Kristin Chenoweth's Tony Snubs — Page 2

imo, Kristen was amazing when she first did THE APPLE TREE at Encores, and I was thrilled when the show transferred to Studio 54. However, something had happened in the intervening months, and when I saw it again at 54, all the subtlety was gone, and Kristen was working overtime to make the show work, On that basis alone, she did not deserve a Tony nomination for her Broadway performance.

On the other hand, she was brilliant all over again in ON THE 20TH CENTURY, and I was so dazzled that I went to see it again during its closing week, shortly after Kristen had her Menieres syndrome attack. Her problem was so acute that the show was stopped after her opening number, where she seemed a bit wobbly, and held up for ten minutes. We did not know about her physical ailment at that point (it was only reported later in the press), and when the show resumed the announcement was some lame comment about "technical difficulty" being corrected. Surprisingly, she performed the rest of the act, and even Act 2 but at barely half her usual energy. I only learned of her problem when I went home and online. The management should have stopped the performance totally, or perhaps brought in her understudy, but that didn't happen.

Don't get me wrong, I think she is a brilliant talent. But the variability of her performances, perhaps due to this ongoing illness, may be the cause to her being snubbed for another Tony.

I have seen TKAI several times. And now, as of this year, OTTC.

I found Chenoweth to be so mind-bogglingly fantastic that I can't imagine any performance of Anna from TKAI outdoing it. What a fluid and tour de force performance of what seems to be a difficult role.

IMO, anyone who is a good actress and singer (and KO is a great actress and singer) should be able to handle the role of Anna.

Again, I'm not so sure the same can be said about the role of LG after having seen it.

I saw OTTC four times (two previews) and still keep listening to the cast recording. I didn't expect to fall in love with this show. I hope it was recorded, because I don't think Broadway has much room for crazy comedies full of multi-talented people.

20th Century opened to great reviews, especially in the New York papers, but after King and I and Fun Home stormed in and collected all the Tonys, OTTC just seemed to slink along to the end of its run unnoticed. Have seen nothing about possible transfer to London.

Stephanie J and Brian d'Arcy James will be doing the New York Pops holiday concert at Carnegie Hall.

LMcC95 said: "It was Kelli turn to win. That was political as political could get.

And that's what it basically boils down to with any award show. That's why I personally take award shows with a grain of salt.

OlBlueEyes said: " With that said, it's just an award at the end of the day, and Kristin has had a great career and she won an Emmy and a Tony. Plenty of great performers and great performances don't get nominated.




In my opinion they could have justly given the award to either, or called it a tie.




But I think that the award was given to Kelli just because the judges could not allow Kelli to be nominated six times without winning, especially since she had deserved to win a couple of those years.




As for an award just being an award at the end of the day, I agree and would have thought that with all of the success that Kelli is enjoying in her personal and professional lives that she would have said that it was great to finally win the award but she would have understood if another of the actresses had won and been fine with it.




Instead she made it clear when her emotions overcame her that she really did want to win the award at last and would have been hurt, or at least disappointed, if she had not won.



Wouldn't you, lol? Everyone wants to win the award, no matter how much they think that they will or the moment before the envelope is opened. It's only human nature after all. I certainly would be happy for getting recognition for my work after sitting through 5 previous losses. I was thrilled for her win(and loved her performance), but I do agree that her being overdue was the thing that put her over the top- If she had won for Bridges the year previously, Kristin would have won. On The Twentieth Century has grown on me since I saw it on Broadway and Kristin was amazing in the role- Shame that she didn't win her Tony for it because it's probably the best of her Tony nominations. I say bring it back again with her reprising the role and have her have the chance to win again, lol, if that's even allowed.





















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Updated On: 8/1/23 at 03:03 AM

I agree that Kristin lacks versatility and some times she's mismatched with material where her persona overshadows the depth or emotion of a more subdued ballad, though there are some ballads where she hits it out of the park.

That said, when I saw her on OTTC, I was blown away. What she does, she does very well. Seeing her live in a role that fit her perfectly was what I think people must have felt when they saw Merman, Channing, Martin, etc. live in their signature roles. To me, it was that special and worthy of the Tony.

However, Kelli O'Hara also amazed me as Anna. She really brought out something new there and Anna and The King and I is just excellent material that I understand those who voted for her. I go back and forth myself.

