Update: Hamilton won 11 awards and The Humans four, including best musical and best play respectively.
See all the winners: NewYorkTheater.me
Contrary to popular belief, more than one worthy show opened on Broadway this past season, although admittedly Hamilton has become a much-ballyhooed phenomenon in the culture at large. The musical was part of what many people have called the most inclusive Broadway season in memory. It was also an especially strong season, making the idea of choosing one over another for an award seem, at times, absurd if not outright rude.
Below I continue the tradition of answering one of the two questions that I’m asked in an annual survey of New York drama critics: Who will win the Tony Awards? Who should win?
As I pointed out in my Tony Awards preview last year, I only answer my preferences. I don’t make predictions. I’m a critic, not a seer. We’ll learn the choices of the 846 Tony voters soon enough (on June 12th this year.)
I did conduct a survey of hundreds of my readers for their preferences (again, not their predictions), which at least gauges the nominees’ varied popularity.
Theoretically, I would love to see Hamilton sweep the Tonys. It would say to the show’s many fans: Yes, Hamilton is fully embraced by Broadway; it IS Broadway. But when you get down to each category, especially in the performance categories, there are others who also deserve the recognition.
Best Musical
Nominated:
Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed
My preference: Hamilton
There’s basically no doubt which musical will win this category, is there? The impact of Hamilton on the culture at large will not be ignored. Luckily, the show is worthy of its elevation, for being both groundbreaking and breathtaking.
Best Play
Nominated:
My pick: The Humans
The play is a set during Thanksgiving dinner with a particular family, but at the same time it drives home the economic fears today of many everyday Americans at different stages in their lives – student debt, health costs, lay-offs, elderly care – without ever being abstract or didactic.
Best Revival of A Play
Nominated:
Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge
My pick: Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Sometimes a single actor can make a play work for you. This is the case with Jessica Lange.
I respect Ivo Van Hove’s work – I thought he did wonders last year with Scenes from a Marriage. But I don’t share the general critical ecstasy over his remakes of the two Arthur Miller plays, which were impressive bouts of stagecraft, but didn’t seem to have all that much to do with Arthur Miller.
Best Revival of a Musical
Nominated:
My pick: Spring Awakening
This is a category in which I’d be happy to see any of the nominated shows win – they were all that good. But Spring Awakening deserves the Tony, in my view, because it went beyond simply a fine revival. By pairing hearing and deaf performers in inventive ways, it offered both a new way of creating art, and a pioneering and potentially influential approach to making theater more accessible.
Best Book of a Musical
Nominated:
Steve Martin, Bright Star,
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
Julian Fellowes, School of Rock—The Musical
George C. Wolfe, Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed
My preference: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
There is great method in the unfolding of the story of Hamilton.
It often seems the case that the book is the worst aspect of some of the musicals nominated for having the best book. This is the case this year for Bright Star.
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Nominated:
Bright Star
Music: Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
Lyrics: Edie Brickell
Hamilton
Music and Lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda
School of Rock—The Musical
Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: Glenn Slater
Waitress
Music & Lyrics: Sara Bareilles
My preference: Music and Lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
The lyrics are inspired and the music is tuneful, varied, and intensely popular. I’ve been in auditoriums where hundreds of fans will recite a Hamilton rap from beginning to end, from memory.
Best Lead Actor in a Play
Nominated:
Gabriel Byrne, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Jeff Daniels, Blackbird
Frank Langella, The Father
Tim Pigott-Smith, King Charles III
Mark Strong, Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge
My preference: Frank Langella, The Father
His descent into dementia elevates a so-so play into something Shakespearean
Best Lead Actress in a Play
Nominated:
Jessica Lange, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Laurie Metcalf, Misery
Lupita Nyong’o, Eclipsed
Sophie Okonedo, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible
Michelle Williams, Blackbird
My preference: Jessica Lange, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Jessica Lange makes Mary the center of attention in this, the sixth Broadway production of Eugene O’Neill’s play. She is not just a fading ethereal figure, but a robust woman whose entire life unfolds before us — alternatively innocent, skittish, coquettish, sneering, full-out furious, resigned. It’s a memorable performance to put on our collective mental shelf besides her Blanche DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire and her Amanda Wingfield in Glass Menagerie – her only two previous forays on Broadway.
Best Lead Actor in a Musical
Nominated:
Alex Brightman, School of Rock—The Musical
Danny Burstein, Fiddler on the Roof
Zachary Levi, She Loves Me
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
Leslie Odom, Jr., Hamilton
My preference: Leslie Odom, Jr., Hamilton
Lin-Manuel Miranda was generous enough to give another actor – Leslie Odom, Jr. — a fabulous part. Aaron Burr is in effect the narrator of Hamilton, carrying the burden of much of the exposition. Although he is Alexander Hamilton’s killer, he is also at one point his friend; he is a complex man, not a straightforward villain. Finally, Odom gets several of the best songs – including “Wait for It” and “In The Room Where It Happened” to himself. Odom handles it like the trained professional actor that he is, a performer who made his Broadway debut in Rent while still a teenager.
