#26
Posted: 2/13/14 at 11:54am
It should have been lumped in with the one person shows and other oddities that make up the "special event" category that is trotted out every few years.
There were previous non-competitive special Tony awards given for virtually all varieties of recognition regarding theatre including lifetime achievement, achievement in musical theatre (La Tragedie de Carmen - an opera and Candide revival), long runs (A Chorus Line), revivals (A Moon for the Misbegotten), critics (Brooks Atkinson and Elliot Norton) and even "adding lustre" (Liza Minnelli and Bette Midler). This was a special recognition, not a competitive category with nominations.
From 2001 to 2009, there was the category for Special Theatrical Event (competitive).
Regardless, it's a battle of semantics that will never be won. Die-hard academics and purists believe the term "musical" should be permanently defined and regulated ranging in all aspects from the originality and structure of the book including the amount of spoken dialogue to even the style of acceptable music, but even they cannot agree what those terms should be. And that's not even getting into Tony categories which does a pretty good job at accommodating ever-evolving art forms for which must be dropped into one of two boxes, not only for the sake of the top prize, but every subsequent category. If there is no license to determine ever-growing amount of work produced that does not neatly fall into either box, then should they all be determined ineligible and unrecognized, even if they ran on Broadway and received critical acclaim? Or should they receive a consolation prize by not conforming to the conventions of two forms of theatre, neither of which are a requirement to be defined as a "Broadway" show?
I side with the Tony committee in the case of Contact, just as I did with the case of Movin' Out, La Boheme and Come Fly With Me. While none of them fit the academic definition of "a musical", they are each very much "musical". To the point that the music is the most important element for the production to function. If you want to nitpick the individual aspects of how the music is presented, whether live or recorded, performed by the characters/actors, integrated into the book, etc., leave that up to the subsequent categories. Otherwise, you open the door to deeming revues, sung-through musicals, jukebox musicals, and bio-catalogue musicals ineligible as well. Personally, I'm not conservative enough to negate the evolution of an art form. Best Musical is about the whole, not the parts. That is how I believe Contact received its nomination and ultimately won Best Musical, for which I personally believe it deserved.
In the case of Fosse however, I just thought it wasn't the best of its category(ies).
But I'm so glad someone FINALLY addressed this issue! Even if it was phantomhavelondon.
There were previous non-competitive special Tony awards given for virtually all varieties of recognition regarding theatre including lifetime achievement, achievement in musical theatre (La Tragedie de Carmen - an opera and Candide revival), long runs (A Chorus Line), revivals (A Moon for the Misbegotten), critics (Brooks Atkinson and Elliot Norton) and even "adding lustre" (Liza Minnelli and Bette Midler). This was a special recognition, not a competitive category with nominations.
From 2001 to 2009, there was the category for Special Theatrical Event (competitive).
Regardless, it's a battle of semantics that will never be won. Die-hard academics and purists believe the term "musical" should be permanently defined and regulated ranging in all aspects from the originality and structure of the book including the amount of spoken dialogue to even the style of acceptable music, but even they cannot agree what those terms should be. And that's not even getting into Tony categories which does a pretty good job at accommodating ever-evolving art forms for which must be dropped into one of two boxes, not only for the sake of the top prize, but every subsequent category. If there is no license to determine ever-growing amount of work produced that does not neatly fall into either box, then should they all be determined ineligible and unrecognized, even if they ran on Broadway and received critical acclaim? Or should they receive a consolation prize by not conforming to the conventions of two forms of theatre, neither of which are a requirement to be defined as a "Broadway" show?
I side with the Tony committee in the case of Contact, just as I did with the case of Movin' Out, La Boheme and Come Fly With Me. While none of them fit the academic definition of "a musical", they are each very much "musical". To the point that the music is the most important element for the production to function. If you want to nitpick the individual aspects of how the music is presented, whether live or recorded, performed by the characters/actors, integrated into the book, etc., leave that up to the subsequent categories. Otherwise, you open the door to deeming revues, sung-through musicals, jukebox musicals, and bio-catalogue musicals ineligible as well. Personally, I'm not conservative enough to negate the evolution of an art form. Best Musical is about the whole, not the parts. That is how I believe Contact received its nomination and ultimately won Best Musical, for which I personally believe it deserved.
In the case of Fosse however, I just thought it wasn't the best of its category(ies).
But I'm so glad someone FINALLY addressed this issue! Even if it was phantomhavelondon.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Updated On: 2/13/14 at 11:54 AM
