THE 2018 TONY AWARD NOMINEES

TWO NEW MUSICALS — Mean Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants — lead the 2018 Tony Award nominations with 12 nods each. Revivals of Angels in America and Carousel, as well as the new musical The Band’s Visit, each  received 11 nominations. Angels, a 25th anniversary production of Tony Kushner’s two-part epic, is now the most Tony-nominated play in history.

A total of 33 productions opened on Broadway in the 2017/18 season, the smallest number in more than a decade, according to Playbill.com, which tracks such things. Of the 20 eligible plays and 10 eligible musicals, seven productions were shut out of nominations altogether: the plays John Lithgow: Stories By Heart, M. Butterfly, Marvin’s Room, The Parisian Women and Time and the Conways; the musical revue Prince of Broadway; and the original Jimmy Buffet musical Escape to Margaritaville (although you might see it soon on tour in a city near you). Only Margaritaville is still running.

One could debate whether this year’s nominations show a democratization or a dumbing-down of Broadway. Where else can you see Eugene O’Neill’s 1946 The Iceman Cometh on one day and a musical about a cartoon character named SpongeBob SquarePants the next (if you wanted to)? Perhaps it depends on what kind of theater you favor, or how broad-minded you are.

The Tonys, which recognize excellence on Broadway, began in 1947 and are named for Antoinette Perry, an actress, director, producer and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing. The 72nd annual awards, hosted by Sara Bareilles (Waitress) and Josh Groban (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), take place June 10 at Radio City Music Hall and air on CBS.

There are 841 Tony voters — investors, producers, actors, directors, designers, journalists and others — who can cast ballots in most categories. This year, for the first time, a few categories — sound design and orchestration — will be decided by a subset of voters.

In the era of #MeToo and #NoMore, the New York-based website The Interval tracked how women did in this season’s non-gender specific categories. Interval, which calls itself “the smart girl’s guide to theatricality,” found:

• That Tina Landau (SpongeBob SquarePants) is the 17th woman nominated for best director of a musical since 2000. Men have received 62 nominations in that time.
• That Marianne Elliott (Angels in America) is the 15th woman nominated for best director of a play. Men have been nominated 66 times.
• That The Children by Lucy Kirkwood and Farinelli and the King by Claire van Kampen are the 10th and 11th plays by women nominated for best play. Men have been nominated 69 times.
• That no candidates for best musical revival were directed by women, the same as the 2016/17 season.

If you’re among those who monitor the Tony awards to see what shows might play the Fox Theatre in the next few years, it’s a good season for you. You can reasonably expect large-scale musicals like Carousel, Mean Girls, My Fair Lady and SpongeBob to tour at some point. Once on This Island is smaller but visually stunning, and Broadway in Atlanta has booked smaller shows like Dear Evan Hansen and Come From Away in 2018/19. Frozen, likely, is a big-enough name to survive its paltry two nominations and find second life on the road. And, don’t count out Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Though not a musical, it is a large-scale, large-cast  — and reportedly magical — production. Think War Horse.

 A few noncompetitive honors have already been announced:

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Composer/producer Andrew Lloyd Webber (The Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Sunset Boulevard), already a seven-time Tony winner.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT:  Actor/dancer/singer/legend Chita Rivera (West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, Chicago, The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Nine, The Mystery of Edwin Drood), already a two-time Tony winner and multiple nominee.

VOLUNTEERISM: Nick Scandalios, executive vice president of the Nederlander Organization, is honored for his work as an advocate for gay parents and their children.

REGIONAL THEATER AWARD:  La MaMa Etc., the 57-year-old New York-based experimental theater company.

Best play

• The Children, a drama by Lucy Kirkwood, from London’s Royal Court Theatre
• Farinelli and the King, a play with music by Claire van Kampen
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 and 2 by Jack Thorne
• Junk, a drama by Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar
• Latin History for Morons, a comedy by John Leguizamo

Best musical

• The Band’s Visit
• Frozen
• Mean Girls
• SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical

Best revival / play

• Angels in America by Tony Kushner (from 1983)
• Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan (from 2001)
• Three Tall Women by Edward Albee (from 1991, won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama)
• The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O’Neill (from 1946)
• Travesties by Tom Stoppard (from 1975)

Best revival / musical

• Carousel by Rodgers + Hammerstein (from 1945)
• My Fair Lady by Lerner + Loewe (from 1956)
• Once on This Island by Lynn Ahrens + Stephen Flaherty (from 1990)

Best book of a musical

• The Band’s Visit,  Itamar Moses
• Frozen, Jennifer Lee
• Mean Girls, Tina Fey
• SpongeBob SquarePants, Kyle Jarrow

