Is it that time? Mr. Wormwood, mine are not that far off from yours, though trying to manifest some Dancin' love. Some of these acting categories were just so painful to narrow down - exciting year with too many great options! Starred my winner picks for the hell of it.
Best Musical & Juliet *Kimberly Akimbo New York, New York Shucked Some Like It Hot
Best Revival of a Musical Bob Fosse's Dancin' Into the Woods *Parade Sweeney Todd
(In my perfect world there'd be a forced tie with Camelot and 5 nominees.)
Best Lead Actress in a Musical Annaleigh Ashford, Sweeney Todd Sara Bareilles, Into the Woods *Victoria Clark, Kimberly Akimbo Lorna Courtney, & Juliet Micaela Diamond, Parade Phillipa Soo, Camelot
(Predicting 6 here)
Best Lead Actor in a Musical Christian Borle, Some Like It Hot Andrew Burnap, Camelot *J. Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot Josh Groban, Sweeney Todd Ben Platt, Parade
Best Featured Actress in a Musical Julia Lester, Into the Woods *Bonnie Milligan, Kimberly Akimbo Philippa Soo, Into the Woods NaTasha Yvette Williams, Some Like It Hot Betsy Wolfe, & Juliet
(Though would be thrilled to see Alli Mauzey's name on Tuesday)
Best Featured Actor in a Musical Justin Cooley, Kimberly Akimbo Gavin Creel, Into the Woods Kevin Del Aguila, Some Like It Hot Jordan Donica, Camelot Alex Joseph Grayson, Parade *Alex Newell, Shucked
(Predicting 6 here... and I still feel like I'm leaving such award-worthy performances out)
Best Director of a Musical *Michael Arden, Parade Lear deBessonet, Into the Woods Thomas Kail, Sweeney Todd Jack O'Brien, Shucked Jessica Stone, Kimberly Akimbo
Best Original Score *Jeanine Tesori, Kimberly Akimbo Helen Park & Max Vernon, KPOP Andrew T. Mackay, Life of Pi Brandy Clark & Shane McNally, Shucked Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman, Some Like It Hot
Best Book of a Musical David West Read, & Juliet Aaron Sorkin, Camelot David Lindsay-Abaire, Kimberly Akimbo *Robert Horn, Shucked Matthew Lopez & Amber Ruffin, Some Like It Hot
Best Choreography & Juliet, Jennifer Weber KPOP, Jennifer Weber New York, New York; Susan Stroman Shucked, Sarah O'Gleby *Some Like It Hot, Casey Nicholaw
Best Scenic Design of a Musical & Juliet, Soutra Gilmour and Andrzej Goulding Bob Fosse's Dancin', Robert Brill and Finn Ross New York, New York, Beowulf Boritt *Parade, Dane Laffrey and Sven Ortel Sweeney Todd, Mimi Lien
Best Costume Design of a Musical *& Juliet, Paloma Young Bob Fosse's Dancin', Reid Bartelme & Harriet Jung Camelot, Jennifer Moeller Some Like It Hot, Gregg Barnes Sweeney Todd, Emilio Sosa
Best Lighting Design of a Musical & Juliet, Howard Hudson *Bob Fosse's Dancin', David Grill Camelot, Lap Chi Chu New York, New York, Ken Billington Sweeney Todd, Natasha Katz
Best Sound Design of a Musical *& Juliet, Gareth Owen Kimberly Akimbo, Kai Harada Parade, Jon Weston Some Like It Hot, Brian Ronan Sweeney Todd, Nevin Steinberg
Best Orchestrations & Juliet, Bill Sherman Kimberly Akimbo, John Clancy New York, New York; Sam Davis & Daryl Waters Shucked, Jason Howland *Some Like It Hot, Charlie Rosen & Bryan Carter
I haven't seen enough of the plays yet to really make decent judgment calls there - have tickets for four of them over the next month, but missed a lot of the fall & winter ones other than Leopoldstadt.
Some Like It Hot - 11 & Juliet - 9 Kimberly Akimbo - 9 Shucked - 8 Sweeney Todd - 8 Parade - 7 Camelot - 6 Into the Woods - 6 New York, New York - 5 Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ - 4 KPOP - 2 Beautiful Noise, Bad Cinderella, Almost Famous - 0 (Life of Pi will certainly get more than this 1)
JudyDenmark said: "Is it that time? Mr. Wormwood, mine are not that far off from yours, though trying to manifest some Dancin' love. Some of these acting categories were just so painful to narrow down - exciting year with too many great options! Starred my winner picks for the hell of it."
