I’m really interested in what everyone thinks about some of the major outstanding Tony eligibility rulings. I’m really focused on the performance categories.
I think the following actors will be bumped from Featured Actor to Leading Actor in a Musical:
-Derrick Baskin (Ain’t Too Proud)
-Will Roland (Be More Chill)
-Alex Brightman (Beetlejuice)
-Reeve Carney (Hadestown)
-Santino Fontana (Tootsie)
-Damon Daunno (Oklahoma!)
I think the following actors will be bumped from Featured Actor to Leading Actor in a Play:
-Chuck Cooper (Choir Boy)
-Jeremy Pope (Choir Boy)
-Bertie Carvel (Ink)
-Jonny Lee Miller (Ink)
I think the following actresses will be bumped from Featured Actress to Leading Actress in a Musical:
-Sophia Anne Caruso (Beetlejuice)
-Eva Noblezada (Hadestown)
-Christiani Pitts (King Kong)
-Rebecca Naomi Jones (Oklahoma!)
-Lilli Cooper (Tootsie)
-Sarah Stiles (Tootsie)
I think the following actors will be bumped from Leading Actor to Featured Actor in a Musical:
I think Jeremy Pope will be the only lead for Choir Boy - Chuck Cooper's role was definitely supporting.
And Bertie Carvel was considered Featured at the Oliviers, so I have to think they'll follow suit here. (Haven't seen it yet, so just going off of that factor.)
Bertie Carvel could win in Featured, and by all accounts he is not the lead. He gets billed first because it's alphabetical. If his team is smart, they'll keep him in Featured. (Some of the complaints about his performance in Matilda was that it wasn't actually a lead performance, so they probably don't want a category fraud repeat)
Unless major changes have been made since Chicago, both of the Tootsie ladies are featured. Though I saw her understudy Ms. Flesner, Sarah Stiles has a standout comic role that screams nomination. Ms. Cooper was sorely underused imo, with only one solo song that is among the weakest in the score. But the role as it was written in Chicago is certainly supporting also.