Outer Critics Circle Nominations

These are always the wackiest of the theater awards. 

From the bottom of the release:

"This season's fully eligible Broadway productions included Pass Over, Six, Lackawanna Blues, Chicken & Biscuits, Thoughts of a Colored Man, The Lehman Trilogy, Caroline, or Change, Diana, Trouble in Mind, Clyde's, Mrs. Doubtfire, Company, Flying Over Sunset, Skeleton Crew, MJ the Musical, The Music Man, Plaza Suite, Paradise Square, Take Me Out, Birthday Candles, The Little Prince, American Buffalo, The Minutes, How I Learned to Drive, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Funny Girl, The Skin of Our Teeth, Mr. Saturday Night, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.

After consideration in previous seasons, only new elements of the following productions were eligible for awards: Girl from the North Country, Is This A Room, Dana H., Hangmen, A Strange Loop.

By mutual agreement with the production, owing to Covid-19-related delays, the Broadway revival of Macbeth will be considered for awards during the 2022-2023 season.

The following return engagements were not eligible for awards: Springsteen on Broadway, Waitress, American Utopia, Freestyle Love Supreme, Slave Play, Beetlejuice."

KevinKlawitter said: "A Strange Loop missing out on Best Musical is wacky, unless there's an eligibility issue I'm not aware of. The strong showing for MJ as wellis reinforcing my suspicion that the subject matter might not be as taboo to awards bodies as some have predicted."

“After consideration in previous seasons, only new elements of the following productions were eligible for awards: Girl from the North Country, Is This A Room, Dana H., Hangmen, A Strange Loop.”

 

Also, as needs to be repeated every year, these awards have little to no ability to predict what will happen with the Tonys. 

These are always hilarious. 

Kad said: "These are always the wackiest of the theater awards."

I actually don't think this year's slate is very wacky overall, considering what was and wasn't eligible. Certainly less wacky that the Drama League, which is basically a participation award.

The Direction of a Musical and Book categories are the wackiest to me. Feels like Moisés Kaufman got a nomination as a way of saying "thanks for putting up with Garth," and Kimberly works in spite of its not-great direction.

Lenk missing is something that could very well happen on Tony morning –– you either love her performance or hate it, and that revival was not critically-adored.

This year's nominators are:

David Gordon
Simon Saltzman
Joseph Cervelli
Patrick Hoffman
David Roberts
Harry Haun
Cynthia Allen
Richard Ridge
Janice Simpson
Stanley L. Cohen

Five nominations for Mrs. Doubtfire seems like a surprise. 

This Actress category is a wonderful embarrassment of riches. Two Clark(e)s!

Kearstin Piper Brown, Intimate Apparel
Victoria Clark, Kimberly Akimbo
Sharon D Clarke, Caroline, or Change
Carmen Cusack, Flying Over Sunset
Joaquina Kalukango, Paradise Square

I understand Lenk and Foster getting shut out when you add in Off-broadway, but not Elliot. She should have been nominated.

However, the biggest snub for me is Gabby Beans. One of my absolute favorite performances of the season! 

Again: these have little to no bearing on what will happen with Tony noms.  Nothing to be terrified of.

They really liked Lehman, right? Can you imagine if all 3 actors get in at the Tonys?

Take Me Out with 3 actors nominated, but no Jesse Williams! (I think Adams may be a Tony spoiler)

They didnt like “Six”, huh? The lack of noms to Foster/Jackman and Company overall was not good.

Not afraid of nominating “MJ” may be a good sign for the production.

“Kimberly” came very strong, Bonnie been a virtual frontrunner for Next Years Tony seems good to me.

“Suffs” only nominated for Featured Actress? Wow

No Kenita? No Gabby Beans? bad!

dramamama611 said: "Again: these have little to no bearing on what will happen with Tony noms. Nothing to be terrified of."

Agreed, but I'm actually not sure they'll be THAT far off, at least compared to how far off they were in recent years. Company, for instance, received the 3 nominations it seems locked to get. Marianne Elliott probably gets in at the Tonys (although I don't think that's near the lock a lot of folks seem to think it is--that list could easily go Brackett, Zaks, Wheeldon, Longhurst, and Moss / Armitage) and it likely picks up at least one of Orchestrations or Scenic Design. But that could very well end up being it.

RippedMan said: "What's she's doing is straining for the notes."

This might have been true in March 2020 but it's not true now. Her voice is perfectly matched in the role now and she's grown into the vocal aspect of it beautifully.