Yeah, the whole Dancin' thing is what I'm least sure of. I don't feel great about predicting 0 nominations for it when I could see it get in for Revival over Camelot or sneak in to something like Orchestrations or Lighting.
A few other things I didn't predict but COULD see happening: - Andrew Lloyd Webber or Carolee Carmello get in for Bad Cinderella - A Beautiful Noise gets in over NYNY for Best Musical - Ben Platt or Josh Groban get snubbed (more likely Platt)
Again, those are not things I'm officially predicting but they are things that wouldn't surprise me.
Mr. Wormwood said: "Yeah, the whole Dancin' thing is what I'm least sure of. I don't feel great about predicting 0 nominations for it when I could see it get in for Revival over Camelot or sneak in to something like Orchestrations or Lighting.
A few other things I didn't predict but COULD see happening: - Andrew Lloyd Webber or Carolee Carmello get in for Bad Cinderella - A Beautiful Noise gets in over NYNY for Best Musical - Ben Platt or Josh Groban get snubbed (more likely Platt)
Again, those are not things I'm officially predicting but they are things that wouldn't surprise me."
Yeah I could easily see any of those things happening, and it was Beautiful Noise I didn’t feel great about getting zero. Wouldn’t be the most shocking thing in the world to me if it swapped in for NY NY in Best Musical, Will/Robyn (though the featured races are so stacked!), or something like choreo.
I don’t know if Dancin will get into revival, but if it gets anything on Tuesday it should get lighting for sure. That lighting was thrilling!
A preview of Tuesday's news cycle on non-Broadway-specific publications:
12:01am –– WGA Guild writers strike begins, which will cannibalize all entertainment media coverage
9am –– Tony nominations announced
the rest of the week –– any mention of the Tony noms will come with the caveat that "the awards show is scheduled for June 11 but we don't know what form it will take because of the strike"
ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "A preview of Tuesday's news cycle on non-Broadway-specific publications:
12:01am –– WGA Guild writers strike begins, which will cannibalize all entertainment media coverage
9am –– Tony nominations announced
the rest of the week ––any mention of the Tony noms will come with the caveat that "the awards show is scheduled for June 11 but we don't know what form it will take because of the strike""
It is unfortunate that the strike dominate the media news on the Tony nominations day.
However, with regard to the actual ceremony - can't they still pretty easily have a telecast? Just not a monologue or some video bits or banter with presenters? Like all the awards and performances can still happen?
MadsonMelo said: "So, with only 7 contenders for Best Actress in a Play, we only have 4 nominees?
It's Comer, Audra, Brosnahan and Chastain, right?"
I think Comer and Chastain are in for sure, but wouldn't be surprised if either Laura Linney or Jessica Hecht bump one of the other two (probably Audra).
My final predictions. I saw every eligible production this year (except Walking with Ghosts, which...I don't think matters at all). Gaten was out when I saw Sweeney, and his understudy was just okay, so I'm guessing a bit at that category.
I've listed who I would nominate in the main categories ("My Top..." followed by I think who will actually get nominated (with potential spoilers below the line). And damn, there were a few categories (most of the featureds) where I just didn't know what to do after 1-3 nom locks. Quite a few wide open categories.
Anyway...here goes....
