New Tony Award Category?

I was curious, what about a new TONY Award Category for "Best Incidental Music(or Lyrics) in Play". Why or why not?

I figured I would ask for opinions here because I know there are people who actually work in the industry and would know the ins and outs of this much better than I.

I've looked at credits on IBDB and most if not all new plays have a composer of music listed. Why not award them for their ARTISTIC contribution to a play?

---

Unfortunately, because incidental music (which is often more than merely incidental) doesn't draw your full attention like a regular musical number, it gets largely overlooked. Only in the cases of weak seasons or absolutely amazing underscoring does anyone even notice. Case in point, Twelfth Night was nominated in 1999 along with Parade (winner, and a great score in my opinion), Footloose (several bland new songs to join superior songs from the movie), and The Civil War (I won't get started). If you look at the 1998-99 season, is there anything else that was even eligible? Had there been, it probably would have taken the nomination, Tesori's strong work notwithstanding.

I think it'd be hard to justify having two awards for Best Original Score (Play/Musical).

---

But honestly, do the Plays with enough underscore ever really have a chance? Unless the year is REALLY weak.

---

I think Coast of Utopia was as well.

---

No... Sound Design and the music for mood of the production coming through the speakers that were placed around the theatre because of said "sound design" are two totally different things.

---