State Technician Tony

I just found out that from 1948-1963 there was a Best Stage Technician Tony. I cant figure out why they stopped presenting the award but I thought it was very interesting. I also found out that there was only one prop master to win one, Joe Lynn, he was the only prop master to win a tony award for his work (i believe, correct me if im wrong)

HeyMrMusic said: "it’s pretty silly that they aren’t eligible for Tony Awards where their work is literally visible."

AFM already tried, and failed, to make this happen in the 90s. With a musical nowadays, there's no clear delineation of who does what in the music dept. Sometimes the composer does much of the vocal rehearsal leg work. Other times, it's the Music Supervisor or Music Director. The Conductor can differ from the Music Director (and often the Associate conducts a few nights a week). The producer decides the size of the orchestra with some input from the composer, and the Contractor assembles the musicians. Not to mention the work of Dance Arrangers, Vocal Arrangers, and other music dept. personnel. The vast majority of Broadway shows are going to sound technically good, even if the score is awful.

Like Stage Management, there's no true criteria for judging the work of a theatrical Music Director.

HeyMrMusic said: "I’d argue that the same grey area can be applied to almost any category. Not one person is ever truly responsible for design or direction or orchestration or acting (there are multitudes of associate directors, associate choreographers, casting directors, music assistants, assistant designers). Literally every department has a team. However, look at any Playbill and you will see who’s musically at the top of the food chain, just like any other of those departments. In many cases, the job of a music supervisor/director has almost evolved over the years to include orchestration just so that person would be eligible for a Tony Award.

And obviously, if the music director and conductor aren’t the same person, then set rules on whether both are eligible or just the MD."

Exactly, there are plenty of ways they could clear it up, and the ambiguity in the duties, as HeyMrMusic stated, is far from unique to the music department, and has been for a very long time. Look at how it's widely acknowledged now just how much contribution Peter Gennaro had in developing the choreography to West Side Story, but his name is not included in that Tony Award for Best Choreography that the original production received. 

But an MD’s job has nothing to do with arrangement. MDs are also not in AFM; only actually players and conductors are in the union, not the specific job of music director. It’s a weird situation.

How do you judge directing? Lighting design? Choreography? Acting? When educated about what a music director does, it’s possible to recognize when the work is good (or not). Critics often mention music directors when their work is integral to the show. And let’s be frank: what would a musical be without a music director? It’s literally one of the most important jobs in the creative team.

Think of the big music directors on Broadway now: Stephen Oremus, Ted Sperling, Kim Grigsby, Tom Kitt, Alex Lacamoire, Mary Mitchell Campbell... (list goes on and on). All of their work as a music director and/or supervisor is absolutely evident in the shows of theirs we know and love. Not just as arrangers and orchestrators but as music directors. Hands-on composers like Cyndi Lauper didn’t do the job of Stephen Oremus in Kinky Boots as music director. The music director should absolutely be collaborating with the composer (and orchestrator and sound designer and director and choreographer, again list goes on).

Also, no, don’t get rid of the Tony for Orchestrations. Another person a new production (or revival) can’t do without.

Just a correction - MDs are absolutely in AFM and are covered under the 802 agreements. It's not like directors who are in SSDC, separate from Equity. The job can be vague and yes, there can be a separate conductor and the line between Supervisor/MD/etc is forever getting more and more blurred but AFM has jurisdiction.

And as an MD I feel like there doesn't need to be an MD Tony for the reasons stated - it's such an ambiguous job that I'm not quite sure what we're judging. I feel similarly about the Sound Design Tony - it seems to go to the loudest show, when to me the best sound design is usually the one you don't notice. I believe the reason the MD Tony went away was that one year somebody won who had been fired from the show for being subpar, but since the show was the big show of the year (was it "Hello, Dolly" maybe?) people just voted for the MD along with every other category. 

More and more the MDs are participating in orchestration and so a number of them have Tonys for that, and I think it's a good thing and a fair compromise. 

Updated On: 1/26/20 at 08:24 AM

You're continuing to prove my point, MrMusic, by not answering how a third-party Tony voter can adjudicate that type of work after seeing a show one time within the first few months of its run. There really isn't a logical way to differentiate between the MD vs composer vs cast in that context; the work should be seamless! That's much different than being able to see/hear how the Director or Choreographer or Designer's work plays out on stage.

(Like the Orchestration award, it would probably go to the Best Score winner, or the revival with the biggest orchestra, but that's a separate matter.)

For the Emmys, it helps that each category is only voted on by that peer group –– so the Music branch is only voting for those categories (similar to how the Oscar nominating process works). Whereas the Tonys are nominated by 40 theatre artists and awarded by ~850. And the Tony voting ranks really can't be expanded significantly: it's hard enough for hit shows to seat all the Tony voters and their +1s.