Tony trivia

[mikem]

Posted: 6/7/11 at 8:29pm

Here's a thread for Tony trivia about this year's nominees (and eventual winners).

Some trivia to start things off (and please make corrections if I've made mistakes):

Of the 5 shows that have ever received 14 or more Tony nominations, only 1 (Company) was eligible in the Leading Actress category. The other 4 (Book of Mormon, Producers, Spamalot, Billy Elliot) all had at least one nomination in each of the other 3 acting categories, but no one eligible for Lead Actress.

Brian Bedford's nomination for playing a member of the opposite sex is at least the fourth such nomination, following Xanthe Elbrick in Coram Boy, Harvey Fierstein in Hairspray and Mary Martin in Peter Pan.

Suprisingly, this is Al Pacino's first nomination since 1977, although he has appeared in 6 other Broadway productions in the meantime.

The performer nominated this year with the most consecutive nominations is Donna Murphy, who has been nominated for her last 5 Broadway appearances (People in the Picture, LoveMusik, Wonderful Town, King and I, Passion). The male performer nominated this year with the longest streak is Billy Crudup, who has been nominated for his last four Broadway appearances (Arcadia, Coast of Utopia, Pillowman, Elephant Man). During that time, Murphy has won twice and Crudup once.

This is Kander and Ebb's EIGHTH consecutive nomination for score stretching back to 1975 (Scottsboro Boys, Curtains, Steel Pier, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, The Rink, Woman of the Year, The Act, Chicago). They won twice during that streak for Woman of the Year and Kiss of the Spiderwoman, with a previous win for Cabaret.

However, Kander and Ebb's enormous output makes them unique in the Best Score category, in that they are the only nominees in this category who have had an eligible original score for a Broadway show that has NOT gotten a Tony nomination in that category. All of the other composers and lyricists nominated this year have a 100% hit rate for nominations. Book of Mormon is Parker and Stone's first eligible production, but Robert Lopez and Glenn Slater got a nomination for their only other eligible score (Avenue Q and Little Mermaid), and Alan Menken and David Yazbek have both received nominations for both of their other eligible scores (Beauty and the Beast/Little Mermaid and Full Monty/Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). Kander and Ebb did not receive a nomination for 70, Girls, 70, Zorba, or Flora, the Red Menace.

David Lindsay-Abaire is the only Best Play nominee who has had a play previously produced on Broadway.

The Best Revival of Play category includes a play originally produced in 1605, one produced in 1895, one in 1985, and one in 1993. The Best Revival of a Musical nominees were originally produced in 1934 and 1961.

This year's oldest nominees are 84-year-old John Kander, 79-year-old Joel Grey, and 79-year-old Desmond Heeley, the costume designer for The Importance of Being Earnest. Kander and Grey's first wins were in 1967 for Cabaret, and Heeley's was in 1968 for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. At the times of Kander, Grey, and Heeley's first wins, over half of this year's nominees for Featured Actor and Actress in a Musical hadn't even been born.

Updated On: 6/7/11 at 08:29 PM

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 6/7/11 at 8:43pm

Joel Grey did not receive a Tony nomination for his performance in 'Anything Goes,' Im afraid.

Also, all of the above information is more or less found on Wikipedia, so you're wasting your time.

Good day.

[roseaddams]

Posted: 6/7/11 at 9:37pm

Joel Grey did, however, receive a Tony nomination for directing THE NORMAL HEART with George C. Wolfe.

Good day.

[rjm516]

Posted: 6/7/11 at 9:41pm

I love when people try to be all rudely smart and all-knowing and are wrong. Hoping Joel Grey wins!

[Eris0303]

Posted: 6/7/11 at 9:55pm

I thought there was a rule that stated you had to be here at least two years before you get your snarky badge.

Mikem, thanks for taking your time to create this thread

[willep]

Posted: 6/7/11 at 10:00pm

Interesting stuff.

[leefowler]

Posted: 6/7/11 at 10:33pm

Mikem's post was delightful and informative. Attacking it was mean spirited and bizarre.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/8/11 at 2:33am

Kander and Ebb should have been nominated for FLORA.

[ahhrealmonsters]

Posted: 6/8/11 at 9:34am

Is Ebb the only late nominee?

