Tony Award Upsets? — Page 4

Didn't see Marissa in Hairspray and never got the chance to see that revival of Gypsy but the cast recording of Gypsy is enough to convince me who deserved that Tony more.

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Ragtime not winning over The Lion King. That and Sweeney go down as the worst in my book.

Will Roger's Follies was created by Broadway geniuses. Cy Coleman, Betty & Adolf Green, Peter Stone, and Tommy Tune. Not sure if it was the best overall show. BUT you can't go wrong with those creators. And Cy deserved to win for his wonderful score. Cy was brilliant.

Tons over the years.... my top ten are...

1. Irving Berlin (CALL ME MADAM) winning best score over Frank Loesser (GUYS AND DOLLS)

2. REDHEAD winning best musical over FLOWER DRUM SONG. A weak season but FLOWER DRUM was a better show and score.

3. GYPSY not winning best muysical over SOUND OF MUSIC. (FIORELLO tied with MUSIC. Would have been better had it tied GYPSY)

4. Merman's Madame Rose losing to Martin's Maria Von Trapp.

5. Not allowing CANDIDE to run as Best Musical 1974. It was much re-written and altered from the 1956 version. At least teh book was nominated, and won.

6. Letting a plotless revue (AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', later JEROME ROBBINS BROADWAY) win "Best Musical."

7. Naming CONTACT a "best Musical" when it isn't a musical at all.

8. Allowing SUNSET BLVD to run uncontested in 1995. The awards for book and score should have been eliminated and any season when there are not 4 new musicals the Best Musical should either be not awarded or the revivals and musicals should compete head to head.

9. URINETOWN losing to MILLIE

10. Giving the award for Best Book of a musical to CATS. (DO they not know by now what a book is???)

While not an upset, GRAND HOTEL was in many ways a superior show to CITY OF ANGELS (Which is alsoa pretty terrific show.)

AVE Q's win was expected. It opened to rave reviews. WICKED got mixed reviews and a lot of outright pans. Contrary to myth, the Tonys do not (usually) reward a show just because it is big box office. I suspect manyy voters felt that LION KING had more overall entertainment value. Maybe they are right. (It didn't for me.) But it was hardly a case of just voting the award to to the bigger hit. Still, RAGTIME was a better show and should have won. I think.

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I thought Bernadette was going to win over Marissa (sp?)
Was surprised when Ragtime lost the Tony to Lion King.
Also, I expected Drowsy to win over J. Boys.

ljay - see, the issue here is I just don't care. :)

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I'm looking forward to reading this thread on Sunday evening, June 10...

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Mark some great points! :

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2. REDHEAD winning best musical over FLOWER DRUM SONG. A weak season but FLOWER DRUM was a better show and score.

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Agreed - FDSong is a dated show but I actually prefer it to SOund of Music in some ways and I think the score is very strong--Redhead's isn't at all. That said many were really striken with how Redhead was staged--especially the long Bob Fosse numbers (the Wax Museum 20 minute ballet etc)--while few talk about the FDSong staging (the 20 minute segment from it I have on Ed Sullivan is underwhelming especially teh choreography) so maybe that played a part

"6. Letting a plotless revue (AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', later JEROME ROBBINS BROADWAY) win "Best Musical."
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Damn right! Smoky Joe's being nominated and Fosse winnign count here too as much as I *loved* Fosse and woulda loved ot have seen Jerome Robbins Broadway. In those cases it seems particularly unfair--take the most famous numbers form some of the most famous shows ever back to back--hwo can anythign else compete?

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7. Naming CONTACT a "best Musical" when it isn't a musical at all.
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Was Fosse's Dancin' eligible for a Tony? but yeah... as much as I love Contact.
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8. Allowing SUNSET BLVD to run uncontested in 1995. The awards for book and score should have
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That was beyond bizarre and a joke. I actually like Sunset Blvd (mor eor less) though I know you don't but still... It makes the whole awards seem even more of a joke than they are

E

"6. Letting a plotless revue (AIN'T MISBEHAVIN', later JEROME ROBBINS BROADWAY) win "Best Musical."

Out of curiosity, what would you have picked for the year Jerome Robbins Broadway won? Because it seems like that was a really sparse year (the other two nominees being Starmites and Blck and Blue).

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1958 The Music Man over West Side Story.

Margo, didn't JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY also featured some "new" material, or was it only "Mr.Monotony"? Was Debbie Gravitte's performance of that one song as showstopping as to say that it won her the Tony?

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What was Mr Monotony?

I've also always wodnered what Starmites is--I think I have it mixed in my head with the inexplicably huge Quebecois/French musical Starmania...

One year no one's mentioned so far--1966 Man of La Mancha winning all the major awards (book, score, musical and director) over Sweet Charity not getting one. It helps of course that Mancha is one show I, and I have nor eal good reason, *despise*

It's all about personal taste. I personally adore 1776 (one of my top ten or so favorite shows) and Man of La Mancha and am glad they won.

The year 1776 won, the was no separate award for Best Score or Book, so instead Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards (the book writer and composer, respectively) were given the Best Musical prize. It was considered to be something of a miraculous achievement for the creative team to have taken such seemingly dry and unmusical a subject matter (that everyone in the audience knew from their school days and as such knew how it all turned out in the end) and made it into such a witty, entertaining, suspenseful and profound piece of entertainment. Hair was entirely too controversial to ever be seen as a serious challenge for Best Musical (many many Tony voters -- being of the older generation -- absolutely DETESTED the show). Promises, Promises was thought of as a fun light piece of entertainment with some fine performances and choreography (though the Bacharach-David light rock score too was also rather controversial with the rank and file of the Tony voters). Zorba was seen as a minor work, not up to either Kander & Ebb or Joe Stein's previous efforts (Cabaret and Fiddler) and was probably never even in the running.

The original staging of La Mancha was extremely powerful and effective -- those who only know the completely misguided revival production with Mitchell have no idea what a moving and beautiful show it can be. The general consensus that season was that La Mancha was unique artistic achievement while Sweet Charity was a rather perfunctory "tired businessman's show" that was elevated only by the inventive gifts of Verdon and Fosse. Even the score was undervalued at the time and only much later began to be appreciated as one of Cy Coleman's best efforts. Mame actually was probably La Mancha's biggest competition that season. It was a huge hit that I'm sure got its share of votes, but ultimately La Mancha was seen as the better show.

"Mr. Monotony" was a song cut from the Irving Berlin show "Mr. President" that was re-inserted into Jerome Robbins' Broadway and was a highlight.

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