THE MUSICAL A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder earned 10 Tony Award nominations Tuesday, leading the lineup of musicals, comedies and dramas vying for Broadway’s top honors.
Atlanta’s Kenny Leon, co-founder and artistic director of True Colors Theatre Company, earned his second best director/play nomination for his most recent revival of A Raisin in the Sun. He was not nominated for the 2004 revival, but it was a best play nominee and won Tonys for actors Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald.
Leon was a Tony nominee once before, for August Wilson’s Fences, which he directed on Broadway in 2010.
Another (sort of) local connection is Casey Nicholaw, nominated for his Aladdin choreography. He’s directing and choreographing the world premiere musical Tuck Everlasting at the Alliance Theatre in January.
The 68th Tony awards will be broadcast live on CBS at 8 p.m. June 8 from Radio City Music Hall. Hugh Jackman, a rather staid choice compared to Neil Patrick Harris’ kicky performances the past few years, hosts. Harris will be on hand, however, as a best-actor-in-a-musical nominee for Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, set in England’s elegant Edwardian era (1901-19), tells the story of Monty Navarro, a distant heir to a family fortune who sets out to speed up the line of succession using his charm (and a dash of murder). The 13-member cast, led by Tony winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife) as eight members of the doomed D’Ysquith family, is small by Broadway standards. (VIDEO HERE)
A Gentleman’s Guide was nominated for best musical (score by Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman), leading actor (Mays and Bryce Pinkham), featured actress (Lauren Worsham), direction (Darko Tresnjak), orchestrations (Jonathan Tunick), scenic design (Alexander Dodge) and costumes (Linda Cho).
It will compete for best musical honors with the jazz-flavored revue After Midnight (subtitled Broadway’s Cotton Club Musical), Disney’s Aladdin and Beautiful — The Carole King Musical.
Not earning nominations, somewhat surprisingly, are new musicals featuring bigger names and casts: Rocky, based on the Sylvester Stallone movie; If/Then, written by the Next to Normal team of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey and starring Idina Menzel (a Tony winner for Wicked); The Bridges of Madison County, based on the Robert James Waller novel, with a score by Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Last 5 Years) and featuring Kelli O’Hara (a five-time nominee); and Bullets Over Broadway, based on the Woody Allen movie and featuring Tony winner Karen Ziemba (Contact), the much-nominated Marin Mazzie (Passion, Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate) and the Broadway debut of Zach Braff (TV’s “Scrubs”).
Which of these musicals we’ll see at the Fox Theatre over the next few seasons will be something to watch. My money’s on the snubs, not the nominees.
Best play nominees are Act One (based on the Moss Hart memoir about how a show really gets onstage); All the Way (featuring Bryan Cranston as LBJ); Casa Valentina by Tony Award-winning actor-writer Harvey Fierstein (Hairspray); Mothers and Sons by four-time Tony winner Terrence McNally (Ragtime, Master Class, Love! Valour! Compassion! and Kiss of the Spider Woman) and starring Tyne Daly; and Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, 2005’s best play).
Audra McDonald, nominated for lead actress in a play as jazz singer Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, goes for her sixth Tony. She’s won for Carousel (1994), Master Class (1996), Ragtime (1998), A Raisin in the Sun (2004) and The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess (2012). She was nominated in 2000 and 2007 for Marie Christine and 110 in the Shade, respectively.
New York’s Signature Theatre, committed to honoring and celebrating playwrights, will receive the Regional Theatre Award. Jane Greenwood, who has designed costumes for more than 125 Broadway shows, will receive a special Tony for Lifetime Achievement. Rosie O’Donnell will receive the Isabelle Stevenson Award, named the for the late president of the American Theatre Wing. It goes to an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations.
Tony for Excellence in the Theatre will go to Joseph P. Benincase, president and CEO of the Actors Fund; photographer Joan Marcus who has captured images of more than 300 Broadway shows since 1986; and Charlotte Wilcox, one of the leading general managers on Broadway.
For more details and to see more video clips of nominated shows, visit the Tony awards website.
