Replacement Awards?

[GirlforTartaglia]

Posted: 5/11/05 at 7:33pm

I believe that I heard a while back about "Best Replacement" awards..I have no idea what anyone was talking about, but apparently award committees were thinking of having an award for Best Replacement..as in people who took over..like Goulet and Foa..Is this true? Obviously not for this time's Tony awards..but I think this would be a good idea..

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/11/05 at 7:36pm

Yeah there should be... I mean Shoshana should be nominated if there were such an award.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 5/11/05 at 7:40pm

I am for this award but there would have to be strict rules for it.

TONY voters have enough trouble making it to all the new productions of the season. This award would mean they would also have to go back to every show that's already been judged to see every replacement performer. That task would be a little difficult. I think the replacement performers would have to sign on for a certain amount of time. The TONY committee might even need to create a whole new committee just to judge the replacements. If they can set up a solid system...I say go for it.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/11/05 at 8:01pm

While perhaps one of the critics awards could do this since there are so few voters and critics often go back and review major replacements anyway, but it seems unworkable for the Tonys.

There are 750 Tony voters and as it stands now a large percentage of them (some estimate it at 30%) don't even manage to see all the nominated new shows in any given season, voting based on the handful of shows they do see as well as shows produced by friends and business partners. Also a large percentage of voters are from out of town and only get to New York once or twice a year and cram all of their Broadway theatregoing into a week or two.

Given all that, if you can't get voters to see all of the NEW shows every year, there's no way to get 750 voters to go back to every long-running hit on Broadway on top of that. I mean other than a few obsessed fans on the internet, who on earth would even want to go back year after year and year and have to see EVERY new Roxie and Velma and Phantom and Christine and Max and Leo and Nala and Simba and Mufasa and Mark and Joanne and Roger and Edna and Tracy and Elphaba and Galinda? And we're not talking going back once, but considering how often some of these roles change hands, voters would have to go back three and four times to some shows every season. Very few of the 750 voters have either the time, interest or desire to see these all these shows over and over again.

The Tony committee has talked about coming up with some way to honor replacements, but so far have yet to figure out a practical means of doing so. There's been talk of putting together a small mini-panel of voters (maybe a dozen or so) to attempt it, but nothing has come of that yet. There's also the concern of the fact that there might be an inherent bias in favor of big celebrity replacements over the unknowns. It's unclear that there's a fair and pragmatic means of administering such an award, but perhaps someday.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/11/05 at 8:10pm

There's also the issue that in many cases, non-celebrity replacements are not allowed to come up with their own interpretation of the role and are expected to produce a performance that is an exact carbon copy of the original performer's. I've had friends take over lead roles on Broadway and they were ordered to basically do a precise imitation of the original star -- exactly the same blocking, vocal inflections, singing interpretation etc.... Even the slightest variation in the smallest of details was strongly discouraged.

Is that the kind of performance that merits an award?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 5/11/05 at 8:17pm

Best Replacement (Celebrity)
Harvey Fierstein - Fiddler on the Roof
Brooke Shields - Wonderful Town
Robert Goulet - La Cage aux Folles
George Hearn - Wicked
Drew Lachey - Rent

Best Replacement (Non-Celebrity)
Shoshana Bean - Wicked
Jennifer Laura Thompson - Wicked
Barrett Foa - Avenue Q
Kelly Karbacz - Rent
Hunter Foster - The Producers