Musical
My Top Five
Kimberly Akimbo
Shucked
& Juliet
New York, New York
Some Like It Hot
Predictions
& Juliet Kimberly Akimbo New York, New York Shucked Some Like It Hot —— A Beautiful Noise
Play
My Top Five
Fat Ham
Ain’t No Mo’
Cost of Living
Summer, 1976
Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool
Predictions
Ain’t No Mo’ Between Riverside and Crazy Cost of Living Fat Ham Leopoldstadt —— Life of Pi Prima Facie Good Night, Oscar
Revival (Musical)
My Top Four
Parade
Into the Woods
Sweeney Todd
1776
Predictions
Camelot Into the Woods Parade Sweeney Todd —— Bob Fosse’s Dancin’
Revival (Play)
My Top Four
Topdog/Underdog
A Doll’s House
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
The Piano Lesson
Predictions
A Doll’s House The Piano Lesson The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window Topdog/Underdog —— Death of a Salesman
Direction (Musical)
My Top Five
Michael Arden (Parade)
Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo)
Jack O’Brien (Shucked)
Lear deBessonet (Into the Woods)
Thomas Kail (Sweeney Todd)
Predictions
Arden Kail Casey Nicholaw (Some Like It Hot) Stone Susan Stroman (New York, New York) —— O’Brien deBessonet
Direction (Play)
My Top Five
Saheem Ali (Fat Ham)
Kenny Leon (Topdog/Underdog)
Adam Meggido (Peter Pan Goes Wrong)
Justin Martin (Prima Facie)
Max Webster (Life of Pi)
Predictions
Ali Jamie Lloyd (A Doll’s House) Patrick Marber (Leopoldstadt) Anne Kauffman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window) Webster —— LaTanya Richardson Jackson (The Piano Lesson) Michael Arden (A Christmas Carol) Leon
Book of a Musical
My Top Five
Kimberly Akimbo (David Lindsay-Abaire)
Shucked (Robert Horn)
& Juliet (David West Read)
Some Like It Hot (Matthew López & Amber Ruffin)
Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
Predictions
& Juliet A Beautiful Noise Kimberly Akimbo Shucked Some Like It Hot — Camelot Almost Famous New York, New York
Score
My Top Five
Kimberly Akimbo
KPOP
Life of Pi
Shucked
Some Like It Hot
Predictions
Kimberly Akimbo KPOP Life of Pi Shucked Some Like It Hot — Bad Cinderella Almost Famous Leopoldstadt
Leading Actress (Musical)
My Top Five
Victoria Clark (Kimberly Akimbo)
Sara Bareilles (Into the Woods)
Annaleigh Ashford (Sweeney Todd)
Micaela Diamond (Parade)
Phillipa Soo (Camelot)
Predictions
Ashford Bareilles Clark Diamond Soo — Caroline Innerbichler (Shucked) Anna Uzele (New York, New York) Patina Miller (Into the Woods)
Leading Actor (Musical)
Picks
Ben Platt (Parade)
J. Harrison Ghee (Some Like It Hot)
Andrew Burnap (Camelot)
Colton Ryan (New York, New York)
Casey Likes (Almost Famous)
Predictions
Burnap Ghee Josh Groban (Sweeney Todd) Platt Will Swenson (A Beautiful Noise) —— Christian Borle (Some Like It Hot) Brian d’Arcy James (Into the Woods) Ryan
Leading Actress (Play)
My Top Five
Jodie Comer (Prima Facie)
Jessica Chastain (A Doll’s House)
Jessica Hecht (Summer, 1976)
Audra McDonald (Ohio State Murders)
Laura Linney (Summer, 1976)
Predictions
Rachel Brosnahan - The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window Chastain Comer McDonald —- Linney Hecht
Leading Actor (Play)
My Top Five
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Topdog/Underdog)
Sean Hayes (Good Night, Oscar)
Marcel Spears (Fat Ham)
Oscar Isaac (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window)
Jeremy Pope (The Collaboration)
Predictions
Hayes Isaac Jefferson Mays (A Christmas Carol) Stephen McKinley Henderson (Between Riverside and Crazy) Spears —— Hiran Abeysekera (Life of Pi) Wendell Pierce (Death of a Salesman) Corey Hawkins (Topdog/Underdog)
Featured Actress (Musical)
My Top Five
Bonnie Milligan (Kimberly Akimbo)
Julia Lester (Into the Woods)
Alli Mauzey (Kimberly Akimbo)
Maria Bilbao (Sweeney Todd)
Carolee Carmello (Bad Cinderella)
Predictions
Lester Mauzey Milligan NaTasha Yvette Williams (Some Like It Hot) Betsy Wolfe (& Juliet) — Ruthie Ann Miles (Sweeney Todd) Carmello Robyn Hurder (A Beautiful Noise)
Featured Actor (Musical)
My Top Five
Kennedy Kanagawa (Into the Woods)
Justin Cooley (Kimberly Akimbo)
Alex Joseph Grayson (Parade)
Philippe Arroyo (& Juliet)
Steven Boyer (Kimberly Akimbo)
Predictions
Cooley Gavin Creel (Into the Woods) Kevin Del Aguila (Some Like It Hot) Jordan Donica (Camelot) Alex Newell (Shucked) —- Gaten Matarazzo (Sweeney Todd) Boyer Grayson
