Riedel: Tony race heats up as Neverland fades, and Twentieth Century butts heads with King and I — Page 2

In fact, re-reading the On The Twentieth Century review, this the ONLY part where Brantley singles out Chenoweth:

"As for Ms. Chenoweth, rebounding brilliantly after having to dampen her natural star fire in a strained revival of "Promises, Promises" five years ago, she uses Lily’s histrionics to create one of the most virtuosic portraits in song ever on Broadway. The vocal vocabulary she deploys here ranges from jazz-baby brass to operatic silver, often in a single number, and she switches among them with jaw-dropping ease. Leading the big fantasy production number “Babette,” in which Lily ponders her divergent choices in art and love, Ms. Chenoweth seems to become an entire epic cast of divided selves. And every perfectly weighted note is set off by an impeccably exaggerated gesture. When Cecil B. DeMille-style shafts from heaven (it’s Donald Holder’s lighting) frame Lily as she contemplates playing Mary Magdalene, the apotheosis is entirely suitable."

I'm going to out on a limb and say Kelli's is more of a love letter than Cheno's.

I think the real race for Best Revival of a Musical is The King & I vs. On the Town.

So true, Jeff. OTT is the clear winner but I doubt anything will stop the King and I campaign. I'm more interested to see if Ken will get nominated. It's a bit weird to have a whole production contending for many awards and not having your leading man even get a nomination.

I'm completely flummoxed as to who the other two nominees will be.

Who shall those two be?

Kelli Barrett-Doctor Zhivago?
Leanne Cope-An American in Paris?
Erin Davie-Side Show?
Lisa Howard-It Shoulda Been You?
Laura Michelle Kelly-Finding Neverland?
Beth Malone-Fun Home?
Brynn O'Malley-Honeymoon in Vegas?
Emily Padgett-Side Show?
Rachel Tucker-The Last Ship?

"Beth Malone and Laura Michelle Kelly"

That would be my guess as well. The "just happy to be nominated" group.

I'm really really pulling for Howard.

I love her so much. And she truly deserves a nomination for this show.

"I would love to see Vanessa Hudgens get a nomination for Gigi, honestly... It may not be but I'd be happy to see her happy... she's so charming in everything I've seen or heard from the show and I'm looking forward to seeing it myself!"

I don't think she will but I'd like to see her get nominated as well. She exceeded my expectations and I really enjoyed her in the role.

"Are we really going to argue semantics to try and determine who received "more" of a love letter from Brantley? "

Sorry adamgreer. It wasn't my intention to argue semantics or say who got a better review. I was merely trying to make the point that if you're going to claim that somebody's review is "not in the same vein" as someone else's, you better have read both recently. I hate when people make claims based on memory rather than the information in front of them.

^^Actually, Donna Murphy won all the precursors that year. I'd say it was a Murphy/Menzel/Pinkins race. I do want to say in terms of reviews from the Times, it was Murphy and Chenoweth who got the most praise from Brantley (wasn't he a bit cool on CAROLINE, OR CHANGE?).

That review for Chenoweth on the Times is a love letter, the review for O'Hara on the Times is a love letter. I imagine Rivera will get her love letter too. It's an exciting race! I do hope we get two fantastic performances in the "happy to be nominated" slots. Malone sounds like she's terrific. I do find everything about FINDING NEVERLAND so offensively tacky that I hope someone like Erin Davie, Lisa Howard, Leanne Cope, or Vanessa Hudgens gets in over her.

In terms of the Best Actress in a Musical Tony race of Chenoweth vs O'Hara, I think many are discounting voters knowledge of the actresses roles in the actual mounting of the production. Kristen Chenoweth has been working on getting On the 20th Century mounted for the past over 5 years now, while O'Hara was tapped by Sher to lead the production a about 2 years ago. The difference is that Chenoweth has been completely working the community to get this production of the ground, mentioning it in nearly every interview she has done over the course of the past 5 years. She has even had Hugh Jackman attempt to sell the production, so she could play Lily. O'Hara on the other hand had very little to do with the production outside of being Bartlett Sher's golden girl.

Regarding the other 2 slots assuming Rivera, Chenoweth, and O'Hara are locks in the other 3, I wouldn't discount Side Show's Padgett and Davie. In all honesty I don't see them nominating Davie or Padgett without nominating the other so I think the other 2 slots with being Padgett and Davie or Hudgens and Malone.

Honestly I think Reidel's omission of On the Town, says wonders about the validity of the story. There is no way voters are not going to take into account the producers extreme attempts to keep the show aloft compared to the nonprofits that are the King and I and On the 20th Century. Also regarding the productions themselves I think I would rank the productions as following:

1)On the Town

2)On the 20th Century

3)The King and I

My reasoning is that I think producing a successful production of The King and I is a cakewalk compared to On the Town and On the 20th Century. Fluff doesn't age well as most of the reviews of On the Town and On the 20th Century stated, thus in my opinion the success of their productions deserves to be rewarded more than that of a musical that is much easier to mount. I do not mean physical issues such as cast size and scale, but rather more technical book issues, which On the Town and On the 20th Century both have.

Riedel has reached a new low this week. To not even MENTION "On The Town" in this horse race is inane. This is going to be a fabulous three-way slugfest. Each of these shows is going to have large blocks of passionate voters. I'd put my money on "OTT" by the slimmest of margins.

None of Riedel's columns are written without considerable bias.

I'm completely flummoxed as to who the other two nominees will be.

---

Well, we have:

Rivera

Chenoweth

O'Hara

I predict:

Beth Malone-Fun Home

Laura Michelle Kelly-Finding Neverland or Leanne Cope-An American in Paris
***AAIP will get a lot of LUV when the nominations come out so they may include her***