As for The Apple Tree, I think what also hurt Kristin on top of the reasons already stated above is that I bet many compared her to the incomparable Barbara Harris who was a real life eccentric and that special personal quality really added something to her performance and pushed it over the top to something that could not be denied an award. Kristin, at times, was a bit conscious in her performance and I remember hearing reports that the show didn't really have a strong AD to really keep it in check and I bet that "freedom" and probably desperation to sell the show as much as possible may have led Kristin to fall into her schtick in the hopes of making the show bigger-than-life. It was still a very lovely and beautiful performance and superior to anything Laura Bell Bundy did in Legally Blonde even though the show made sure that you saw all the effort and physicality Bundy was expending in the show. I think Bundy lacked real depth, even for a character like Elle Woods. I think a better actress would have seriously elevated that role and thus the material. Bundy really lacked that, IMO.

Updated On: 4/12/17 at 09:52 AM

Ado Annie D'Ysquith said: "I like K-Chen enough, but I feel the amount of roles she can play is limited. Don't get me wrong, she plays those roles very well, but I wouldn't call her a particularly versatile actress. I'll never forget in her "Coming Home" concert, she sang "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" and didn't get the melancholy or emotions of the song at all. You can only play Sally/Glinda/Cunegonde/Lily Garland so many times...



"

I don't think this statement is fair to Ms. Chenoweth. The characters you listed are hardly similar to one another. She may not be a total chameleon like Jessie Mueller, but she brings a ton of depth to her characters that always differs. I look forward to her return to the Broadway stage.

Okay, maybe not Sally, and Lily Garland is a meaty role, don't get me wrong. But when I watched clips of her Cunegonde, all I saw was Glinda...complete with a pink "Popular" dress...and she comes across, to me, as interpreting her characters very similarly.

AC126748, I think you're right in that they tend to mesh with her personality. My point was more that in the one semi-straight-man role she did (Fran Kubelik), she struggled...

My point was more that in the one semi-straight-man role she did (Fran Kubelik), she struggled...

I agree with LarryD2 who wrote above that Chenoweth was miscast as Fran. She was 15-20 years too old for the role and none of the character's traits played to her strengths. It was clear that Ashford didn't know how to direct her, so she ended up falling back on her personal quirks, which didn't serve the character. It's probably the least successful performance of her stage career, but not indicative of a pattern, I'd say.

So, middle of the night and it was time to revisit an old thread. Fine, I saw 20th Century four times and The King and I four times and I don't know if I've seen anything since then that I liked as much.

One thought. Kristin is a person who can generate strong feelings both positive and negative. Her quirky personality, her warmth and her openness draw a lot of real love from her fans.

Sadly, this usually causes a backlash against such a person due to envy, or perhaps because her persona just doesn't appeal to them and they resent all the attention she gets.

I'm thinking of a column written by a Brit reviewer to his readers back in London advising them on the best that was currently playing on Broadway. He ranked ONTT around sixth or seventh and wrote, and this I paraphrase from memory: "I realize that many Londoners have little affection for Kristin Chenoweth and her ongoing schtick, but her performance in this show was dazzling."

Mr. Sinatra, I can assure you that my lukewarm attitude here does not come from a place of resentment. In fact, I thought she was perfectly cast in Hairspray Live...

Soaring29 said: "Kristin have her own brand of style that she brings to every role, but so does literally every other actor. Yes, performers can be versatile in many ways(Especially Chenoweth IMO), but at the end of the day, there''s always that "you" factor in every aspect of an actor's work, no matter how different the role is. Kristin has done quite a bit of work as a comedian, but I do not think that her comedic work is simply phoning it in, nor does it get old to me. I think she can handle intimate ballads beautifully(just listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukzY2ODrUmM and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmeQ2I9ae1w) and be quite a fierce dramatic presence when she needs to be(see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmEXIKAJIV4 and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcbFSllqqn4).

She isn't perfect of course: Her Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again is certainly not very intimate, with her playing up the operatic nature of the song, but hey, if that she wants to do with the song, then she's going to do it, lol. There's no performer who's perfect and again, it's all subjective. I personally feel that she does get typecast in comedic roles on Broadway a lot, but in concert work, she is able to show many more sides of herself since those concerts are her expressing herself for who she is, not from the point of view of a character. "


I agree with everything you said. Speaking of "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again", I'm sure if she was in a well-oiled production with a strong director, Kristin could capture the song. It may not be people's favorite rendition, but it would be closer than the way she chose to do it in concert. Plus, she prefaced her concert performance with a little anecdote about being inspired because she heard a soprano voice, not a screamer but a singer, on the cast album. That might be why she chose to emphasize the more operatic aspects.

I think it's the decades of being type cast and becoming much more famous, thus turning her personality into a marketable entity, that may make it harder for her to reach back, but I don't doubt that she can. When she was younger and not living the celebrity lifestyle, she seemed to be a lot more toned down in many aspects.

Updated On: 4/12/17 at 08:49 PM