Featured Actress (Play)
My Top Five
Nikki Crawford (Fat Ham)
Katy Sullivan (Cost of Living)
Miriam Silverman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window)
Crystal Lucas Perry (Ain’t No Mo&rsquo
Katie Finneran (The Thanksgiving Play)
Predictions
Danielle Brooks (The Piano Lesson) Crawford Perry Silverman Sullivan —- Faye Castelow (Leopoldstadt) D’Arcy Carden (The Thanksgiving Play) Sharon D. Clarke (Death of a Salesman)
Featured Actor (Play)
My Top Five
Chris Herbie Holland (Fat Ham)
Jordan E. Cooper (Ain’t No Mo&rsquo
Gregg Mozgala (Cost of Living)
Ben Rappaport (Good Night, Oscar)
David Krumholtz (Leopoldstadt)
Predictions
André de Shields (Death of a Salesman) Samuel L. Jackson (The Piano Lesson) Krumholtz Arian Moayed - A Doll’s House Brandon Uranowitz (Leopoldstadt) —— Cooper Scott Foley (The Thanksgiving Play) David Zayas (Cost of Living)
Scenic Design (Musical)
Predictions
Camelot (Michael Yeargan) Kimberly Akimbo (David Zinn) New York, New York (Beowulf Boritt) Some Like It Hot (Scott Park) Sweeney Todd (Mimi Lien) — Shucked (Scott Pask) & Juliet (Soutra Gilmour) Bad Cinderella (Gabriela Tylesova)
Scenic Design (Play)
Predictions
Leopoldstadt (Richard Hudson) Life of Pi (Tim Hatley) Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Simon Scullion) The Piano Lesson (Beowulf Boritt) Prima Facie (Miriam Buether) —- Fat Ham Ohio State Murders Death of a Salesman
Costume Design (Musical)
Predictions
& Juliet (Paloma Young) Camelot (Jennifer Moeller) New York, New York (Donna Zakowska) Some Like It Hot (Gregg Barnes) Sweeney Todd (Emilio Sosa) —— Parade (Susan Hilferty) Bad Cinderella (Gabriela Tylesova) A Beautiful Noise (Emilio Sosa & Annie J. Le)
Costume Design (Play)
Predictions
Death of a Salesman (Anna Fleischle & Sarita Fellows) Leopoldstadt (Brigitte Reiffenstuel) Life of Pi (Tim MHatley) Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Roberto Surace) The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Brenda Abbandandolo) —— The Piano Lesson (Toni-Leslie James) Ain’t No Mo’ (Emilio Sosa) Good Night, Oscar (Emilio Sosa)
Lighting Design (Musical)
Predictions
& Juliet (Howard Hudson) Bob Fosse's Dancin’ (David Grill) New York, New York (Ken Billington) Some Like It Hot (Natasha Katz) Sweeney Todd (Natasha Katz) —— Parade (Heather Gilbert) KPOP (Jiyoun Chang) Kimberly Akimbo (Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew)
Lighting Design (Play)
Predictions
A Christmas Carol (Ben Stanton & Ken Elliott) Fat Ham (Bradley King) Life of Pi (Tim Lutkin) Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Matthew Haskins) Prima Facie (Natasha Chivers) ——— Leopoldstadt (Neil Austin) The Piano Lesson (Japery Weideman) The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (John Torres)
Sound Design (Musical)
Predictions
& Juliet (Gareth Owen) Kimberly Akimbo (Kai Harada) New York, New York (Kai Harada) Parade (Jon Weston) Some Like It Hot (Brian Ronan & Mike Tracey) —— KPOP (Peter Fitzgerald & Andrew Keister) Sweeney Todd (Nevin Steinberg) Into the Woods (Scott Lehrer & Alex Neumann)
Sound Design (Play)
Predictions
A Christmas Carol (Joshua D. Reid) A Doll’s House (Ben Ringham & Max Ringham) Leopoldstadt (Adam Cork) Life of Pi (Carolyn Downing) Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Ellie Wahlström) — Fat Ham (Mikaal Sulaiman) Prima Facie (Ben Ringham & Max Ringham) The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Bray Poor)
Orchestrations
Predictions
& Juliet (Bill Sherman) Kimberly Akimbo (John Clancy) New York, New York (Daryl Waters & Sam Davis) Some Like It Hot (Charlie Rosen & Bryan Carter) Parade (Don Sebesky & Jason Robert Brown)**if eligible A Beautiful Noise (Bob Gaudio, Sonny Paladino & Brian Usifer)** If Parade ineligible —- KPOP Camelot Shucked
Choreography
Predictions
& Juliet (Jennifer Weber) KPOP (Jennifer Weber) New York, New York (Susan Stroman) Shucked (Sarah O’Gleby) Some Like It Hot (Casey Nicholaw) —- Sweeney Todd Bad Cinderella A Beautiful Noise
Total Nominations (Musicals
Some Like It Hot: 13 Kimberly Akimbo: 11 & Juliet: 8 New York, New York: 8 Sweeney Todd: 7 Camelot: 6 Parade: 6 Shucked: 5 Into the Woods: 4 A Beautiful Noise: 2 KPOP: 2 Bob Fosse’s Dancin’: 1 1776: 0 Almost Famous: 0 Bad Cinderella: 0
Total Nominations (Plays)
