Is Patina Miller the frontrunner for Lead actress right now? — Page 3

It's close between Patina and the Matildas, but after seeing both shows I would give it to Patina. I was blown away by her perfomance.

I'm almost positive that the Tony voters were invited to see BILLY three times, to see each boy perform. Whether they did or didn't was up to them.

I'm sure the MATILDA producers will do the same thing.

Forced, I tell you. FORCED!

On Patina vs the Matildas...
This is an odd circumstance where a group of children are pitted against a seasoned adult. Here's my criteria (but please note I'm not sharing my answers yet!):

A group of 9 and 10-year-olds are challenged to demonstrate some fairly sophisticated emotions that are usually beyond their experience (i.e. performing "Quiet", and delivering some strong story-telling in "I'm Here" as just two examples), as well as delivering vocals and other acting/dancing abilities. How well did they, as a group, step up to the plate to meet that challenge? (Uh-oh... a SPORTS metaphor...!) Did they offer enough skill to match, or to compete with the skills of an adult?

An adult is also called upon to deliver similar story-telling, singing and acting abilities. Regardless of age, did the adult meet those challenges "better" - even if that means calling upon adult experiences a child wouldn't have? Did the adult demonstrate an unusually creative performance that went above and beyond what another adult actor might give if cast in the same role?

Basically (in MY mind only), I want to know who went "above and beyond" using criteria that feels appropriate to each situation. I think that the Matildas have a disadvantage because there are four of them. If one or two of them fall shorter in meeting the challenge than the other two or three, the group "suffers" as a whole.

I haven't seen Patina Miller's performance, but (IMO) the role of the Lead Player does not hold the same challenges (in respect to delivering a performance that falls so far outside of an actor's emotional/performance experience) than the role of Matilda does; but there are four of them that all need to step up. Feel free to disagree!

Updated On: 4/20/13 at 02:16 PM

There are four. Bailey Ryon, Oona Laurence, Milly Shapiro, and Sophia Gennusa.

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>DOH!<
Stoopid.. with two 'O's! (meaning me... I've corrected) In my defense, I only saw one on stage. 8^0

Updated On: 4/20/13 at 02:30 PM

No offense, but I am really annoyed about this.

There is 4 Matildas because it sounds like there is NO way that a 9/10 year old can handle a role like Matilda every day. Of course, when I see it in a month, I will find out to see if the role is "hard". When the role will get nominated, of course all 4 MATILDAS will share the nomination. Why are people saying just because there are 4 girls, it means that they will have a lesser chances of winning/being nominated? There are 4 Billy Elliots and all of them won because of their roles and performances, not because of the number. Why even say the boys that were Billy Elliot only won because of the numbers? They look fantastic! And when the Matildas get nominated and if they win, it's because of their work, NOT the number. The end.

BTW: For the Matildas vs. Patina, I currently do not have opinion on who deserves it more because again, I'm seeing Matilda really soon. The 5 leading ladies both look fantastic, but despite of how spectacular Patina looks, so far I say that my money is on the Matildas.

There are 4 Billy Elliots and all of them won because of their roles and performances, not because of the number.

There were actually only THREE Billys.

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If anyone thinks the bulk of the voters are going to see all four Matildas, they have no insight into what actually goes on during awards season and are kidding themselves, and I personally find it bizarre, wrong, and stupid to reward a performance that you haven't actually seen. Having seen two different Matildas, I can say that they were not on the same level and there were distinct weaknesses and strengths that each had. To act like all four are on the same playing field, especially when we're talking about one of the most prestigious awards the theatre community gives out, and to judge them practically sight unseen against performers who are doing a 8 show week and giving insanely memorable turns like Patina Miller...it's just ridiculous to me.

At that point, you really are rewarding the part and not the actress, and the award for crafting a role belongs to the book writer. Sorry, that's my opinion and when the Billys won, I found it equally ridiculous.

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>> "Having seen two different Matildas, I can say that they were not on the same level and there were distinct weaknesses and strengths that each had"

Now see, I completely agree with your point. IMO, I think the Tony committee needs to define their criteria for what to do with roles that are multicast. Particularly in the case of child actors (and in reality, I think 'ONLY in the case...'), I can easily see combining the strengths of multiple performances into "one" performance for consideration. ...But the Tony committee has no such ruling(s) that I'm aware of, so I currently take the viewpoint of "one for all/all for one" - if one performance isn't as consistently portrayed as another, I audit with a "deficit".

The one adult performance that I would also consider for "one" nomination would be Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch in Frankenstein. To my mind, swapping the actors in the roles was as important to the "performance" as any singular depiction.

Hey... maybe that should be the criterion? In cases where casting multiple actors enhances the audience perception of a singular role, multiple actors can be considered for a singular award..????

Updated On: 4/20/13 at 03:50 PM

When I was 9, I was learning fractions, how to do long division, memorizing how to spell words like "computer" or "receive", and struggling! I give the Matildas major props for learning an entire show of dialogue, choreography, songs, stage directions, all while acting as a different character. All that while still going to school and learning the stuff I did. It may only be two days a week, but it's a heck of a lot more I could do at age 9. Also, I think that only doing it 2 days week would make it harder for them to keep everything memorized, since it's not a daily routine. I agree that Patina Miller should win, but I give the Matildas a lot of credit for doing what they do.

"Okay, but the point is that they have the OPTION to see each of them perform the role. The option is there. It's not like they're only invited to see the show once and only once, and have to vote based on that single performance."

That's correct. But everyone knows that all of the nominators/voters will not see Matilda four times to see all four performances. The fact remains that if they win, they will have won with, in my opinion, at least half the voters not having even seen them perform. It's a bit hard for me to accept it was reasonable to watch someone taking home a Tony award for a performance given two shows a week for a shared part that was unseen by a large chunk of the voters. That's just my opinion. It is not the same as giving a full time performance (IMO an 8 show week or 6 shows with an alternate for a particularly difficult role) and being the actress any voter or nominator who saw the show would have seen in that role (barring unforeseen illness of course, though most actors I know try to keep it together for Tony season).

"Bottom line is that there will be a MATILDA sweep this year and I am a firm believer that the four girls will take the prize. The "backlash" everyone talks about the year that the BILLY boys won is complete B.S. There was no "backlash" against the show or the boys anywhere except on the message boards."

Is anyone arguing that the girls don't have a great chance at taking the award? I certainly wasn't. I can acknowledge the likelihood of their win without supporting the reasoning behind it.

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