Why was no Tony Award given for Best Actor and Actress in a Musical for 1985?

I was doing some Tony Award research on Wikipedia and I see that there were no award winners for Best Actor or Best Actress in a Musical for 1985.
I NEVER knew this...why was no award given?

My guess would be that there were so few NEW musicals eligible that year that there weren't enough people to be considered or nominate.
I see that Mary Beth Peil was nominated for featured actress for "The King and I" and she was obviously playing a leading role as Anna.
However, I do remember that years later when Glenn Close won for "Sunset Boulevard" the only other actress nominated against her was Rebecca Luker in "Show Boat".

There were seven musicals up during the 1984-85 season. Seven.

Two of them were revivals (THE KING AND I and TAKE ME ALONG), and of the five originals, the only one that wasn't a gigantic flop was BIG RIVER.

There were only three nominees for Best Original Score. Three of the four nominees for Best Featured Actor in a Musical were from BIG RIVER. Leilani Jones, an actress from GRIND (part of Hal Prince's slump period), won Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

There was NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING. Most likely, that's your reason.

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Updated On: 6/14/09 at 08:40 PM

Quilters was on Broadway??? I love that show!!

Quilters made it all the way to Broadway? I didn't know that.