[Boq101]

Posted: 6/8/11 at 10:23am

I love trivia like this! Thanks for posting, really very interesting. I love how Donna Murphy has basically been nominated for everything she's done on Broadway after Passion.

[mikem]

Posted: 6/8/11 at 10:35pm

Hey guys,
Thanks for your really nice messages! I have to admit that the first reply kind of threw me, so it was really wonderful to read all of your supportive messages after that.

To answer the question (which hopefully is not too morbid to go into such detail), Fred Ebb is the only nominee this year who has passed away, but this has happened several times in the past. Fred Ebb was also nominated posthumously for Curtains in 2007 (as was Curtains's original bookwriter, Peter Stone, who passed away in 2003). Probably the most infamous example of a posthumous nomination was when Ivan Turgenev, who died in 1883,was nominated for Best Play in 2002 because Fortune's Fool had never played on Broadway before. This absurd circumstance was one of the factors that led to a revision of the criteria for Best Play vs Best Revival to include consideration of whether the play was a "classic." Without that rule change, The Normal Heart would have been eligible for Best Play this year and would probably have been nominated in that category.

[Ryan4]

Posted: 6/8/11 at 10:51pm

Another interesting one - If "War Horse" wins Best Play, it would be only the second play with no acting nominations to do so. (The first was "Sleuth" in 1971).

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/9/11 at 12:32am

Cool info. Thank you.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/9/11 at 12:43am

If Anything Goes wins for Best Revival, won't it be the second musical to have two revivals win the Tony? (The other being La Cage, of course)

Updated On: 6/9/11 at 12:43 AM

[theatreguy]

Posted: 6/9/11 at 12:54am

The Book of Mormon will be only the 7th Best Musical winner (out of 64) to not have had any prior productions outside New York or Off-Broadway.

[mikem]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 6:11pm

For the productions nominated for Best Play/Musical/Revival, 15 performers were eligible for Leading Actor (Rylance, Cannavale, Numrich, Rannells, Gad, Butz, Tveit, Henry, Bedford, Fontana, Furr, Pacino, Mantello, Donnell, Radcliffe) but only 4 were eligible for Leading Actress (McDormand, Miller, Rabe, and Foster).

[madlibrarian]

Posted: 6/10/11 at 6:54pm

Thank you, mikem. That first responder was very rude.

[mikem]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 3:04pm

Thank you, madlibrarian and ljay!

Here's one I thought was particularly interesting: this is the first year since 2000 that there was no nominated revival of a work by Stephen Sondheim. That 10-year streak is pretty impressive.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 3:20pm

mikem - love that fact about Sondheim. Very interesting and impressive.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 3:39pm

There is, however, a show in the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.

[Musical Director 109]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 6:02pm

Thanks for the great information. A question,probably for another thread, Would Donna Murphy had won the Tony for "The King and I" if Julie Andrews did not decline her nomination for Victor/Victoria?? Thoughts.....

[wiggum2]

Posted: 6/11/11 at 7:48pm

Donna would not have won if Julie stayed in (and Donna knows and agrees!)

[mikem]

Posted: 6/13/11 at 1:35am

Winners (and losers) trivia:

The big one is that The Scottsboro Boys now becomes the show that has fared the most poorly at the Tonys ever, losing all 12 of its nominations and "beating" out the original production of Chicago and Steel Pier, which both lost all 11 of their nominations. In a weird coincidence, all 3 shows are Kander and Ebb shows.

All 4 Featured Acting winners were first-time nominees, while 3 of the 4 Leading Acting winners were getting their second Tony in the same category (Frances McDormand being a first-time winner).

The only shows to win more than one Tony were the winners of Best Play/Musical/Revival of a Play/Revival of a Musical, all of which won at least 2 other awards besides the Best Production award.

Trey Parker won 3 awards tonight (Score, Book, Director). Not sure how many others have won that many in the same night.

I believe Rae Smith is the first woman to win Best Scenic Design for a play. (Christine Jones, Catherine Martin and Heidi Landesman have won Best Scenic Design for the set design of a musical.)

Updated On: 6/13/11 at 01:35 AM

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 6/13/11 at 3:18am

This is so fascinating! Thank you for compiling all this trivia.