Will LuPone GYPSY be eligible for any awards?

The Tonys have recognized City Center as a Broadway house before (that was a long time ago), but I can't see them changing their rules this time around JUST for LuPone.

I imagine that the show would be up for Drama Desks, etc. - but there are other people on here that, I'm sure, know more about it than I.

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Barring an unprecedented ruling on behalf of the Tony Administration Committee I doubt that this GYPSY production will be eligible for consideration for any of the Tonys. For the Tonys, only shows in Broadway eligible houses can be nominated and City Center isn't an eligible house (and has rarely been ruled on in the past -- the last time was a couple of decades ago). Also, the Tonys have never recognized Encores! shows in the past and this is simply a longer running Encores show. Now, I suppose City Center could petition the Administration Committee to make a special exception for this production and make it eligible (and remember that if they do that, they have to also be willing to hand out 1500 comps for the show -- a pair for each of the 750 Tony voters -- which frankly I'm not sure would in their budget for such a limited engagement) and see what happens. Somehow I doubt the committee would go for it, but you never know.

I suppose the various critics awards could do what they want to (as critics, they're all going to be comped and see the show anyway, so it wouldn't be a big deal for them to make the show eligible for consideration). We'll see.

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Updated On: 4/13/07 at 12:29 PM

The more important question is will she be robbed again??!!

The "I'm F$%*ing Patti LuPone" award. No, I highly doubt it.

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What was so great about it was that it was BARELY a staged production, she didn't have much rehearsal, and the whole thing came together flawlessly - and LuPone proved, finally, that this is a role she needs to play.

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Right, which is why the whole question is kind of pointless.

Though, it would be nice for them to give her a special Tony for adding "lustre to the season." They gave it to Liza for that reason.

And this could be her Tony in lieu of last year's homocide.

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It seems to me that if this is produced on a standard Broadway production contract, it may be deemed eligible for the Tonys. I'm pretty sure it's going to have to be on a different contract than the regular Encores shows are. While City Center is not considered a Broadway house, I don't know of any reason for it not to be considered one if a show is produced there under a Broadway contract.

The truth is that Variety and the Best Plays annuals always considered City Center productions in the old days to be Broadway productions. The people who run ibdb seem to believe that they weren't considered Broadway productions, but I question their reasoning. In any case, City Center productions did sometimes get nominated for Tonys, as has been noted.

And I think there really would be no reason at all for the production not to be considered for the Drama Desks.

Well, IBDB is actually RUN by the League of American Theatres and Producers which also co-founded and co-produces the Tony Awards every year (with the American Theatre Wing), so one would think they would know which shows and theaters were considered eligible for Tony consideration throughout the years. City Center revivals have only been deemed eligible for the Tonys those 8 times that Munk listed above. Whether it is found eligible again for this revival remains to be seen.

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Don't be so judgemental, PJ - perhaps it was a Royal Gala at the Ravinia the night Jordan attended.

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I don't know where you make these things up.

"Most" gay men do NOT salivate over Patti LuPone.

Gay men salivate over other gay men.

Patti LuPone fans salivate over Patti LuPone.

If you did a survey of self-identified gay men across the United States, relatively few of them would even know the names of Patti Lupone...or Bernadette Peters...or even Donna Murphy.

All that said, you couldn't be more wrong about Patti's performance as Rose.

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Yeah, but there are mistakes on ibdb. (Though at least a few less since I e-mailed them about a few.) I really don't buy their reasoning about the City Center productions, sorry. I think they were under Broadway contracts, and it seems to me that that's what counts. Clearly, it did for Variety.

And when you consider that they include plenty of productions that weren't under Broadway contracts, well, their reasoning makes no sense to me.

Basically, ibdb says that the old City Center productions weren't eligible . . . except when they were. Even though they were under the same contract in the same theatre.

Updated On: 4/13/07 at 05:02 PM

Not for a Tony. Encores productions have definitely not been eligible for Tonys.

But I'm guessing (perhaps wrongly) that Gypsy will be under a different contract than past Encores productions have been, and that might create an issue where one did not exist before. I think the Tony committee may have to rule on this (presuming Gypsy is on a Broadway contract).