No Special Tony Award for Aladdin?

Even though I knew it'd happen, I'm a little bit surprised that Aladdin got nominated for Best Score, despite the fact that 98% of the songs were written for the movie. If most of the score is ineligible, why not give Aladdin a Special Tony Award? They should do this, especially to honor the late Howard Ashman, who should be recognized for his amazing work for theatre and film. Not to mention that this is his last chance of getting a Tony (I could be wrong).

And even within the songs that WERE heard in the film, there is a significant amount of new material.

Personally, if it were up to me, the score would have been ineligible simply because the majority of the songs in the score have been recorded and released commercially. Even though a lot of the songs were not used in the movie "Proud of Your Boy" has been covered quite extensively on solo albums and demos of all the other cut songs have been released on CD and digital download to the point where a lot of the public and especially Disney and Aladdin fans were very aware of them. It's not the same as Newsies where more than half the score was new and written specifically for the show, but it wasn't my decision so who cares really?

^Wasn't it because of Tommy that the percentage rule was put into effect?

*** Also in the case of Superstar and Aida I think it's okay to release a concept album in advance of the premiere of the stage show. That's not really the same as say American Idiot where one could argue that the original Green Day record was a concept album, but the songs and album were out for public consumption and winning awards 5 years before the stage incarnation even came to be and that's a different matter, and (I believe) the reason why the score was deemed ineligible.

As far as I understand, the Tony voters are not considering the Aladdin songs that were actually in the film, but they are considering the four new songs and the songs that were cut from the film which is fine, it's just not what I would have decided, that's all. I also wouldn't have gone so far as to award them a special Tony as the OP suggested.

Updated On: 4/30/14 at 06:22 PM

No, TOMMY was allowed because the composers said they wrote TOMMY originally for the Stage.

The % rule goes back to David Merrick's STATE FAIR. But only the new songs were allowed to be considered by voters.

Was there a song written specifically for the film that wasn't on the original album, and was that requirement in place in 1993?