People Audra Beat

[ItShoulaBeenMe2015]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 5:37pm

I wanna talk about everyone Audra beat... because it's amazing.

1994 - Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Marsha Lewis - GreaseSally Mayes - She Loves Me
Marin Mazzie - Passion
WINNER: AUDRA ANN MCDONALD - Carousel

 

1996 - Best Featured Actress in a Play
Viola Davis - Seven Guitars
Michele Shay - Seven Guitars
Lois Smith - Burred ChildWINNER: AUDRA MCDONALD - Master Class

 

1998 - Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Anna Kendrick - High Society
Tsidii Le Loka - Lion King
Mary Louise Wilson - CabaretWINNER: AUDRA MCDONALD - Ragtime

 

2004 - Best Featured Actress in a Play
Essie Davis - JumpersSanaa Lathan - Raisin' in the Sun
Margo Martindale - Cat on A Hot Tin Roof
Daphne Rubin Vega - Anna in the Tropics
WINNER: AUDRA MCDONALD - Raisin' in the Sun

 

2012 - Best Lead Actress in a Musical
Jan Maxwell - FolliesCristin Milioti - Once
Kelli O'Hara - Nice Work
Laura Osnes - Bonnie & Cylde
WINNER: AUDRA MCDONALD - Porgy & Bess

 

2014 - Best Lead Actress in a Play
Tyne Daly - Mothers and SonsCherry Jones - Glass Menagerie 
Estelle Parson - Velocity of Autumn
Latanya Richardson-Jackson - Raisin' in the Sun
WINNER: AUDRA MCDONALD - Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill

 

She only has ever lost to Christine Ebersole and Heather Headley. Discuss.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 5:40pm

Will Swenson.  Oops, we're not supposed to talk about performer's private lives.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 5:40pm

From what I understand, there is a Society of Audra-Losers that meets once a week in a basement, tells stories, sings songs, cries, gets in touch with their feelings, and drinks vodka.

Updated On: 5/29/15 at 05:40 PM

[ItShouldaBeenMe2015]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 5:54pm

I feel very bad for Jan Maxwell. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 6:12pm

I love me some Audra but I really wanted Maxwell to win. She was excellent in Follies.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 6:41pm

Why do you keep typing Raisin' in the Sun??   Why are you putting the apostrophe in raisin?   I promise I'm not being catty, but obviously it's not a typo.  The title comes from a Langston Hughes poem, titled Harlem (aka A Dream Deferred).  It's really beautiful.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

 

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 6:59pm

As much as I love these "losing" actresses and their performances, the only time I was disappointed/surprised was when she beat Viola Davis for Seven Guitars. The rest of these wins were richly deserved. Imo

[vfd88]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 8:54pm

I remember Cherry Jones getting great notices for Glass Menagerie last year. I didn't see either performance, but could most of the Tony voters have voted for her just to make history in the way they did? Or was Audra's performance genuinely superior? (That's a matter of opinion, I know)

[tazber]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 9:17pm

She was absolutely stunning in Lady Day.

It was a complete transformation.

That was a richly earned Tony.

[PianoMann]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 9:43pm

I'm in the camp that really wished Jan Maxwell won for Follies instead of Audra. I thought she was very good in Porgy and Bess and otherwise wouldn't begrudge her win, but Jan was giving the performance of her lifetime and I'm terribly sad she was overlooked! Not to mention she has yet to win a Tony Award...

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 10:44pm

Please, no shade, and agree to disagree, but no one needs a Tony. It should always go to the best performance, IMO. I adored Maxwell in Follies, but MacDonald's Bess was an acing and vocal master class. She only eclipsed it with her amazing Lady Day. 

Ms. Maxwell is a stunning actress. I wish she had more exposure for her talents!

 

[jv92]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 10:45pm

She was AWFUL in PORGY AND BESS. That was one performance she shouldn't have won for. Last year was tough. She was excellent, but so was Cherry Jones, and I would have voted for Cherry, because I LOVED everything about that production of THE GLASS MENAGERIE. It was, sadly, mostly overlooked last Tony season. 

 

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 10:49pm

-Your mom

[PianoMann]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 10:57pm

"Please, no shade, and agree to disagree, but no one needs a Tony. It should always go to the best performance, IMO. I adored Maxwell in Follies, but MacDonald's Bess was an acing and vocal master class. She only eclipsed it with her amazing Lady Day. 
Ms. Maxwell is a stunning actress. I wish she had more exposure for her talents!"

No, no shade from, and I agree that nobody needs a Tony Award; however, I thought Maxwell actually deserved the Tony over Audra for her performance in Follies, and, whether it is "appropriate" to think this way or not, hurts more considering Audra already had four while Maxwell has never had the honor. 

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 11:28pm

PM, total respect for that. I just disagree with anyone winning an award because they haven't yet. It just diminishes the honor. Ms. Maxwell will win her deserved Tony, no doubt, and if she doesn't, she'll be okay. 

Audra's Bess was "awful"? I am quite sure you didn't "see" it.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 11:44pm

I would have voted for Jan Maxwell that year, too, but I'm not upset Audra won. She was excellent in Porgy and Bess. I just thought Maxwell was better. 

Maxwell's performances are always so different and so memorable (from Phyllis to the Baroness Bomburst)- it's really more of a shame to me that she has never won, moreso than Kelli O'Hara. 

[ebontoyan]

Posted: 5/29/15 at 11:49pm

^I absolutely didn't see it since we left Porgy and Bess at intermission. Bored to death! But that was in January before any Tony talk and win

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 5/30/15 at 2:56am

Audra McDonald is an incredible performer, but sometimes I feel she didn't always deserved all those Tonys... which doesn't mean she's overrated or something, she's not! She's just over-awarded. Jan Maxwell and Cherry Jones should have won over Audra in my opinion.

[jv92]

Posted: 5/31/15 at 2:22pm

doddlenyc, I did indeed see Audra in DIANE PAULUS' PORGY AND BESS. I don't know why you would say I didn't. And what I saw was a mannered, pretentious, "Oh look at me! I'm acting!" performance. It was terrible. Just because she sang it well doesn't mean it was good. 

Just because I didn't like it didn't mean I didn't see it. 

 

 

 

 

 

[skies]

Posted: 6/1/15 at 2:57pm

Marindale in COAHTR was wonderful.  

Big Mama indeed.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/1/15 at 3:00pm

We saw Porgy & Bess but she was out that day. Her understudy was terrific.

[bekk99]

Posted: 6/1/15 at 3:21pm

Count me in the Jan Maxwell camp. A perfectly realized and powerful performance. One of the ones that has most stuck with me to this day.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/1/15 at 4:01pm

Lawrence Olivier