Leopoldstadt: 7 Life of Pi: 6 The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window: 6 A Doll’s House: 5 Fat Ham: 5 Peter Pan Goes Wrong: 4 The Piano Lesson: 4 A Christmas Carol: 3 Prima Facie: 3 Ain’t No Mo’: 2 Between Riverside and Crazy: 2 Cost of Living: 2 Death of a Salesman: 2 Good Night, Oscar: 1 Ohio State Murders: 1 Topdog/Underdog: 1 The Collaboration: 0 The Kite Runner: 0 Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool: 0 Pictures from Home: 0 Summer, 1976: 0 The Thanksgiving Play: 0 Walking with Ghosts: 0
GoldDerby pundits Sam Eckmann and David Buchanan have posted their final Tony predictions for Best Musical and Musical Revival. They debate the best bets to score nominations, and which shows are fighting for the final slot. Also: Will ''Some Like It Hot'' get in both J. Harrison Ghee and Christian Borle? Will ''Into the Woods'' get in both Sara Bareilles and Patina Miller? Will Phillipa Soo get one nominnation or two (for ''Into the Woods'' and ''Camelot'' ) or none? So many possibilities!
I don't know why, but I'm expecting a surprise Ben Platt or Josh Groban snub. I could see the final group being Borle, Burnap, Ghee, Groban, and Swenson. OR Platt, Burnap, Ghee, Swenson, and Ryan/Borle. I could definitely be wrong, but I'd love to see something completely surprising on Tuesday.
I would hate to see Platt be snubbed for his work in Parade. I just found his performance to be so impactful, moving, and culturally speaking really profound. I'm of the opinion it's his best stage work to date, including Evan Hansen. Groban's performance I can't really speak to, I haven't seen Sweeney yet.
I’m all for surprises, but I’d hate Josh or Ben missing out. I loved their work and I think it would feel like such a slap in the face to snub them when they have showcases this big for a field that’s not particularly competitive. However, I think they’re safe along with Ghee.
It’s a battle between Lincoln Center Theatre’s revival of “Camelot” and director Wayne Cilento’s new version of “Bob Fosse’s Dancin.” With a mixed overall response to “Camelot,” I’ve slotted “Dancin” into my lineup. The show is fun, sexy, pays homage to a giant of the theater, and the cast is impressive as hell. But I admit that it’s risky to bet against LCT in this category since nominators fell head over heels for their past lush revivals of “My Fair Lady,” “The King and I,” and “South Pacific.” David is sticking with the Lerner and Lowe classic because he sees the show racking up a healthy number of overall nominations, when compared to a relatively low expected tally for “Dancin” (since the numbers are a true recreation of Fosse’s work, it is ironically not eligible for the Choreography race).
"Anything you do, let it it come from you--then it will be new."
Sunday in the Park with George
Ahead of the Tony nominations, Some Like It Hot has released a new block of tickets through January 14, 2024. Seems likes wishful thinking, but not unexpected. Kimberly Akimbo is still only on sale through August 6.
Broadway Flash said: "Jordan Dobson will be nominated for Bad Cinderella"
LOL!!!!! NO HE WILL NOT!
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
Anyone predicting that any person WILL or DEFINITELY WILL NOT be nominated is being foolish. You have no idea. No matter how "in" you think you are, you have no idea. I'll leave it to someone else to come up with all the surprise nominations/snubs that have occurred in the past (particularly in the Supporting Actor/Actress categories) that prove this point.
I've been seeing a lot of people predict Beautiful Noise for choreography (and it also got nominated for Chita Rivera) but I legitimately don't remember a ton of dance in that? Like Robyn Hurder has a couple features but I don't really recall anything outside of that worthy of a nomination. As opposed to something like Bad Cinderella, which I thought felt like a "dancier" show (though I doubt it'll get a nom anyway), so am I just drawing a complete blank on this?
Broadway Flash said: "Bad Cinderella nominations: Musical, Score, Orchestrations, Costumes, Leading Actor, Featured Actress. They will get a total of 6."
I guess we'll see Tuesday morning but that feels insane to me. I think it has a chance at Featured Actress, Score, Costumes & Orchestrations (though I didn't predict it to get any of those).
I don't think it has ANY chance to get nominated for Musical or Lead Actor.