Nina Arianda in Venus in Fur, Mark Rylance in Twelfth Night, Mark Rylance in Jerusalem, Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple, Laurie Metcalfe in A Doll’s House: Part 2, Hattie Morahan in A Doll’s House, Bertie Carvel in Matilda, Luke Treadaway in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (West End), Carrie Coon in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Kristine Nielson in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.
Bradley Cooper - The Elephant Man Jessie Mueller - Beautiful Christian Borle - Something Rotten Alex Sharp - The Curious Incident Michelle Williams - Blackbird Carmen Cusack - Bright Star Ben Platt - DEH Lauren Ambrose - My Fair Lady Bryan Cranston - Network Alan Cumming - Cabaret
Nina Arianda in Venus in Fur Bryan Cranston in Network Glenda Jackson in Three Tall Women Cherry Jones, Zachary Quinto, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Brian J. Smith in The Glass Menagerie Audra McDonald in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill Laurie Metcalf in A Doll’s House, Part 2 John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig and the Angry Inch Cynthia Nixon in Wit Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch in A Little Night Music Ben Platt in Dear Evan Hansen
Tony Yazbeck, On the Town Jessie Mueller, Beautiful Kristin Chenoweth, On the Twentieth Century Ben Platt, Dear Evan Hansen Audra McDonald, Lady Day Michael Cerveris, Fun Home Benjamin Walker, American Psycho Christopher Jackson, Hamilton Carmen Cusack, Bright Star Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman’s Guide
Ben Platt - Dear Evan Hansen Nathan Lane / Andrew Garfield - Angels In America Cherry Jones - Doubt Gideon Glick - Significant Other / TKAM Patina Miller - Pippin
Honorable mentions: Patrick Page - Hadestown Hailey Kilgore - Once On This Island Patrick Vaill - Oklahoma Tom Glynn Carney - The Ferryman Sydney James Harcourt - Girl From The North Country
Quentin Earl Darrington and Lea Salonga in Once On This Island
the whole cast of Come From Away
Elizabeth Stanley and Katheryn Gallagher in Jagged Little Pill
Andre de Sheilds in Hadestown
Honorable mentions: all actors who played Jenna in Waitress on Broadway (specifically Nicolette Robinson, Jessie Mueller, Alison Luff and Molly Jobe), Carmen Cusack in Bright Star, the OBC of Dear Evan Hansen, Kate Rockwell in Mean Girls (that comedic timing she has is SEVERLY underappreciated), Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple, Christy Altomare and John Bolton in Anastasia, Patina Miller in Pippin Beth Malone and Sydney Lucas in Fun Home
The late Georgia Engel in Annie Baker’s JOHN is at the very top of my list.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body