The 76th Annual Tony Award Nominations (2023) — Page 14

Nominators are invited to see shows on press nights. If they're busy, they can attend at any other time from press nights onwards, but many of them attend as early as possible. Being a nominator is a much higher honor than being a voter (since there are so few), so they take it quite seriously –– though of course these are all working theatre practitioners so stuff is gonna come up. The size of the nominating committee takes into account that there will probably be 5-10 nominators who must recuse themselves every year.

An interesting coverage observation is the "Take-Aways and Trends" article over on Playbill opens with "Some Like It Hot is the season's most nominated production with 13 nominations—four more than runner-up & Juliet's nine."

Which, to me at least, seems interesting that it glosses over the fact that NY, NY and Shucked also received 9 Noms—it's not like the listed two were head and shoulders above the rest.

 

Yes, this too. It's interesting to see the area of the industry/occupation of each of the nominators as listed on the Tony site. They had one sound designer this year, John Kilgore. I'd love to see his ballot!

blaxx said: "Sound is tricky, as most nominators are not qualified to understand what makes a good sound design."

I would also suggest that nominators probably see the show from prime orchestra seats and not the mezz, where it seemed most of the complaints came from. 

Well I guess they were hoping for nominations but also make money cause the BAM shows were completely sold out.

 

Call_me_jorge said: "Surprised Oscar and Rachel fromThe Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Windowdidn’t make the cut. They’ll survive, but wasn’t the reason the show transferred largely because of their performances?"

 

Some scattered thoughts:

Phillipa Soo really got burned here. She’s making the CAMELOT revival work as much as it’s going to, and for my money she was the best performance in INTO THE WOODS.

Thrilled to see Betsy Wolfe nominated after what she went through with FROZEN & CAROUSEL.

While Comer certainly can still win this easily, I think the strong showing for A DOLL’S HOUSE proves that race is absolutely still neck and neck. Comer seems to have what is the “better” performance, but it feels like Chastain had an incredible amount of industry love behind her. Definitely the most exciting race of the night!

I think memories are such that people remember that incident but not who did it.

Everyone remembers her name. Sara Porkalob is a name you do not forget and she was mentioned in every single article about the show/controversy. 

I thought the only actor who stood out at FAT HAM was Nikki Crawford. 

InTheBathroom1 said: "Sad Marcel Spears didn’t get in for Fat Ham :/"

 

EDSOSLO858 said: "and Casey Nicholaw finally brings home his first Choreography Tony for Some Like It Hot."

Wait, WHAT? How does he not have a choreo Tony?! He 100% deserves it for this - for that second act chase scene showstopper alone, never mind the rest of the show.

Unrelated, loved Micaela Diamond's instagram post today showing her live reaction. So happy for her. There was never any doubt she'd get nominated, but she's absolutely killing it as Lucille, so well deserved.

Dylan Smith4 said: "BoringBoredBoard40 said: "Wonder if any of this really matters if the WGA strike ends up causing the event to be cancelled"

They won't be canceled. If the strike continues through then, they will most likely have the awards, just not broadcast on TV. That or they will be postponed until the strike is over. I am leaning towards the first scenario over the other."

More so meant how much does it not being broadcast cause shows not to get sales bumps etc

 

Count me in the camp of being surprised Nicholaw even got nominated for Choreography, let alone hoping that he wins. I thought his work in Hot was overblown and excessive, and while the chase scene was indeed the best part of the show, I thought it felt weirdly cramped and technical.

I think Choreography is easily Jennifer Weber's to lose for her brilliant work on & Juliet. That show is choreographed to the nines and never feels exhausting. 

First casualty... DANCIN' is closing May 14.