The complete list of nominees:
BEST PLAY
Act One by James Lapine
All the Way by Robert Schenkkan
Casa Valentina by Harvey Fierstein
Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally
Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley
BEST MUSICAL
After Midnight
Aladdin
Beautiful — The Carol King Musical
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
BEST REVIVAL | PLAY
The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
BEST REVIVAL | MUSICAL
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Les Miserables
Violet
BEST DIRECTION | PLAY
Tim Carroll, Twelfth Night
Michael Grandage, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Kenny Leon, A Raisin in the Sun
John Tiffany, The Glass Menagerie
BEST DIRECTION | MUSICAL
Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Michael Mayer, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Leigh Silverman, Violet
Darko Tresnjak, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
BEST BOOK | MUSICAL
Aladdin, Chad Beguelin
Beautiful — The Carole King Musical, Douglas McGrath
Bullets Over Broadway, Woody Allen
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, Robert L. Freedman
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Aladdin, Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin
The Bridges of Madison County, Jason Robert Brown
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, Steven Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman
If/Then, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey
LEADING ACTOR | PLAY
Samuel Barnett, Twelfth Night
Bryan Cranston, All the Way
Chris O’Dowd, Of Mice and Men
Mark Rylance, Richard III
Tony Shalhoub, Act One
LEADING ACTRESS | PLAY
Tyne Daly, Mothers and Sons
LaTanya Richardson Jackson, A Raisin in the Sun
Cherry Jones, The Glass Menagerie
Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
Estelle Parsons, The Velocity of Autumn
LEADING ACTOR | MUSICAL
Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Ramin Karimloo, Les Miserables
Andy Karl, Rocky
Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
LEADING ACTRESS | MUSICAL
Mary Bridget Davies, A Night With Janis Joplin
Sutton Foster, Violet
Idina Menzel, If/Then
Jessie Mueller, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
Kelli O’Hara, The Bridges of Madison County
FEATURED ACTOR | PLAY
Reed Birney, Casa Valentina
Paul Chahidi, Twelfth Night
Stephen Fry, Twelfth Night
Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night
Brian J. Smith, The Glass Menagerie
FEATURED ACTRESS | PLAY
Sarah Greene, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Celia Keenan-Bolger, The Glass Menagerie
Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun
Anika Noni Rose, A Raisin in the Sun
Mare Winningham, Casa Valentina
FEATURED ACTOR | MUSICAL
Danny Burstein, Cabaret
Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway
Joshua Henry, Violet
James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin
Jarrod Spector, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
FEATURED ACTRESS | MUSICAL
Linda Emond, Cabaret
Lena Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Anika Larsen, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
Adriane Lenox, After Midnight
Lauren Worsham, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
SCENIC DESIGN | PLAY
Beowulf Boritt, Act One
Bob Crowley, The Glass Menagerie
Es Devlin, Machinal
Christopher Oram, The Cripple of Inishmaan
SCENIC DESIGN | MUSICAL
Christopher Barreca, Rocky
Julian Crouch, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Alexander Dodge, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
Santo Loquasto, Bullets Over Broadway
COSTUME DESIGN | PLAY
Jane Greenwood, Act One
Michael Krass, Machinal
Rita Ryack, Casa Valentina
Jenny Tiramani, Twelfth Night
COSTUME DESIGN | MUSICAL
Linda Cho, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
William Ivey Long, Bullets Over Broadway
Arianne Phillips, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Isabel Toledo, After Midnight
LIGHTING DESIGN | PLAY
Paule Constable, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Jane Cox, Machinal
Natasha Katz, The Glass Menagerie
Japhy Weideman, Of Mice and Men
LIGHTING DESIGN | MUSICAL
Kevin Adams, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Christopher Akerlind, Rocky
Howell Binkley, After Midnight
Donald Holder, The Bridges of Madison County
SOUND DESIGN | PLAY
Alex Baranowski, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Steve Canyon Kennedy, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
Dan Moses Schreier, Act One
Matt Tierney, Machinal
SOUND DESIGN | MUSICAL
Peter Hylenski, After Midnight
Tim O’Heir, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Mick Potter, Les Miserables
Brian Ronan, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
CHOREOGRAPHY
Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine, Rocky
Casey Nicholaw, Aladdin
Susan Stroman, Bullets Over Broadway
ORCHESTRATIONS
Doug Besterman, Bullets Over Broadway
Jason Robert Brown, The Bridges of Madison County
Steve Sidwell, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
Jonathan Tunick, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
NOMINATIONS BY PRODUCTION
10 — A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder
8 — Hedwig and the Angry Inch
7 — After Midnight; Beautiful — The Carole King Musical; The Glass Menagerie; Twelfth Night
6 — Bullets Over Broadway; The Cripple of Inishmaan
5 — Act One; Aladdin; A Raisin in the Sun
4 — The Bridges of Madison County; Casa Valentina; Machinal; Rocky; Violet
3 — Les Miserables
2 — All The Way; Cabaret; If/Then; Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill; Mothers and Sons; Of Mice and Men
1 — A Night With Janis Joplin; Outside Mullingar; Richard III; The Velocity of Autumn
