Why wasn’t Rebecca Luker nominated for her Maria in The Sound of Music?

Way before my time but I’m surprised with five nominees they didn’t nominate Rebecca Luker for the first Broadway revival back in 1999. That production also won Best Revival. Was anyone around then and remembers what the criticism was? 
 

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Updated On: 6/23/26 at 11:38 AM

Mr. Wormwood said: "It did not win Best Revival. It lost to Cabaret. It only received one nomination (for revival because there were only three musical revivals that season). It was not that well received even though it ran for over a year."

Not well received? I’m just curious why. It looks like Laura Benanti took over for Luker before the show closed so maybe Tony voters didnt see her? 

MaxineElliott said: "Way before my time but I’m surprised with five nominees they didn’t nominate Rebecca Luker for the first Broadway revival back in 1999."

The revival contended at the 1998 Tonys. It was two years before the acting categories had five nomination slots.

It was a weird year for best actress in a musical. Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner were jointly nominated for playing two different characters, albeit conjoined twins. 

Betty Buckley got nominated for a flop show as the sole nomination of the show was either a big name check or Luker was in a really bad production.

Interesting to see that the previous revival included "I Have Confidence," which was added for the movie (along with "Something Good").  Was "Something Good" also in that revival?  Are one or both of these songs now part of the "official" estate-approved version?  And have any of the songs dropped for the movie ("An Ordinary Couple," "How Can Love Survive?," and "No Way to Stop It") also been removed from the stage version?

Dan6 said: "Interesting to see that the previous revival included "I Have Confidence," which was added for the movie (along with "Something Good"). Was "Something Good" also in that revival? Are one or both of these songs now part of the "official" estate-approved version? And have any of the songs dropped for the movie ("An Ordinary Couple," "How Can Love Survive?," and "No Way to Stop It") also been removed from the stage version?"

The 90s revival also moved "Favorite Things" to its movie position, and bizarrely it moved Lonely Goatherd to act 2 at the Salzburg Festival. The 1981 London revival with Petula Clark also made some different changes (that might have been the first production to add "Confidence"?)

Concord Theatricals offers "I Have Confidence" and "Something Good" as optional inserts to the show. The two Max/Elsa songs remain in the published show.

The national tour uses both Confidence and Good, and I believe they've made some other changes based on earlier drafts of the script? No idea what the new revival will do.

I think Ordinary Couple and Something Good are both pretty poor songs, and the setup for that song is not as good in the show as it is in the movie, imho. I like I Have Confidence.

Neither the production nor the star received good reviews.  In fact, Laura Benanti got seriously better reviews (what ones there were) than Luker did.  I think she needed a strong director to avoid giving a dull performance.  She was great as Magnolia in the Hal Prince production of Show Boat, but really uninteresting in SOM, even with her gorgeous voice.

The show started strong, but a major portion of its run were to smaller audiences at discounted prices..

Rebecca Luker is so glorious in that clip 💔

Updated On: 6/24/26 at 12:40 PM

joevitus said: "The scene in the clip Brody sharedis so atrociously staged. I think it's actually rather difficult to stage The Sound of Music effectively, but the nuns bowing to each other is just...bizarre. As is trying to shove the movie moment into the middle of the stage version, where it doesn't work. Kinda miss the "Alpine music" that generally greets Maria's intrance before the intro verse, but that's the least of the problems here."

I actually really enjoy the orchestration for the title song in that revival and the way they staged it with the scenery tracking off as the music builds. I think it’s a clever compromise to attempt to recreate that iconic moment from the film.

In the original production, the curtains parted and Mary Martin travelled down stage while perched on a tree branch. There, still and contemplative, she sang The Sound of Music, a hymn to nature and music. Listen to the original Broadway cast album and you'll hear how much she gets out of the song.

Musicaldudepeter said: "In the original production, the curtains parted and Mary Martin travelled down stage while perched on a tree branch. There, still and contemplative, she sang The Sound of Music, a hymn to nature and music. Listen to the original Broadway cast album and you'll hear how much she gets out of the song."

I've heard it, and seen photos from that. It's an interesting take, because it flips the "Problem Like Maria" on its head to some extent... the Maria we see in private there is a gentle, contemplative soul, almost a poet. She's not a flibbertigibet, will-o-the-wisp or clown, she's simply "not like the other nuns" because she doesn't belong there, and they're sensing an ideological conflict more than a behavioral one.

Contrast that with the film's characterization of Maria, where she's running, spinning and dancing, overwhelmed with awe and an almost orgasmic bliss at nature's majesty. This girl IS an uninhibited free spirit who would clash with the strictures of an abbey. She's quirky, she's an early example of the "manic pixie dream girl" archetype, albeit a more positive one. ("I Have Confidence" also lends itself to the endearing-oddball characterization.)