Smallest Roles to Be Nominated for Tony Awards

I was just watching Gary Beach's Tony Acceptance Speech the other day and realized Roger Bart was also nominated that year for a role that really is rather small. That got me to thinking about Harvey Fierstein's win for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for a role that appears and sings a good deal less than some of the featured roles (albeit Edna has the second most lines in the show after Tracy, but it's a huge gap between the two.) And then, naturally, the connection between Harvey Fierstein and Gary Beach is La Cage, which makes me think about Robin de Jesus's nomination for the 2010 revival for Jacob, which is a role that is comparable in size to Carmen in The Producers. This got me thinking about how great it is that the Tony Awards are the only Awards show where a tiny little role can still get love. And this makes me curious as to other seemingly small roles to be nominated or even win at the Tony Awards! I think this lends a lot to the idea that there are no small parts, only small actors. These three men I have talked about are incredible talents who make even small roles so memorable and entertaining. I would love to hear about others that you all know of!

Lois Smith/Vanessa Redgrave in THE INHERITANCE probably takes the cake. She's onstage what, fifteen minutes of a 6-hour play?

Mrs. Muller in DOUBT similarly makes a huge impact with a single scene, and that has resulted in a win and two nom for the three women who played her on Broadway and on screen. A "Beatrice Straight in NETWORK" moment, if you will.

All the supporting ladies in FOLLIES have a good deal of stage time, but it's quite a small amount of actual material. Especially Jayne Houdyshell, nominated in 2011 as Hattie, who was not in The Mirror Number and barely does anything in act two.

Fantine and Eponine in LES MIS each have short slices of the narrative.

Even Alfie Dolittle in MY FAIR LADY might have less than a half hour of stage time in a 3-hour show, but leads two massive musical numbers, has a key scene, and is always a crowdpleaser.

Some actors dream of gigs like that!

Lines vs stage time vs impact is always hard to quantify. Roger Bart was on stage a great deal in The Producers, he was sometimes more like set dressing. As for Harvey, that's classic "category fraud" (more common with the Oscars) but if Harvey had been in Featured then Dick Latessa wouldn't have won.

Updated On: 8/28/24 at 11:08 AM

Probably the least time on stage and also won the Tony Award for featured actress in a musical would be Marilyn Cooper for Woman of the Year.

I believe there is a thread on here somewhere where something similar has been asked before if you are looking for more.

Updated On: 8/28/24 at 11:18 AM

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Lines vs stage time vs impact is always hard to quantify. Roger Bart was on stage a great deal in The Producers, he was sometimes more like set dressing. As for Harvey, that's classic "category fraud" (more common with the Oscars) but if Harvey had been in Featured then Dick Latessa wouldn't have won."

It's true, Roger Bart was on stage frequently. But he had a very limited amount of material. Harvey wasn't on stage much, but any scene he was in he basically stole the show. And it is probably true that, had Harvey been considered a featured actor, he would've stolen Dick Latessa's hard earned Tony Award. Doesn't something somehow feel wrong about calling Harvey a "Featured" actor, though? Even though it's strictly accurate?

BeingAlive44Ever said: "Doesn't something somehow feel wrong about calling Harvey a "Featured" actor, though? Even though it's strictly accurate?"

To be clear, I don't really care about category placement. It's more on producing strategy or agent politics than content. Same with conversations about who gets the last bow in a musical.

I know some people here were upset by Mendez going Featured not Lead for Merrily, or both Mormon boys going into Lead, but they're justifiable to me...same with roles like Cassie in A Chorus Line and the Emcee & Sally in Cabaret being nominated in both Lead and Featured in various productions.

The only head-scratchers were when awards used to be strictly based on billing. So Barbara Cook (Marian in Music Man) and Tammy Grimes (the title role in Unsinkable Molly Brown) win Featured because they were below the title, or George Rose wins as Lead for Dolittle in MFL because he was above the title.

Edna Turnblad is kind of a borderline role between featured and lead, imo. She has quite a lot to do for a featured character, and really, Hairspray is pretty close to an ensemble show with basically everybody getting spots to shine and quite a bit of material- Tracy just happens to be onstage for nearly all of it and drive the show's action. But I wouldn’t say Edna is a small role at all and, going back to Divine in the original film, it’s also a vehicle for a bigger name.


Carmen and Jacob are also solid featured roles, appearing in a number of scenes and numbers and, again, ample opportunity to shine and stand out. Neither of them are one-scene-wonder characters.

A really small role getting a nomination that comes to mind was Elizabeth A. Davis as Reza in Once, essentially an ensemble role that I really could not tell you much about even with having seen Once multiple times. The ensemble in Once is used a lot and they all have quite a bit of stagetime, so I’m using “small” here to describe a lack of standout moments or plot importance.

Updated On: 8/28/24 at 03:06 PM

One that sort of combines both of these ideas (small role or category fraud) that has always confused me is Michael Cavanagh in Movin Out. On the one hand, you could say he's a member of the orchestra and not in the story at all and therefore truly the smallest "part" to be nominated. On the other hand, you could say he's literally singing solo from the moment the lights come up to the minute the lights go down, so how is that not leading? So you either have category fraud or you have someone who shouldn't even be eligible, depending on which way you look at it.

Updated On: 8/28/24 at 04:27 PM

How about Grizabella??? I think she's only on stage for about 18 - 22 minutes max

Updated On: 8/28/24 at 04:43 PM

Berthe in Pippin? Especially for Irene Ryan, who did much less on stage than Andrea Martin in the revival (and Martin also appeared in the opening number)

Kad said: "HeyMrMusic said: "I know 2021 was a weird year, but Myra Lucretia Taylor as Gran Georgeanna inTinais probably the fourth largest role of the featured women in that show yet she was the one nominated."

Considering the circumstances of that year, a lot of the nominees would have never been nominated otherwise. Only 4 musicals were even eligible."

Right, and I was commenting on the size of the role compared to the other featured women within that same show. The smallest role in terms of stage time got the nomination.

I remember Elizabeth A Davis as Reza in ONCE getting nominated for a role with very little independent stage-time was a curve ball.