Best Lead Actress in a Musical
Nominated:
Laura Benanti, She Loves Me
Carmen Cusack, Bright Star
Cynthia Erivo, The Color Purple
Jessie Mueller, Waitress
Phillipa Soo, Hamilton
My preference: Cynthia Erivo, The Color Purple
A difficult category, with many spot-on portrayals.
But Erivo’s performance – both her acting and her crystal clear singing – is capable of both exquisite nuance and shattering power. There is no more memorable moment than when she sings “I don’t need you to love me….I’m beautiful, yes I’m beautiful, and I’m here” – which provokes the audience to rise up, tear up and cheer.
Best Featured Actor in a Play
Nominated:
Reed Birney, The Humans
Bill Camp, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible
David Furr, Noises Off
Richard Goulding, King Charles III
Michael Shannon, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
My preference: Reed Birney, The Humans
It is for actors like Reed Birney that I’m grateful theater awards like the Tonys exist, because he deserves the attention for an unflashy New York stage career going back 40 years of subtle, superb craftsmanship. Here he plays the father, trying to hold it together for his family.
Best Featured Actress in a Play
Nominated:
Pascale Armand, Eclipsed
Megan Hilty, Noises Off
Jayne Houdyshell, The Humans
Andrea Martin, Noises Off
Saycon Sengbloh, Eclipsed
My preference: Jayne Houdyshell, The Humans
What I said about Reed Birney goes as well for Jayne Houdyshell, who plays his wife in The Humans. She has elevated every show in which I’ve seen her perform.
Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Nominated:
Daveed Diggs, Hamilton
Brandon Victor Dixon, Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed
Christopher Fitzgerald, Waitress
Jonathan Groff, Hamilton
Christopher Jackson, Hamilton
My preference: Christopher Fitzgerald, Waitress
Christopher Fitzgerald is an insufficiently heralded genius of physical comedy. A veteran of eight Broadway productions – he originated the role of Boq in Wicked, and played Og the leprechaun in the 2009 revival of Finian’s Rainbow; he’s now Ogie in Waitress — he always stops the show. He does so again in Waitress as a weird, asthmatic suitor who clog-dances his way into the heart of a goofy waitress. Fitzgerald has been nominated for a Tony twice before (for Young Frankenstein and for Finian’s Rainbow) and deserves it on the third time around.
This is not to disparage the other nominees, each of whom are wonderful. It’s clear that Daveed Diggs is the popular pick. He is an extraordinary rapper, and I love his Cab Calloway-like jazzy number, “What’d I Miss.”
Diggs, making his Broadway debut, is given two roles – Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson – that are largely one-note characterizations, less complex than Aaron Burr.
Best Featured Actress in Musical
Nominated:
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
Renée Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton
Jane Krakowski, She Loves Me
Jennifer Simard, Disaster!
Adrienne Warren, Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed
My preference: Renee Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton
The truth is, I could just as easy have chosen Jane Krakowski – or any of the others. Every one of the nominees is outstanding. This is the one category where I’m glad I am no longer a Tony voter (the Tony committee having kicked out most critics a few years ago, under the spurious claim that we have a conflict of interest.) Any other year, Jane Krakowski might have won in a slam-dunk, for her hilarious, athletic portrayal of the not-so-dumb blonde in She Loves Me. Part of what’s so appealing about her performance is how in a few short scenes she turns what could have been a stereotypical, old-fashioned character into a believably breathing human being.
Renee Elise Goldsberry mesmerizes with the pure physical feat of rapping the most ambitious song in Hamilton, Satisfied. But, like Leslie Odom Jr., Goldsberry made her Broadway debut in Rent, and her experience as a stage performer is evident.
Danielle Brooks makes an impressive Broadway debut as Sofia in The Color Purple (the part that Oprah Winfrey played in the movies), a no-nonsense woman who has her independence beaten out of her, only to re-emerge as a survivor.
Adrienne Warren portrays two completely different singers from the 1920s, Gertrude Saunders and Florence Mills, and yet manages to be equally entertaining as both.
Jennifer Simard, the only non-celebrity in Disaster, was the only one who stood out in the deliberately underplayed part as the guitar-playing, slots machine obsessed nun.
