shows that got best book, score but not best musical

[dfwtheatreguy]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 1:51pm

i started thinking about "parade" and how great a show i thought it was, and why at the 53rd tonys (1999) it grabbed up best score and book, but lost the big prize to "fosse" - it seems the equivalent of a film grabbing best screenplay and director and not picture.

don't get me wrong, "fosse" was great, it immortalized the man and his work superbly, but "parade" is a show i think more people should know and embrace.

why do so many "great" musicals get both score and book but not musical?

2006 - book & score: Drowsy Chaperone, musical: Jersey Boys (UGH! really???)

2002 - book & score: Urinetown, musical: Millie (ok, both good)

1998 - book & score: Ragtime, musical: Lion King

1992 - book & score: Falsettos, musical: Crazy for You

1988 - book & score: Into the Woods, musical: Phantom of the Opera

1981 - book & score: Woman of the Year, musical: 42nd Street

1978 - book & score: 20th Century, musical: Aint Misbehavin

etc, etc, etc.

Updated On: 3/1/09 at 01:51 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 1:55pm

Passing Strange got script (well-deserved). If the voters were willing to take risks, it would have won the other 2, as well.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 1:55pm

It happened to Urinetown, IIRC.

[johng428]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 2:02pm

I remember when Into the Woods got Best Book and Score, but lost to Phantom.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 2:08pm

Didn't Ragtime as well?

[BroadwayBoy2]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 2:17pm

Didn't Parade as well?


Interesting to see this list, because Drowsy, Ragtime, On the 20th..., Into the Woods, are some of my favorite musicals!

[DeNada]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 5:00pm

If you look at some of those shows you can pretty much see why the awards went that way.

Take 2006. Jersey Boys couldn't win score because it's a jukebox musical, and Drowsy's main strength was its book and it deserved to win for that (not a fan of the score, but given the competition I'm hardly surprised). Jersey Boys also won all the acting awards it was eligible for - and if John Doyle's knockout Sweeney hadn't been that year, who knows which show would have won best direction? They all add up.

Or 1998. Most of Lion King's actual script was recycled from the film, so it was hardly likely to win book or score on that basis (best original score written for the theatre? suuuure). But it swept the technical awards and direction/choreography - the staging is what makes it such an excellent show (IMHO), not the original script.

The only other year I can comment on where I've seen both shows is 1988. Again, Phantom swept the technical categories and picked up the direction Tony, along with winning both of the acting noms it got (for Crawford and Kaye). Into the Woods is infinitely cleverer than Phantom and features a great score; but I think anyone who's tried to stage it knows it's nowhere near as polished and slick as something like Phantom which was at the time basically the pinnacle of the 80s megamusical.

(plus Sondheim was a critical darling in the 80s, and Lloyd Webber most certainly wasn't and isn't)

Looking at the others on that list, the Best Musical winners are film adaptations (Millie, 42nd Street) or catalogue shows (Crazy For You, Ain't Misbehavin') - I suspect the Tony committees didn't think you could award Best Book or Best Score to shows which don't have completely original books and scores (although please, someone, pull an example out of the hat to prove me wrong!)

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 5:05pm

T.S. Elliot won Best Book for CATS in '82 for a book that was not only taken verbatim from a prior work but put together after he had passed.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 5:06pm

Didn't Producers get Book, Score, Musical and almost everything else?

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 5:08pm

West Side Story won best set design and choreography..but lost best musical to The Music Man, which I don't really get.

[DeNada]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 5:21pm

Cats is...um... the exception that proves the rule?

Maybe?

(although looking at the other nominees perhaps it just won by default...)

[Jon]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 5:22pm

WSS was ahead of its time. It was considered too dark and depressing for "popular entertaiment".

Many of these cases involved musicals built around old songs where the score was not eligible, such as CRAZY FOR YOU, FOSSE, 42ND STREEET, AINT MISBEHAVIN', JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY, etc.

Then there wwas trhe case where SUNSET BOULEVARD won Best Score with no competition - there were no other shows that year with original scores.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 6:57pm

From your list, JERSEY BOYS, FOSSE, CRAZY FOR YOU, 42ND STREET and AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' did not have original scores, so they were not eligable.

RAGTIME was widely expected to take Best Musical that year (all the other awards were divided between the shows as expected) but the majority of the Tony voters went for the sheer entertainment value of LION KING, and no doubt the road presenters were salivating at getting the show into their cities. (It would have done well even if it hand't won.)

A more alarming award was naming CONTACT the season's best musical, when it is not a musical.

[MrJNLong]

Posted: 3/1/09 at 7:12pm

Speaking of Contact, that year Aida won Best Score, Best Actress, Best Lighting, and something else (either Set or Costumes), but wasn't even nominated for Best Musical...