Christian Hoff, JERSEY BOYS, 2006 Best Featured Actor in a Musical

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Christian Hoff (JERSEY BOYS, 2006 Tony winner, Best Featured Actor MUSICAL) after seeing him in THE MIDTOWN MEN -- featuring three original JERSEY BOYS.

Such a kind & generous person. And his singing & dancing were terrific! At a meet-&-greet Daniel Reichard & I discussed Christian's semi-surprise Tony win...his co-star immediately mentioning Jim Dale from The Threepenny Opera as the favorite in Christian's category.

Since I just discovered this board I thought it might be fun to post this & get some responses & reactions to Christian Hoff's Tony win. Many had John Lloyd Young as the heavy favorite in his category...yet initial support for Christian Hoff during the nomination season wasn't as strong. Thoughts? Reactions? Reflections?

(And Reichard mentioned Brandon Victor Dixon as taking his own place in the nomination lineup.)

To clarify: Many had John Lloyd Young winning Best Actor (Musical) yet Christian Hoff wasn't seen by many as the favorite to win Best Featured Actor (Musical).

There is nothing to suggest that Balthazar is claiming they were in the same category:

Many had John Lloyd Young as the heavy favorite in his category...yet initial support for Christian Hoff during the nomination season wasn't as strong.

Why would the OP add in "in his category" if he thought Both Jersey men were in the same one?

The OP could have said: Many had John Lloyd Young as the heavy favorite in his category...yet initial support for Christian Hoff in his respective category during the nomination season, wasn't as strong.

But it was not difficult by any means to understand what he meant.

Or maybe I'm reading it wrong.

In any case, Favorites haven't been awarded the Tony, multiple times. Most recently Sydney Lucas in Fun Home.

Actually, now that I re-read it, I am a bit confused also. What exactly are you asking?

My question pertains to Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 2006: what were the assessments of Christian Hoff's chances winning? What was the feeling in the air between the time of the nomination announcement and the actual ceremony regarding Hoff's performance winning the Tony Award?

I just discovered this message board recently & though it would be a fun question to ask. His is my favorite Cinderella Tony victory, probably ever.

I actually don't remember Hoff being in many of the conversations surrounding the Featured Actor in a Musical race, but I always saw him as a wild card pick with plenty of goodwill toward his vehicle going for him. I didn't have him down to win (I had picked Dale myself), but I wasn't surprised at all when Hoff won.

I remember Jim Dale being the "favorite," but there didn't seem to be a lot of passion for his performance from the theater fans. I remember everyone being very vocal about how they hoped Hoff would be nominated. And when he was, people were very vocal about his nomination being very deserved. So the fact that he won was a little bit of a surprise to me, but it seemed to make sense after thinking about it.

To maintain the pace, what about Danny Burstein's chances as the clueless lothario Adolpho in The Drowsy Chaperone? The song I AM ADOLPHO is hilarious & I'm wondering if his name was in the mix that year? (I've forgotten...I know that Jim Dale was the favorite, with Christian Hoff second. Can't recall Brandon Victor Dixon, Felciano, or Burstein's "rankings" in the general consensus predictions.)

According to Broadway.com's coverage of the 2006 Tony Predictions, 82% of experts predicted Jim Dale would win, 9% predicted Brandon Victor Dixon, and another 9% predicted Christian Hoff. Melissa Rose Bernardo (Entertainment Weekly) was the only one among the experts listed who got it right.

Click Here!

I was definitely rooting for The Drowsy Chaperone that year, the only show that really wowed me. Jersey Boys is perfectly fine, perfectly fun, but 95% merely a concert of Four Seasons songs with some reductive, not-quite-true biography mixed in. The Color Purple is, to me, a totally inept piece of cinema rip-off masquerading as musical theatre. The Wedding Singer isn't really worth discussing.

So I was hoping for a win for Burstein, who I found hilarious as Aldolpho. Hoff was charming and hit his marks, but didn't even have a significant solo number or character song of any kind in his show.

I didn't have any dog in the race for Best Actor - I loved Bob Martin, but without any song at all (other than a slight reprise of one at the end), it's not really a "Best Actor in a Musical" role to me. Cerveris was impressive in a gimmicky Sweeney. Lloyd Young sang very well and gave, I thought, an utterly one-dimensional and humorless performance as Valli.

Second of all, Hoff was only forced to leave due to an injury early into previews.

As newintown has already indicated, this is not the truth.

Updated On: 7/20/15 at 05:00 PM

The only thing newintown has said, is that people shouldn't believe the press releases. He has said nothing about what he thinks the truth is.

He was not let go due to an injury. I assure you that.

I had forgotten that Matthew Risch and Joe Mantellon were an item. I do remember when this all went down how no one believed the reasons given.