignored.
It's as if some wonderful magician got up on stage and gave an absolutely amazing evening of magic acts and then he is awarded Best Play. Sure he may deserve some award, but when his show really doesn't fit the standards for a category by which all other shows are judged, how does that make sense? 'Gee, we loved this and although it doesn't fit the category we want it to win something so we'll just ignore the usual guidelines and give it the award for something that it doesn't fit.' Yea, good idea.
#36
Posted: 10/10/14 at 6:17pm
I wonder what Bob Crowley actually said about his win for the set for Once (and of course he isn't likely to say publicly he doesn't deserve the win). The link to Theater Talk in the prior posting says that he said that the era of bling was over and people didn't want big spectacular sets anymore. Considering he won Tonys for Coast of Utopia and Mary Poppins and has subsequently done Aladdin, I don't think he's exactly anti-big-set. Michael Riedel kind of scoffed at the concept that Broadway wasn't going to have big sets anymore. Once had the right set for the show, but Spider-Man's set was right for that show as well.
"What was the name of that cheese that I like?"
"you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start"
"well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
#37
Posted: 10/10/14 at 8:08pm
Loved Contact. An absolutely stunning work. Beautiful, poignant and entertaining. A runaway smash hit and critically acclaimed. To NOT have won Best Musical would have been more bizarre.
Just like the year before Contact won. A musical revue with no storyline and a bunch of musical numbers. Everyone seems to be an expert as to why Contact should not have even been staged but somehow Fosse had all attributes of a book musical. Not.
This thread is, like many others, about the shows posters disliked. Which does not make the nominations bizarre nor unexpected just because YOU didn't like it.
Just like the year before Contact won. A musical revue with no storyline and a bunch of musical numbers. Everyone seems to be an expert as to why Contact should not have even been staged but somehow Fosse had all attributes of a book musical. Not.
This thread is, like many others, about the shows posters disliked. Which does not make the nominations bizarre nor unexpected just because YOU didn't like it.
Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE
Updated On: 10/10/14 at 08:08 PM
#38
Posted: 10/10/14 at 9:20pm
Don't forget Crowley was also the guy who directed 'Tarzan'...
#39
Posted: 10/11/14 at 2:02am
CONTACT has a wonderful book by John Weidman. And it was a great evening in the theater.
#40
Posted: 10/11/14 at 12:22pm
The Tony win for Bill T Jones' choreography for SPRING AWAKENNG was wholly deserved and not a surprise. The award is for Best Choreography, not Most Choreography.
Besides an opportunity to award a legendary choreography from the world of Dance, outside of the Broadway community, it also correctly recognized how revolutionary his choreography was for that show. His gestural expressive movement has been the inspiration for most of Hoggett's work, especially AMERICAN IDIOT and ONCE, and I'd say we see at least a couple shows a season that pass through the door opened by Jones' work on SPRING AWAKENING.
Besides an opportunity to award a legendary choreography from the world of Dance, outside of the Broadway community, it also correctly recognized how revolutionary his choreography was for that show. His gestural expressive movement has been the inspiration for most of Hoggett's work, especially AMERICAN IDIOT and ONCE, and I'd say we see at least a couple shows a season that pass through the door opened by Jones' work on SPRING AWAKENING.
#41
Posted: 10/11/14 at 2:04pm
Daphne Rubin-Vega for RENT. I mean I didn't see her live, but IMO she sounds horrible on the cast recording.
#42
Posted: 10/11/14 at 4:36pm
Glenn Close in Sunset Blvd. Her grotesque portrayal of Norma was so wrong. Betty and Elaine's portrayals were totally perfect. I thought the show was a big bore, but admired Betty and Elaine. Saw it with the replacements cause I got comped and wanted to hear these divas sing the score
#43
Posted: 10/11/14 at 5:49pm
Gotta agree that Lena Hall's performance didn't warrant a Tony, unless there was one for Best Tamborine Playing. It didn't compare to Linda Emond's. For that matter, Marin Mazzie would have been a better choice, but wasn't nominated.
#44
Posted: 10/11/14 at 6:19pm
Mazzie was rightfully left out. She wasn't bad in BULLETS, but she played it big and it didn't really come together (she sounds wonderful on the cast recording, but her line readings are still too broad, the album does play a lot better than the show itself, but I digress). I think BULLETS got the one acting nod it deserved, but from the ladies, I preferred Helene Yorke.
Curious about the Lena Hall comment. Haven't caught her but I thought Emond was stunning in CABARET and also saw BEAUTIFUL for the first time a few weeks ago and was shocked that Anika Larsen didn't win for such an unaffected, funny, and fully-drawn performance.
Curious about the Lena Hall comment. Haven't caught her but I thought Emond was stunning in CABARET and also saw BEAUTIFUL for the first time a few weeks ago and was shocked that Anika Larsen didn't win for such an unaffected, funny, and fully-drawn performance.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#45
Posted: 10/11/14 at 6:41pm
"also saw BEAUTIFUL for the first time a few weeks ago and was shocked that Anika Larsen didn't win for such an unaffected, funny, and fully-drawn performance."
She did win a Drama Desk Award (even though it was in a tie with Lauren Worsham).
She did win a Drama Desk Award (even though it was in a tie with Lauren Worsham).
#46
Posted: 10/11/14 at 8:55pm
And the chairs in Scottsboro Boys were also designed specifically to meet the needs of all the staging. They didn't just stack random chairs for sets; they were built to be arranged in the various configurations by the actors onstage.
See, a bizarre nomination would have been [Title of Show] for Set Design since it literally is four chairs and a keyboard onstage. Scottsboro Boys is a very different beast, indeed.
Regarding Contact, it's not produced/revived anywhere because the music was licensed for that specific production. The rights are not available and it would be exceptionally cost prohibitive to obtain the rights to use all those recordings without some kind of deal. Further, the choreography is so essential to the production and is not available in any form to license for a new production. The show would not be the same with the same music and completely different choreography. It literally was a theatrical event since it cannot be recreated with all the intellectual property rights issues at play.
See, a bizarre nomination would have been [Title of Show] for Set Design since it literally is four chairs and a keyboard onstage. Scottsboro Boys is a very different beast, indeed.
Regarding Contact, it's not produced/revived anywhere because the music was licensed for that specific production. The rights are not available and it would be exceptionally cost prohibitive to obtain the rights to use all those recordings without some kind of deal. Further, the choreography is so essential to the production and is not available in any form to license for a new production. The show would not be the same with the same music and completely different choreography. It literally was a theatrical event since it cannot be recreated with all the intellectual property rights issues at play.
Updated On: 10/11/14 at 08:55 PM
#47
Posted: 10/11/14 at 10:30pm
I second Mary Bridget Davies in Janis Joplin. That nomination should have gone to Michelle Williams.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#48
Posted: 10/12/14 at 5:32pm
Dee Hoty as Leading Actress in Footloose. Like where the heck did that come from? The character of Vi is not even close as a leading part and doesn't do anything memorable.
#49
Posted: 10/12/14 at 6:24pm
Dee Hoty was above the title for Footloose and managed to bring a little class to the production. In such a lean year that was all she needed to get a nomination. The eligible but not-nominated women were Jennifer Laura Thompson, the other leading lady in Footloose, and Faith Prince in Little Me. Not exactly a banner year.
#50
Posted: 10/12/14 at 7:13pm
I could never figure out how De'Adre Aziza was nominated for Passing Strange, especially over Eisa Davis and Rebecca Naomi Jones.
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