The 76th Annual Tony Award Nominations (2023) — Page 12

After seeing CLYDE'S last year, I don't know that I would have expected Kara Young to become a 2x nominee within consecutive years, but happy for her!

A few thoughts:

- Sad I didn’t get to catch Cost of Loving 
- Sweeney Todd nominated for best sound is an absolute joke - wtf? It’s the worst sounding show I w ever heard on Broadway 
- Why Hecht but not Linney? Makes no sense to me 
- NY, NY is … not good. So many noma to rewards lazy work
- Soo didn’t get shafted by not being nominated in Camelot - she sang well but a forgettable performance like all the rest. But she was sooo good in ITW and that feels like a big miss. 

Updated On: 5/2/23 at 12:01 PM

Skywalker3 said: "How about the 0 nominations forA Beautiful Noise?"

Yet it may end up one of the longest running shows of this season.

chrishuyen said: "When are the special Tony awards usually announced? Curious if the puppets for Life of Pi/Milky White could get recognized there a la King Kong or if they'd go a different route.

"

The puppet designers for Life of Pi were jointly nominated as part of the costume design team (very odd decision to loop them in together, but that's what they went with). So I'd say it's a pretty safe bet they wouldn't get recognized separately as well.

 

Rooting for Audra and Wendell. A lot of people seem to think that Best Actress in a Play is going to be a Comer/Chastain smackdown, but Audra is a Tony darling and should never be counted out.

I would have liked to see Best Revival of a Play and Scenic Design nominations for Ohio State Murders.

Hopping aboard the Sharon D. Clarke outrage train!

Everyone is talking about Soo but I was more surprised by Nathan Lane and Jeremy Pope. (Especially the latter, who was great as Basquiat).

Some Ain't No Mo' thoughts (not sure if they need to be spoiler-ized since the show has closed, but just taking precautions): 

And Uzele sang the score better than Ryan in NYNY.

Updated On: 5/2/23 at 12:45 PM

Random thoughts, some of which echo what others have said:

- I"m surprised enough voters actually saw Ain't No Mo' for it to get so many nominations. Hopefully that will help it have more regional productions. However, because only a very small percentage of the actual voters will have seen it, I can't imagine it will win anything.

- Clearly Coltan Ryan and Christian Borle clearly tied for the fifth slot. I'm glad a young up and comer got a nomination, but Ryan getting nominated and Uzle being snubbed seems weird to me

- Phillipa Soo probably split the votes in her two categories. However, this doesn't feel like a "snub" to me. She already has as Tony nomination for Hamilton and a great career. She will live.

- Sharon D. Clarke not getting nominated for an awards-bait role like Linda Loman is odd. Perhaps if the show were still running her chances would have been better?

- There's only like 24(?) nominators and something like 250(?) voters, so there will be some surprise winners. However, since Thomas Kail wasn't even nominated for his direction of Sweeney Todd, I feel like that makes it winning Best Revival unlikely, and decreases Groban's chance of winning. I think it will be Ghee, especially since choosing them can be a "representative" award since SLIH, despite getting the most nominations, probably won't win anything except maybe choreography.

-1776 getting completely shut out has got to hurt. The production was very bold with its direction and all female/non-binary cast and seems like it was a very emotional affair for all involved, and for it to get NOTHING feels like a real F-you. 

The Distinctive Baritone said: "
- There's only like 24(?) nominators and something like 250(?) voters, so there will be some surprise winners. However, since Thomas Kail wasn't even nominated for his direction of Sweeney Todd, I feel like that makes it winning Best Revival unlikely, and decreases Groban's chance of winning. I think it will be Ghee, especially since choosing them can be a "representative" award since SLIH, despite getting the most nominations, probably won't win anything except maybe choreography.

-1776 getting completely shut out has got to hurt. The production was very bold with its direction and all female/non-binary cast and seems like it was a very emotional affair for all involved, and for it to get NOTHING feels like a real F-you."

There's actually 39 nominators and around 830 voters, which is still small enough for some surprises to occur, but not quite that bad.

As for 1776, bold or not, that production was a train wreck that should be erased from memory as quickly as possible. 

buffalospeedway said: "Hopping aboard the Sharon D. Clarke outrage train! Jessica Hecht was warm and charming, but I would have swapped her with Clarke.."

Clarke was up for featured, so it wouldn't have been Hecht who took her spot. But I agree she should have been nominated.

I'm so happy for Jordan Cooper, Justin Cooley. Colton Ryan, Corey Hawkins, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Jordan Donica for their well deserved nominations. All brilliant talents.

Love the love for Ain't No Mo, Kimberly Akimbo, and the well deserved nomination for Almost Famous for Best Original Score. 

A reminder the nominating and voting for Tonys are not like the Oscars.

In Oscars, each field nominates and everyone votes on winners. Hence, a lot of nods shows strong support in every branch of the Academy.

In Tonys, it's ~40 nominators, who see everything. Then there's ~800 voters, who try but don't always see everything (and they took away the requirement this year). Most importantly, since the nominators are only 5% of the voters, a lot of nods does not predict winners. That's how a Slave Play (or Scottsboro Boys, or The Life and so on) can get the most nods and win few or none.

Also, the 6 nominees for Actor in a Musical indicates a tie, which expands the number. And the tie only needs to be within 10%, so ~4 votes.

First of all, Clarke getting snubbed is freaking ridiculous considering the praise she got. The two other surprises for me were Camelot getting in for a nomination for Best Revival of a Musical over Bob Fosse's Dancin' despite the clearly polarizing reviews it got. But I guess it's understandable considering that it is Lincoln Center Theater we're talking about. Second, was Sweeney Todd getting nominations for Best Choreography and Sound Design considering that everyone on here was mixed about the former and were negative on the latter.

This is going to be interesting all right, and I couldn't be more excited.