The Tony Eligibility and Category Placement Thread (FINAL RULINGS)- Page 2

[theatreguy]

Posted: 4/30/10 at 10:18pm

I wouldn't be surprised if they chose to give Carrie Fisher a special award for Wishful Drinking. That's what they used to do before the Special Event category - it's how Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland won their Tonys, for example.

[Justaguy2]

Posted: 4/30/10 at 10:35pm

How about a posthumous special Tony for Frank Sinatra and Come Fly Away? That would be kind of cool!

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/1/10 at 1:22am

Thanks for the link, Mike. Teh article (on WHITE CHRISTMAS) was an interesting read.


I extrapolated the scores from Stagegrade's listings. I am not sure where they draw the line between "A+" and "A" or between "A" and "A-". Reading their explanation makes it seem highly subjective on their part.

For example, how is it possible that a show with all postive and no negative reviews (FELA: 13 raves, 7 positives) is graded A- along with a show like EVERYDAY RAPTURE (10 raves, 4 positives, 1 mixed leaning positive, 1 mixed leaning negative, and 1 negative.) I would say that FELA got universal acclaim while RAPTURE had a few naysayers. Therefore FELA should have been scored "A" or even "A+" with Rapture "A-" or even "B+"

So I created a spreadsheet tallying the raves, positives, mixed, negatives and pans for each show and calculating the percentage positive. I used Stagegrade's data but "A" reviews were all classed as Raves, "B" reviews and "C+" as positives, "C" as mixed, "C-" and "D" as negative and "F" as pans. (Mixed reviews are tricky, but to include all of them as just mixed pulls the overall percentage figures down. SO, I decided to subdivide based on whethere leaning positive or negative.)

I have been keeping track all season - even as Stagegrade took over from Critic-o-meter.

I'm a collector of Broadway stats -now that Variety no longer does it's season-end tally of Hits and Flops I have to figure it out myself. I decided I wanted to keep track of the overall reviews (like Steven Suskind's very useful OPENING NIGHTS books do for 1943-1981) for future reference, and to settle arguments down the road when someone here claims such and such show opened to terrible reviews. I'll be able to see what the actual numbers were.

[chewy5000]

Posted: 5/1/10 at 3:34am

Has there been a ruling on 'score' yet?

[mikem]

Posted: 5/3/10 at 10:59pm

Apparently, American Idiot never submitted their score, so it is not eligible. Fela's petition to be considered was turned down. The scores for Enron, The Royal Family and Fences were officially deemed eligble, although there is no reason to believe that other scores such as Red's would not also be eligible.

It is somewhat telling (and somewhat discouraging) that not only is the Score category weak, but the Best Book category is also weak. Memphis and Everyday Rapture are shoo-ins, because all of the other possibilities have been found to be problematic by at least some people. (The other new musicals this season are Addams Family, All About Me, American Idiot, Come Fly Away, Burn the Floor, Fela, Million Dollar Quartet, and Sondheim on Sondheim.) But two of the problematic ones are still going to get nominated.

Updated On: 5/3/10 at 10:59 PM

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 5/3/10 at 11:56pm

The score for RED was confirmed to be eligible.

I did not hear one way or the other about THE ROYAL FAMILY, but there is no reason it would not be eligible.

Also, it should be noted that FELA's petition was turned down (officially) because they did not petition by the deadline. I don't know if they would have been successful if they had petitioned on time, but the official reason their score is not eligible is because of a technicality, not because of the score itself.

[mikem]

Posted: 5/4/10 at 12:34am

Yero, thanks for the info. The Playbill article about the most recent administrative meeting specifically mentioned the score for The Royal Family as being eligible. (Someone somewhere posted that it wasn't eligible for some reason, which may be why they specifically mentioned it.)

I did not know that Fela turned their petition in too late. It is weird that they would even bother if they know that they missed the cutoff.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 5/4/10 at 11:38am

Let's see how the nominations aligned with the critical consensus...

Best Play:
TIME STANDS STILL (92% positive)(NOMINATED)
WISHFUL DRINKING (87%)
SUPERIOR DONUTS (80%)
NEXT FALL (78%)(NOMINATED)
A STEADY RAIN (71%)
RED (70%)(NOMINATED)
IN THE NEXT ROOM (69%)(NOMINATED)
ENRON (58%)
A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE (56%)
AFTER MISS JULIE (55%)
ALL ABOUT ME (41%)
RACE (36%)
LOOPED (36%)

- The only surprise here was that the nominations ignored (forgot?) the rather well-received A STEADY RAIN. TIME STANDS STILL got the best overall reviews but NEXT FALL is still running and a big award like this they generally prefer to bestow on a show that is open. It does seem they went out of their way to NOT nominate ENRON.


Best revival of a Play:
THE ROYAL FAMILY (95%) (NOMINATED)
A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (94%) (NOMINATED)
FENCES (92%) (NOMINATED)
BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS (89%)
COLLECTED STORIES (88%)
THE MIRACLE WORKER (79%)
LEND ME A TENON (78%) (NOMINATED)
HAMLET (77%)
OLEANNA (68%)
PRESENT LAUGHTER (53%)

-Nothing really stands out here except perhaps the highly-regarded revival of BRIGHTON BEACH but if I recall it closed too quickly to be considered. ROYAL FAMILY seems most deserving but FENCES is hot right now.


Best Musical:
FELA! (100%)(NOMINATED)
EVERYDAY RAPTURE (88%)
MEMPHIS (77%)(NOMINATED)
SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM (77%)
COME FLY AWAY (72%)
AMERICAN IDIOT (67%)(NOMINATED)
BURN THE FLOOR (65%)
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET (64%) (NOMINATED)
THE ADDAMS FAMILY (30%)

-Well. we knew ADDAMS FAMILY was not likely to be nominated but did anyone thing MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET was in the running? It also seems as if the committee deliberately bumped the very favorably reviewed RAPTURE to get IDIOT in there. (Courting favor with Greed Day fans for the telecast?) It will be this year's ROCK OF AGES.) FELA! would be the seeming front runner but it is hardly a traditional Broadway musical. If FELA! doesn't win, MEMPHIS likely will. MEMPHIS would seem to have a lock for Best score. If they really split it up RAPTURE will get the consolation prize for Best Book.


Best revival of a Musical:
FINIAN'S RAINBOW (100%)(NOMINATED)
RAGTIME (89%)(NOMINATED)
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (86%)(NOMINATED)
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (74%)(NOMINATED)
PROMISES PROMISES (60%)
WHITE CHRISTMAS (45%)
BYE BYE BIRDIE (21%)

-This one was pretty much in line with the critics. The award should by rights to to FINIAN'S but if they prefer to honor a currently running show it would be LA CAGE again.

Updated On: 5/4/10 at 11:38 AM