Ok think about it.
The nominating commmittee has to decide which new shows are eligible and for what category (Every year this is different, What's a revival? Special Theatrical event? etc...) The same thing happens with the roles and actors (what is lead vs. what is featured etc...)
Then they see all the shows.
Then they nominate
Then The voters need to see all the shows that are nominted for the regular tony's that year.
Then they vote
That is for just the new shows.
The replacement category was an ill-conceived idea from the start.
The producers were asked to submit the names of eligible recipients based on the guidelines that have already been stated in this thread. Of course, since the Tony award is a great marketing tool, they nominated everyone. So this means that the whole process that I just described had to happen all over again.
Think about all the shows that are running on B'way right now. the voters would be seeing things every night trying to figure out who the heck to vote for.
The voters get comp seats to the shows which adds a logistical nightmare for the box office and general managers to deal with.
It sounds like a great idea but in practice it doesn't work.
Kinda like communism!
Other than that, did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?
