Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
#1Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 2:56pm
"Stephanie J. Block and Hadley Fraser will be considered in the Leading Actress and Actor in a Musical categories for their performances in The Pirate Queen."
Well, there goes Hadley's only shot at a nomination. He wouldn't have won, but it would have been nice to get nominated in the featured category. As it is, he won't be able to score a nod along side Esparza, Cerveris, Hyde Pierce, Short, and everyone else I feel. Who knows though, maybe he can claim the 5th spot.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=18246
#2re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 3:00pmI always think these articles are going to have a lot of info but they have like none. Most of the things they ruled were comon sense.
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#2re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 3:02pmTheaterdude, what else do you expect them to have? The only time the committee has to make a ruling is in the case of a petition from the producers about billings. So if shows are happy with the way things are billed, no need to petition.
#3re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 3:20pm
ok, sorry, stupid question time:
Laura Bell Bundy will be considered in the Leading Actress in a Musical category for her performance in Legally Blonde.
I mean, she's onstage about 95% of the time, and she is the title character, what else would she have been considered in, was 'featured actress' even a possibility here? Did this actually involve a committee to figure this out?
#4re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 3:24pmyes, because Bundy is billed below the title, which make her eligible as a featured actress. The producers of her show petitioned that she belonged in the leading actress category, and the committee ruled that she did.
#5re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 3:30pm
So if you're below the title, does that automatically make you non-starring? Because that's the only def I knew of the Featured Actress category, that its nomination is for the non-starring actress (ie Orfeh or Shindle or whomever from LB, etc.), never even thought that LBB could be 'non-starring.' That's just weird.
Thanks for the info!!
Updated On: 5/10/07 at 03:30 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#6re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 3:36pm
The most infamous case of this was 1776, where despite the fact that he was onstage almost the entire show, William Daniels was billed below the title, resulting in him being nominated as a supporting actor opposite actual supporting actors in his own show.
He declined the nomination, saying it was unfair.
#7re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 3:57pm
Technically, the Tony categories have nothing to do with the size of the role. They have to do with billing only.
Actress or Actor = Someone listed above the title of the show.
Featured Actress or Featured Actor = someone billed below the title of the show.
That's it.
But over the years, the perception changed. Featured no longer meant a performer with "featured billing" but rather a "supporting role" instead.
They never changed the categories though. So unless the committee is petitioned to move someone out of their expected category (i.e., Donna McKechnie, below the title in ACL, considered for the above-the-title leading award, and Audra, billed above the title in Ragtime, considered for the featured award), the performer will automatically be considered by their billing only.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Updated On: 5/10/07 at 03:57 PM
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#8re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 4:03pm
I mean, she's onstage about 95% of the time, and she is the title character,
She is not the "title" character. The term "title character" refers to a character whose name is in the title of the show. The show is not called ELLE WOODS. It's called LEGALLY BLONDE. Ashley Brown plays the title character of Mary Poppins in MARY POPPINS.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Kringas
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/05
#9re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 4:06pmIt would be cool if her name was Legally Blonde, though. I think that's what I'm going to name my baby.
"How do you like THAT 'misanthropic panache,' Mr. Goldstone?" - PalJoey
#10re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 4:12pm
She is not the "title" character. The term "title character" refers to a character whose name is in the title of the show. The show is not called ELLE WOODS. It's called LEGALLY BLONDE. Ashley Brown plays the title character of Mary Poppins in MARY POPPINS.
But Elle Woods is called 'Legally Blonde,' Callahan calls her that in the jail scene. Does that make 'title character' work?
#11re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 4:23pm
"But Elle Woods is called 'Legally Blonde,' Callahan calls her that in the jail scene. Does that make 'title character' work? "
No. Elphaba is referred to as being wicked in "Wicked", yet she is not the title character. The show isn't called "Elphaba the Musical". Title character is specific to if that character's name actually appears in the title.
#12re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 4:23pm
I guess it's a good thing they still have these meetings. You can't just assume one thing and then have all these people nominating the same actor in two different categories. This happens with the Oscars a lot, leaving an actor out of the running because of the confusion. Just like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed and Maria Bello in A History of Violence, performances that were considered Oscar worthy but weren't nominated. I mean, I guess if there is confusion, the Tony nominators will always go with billing, but then you run into things like the 1776 incident. So common sense or not, it's good that they keep eligibility in check.
~Steven
#13re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 4:33pm
The most interesting aspect of this final meeting is the fact that CORAM BOY's music was ruled eligible for the Best Score category, so now we have two eligible plays--I wonder what effect this will have on the final nominations.
Also, it's finally official that the CURTAINS producers did not petition Monk to be considered featured, so now there is no doubt that she's eligible for the Leading Actress category... let's hope she gets that coveted 5th spot.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#14re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 4:46pm
"Let's hope she gets that coveted 5th spot."
Let's not. I would much rather see someone recognized who ACTUALLY has a leading role. I am still sad that Block didn't get great reviews because she really deserves the recognition. I would take Block or Bundy over Monk. Heck I would even take Ashley Brown.
TommyTunesSon
Chorus Member Joined: 5/6/07
#15re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 5:10pm
I remember when I asked that question on here about Coram Boy's eligibility for best score being told a resounding "NO", which made no sense to me - the tony committee has it right, and I would definitely give it a nomination (Spring Awakening was the best score of the season as far as I'm concerned).
It's happened too many times in Tony awards history that a lead gets a featured Tony - i'm thinking of a few, such as 2 from 1961: Dick VAn Dyke in Bye Bye Birdie and more outrageously Tammy Grimes in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Matthew Broderick in Brighton Beach Memoirs comes to mind as well. Conversely, I thought Christine Ebersole deserved to be in the featured category, not the lead category, for 42nd Street, a few years ago, yet she won her first tony for it. I'm sure there are other examples...
Julian2
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/10/06
#16re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 5:21pmWhat was the other play eligible for Best Score?
I have several names, one is Julian2. I am also The Opps Girl. But cross me, and I become Bitch Dooku!
#17re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 5:23pm
Well, Barbara Cook won a Tony for Best Featured Actress in the leading role of Marian in THE MUSIC MAN and Yul Brynner won a Best Featured Actor Tony for the leading role of the King of Siam.
The other play eligible is THE COAST OF UTOPIA.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#18re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 5:25pm
Tom Bosley won Best Featured Actor for Fiorello! (he was indeed Fiorello). And Barbara Cook won her Tony for Best Featured Actress for The Music Man (she was Marian). So yeah, there have been wonky ones over the years.
~Steven
#19re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 5:27pm
Julian, The Coast of Utopia is eligible.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#20re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 5:28pm
Haven't seen Coast of Utopia or Coram Boy yet. Either of those scores worthy of a nomination? Any possibility for them to be nominated?
~Steven
#21re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 5:36pmUtopia has a magnificant score! Not sure if it's... Tony quality, but I real joy to listen to and I wish they'dve recorded it...
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
#22re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 5:38pmCaroline, I believe Utopia's score is being recorded.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
ashley0139
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
#23re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 5:44pmCoast of Utopia is being recorded on sh-k-boom.
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
#24re: Tony Committee Announces Eligibility for Nominations
Posted: 5/10/07 at 6:15pm
I love instrumental scores. I'd pick up a copy if/when it comes out.
~Steven
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