Question About Tony Rules?

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 1/29/06 at 7:32pm

So, as we know, Maria Friedman has missed a considerable amount of performaces, obviously 100% warranted of course. What are the Tony Awards restrictions on how many performances you can miss and still be eligible? I have no clue, I just know for instance that Ann Reinking wasn't eligible for CHICAGO because of her absences. Anyone have any insight?

[respeck]

Posted: 1/29/06 at 7:36pm

I also wondered why Ann wasn't nominated...

[musicalsaregreat]

Posted: 1/29/06 at 7:42pm

I think Ann wasn't nominated because she had played the role in the original production and therefore could not be nominated in the revival. If anyone can confirm that, I'd appreciate it.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/29/06 at 8:10pm

Absences have NOTHING to do with Tony eligibility and, in fact, the Tony committee just officially declared Friedman eligible for Best Actress. Mind you, having a reputation for being unreliable can hurt your chances of winning the award in June, but given Friedman's openness about the serious nature of her health issues, her abssences shouldn't hurt her at all and in fact may help her (people think of her as brave and a real trouper and may want to reward her for her courage, in addition to the fact that she's giving a great performance).

Reinking's absences didn't cost her a nomination. The acting categories that year only had four slots a piece instead of five, so she just got left out. Also, it was obvious to the nominating committee that Reinking was likely going to win a Tony for her choreography (which she did), so there wasn't a major push to also include her in the Best Actress category.

And while yes, she had played the role before in the original production, that didn't preclude her from being nominated for the revival. You only get disqualified if you had been eligible for the Tony for playing that same role sometime in the past (even if you didn't get an actual nomination that year). She was a replacement for Verdon after Minnelli left the show and thus wasn't eligible to be nominated -- replacements have only become eligible this year. She was eligible to be nominated in 1997, but was simply overlooked.

EDIT: And recall that Verdon left the original production after just a few weeks of performances to have vocal surgery and missed months of performances, yet she still received a Tony nomination. Again, absences have nothing to do with eligibility.

Updated On: 1/29/06 at 08:10 PM

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 1/29/06 at 8:14pm

Thanks Margo.

Though, I could have SWORN I read somewhere that you can be deemed ineligible for missing a certain amount. Oh well. Glad to hear, cause, she would definitely have my vote thus far.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 1/29/06 at 11:54pm

Also, the Tony Awards committee seem to make up the rules as they go along. Something this year will be different next year. That's why they announce eligibilities.

[mikem]

Posted: 1/30/06 at 12:47am

I think you can be ineligible if you miss so much that the voters can't see your performance. There have been shows that closed so quickly that it was decided that they were not Tony eligible because the voters didn't see the show. I think Larry Kert (Dean Jones's replacement) got nominated for Company for that reason, although others on the board probably know more of the details. But, as Fosse76 said, the rules change from year to year, so it's very hard to keep track.