Tony Awards Committee Announces 2 New Categories — Page 3

"The sound designer's job is to make sure the mics work and the lyrics are intelligible, come up with a decent mix and maybe throw in a nice sound effect or two."

So just anyone can do that huh? You left out the part about how they have to deal with surly musicians who don't want to play into the mics, or think they know all there is to know about what it takes to design a show.

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b12b, you're being absolutely ridiculous.

You can sit down and listen to a score, and immediately recognize whether it's good or not.

How would you sit there and say "Oh, that musical direction was better than THAT OTHER musical direction?" Shows like BROOKLYN and ALL SHOOK UP had great musical direction (what musical on Broadway has poor musical direction?) but how on earth could one say that ONE musical director was better than the next?

You cannot compare it to "Best Score" or "Best Actor" because those are things that you can sit down, look at, and determine. There is no way on EARTH that you could say "Oh, Paul Gemignani's musical direction of 110 IN THE SHADE was superb, but Kim Grigsby of SPRING AWAKENING really did the best job."

PLEASE. And this is coming from someone who IS a musical director.

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Munk, your excuse is WEAK. You could say the exact same thing about a show's director.

How would you know that it wasn't the ACTOR'S choice to pause before that line? Or how would you know that it wasn't the AUTHOR who decided to have the character cry at that moment?

I'm not buying your reasoning for one minute.

And this is from someone who has ALSO been a musical director.

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You're missing the point.

Having a category for Best Musical Direction would be like having a category for Best Stage Technician, or Best Stage Manager. How on EARTH would you judge that?

B12, you keep telling me that my reasons are stupid, but I'm missing where you offer up a suggestion as to how you could POSSIBLY judge musical direction.

And to say that you can't judge the direction of a piece is horrendous. Of course you can.

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I was just thinking that, Mistress. If wig design could somehow be a part of costume design, I think it would be a great award.

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I think the best way to address these difficulties would be to move toward the voting system used by the Oscars, and have artists and technicians from within a discipline determine who gets nominated and awarded.

I am a musical director as well, and I think it is clear when a show has good musical direction or not. I mean, I listen out for this kind of stuff and I think it's much more distinct than sound design or stage management. I am a fan on Spring Awakening, but I certainly would not have voted for it for Best Musical Direction (I would have probably chosen Company; the cleanest singing was definitely coming from that show, and all that without a conductor? Completely impressive). I'm not sure if I'd let just anyone vote for that category, though, since not everyone knows what musical direction is (just like sound design). The Oscars has a system where only "experts" of certain fields would vote for certain categories, like sound editing and sound mixing. Perhaps if the Tonys implemented something like that, a category like Musical Direction could work. I usually agree with the results of the Orchestration category, so I think people are smart enough to know what good orchestrations are.

~Steven

Yes, Broadway sound designers (also known as "soundmen" anywhere else in the world) are all good at what they do, but they are also stuck-up enough already without now getting Tony awards. I'm dreading those speeches.

You are so laughably transparent, TechEverlasting. If it displeases you so much to see others take pride in getting rewarded for their work, then you're the stuck-up one. It's as though you're saying, "If I can't get a Tony Award, NOBODY can get a Tony Award!" Get over yourself.

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If "Best Sound Design" has the effect of sound designers making sure that the sound is not distorted or over amplified and sounds like it is coming from the actors' mouths, then I am all for such a Tony. When I saw RAGTIME, Audra McDonald's voice was over amplified and distorted, and this from such an accomplished singer. At intermission, I complained to the man from the soundbooth at the rear of the orchestra. Things were marginally better in Act Two.

In the 1950's and 1960's there WAS a Tony category for Best Conductor and Musical Director. In addition to conducting the pit orchestra, the musical director typically arranges and conducts the vocals for any chorus of singers on stage. It IS possible to recognize excellence in this category. Aren't conductors of major orchestras around the world recognized for their expertise as musical director? Take Leonard Bernstein as an example. He was able to get his musicians to play magnificently, no matter what orchestra he was conducting. His charismatic presence had its effect on the orchestra.

There was a Broadway conductor and musical director named Lehman Engel who was a highly regarded leader in his field in the 1950's into the 1970's.(He also founded the BMI Workshops, which is still in existence). I would go to musicals that he was conducting and watch him as much as I would the actors on stage. To me he was mesmerizing, conducting with such care and enthusiasm and eliciting good performances from the cast.(This was back when you could see the conductor from your seat). He won the Tony Award(one of several) for conducting the OBC of WONDERFUL TOWN(1953). Rosalind Russell, the star of the show, once said that she would be standing in the wings, waiting to go on and saying to herself, "How am I going to do this show again tonight?" Then she would be on stage, look down at Lehman Engel's encouraging and smiling face, and know that all would be well.

I have no idea why this category was dropped in the mid 1960's. It should be re-instated.

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