Is there any show where ONLY the FEATURED roles have been nominated?

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 1:55pm

Was just wondering... If there was any show(s) that got Tony nods for just the featured actors and none for leading?

[little_sally]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 1:59pm

Spelling Bee

[dreaming]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 2:09pm

This year Women on the Verge received two best featured actress nods but failed to get any leading actress or actor ones. (Don't know if there was an eligible leading actor.)

[MultitudesofHarrys]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 2:23pm

Famously, when 1776 came out, William Daniels was nominated for Featured Actor and asked that his name be pulled bcs he considered his role the lead. So Ron Holgate won instead fromthe same show.

Chenoweth and Bart for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

The cast of La Plume de Ma Tante back in the day were nominated as a unit, and won, in the Featured category.

Henderson Forsythe and Carlin Glynn won Featured Tonys for Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and a good thing they were nominated there, otherwise they would have been crushed by the Sweeney Todd juggeraut. Their producers were smart.

Daniel Jenkins, Rene Auberjonois and Ron Richardson from Big River. Richardson won.

There are probably many more examples.

Back in the day it had nothing to do with anything but billing. If your name wasn't above the title on the marquee, you were nominated in the Featured Category regardless of the size of the role. (Like Yul Brynner in The King and I.) I don't know when that changed.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 2:49pm

It is still that way, I believe, except I think it goes by who's above the title in the Playbill unless the producers want to petition for someone to be put in leading when they're below the title or featured when they're above (like what happened with John Larroquette this year).

[MultitudesofHarrys]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 4:39pm

I think now it's the producers' call, period. IDK if the Playbill or marquee matters anymore. Les Miserables had two Lead noms and three Featured noms and none of them were above tht title. I believe producers and agents submit now, as they do with the Oscars.

[egghumor]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 7:23pm

I'm sure with a bit of reasearch, several examples can be found. Three shows that came to mind for me were GOLDILOCKS [1958] where featured actors Pat Stanley and Russell Nype were nominated and won -- but the leads Elaine Stritch and Don Ameche were not (and Stritch sounds fab on the cast LP). Also I remembered that two featured actors in HIGH SOCIETY [1998] were nominated (John McMartin and young Anna Kendrick) but leads Melissa Errico, Stephen Bogardus, and Daniel McDonald were not.
A similar situation with the first Broadway I ever saw, TWO BY TWO [1970] where only featured actor Walter Willison garnered a Tony nomination, but not the over-the-title star, Danny Kaye.



Updated On: 6/14/11 at 07:23 PM

[MyLife]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 7:25pm

Do we count Spelling Bee even if there were no actors considered "Leading"?

[Ryan4]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 8:22pm

The Playbill still matters. You're a lead if you're above the title, featured if you're below. The committee can move you around if they wish, or the producers can petition to have you moved.

No producers or agents submit anything to the Oscars. The category in which an actor is placed is entirely at the discretion of the nominators.
Updated On: 6/14/11 at 08:22 PM

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 8:50pm

How to Succeed revival.

[leefowler]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 9:42pm

Young Frankenstein

[roseaddams]

Posted: 6/14/11 at 11:14pm

"No producers or agents submit anything to the Oscars. The category in which an actor is placed is entirely at the discretion of the nominators."

Not to threadjack but that's not true. The placement of actors for Oscar consideration is largely determined by studio PR representatives. Screener DVDs are sent directly to nominators for consideration in specific categories. They're also responsible for the For Your Consideration ads in trade papers. (Jennifer Hudson as Supporting Actress was determined by Dreamworks, not by the size of her part in Dreamgirls.) The only instance I can think of the nominators disregarding the selected category is Kate Winslet as lead instead of supporting, as she submitted herself for The Reader.

Returning to the thread, the full cast of The Norman Conquests in 2009 were eligible for Featured Actor/Actress in a Play.

[Ryan4]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 9:35am

No matter what the PR hype is, the buck still stops with the nominators. In addition to Kate Winslet for The Reader, Keisha-Castle Hughes for Whale Rider is another recent example of voters telling the studios' marketing departments to shove it. I'm sure there are others I can't remember at the moment. Bottom line is it's different from the Tonys as there is no formal process of deciding what category someone is placed in before nominations are made.

[EvelynOakleigh]

Posted: 6/15/11 at 1:58pm

Addams Family- Kevin Chamberlin was the only actor with a nomination

[Matt2]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 4:02am

Talk about reviving an old thread, but here I go:

I don't really get why the actors in "The Norman Conquests" were placed in the featured category. Norman, Reg, Sarah and Annie are all clearly leading roles-- they're almost always onstage (yes, Norman is absent for all of Act One in "Table Manners", but his presence is always felt, and he's almost always present for the other two plays). The character of Tom makes a better argument for the featured category, and Ruth is certainly a supporting part.
Conversely, I wondered why all four members of the "God of Carnage" cast were submitted (and subsequently nominated) in the lead categories while the Norman Conquest actors all went as featured. I suppose it all comes down to politics and what the producers want to do.

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 7:33am

"No producers or agents submit anything to the Oscars. The category in which an actor is placed is entirely at the discretion of the nominators."

Not to threadjack but that's not true. The placement of actors for Oscar consideration is largely determined by studio PR representatives. Screener DVDs are sent directly to nominators for consideration in specific categories. They're also responsible for the For Your Consideration ads in trade papers. (Jennifer Hudson as Supporting Actress was determined by Dreamworks, not by the size of her part in Dreamgirls.) The only instance I can think of the nominators disregarding the selected category is Kate Winslet as lead instead of supporting, as she submitted herself for The Reader.

This is absolutely false information.

Nobody "submits" themselves and no PR firm or studio "submits" people in categories to the Academy. No screeners are sent to voters with specific categories already in place. Wrong. The "for your consideration" ads are only suggestions, just like a politician, meant to influence the voters. The Actors Branch of the Academy (I have had friends in it and have seen the process firsthand for many years), receive a paper ballot in the mail with five blank lines for each of the four awards for acting. They can write in any name they want in any category they want. There are no rules in place for "leading" vs. "supporting."

Updated On: 3/8/12 at 07:33 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 7:40am

As for the Tonys, if you're going to site the example of Big River, you have to realize that this was the year they did away with the leading categories for musical performances. So the producers of Big River couldn't have submitted Daniel Jenkins as a leading actor playing Huck. The category didn't exist. Fortunately, he was still eligible since Big River had "favored nations" billing, meaning the entire cast (like A Chorus Line and 1776) was billed alphabetically below the title. So he was still eligible for a featured award. He was nominated (as pointed out above), but lost to Ron Richardson.

There were no eligible women that year for a leading actress Tony and only two eligible men (Ben Vareen and Stubby Kaye) for "Grind." So they did away with the leading categories altogether. It did screw those two guys over, though, in the process.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 8:43am

Matt, clearly it is very political, but there is quite a difference between God of Carnage where all four actors are always on stage and in action and The Norman Conquests where the company of six come in and out depending on whether they are in the kitchen, drawing room or garden (with Ruth and Tom sometimes not being on the property at all, so I can understand your distinction).

Among many bizarre featured tonys is Blair Brown's in Copenhagen. An intense, challenging three character play in which all three are continually on stage and in action and Brown was the only woman.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 5:45pm

True, but Margaret spends the majority of the play watching Bohr and Heisenberg talk. So if you're going by "talk time" rather than stage time, it's a supporting role.

Leading versus supporting designations can be so arbitrary anyway.

[Jon]

Posted: 3/8/12 at 7:13pm

The "Your'e A Good Man, Charlie Brown" revival and "Contact" both swept the Supporting awards, with no "Lead" nominations.