Tony nominee trivia

[mikem]

Posted: 6/7/12 at 9:16pm

Here is some trivia about the Tony nominees, both ones I discovered and others collected from around the web. Please add your own, make attributions, and point out any errors!

Jan Maxwell’s nomination for Leading Actress in a Musical means that she has now been nominated in every acting category (Leading/Play, Leading/Musical, Featured/Play, Featured/Musical). She joins Boyd Gaines, Raul Esparza, and Angela Lansbury in that distinction. All four of them only completed their cycle in the last 6 years.

Leap of Faith is the first Best Musical nominee not to pick up any other nomination since Swinging on a Star in 1996, and the first Best Musical nominee to close between the nomination announcement and the awards ceremony since Skyscraper in 1966. It also had the shortest run (19 performances) for a Best Musical nominee since Amour (17 performances) in 2003.

Alan Menken is the composer of 2 Best Musical nominees (Leap of Faith and Newsies). Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of 2 Best Musical Revival nominees (Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar).

All four of the Best Play nominees opened Off-Broadway in a previous season (and therefore were ineligible for this year’s Drama Desk or Outer Critics Awards). All four plays originally premiered in the US; this is the first time since 1994 that none of the nominees had a production in England prior to the Broadway premiere. All four playwrights are also nominated for their first straight play on Broadway (although Rick Elice and David Ives have contributed to other shows in the past).

This is also an unusually American year in the acting categories. Only 3 actors, the lowest number in 5 years, are nominated for a role they originated in London (James Corden, Tom Edden, and Tracie Bennett).

Peter and the Starcatcher has as many nominations in other categories (8 nominations) as all of the other Best Play nominees combined.

Six of the Leading Actor/Actress in a Play nominees already have a Tony, while only 1 of the Leading Actor/Actress in a Musical nominees does. (That person is Audra McDonald, whose 4 Tonys evens things out a little!)

Double nominees this year are Rick Elice (Play and Score for Peter and the Starcatcher), Natasha Katz (Lighting for Follies and Once – the only nominee competing against herself), and Kathleen Marshall (Director and Choreographer for Nice Work).

The oldest nominee is 81-year-old James Earl Jones. (Mike Nichols is 80.) There is one posthumous nominee – Eiko Ishioka for Costumes for Spider-Man.

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/7/12 at 9:27pm

Interesting. Thank you.

[Bwaydide92]

Posted: 6/7/12 at 9:36pm

I think LEAP OF FAITH had 20 performances though. Not that it matters much. Probably shouldn't have even had that many.

[TheatreKid3]

Posted: 6/7/12 at 9:44pm

STARCATCHER received 9 nominations, actually!

[kdogg36]

Posted: 6/7/12 at 9:48pm

Well, the OP said "as many nominations in other categories."

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/7/12 at 11:46pm

PETER AND THE STARCATCHER holds the record of being the most Tony-nominated new American Broadway play in history.

13 Tony-nominated shows opened in the Fall this season while 18 opened in the Spring.

37 shows opened in the 2011-2012 Tony season. Of them, 31 received at least one nomination in any category.

[Polka Dot2]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 12:35am

Fun bit of trivia! I'm such a nerd for Broadway history - Thanks!

[binau]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 12:43am

What are the shows that didn't receive any nominations?

[TheatreKid3]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 12:48am

Godspell, Magic/Bird and Relatively Speaking were the only eligible productions that received no nominations from any award organization this year.

Updated On: 6/8/12 at 12:48 AM

[theatreguy]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 12:49am

The Mountaintop, Relatively Speaking, Chinglish, Godspell, Private Lives, Seminar and Magic/Bird are the eligible shows that did not receive any nominations.

[JamesBroadwayWiner]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 11:09am

It's an interesting season!

[mikem]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 4:51pm

Thanks everybody for their kind words, contributions, and comments! In terms of Leap of Faith's performance count, ibdb.com says 19 but Playbill says 20; I don't know which one is right.


Here's another piece of trivia:

This is the third year in a row that one of the Leading Actress in a Musical nominees is playing a role that is at least partially identified by relationship or sex rather than by a name. "Girl," played by Cristin Milioti in Once, follows "Bubbie/Raisel," played by Donna Murphy last year in The People in the Picture, and "Mother," played by Christiane Noll in the Ragtime revival of two years ago. ("Bubbie" is a Yiddish term for Grandmother.)

Updated On: 6/8/12 at 04:51 PM

[random person 112]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 5:10pm

^Congratulations to Mrs. Maxwell.

[mikem]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 7:50pm

Not including Roundabout/MTC shows, which have to close to make way for the next show, the play/play revivals that closed before nomination day were The Mountaintop, Relatively Speaking, Chinglish, Private Lives, and Stickfly, and they received a grand total of 1 nomination (for Condola Rashad) all together.

In fact, six of the seven shows that didn't get any nominations opened before Dec 1. Magic/Bird is the only show from the second half of the season that got blanked.

Two of the Best Musical nominees (Leap of Faith and Nice Work) opened in the last 3 days of eligibility.

There were 3 shows that made themselves Tony-ineligible this season by not inviting the voters -- Hugh Jackman, Patti/Mandy, and Shatner's World. Whoever wins Leading Actor in a Musical should probably thank Jackman's producers for keeping him out of the running! (And Ron Raines, who was probably Nominee #5, should write them a thank-you note, too.)

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 9:09pm

I love stuff like this, thank you!

I would also like to say that we were really blessed this season with plays. The Best Actress in a Play category is especially fantastic, as many have said, but think about the acclaimed performances that didn't make the cut. In another season Rachel Griffiths, Jennifer Lim, Kim Cattrall, Lily Rabe, Angela Bassett, Rosemary Harris, and Tyne Daly could all have been nominated or won for their well received performances. This season was really an embarrassment of riches ...especially with Actresses in a play. Bravo!

[Bwaydide92]

Posted: 6/8/12 at 9:22pm

This season in general belonged to plays. No one was too excited about any of the musicals. ONCE and NEWSIES still have a lot of people that don't like them. Very different from last year.

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 6/9/12 at 10:30am

If you count opening night, April 26, Leap of Faith played 20 performances. If you only count the performances after opening night but not opening night itself, then Leap only played 19 performances.

I don't know what the usual protocol is. Possibly Playbill figures it differently than ibdb.com?

[ChildrenwillListen]

Posted: 6/9/12 at 11:50am

Cool beans. Leap of Faith has set a lot of records apparently