Best Choreography
Nominated:
Andy Blankenbuehler, Hamilton
Savion Glover, Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed
Hofesh Shechter, Fiddler on the Roof
Randy Skinner, Dames at Sea
Sergio Trujillo, On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan
My preference: Savion Glover, Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed
This was a tough pick. It’s worth pointing out that the Fred and Adele Astaire Award for choreography this year had a three-way tie, with the award going to the choreographers of Hamilton, Shuffle Along and On Your Feet. If I was allowed to vote for more than one, I’d do so.
Forced to choose one, I choose Glover. I do believe that Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography greatly enhances Hamilton. But Savion Glover’s choreography makes Shuffle Along. If you removed Blankenbuehler’s choreography, Hamilton would still dazzle. If you removed Glover’s, Shuffle Along….wouldn’t.
Best Direction of a Musical
Nominated:
Michael Arden, Spring Awakening
John Doyle, The Color Purple
Scott Ellis, She Loves Me
Thomas Kail, Hamilton
George C. Wolfe, Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed
My preference: Thomas Kail, Hamilton
This is another category in which every nominee did stellar work. I think Michael Arden in particular deserves kudos for melding together hearing and deaf performers so seamlessly. But Thomas Kail is the person who is the second-most responsible for shaping Hamilton, having been there from the beginning, spending six long years helping Lin-Manuel Miranda with countless choices.
Best Direction of a Play
Nominated:
Rupert Goold, King Charles III
Jonathan Kent, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Joe Mantello, The Humans
Liesl Tommy, Eclipsed
Ivo Van Hove, Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge
My preference: Joe Mantello, The Humans
Mantello has to get some of the credit for the great ensemble acting in The Humans. A shout-out to Liesl Tommy.
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Nominated:
Ess Devlin & Finn Ross, American Psycho
David Korins, Hamilton
Santo Loquasto, Shuffle Along
David Rockwell, She Loves Me
My preference: David Rockwell, She Loves Me
I felt that David Rockwell deserved (but didn’t get) a Tony last year for On The Twentieth Century, and he should get one this year for the clever jewel box of a set in She Loves Me, which reproduces the feel of the products that they sell in the perfumery.
Although I didn’t care for American Psycho as a musical, the design of the show was outstanding, and I’m happy to see projection designer Finn Ross be nominated along with the set designer. (Ross was also included in the scenic design team that won the Tony last year for the Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time.)
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Nominated:
Beowulf Boritt, Therese Raquin
Christopher Oram, Hughie
Jan Versweyveld, A View from the Bridge
David Zinn, The Humans
My preference: Beowulf Boritt, Therese Raquin
Loved that river, and the clever perspective of the lovers’ attic.
Best Costume Design of a Musical
Nominated:
Gregg Barnes, Tuck Everlasting
Jeff Mahshie, She Loves Me
Ann Roth, Shuffle Along
Paul Tazewell, Hamilton
My preference: Paul Tazewell, Hamilton
Tazewell makes visual the major effort of Hamilton to have us see the era of the Founding Fathers through the prism of today. He mixes period costumes with abstract garments for the ensemble that simultaneously suggest both the 18th and the 21st century.
Best Costume Design of a Play
Nominated:
Jane Greenwood, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Michael Krass, Noises Off
Clint Ramos, Eclipsed
Tom Scutt, King Charles III
My preference: Tom Scutt, King Charles III
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Nominated:
Howell Binkley, Hamilton
Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer, Shuffle Along
Ben Stanton, Spring Awakening
Justin Townsend, American Psycho
My preference: Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer, Shuffle Along
This design team uses the lighting to set the moods, and establish the era – and they enhance the music by syncopating the light cues.
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Nominated:
Natasha Katz, Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Justin Townsend, The Humans
Jan Versweyveld, The Crucible
Jan Versweyveld, A View from the Bridge
My preference: Justin Townsend, The Humans
Justin Townsend did stellar work this season, with shows at opposite ends of the spectrum in many ways — the blindingly bright American Psycho and the mystically dark The Humans.
Kudos as well to Natasha Katz, who subtly underscores the unfolding of the day.
Best Orchestrations
Nominated:
August Eriksmoen, Bright Star
Larry Hochman, She Loves Me
Alex Lacamoire, Hamilton
Daryl Waters, Shuffle Along
My preference: Daryl Waters, Shuffle Along
The jazz syncopation is glorious in Shuffle Along, and Waters does it without synthesizers.
In a musical where the words are vital yet come at a fast clip, Alex Lacamoire deserves kudos for the difficult job of making sure the musical instruments didn’t overwhelm the rappers. If there were still a Tony for sound design, Hamilton’s sound designer Nevin Steinberg would surely win it.
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The 2016 Tony Awards will be broadcast this Sunday, June 12th on CBS, starting at 8pm.
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