I wish it existed for the purpose of awarding things like Oh Hello and The New One and Springsteen. And I'm glad it previously existed so Elaine Stritch could finally win a Tony.
That said, my problems are...
– There are rarely enough candidates to properly fill out a category without nominating everything. Taking into account shows that ran 3+ weeks in recent years, last year had 2 candidates, 2017-18 had 6, 2016-17 had 1, 2015-16 had 2. In the 11 years that the category existed, only 3 years had 4 nominees, 4 years had 2 or less, and 3 years they didn't give out an award.
– The Tony voters have a hard enough time attending things as it is. And if a show only runs a couple weeks, voter attendance is going to be low. (For votig purposes, they'd have to disqualify the one-week stints like Chenoweth and all the "In Residence" shows...probably a 3-4-week minimum)
– It could be viewed as an encouragement to bring "entertainments" to Broadway that take away houses from actual plays. Not saying that's right or wrong, but some people have a problem with that (and some shows are more "artful" that others).
Updated On: 9/27/19 at 10:01 PM
