Tony Awards Eligibility 2023-2024 — Page 2

BeingAlive44Ever said: "Here's a controversial take from one of the gayest and most transiest theatre kids in America:

It's not really strictly necessary to make the performance categories nongendered. I mean I understand why people want it so much with non binary performers and such but I'm kind of an opera head. Male and female voices are inherently different physiologically, and singing is a huge part of acting in musicals. From that perspective, I just can't see desegregating the categories.However, if L Morgan Lee was nominated in the Featured Actress Category and Alex Newell won for Featured Actor, then I see no reason that they should stay segregated. Y'know it's like if they want them segregated they could at least do a policy that makes sense but now it's not based entirely on identity or physiology and because of that it just seems pointless. Now, this isn't like sports where males have an inherent advantage, but I do worry that some years will be lopsided by desegregated performance categories. But that's another thing that kind of messes with it-- if you look at newly desegregated awards, you'll see that the ones that give out two awards in the performance categories try to give them to one male and one female. At that point, it's basically exactly the same as it was before but just with more nominations per list. I think that changing it won't do much and will be hard to agree on. Not changing it will be illogical and kind of silly but honestly makes more sense."

Here's something else to think about: If the acting categories were degendered last season, only Victoria Clark or J. Harrison Ghee would’ve won Best Lead Performance in a Musical. Had Ghee won, it would’ve been at the expense of Clark winning for what is sure to go down as a legendary performance. Had Clark won, it would’ve been at the expense of Ghee’s history-making win. I doubt anyone would've really wanted either scenario to happen.

Updated On: 12/3/23 at 06:30 AM

BroadwayWorld.com: 'Gutenberg!' Packs Them In, But the Tonys Still Veto Producers' Eligibility Request

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/GUTENBERG-Packs-Them-In-But-Tonys-Still-Veto-Producers-Eligibility-Request-20231204

Updated On: 12/4/23 at 09:46 AM

kurtal said: "If I'm interpreting this correctly, then all three of The Shark is Broken's performers will be considered in Featured Actor in a Play. I'm a little surprised they didn't place Donnell or Shaw in leading since that category is looking particularly thin."

This was an ensemble play in the truest sense - and if I had to bump someone up, it sure wouldn’t have been Donnell. He was mostly a placeholder for the other two bickering.

Jeffrey Karasarides said:

"Here's something else to think about:If the acting categories were degendered last season, only Victoria Clark or J. Harrison Ghee would’ve won Best Lead Performance in a Musical. Had Ghee won, it would’ve been at the expense of Clark winning for what is sure to go down as a legendary performance. Had Clark won, it would’ve been at the expense of Ghee’s history-making win. I doubt anyone would've really wanted either scenario to happen."



That's operating under the assumption that the right way is to only award one Lead and one Featured Performance in a non-gendered category world. It could still be two winners in Leading and two winners in Featured.

How many slots are available for a best new musical nomination, or does it depend on the number of new musicals that open each season? There seem to be so many new or upcoming musicals for this season that I can imagine some really good new musicals will end up missing out on a nom.

Wayman_Wong said: "As I'm pretty sure you know, the Drama Desk has degendered its performance categories and given out TWO awards. So there were 12 nominees in Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, and Annaleigh Ashford and J. Harrison Ghee won. And there were 12 nominees in Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play, and Jessica Chastain and Sean Hayes won. In Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, there were 12 nominees, and Miriam Silverman and Brandon Uranowicz won. In Outstanding Performance in a Musical, however, there were only 10 nominees, but Kevin Del Aguila and Alex Newell won.

And their Outstanding Solo Performance category has always been degendered, and Jodie Comer won that."

I have seen someone make the argument that having two winners in a category would be utterly stupid. If they’re picking the BEST of something then there’s only ONE winner. They don’t give out two Olympic golds or two best picture Oscars for a reason. My response to that is I think one category should only have multiple winners if it was either a team effort or a tie.

Jeffrey Karasarides said: "Here's something else to think about:If the acting categories were degendered last season, only Victoria Clark or J. Harrison Ghee would’ve won Best Lead Performance in a Musical. Had Ghee won, it would’ve been at the expense of Clark winning for what is sure to go down as a legendary performance. Had Clark won, it would’ve been at the expense of Ghee’s history-making win. I doubt anyone would've really wanted either scenario to happen."

Well I do agree but you must keep in mind that most awards shows give out two awards for best performance and it winds up just being a Best Actor and Best Actress thing anyways

Like they never give it to two male actors or two females

The Tonys somehow seem like they would though

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Tony-Awards-Administration-Committee-Determines-Eligibility-for-2023-2024-Season-20240419

Maryann Plunkett in LEAD is interesting when a number of people thought she could win Featured.

Desperately need a separate Projection Design category (in addition to Hair & Makeup)

So with Chip Zien in Harmony and Maryann Plunkett and Dorian Harewood in The Notebook, the ruling seems to be the older version of characters are leads, the younger versions are not.

Wrong move especially for Plunkett.

it is slim pickings, that's for sure.....

maybe it's the producers strategy since Lindsay Mendez and Bebe Neuwirth are the frontrunners in the featured category..

Updated On: 4/19/24 at 05:07 PM

From what I've heard, I think Lindsay Mendez is more consistent now? And to be fair, it might be my own perception but I always thought it was the period of time leading up to the Tonys that matters more (Myles Frost had similar attendance issues at the beginning of his run as Jaquel Spivey but I think Myles got a lot more consistent as it went on while Jaquel didn't). Then again, since Bebe Neuwirth has more history etc she might have the edge anyway (and Merrily is more likely to win revival so this could be Cabaret's award--the other acting categories are competitive and in no way tied up fro Cabaret at this point).