Best original score

• Angels in America, Adrian Sutton
• The Band’s Visit, music + lyrics by David Yazbeck
• Frozen, music + lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
• Mean Girls, music by Jeff Richmond + lyrics by Nell Benjamin
• SpongeBob SquarePants, various

Best leading actor / play

• Andrew Garfield in Angels in America
• Tom Hollander in Travesties
• Jamie Parker in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Mark Rylance in Farinelli and the King
• Denzel Washington in The Iceman Cometh

Best leading actress / play

• Glenda Jackson in Three Tall Women
• Condola Rashad in St. Joan
• Lauren Ridloff in Children of a Lesser God
• Amy Schumer in Meteor Shower

• Harry Hadden-Paton in My Fair Lady 
• Joshua Henry in Carousel
• Ethan Slater in SpongeBob SquarePants
• Tony Shalhoub in The Band’s Visit

Best leading actress / musical

• Lauren Ambrose in My Fair Lady 
• Hailey Kilgore in Once on This Island
• LaChanze in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical 
• Katrina Lenk in The Band’s Visit 
• Taylor Louderman in Mean Girls 
• Jessie Mueller in Carousel 

Best featured actor / play

• Anthony Boyle in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Michael Cera in Lobby Hero
• Brian Tyree Henry in Lobby Hero
• Nathan Lane in Angels in America
• David Morse in The Iceman Cometh

Best featured actress / play

• Susan Brown in Angels in America
• Noma Dumezweni in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Deborah Findlay in The Children
• Denise Gough in Angels in America
• Laurie Metcalf in Three Tall Women

• Norbert Leo Butz in My Fair Lady
• Alexander Gemignani in Carousel
• Grey Henson in Mean Girls
• Gavin Lee in SpongeBob SquarePants
• Ari’el Stachel in The Band’s Visit

• Ariana DeBose in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
• Renée Fleming in Carousel
• Lindsay Mendez in Carousel
• Ashley Park in Mean Girls
• Diana Rigg in My Fair Lady

Best scenic design / play

• Miriam Buether for Three Tall Women
• Jonathan Fensom for Farinelli and the King
• Santo Loquasto for The Iceman Cometh
• Christine Jones for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Ian MacNeil and Edward Pierce for Angels in America

• Dane Laffrey for Once on This Island
• Scott Pask for The Band’s Visit
• Scott Pask, Finn Ross and Adam Young for Mean Girls
• Michael Yeargan for My Fair Lady
• David Zinn for SpongeBob SquarePants

Best costume design / play

• Jonathan Fensom for Farinelli and the King
• Nicky Gillibrand for Angels in America
• Katrina Lindsay for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Ann Roth for Three Tall Women
• Ann Roth for The Iceman Cometh

Best costume design / musical

• Gregg Barnes for Mean Girls
• Clint Ramos for Once on This Island
• Ann Roth for Carousel
• David Zinn for SquareBob SpongePants
• Catherine Zuber for My Fair Lady

Best lighting design / play

• Neil Austin for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Paule Constable for Angels in America
• Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer for The Iceman Cometh
• Paul Russell for Farinelli and the King
• Ben Stanton for Junk

•  Kevin Adams for SquareBob SpongePants
• Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer for Once on This Island
• Donald Holder for My Fair Lady
• Brian MacDevitt for Carousel
• Tyler Micoleau for The Band’s Visit

Best orchestrations

• John Clancy for Mean Girls
• Tom Kitt for SquareBob SpongePants
• AnnMarie Milazzo and Michael Starobin for Once on This Island
• Jamshied Sharifi The Band’s Visit
• Jonathan Tunick for Carousel

Sound design / play

• Adam Cork for Travesties
• Ian Dickinson for Angels in America
• Gareth Fry for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Tom Gibbons for 1984
• Dan Moses Schreier for The Iceman Cometh

Sound design / musical

• Kai Harada for The Band’s Visit
• Peter Hylenski for Once on This Island
• Scott Lehrer for Carousel
• Brian Ronan for Mean Girls
• Walter Trarbach and Mike Dobson for SpongeBob SquarePants

Nominations by show

• Mean Girls — 12
• SpongeBob SquarePants — 12
• Angels in America — 11
• The Band’s Visit — 11
• Carousel — 11
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — 10
• The Iceman Cometh — 10
• My Fair Lady — 10
• Once on This Island — 8
• Three Tall Women — 7
• Farinelli and the King — 5
• Travesties — 4
• Lobby Hero — 3
• The Children — 2
• Frozen — 2
• Junk — 2
• Summer: The Donna Summer Musical — 2
• 1984 — 1
• Children of a Lesser God — 1
• Latin History for Morons — 1
• Meteor Shower — 1
• St. Joan — 1