Some thoughts on the 2020 Tony nominations - Musical
Well, the Tonys are happening. Come hell, high water, or pandemic, the American Theatre Wing is going to have their night and award some trophies.
Given the lack of shows eligible, especially on the musical side, we were going to be in for some interesting nominations. And the Tony nominating committee did not disappoint. Here are some thoughts I had. I’ll tackle the play side tomorrow.
Joe Biden needs 270, Aaron Tveit needs 480
In what will be the biggest headline coming out of these nominations, Aaron Tveit is the long nominee for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Moulin Rouge!
The only other eligible actor to possibly be nominated was Chris McCarrell from The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, which was eligible due to its 16-week limited run at the Longacre Theatre from Oct 2019 to Jan 2020. But given there was no way the Tony nominations were going to let that happen.
So that means Aaron Tveit will seemingly win a Tony by default. But he still has to get the votes. Just like Joe Biden needing 270 electoral votes to become president, Tveit needs 60% of Tony voters to vote for him in order to win. That means he needs 480 votes. This may be the first time a Tony winner will know at least how many people voted for him.
As weird and potentially awkward this award is(what happens if he loses?), Tveit’s name was going to be announced a nominee in a non-COVID year anyway. Joining him would have likely been Rob McClure(Mrs. Doubtfire), Jay O. Sanders(Girl from the North Country), and Isaac Powell(West Side Story), but Tveit would have been my frontrunner.
Jagged Little Pill Acting nominations make for an awkward green room
Regardless of COVID-19 shutdowns, I expected Jagged Little Pill to nad some acting nominations. But with COVID-19 removing other award-worthy performances from eligibility, JLP nabbed six acting nods. From my count, there are 8 principal roles in the show. So yeah, awkward.
Women lead directing nominations
For perhaps the first time in Tony award history, women outnumber the men in the Directing of a Musical category: Phyllida Lloyd for Tina -The Tina Turner Musical, Diane Paulus for Jagged Little Pill with Alex Timbers for Moulin Rouge!
Even if COVID-19 never happened, this might have always been the case with the buzz from Marianne Elliott’s excellent job of directing Company.
Leading Actress in a Musical race is really good
I said this on Twitter but 100 shows could have opened this year and the three women nominated would still have been nominated. My money is Adrienne Warren but Karen Olivio and Elizabeth Stanley gave incredible performances this year.
The second best musical will win Best Musical
I do believe all three musicals nominated would have been there in non-COVID year, but I think the award was Girl from the North Country’s to lose. Given the landscape of shows potentially coming back next fall, I’d say the race will be that, Six and Mrs. Doubtfire.