Tony Nominations - the Men

[skynyc]

Okay...

Four categories, which will include some wild speculation on some pretty tremendous performances. It amazes me that anyone can get all the performances in this year's plays and musicals into twenty nominees. 5 in each category for Lead and Featured performances in Musicals and Plays...

 

Starting with Plays:

 

Lead performance Givens:

 

Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Salesman

James Cordon in One Man, Two Guvnors

Stacy Keach in Other Desert Cities

 

The other contenders are myriad: Alan Rickman in Seminar, Paul Gross in Private Lives, Hugh Dancy in Venus in Fur, Frank Langella in Man and Boy and John Larroquette, James Earl Jones, and Eric McCormack in The Best Man. Samuel L. Jackson in Mountaintop and John Lithgow in The Columnist

 

I think I would go with Lithgow who hasn't had a part this good since M. Butterfly, and Jones...who gave a master class in RE-acting to what was going around him. But I wouldn't be surprised if Hugh Dancy knocked one of these powerhouses out of the race.

 

Featured nods for Plays:

 

Where to begin: Jim Dale in Road to Mecca? Andrew Garfield and Finn Wittrock in Salesman, Tom Edden as the 83 year-old waiter in One Man, Two Guvnors, Thomas Sadoski in Other Desert Cities. Frank Wood or the brilliantly obnoxious Jeremy Shamos in Clybourne Park. And I thought the Brian J. Smith, who played the young Russian in Columnist more than just a pretty face (and body.) Jefferson Mayes is a theater favorite, and since his marvelous performance for Blood and Gifts isn't eligible, he may get a dark horse nod for Best Man.

 

These nominations are so tough to call since the two boys in Salesman gave equally riveting performances, yet the committee may be reluctant to give this show two of these slots. Tom Edden's one scene as the ancient waiter is almost a sure-fire nominee, (and perhaps the win), and I would love to see them remember Jim Dale. Again, my personal pick would be Shamos, whose spot-on performances as two different asses fifty years apart made him not only easy to recognize, but loathe.

 

 

For musicals, there's a huge sigh of relief among the crowd of eligible actors that Hugh Jackman isn't. But the fact that he's getting a special Tony this year, pretty much guarantees a visit from him for the broadcast, and that's always a good thing.

 

The front runners for Lead actor in a Musical are

Danny Burstein in Follies

Raul Esparza in Leap of Faith

Jeremy Jordan in Newsies (and technically also in Bonnie and Clyde) and

Steve Kazee in Once.

 

Which leaves one spot.

Will it be for Ron Raines in Follies; any chance for Reeve Carney in Spiderman? Norm Lewis as Porgy, or Matthew Broderick in Nice Work. And Paul Nolan got strong notices for his Jesus in Superstar. Mr. Connick will not be considered for On a Clear Day, nor will the hunky Richard Fleeshman in Ghost.

 

I suspect the committee will go for Matthew Broderick, but he'd probably be my last choice among the list above, but Mr Lewis may be a wild card. (Notice I didn't say "dark horse." I would select Paul Nolan.

 

The supporting performers are also very diverse:

 

The obvious choices:

Michael Cerveris in Evita

Ricky Martin in Evita...(who, in my opinion should be in the Lead category)

Michael McGrath in Nice Work

Patrick Page in Spiderman...he's a popular guy, and as the villainous Green Goblin has stuck with this show and is almost worth the ticket price himself

 

So again...one remaining slot

Leslie Odom in Leap of Faith? Chris Sullivan in Nice Work? Philip Boykin or David Alan Grier in Porgy? David Taylor in On a Clear Day? Josh Young in Superstar?

 

I think I would give it to Mr. Young, but I hear he's been having voice trouble and missing a lot of performances. The committee members may not have seen him. So I suspect it will probably be Mr. Boykin as the dangerous Crown in Porgy and Bess.