ABOVE: Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk, both 2018 Tony winners, in a scene from the winning best musical The Band’s Visit. Photo by Matthew Murphy.
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The Band’s Visit and Harry Potter win big at Broadway’s 2018 honors, respectively outpacing the splashier musicals and the less splashy plays.
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THE MOST MOVING MOMENT of the 2018 Tony awards telecast came about 9:15 Sunday night, when drama students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School took the stage to sing about friendship, struggle and life in “Seasons of Love” from Rent. Broadway’s best, dressed to the nines in New York’s Radio City Music Hall, teared up, then gave the group a loud and extended standing ovation.
Moments earlier, their teacher Melody Herzfeld had been recognized with a special Tony for Excellence in Theater Education. She sheltered and saved 65 students on Feb. 14, when a gunman killed 17 and wounded 17 at the school in Parkland, Fla. Since then, the drama kids have led prominent protests and ignited a movement for gun safety all across the country.
The second-biggest talking point in living rooms and on social media? What did Robert De Niro say that got him so very bleeped? De Niro was onstage to introduce a Bruce Springsteen performance but began by connecting a couple of F-bombs to a certain sitting president. The audience roared and applauded raucously. The internet blew up.
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Sara Bareilles (who wrote the score and eventually joined the cast of Waitress) and Josh Groban (The Great Comet is his only Broadway credit) turned out to be nimble and likable hosts, laughing at themselves, and others, and keeping the three-hour event moving forward.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 and 2, topped all play nominees with six wins (out of 10 nominations), including best play. It’s based on a new Harry Potter story written by Jack Thorne, J. K. Rowling and John Tiffany and is performed in repertory. The story begins 19 years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Harry is married and has three children, the youngest of which grapples with the family legacy.
The Band’s Visit, a smaller show about an Egyptian police band stranded and taken in by Israeli locals, won 10 of the 11 Tonys for which it was nominated, including best musical. It easily bested its bigger, splashier competitors, all based on Hollywood movies.
Bye, bye, SpongeBob SquarePants, Frozen and Mean Girls, see you all on the road? All three are likely to tour and may show up at the Fox Theatre in the next few years. Look too, perhaps, for the revivals of Carousel and My Fair Lady and, eventually, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It’s not a musical, but it likely has enough wizardry magic and name recognition to pull in an audience.
By choosing The Band’s Visit, voters might have been sending a message about what’s called the “Disneyfication” of Broadway, the trend toward bigger, fluffier musicals that throw a lot of money and glitter on the stage but lack an emotional core. We’ll see. The most recent Broadway season set box-office records but lacked the cachet of a Hamilton (2016) or the heart of a Fun Home (2015) or Dear Evan Hansen (2017).
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Tony voters did the same with Fun Home (cast of nine) and Dear Evan Hansen (cast of eight, with a multitude of prerecorded voices). The Band’s Visit is a 14-actor musical. On the flip side, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a 40-person play, which is quite rare.
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. 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.
A few noncompetitive honorees were announced before the telecast and given the briefest of prerecorded moments: composer/producer Andrew Lloyd Webber and legendary performer Chita Rivera (West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, Chicago, The Rink, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Nine, The Mystery of Edwin Drood) received Lifetime Achievement awards; the Nederlander Organization’s Nick Scandalios received the Volunteerism Award for his work as an advocate for gay parents and their children; and New York Times theater photographer Sara Krulwich, costume beader Bessie Nelson and Ernest Winzer Cleaners, a 100-year-old business that specializes in costume work, were honored for excellence.
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La MaMa Etc., the 57-year-old New York-based experimental theater company, won the Regional Tony Award, the same award that Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre won in 2007.
Here are the results of the competitive categories. The winners are highlighted.
Best play
Winner: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 and 2 by Jack Thorne
Other nominees:
- 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
- Junk, a drama by Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar
- Latin History for Morons, a comedy by John Leguizamo
Best musical
Winner: The Band’s Visit
Other nominees:
- Frozen
- Mean Girls
- SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical
Best revival / play
Winner: Angels in America by Tony Kushner (from 1983)
Other nominees:
- 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
Winner: Once on This Island by Lynn Ahrens + Stephen Flaherty (from 1990)
Other nominees:
- Carousel by Rodgers + Hammerstein (from 1945)
- My Fair Lady by Lerner + Loewe (from 1956)
Best book of a musical
Winner: The Band’s Visit
Other nominees:
- Frozen, Jennifer Lee
- Mean Girls, Tina Fey
- SpongeBob SquarePants, Kyle Jarrow
Best original score
Winner: The Band’s Visit
Other nominees:
- Angels in America, Adrian Sutton
- 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
Winner: Andrew Garfield in Angels in America
Other nominees:
- 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
Winner: Glenda Jackson in Three Tall Women. She returned to Broadway for the first time in 20 years, time she spent in Britain’s Parliament.
Other nominees:
- Condola Rashad in St. Joan
- Lauren Ridloff in Children of a Lesser God
- Amy Schumer in Meteor Shower
Best leading actor / musical
Winner: Tony Shalhoub in The Band’s Visit. His first Tony. He was nominated for Golden Boy in 2013 and Act One in 2014.
Other nominees:
- Harry Hadden-Paton in My Fair Lady
- Joshua Henry in Carousel
- Ethan Slater in SpongeBob SquarePants
Best leading actress / musical
Winner: Katrina Lenk for The Band’s Visit
Other nominees:
- Lauren Ambrose in My Fair Lady
- Hailey Kilgore in Once on This Island
- LaChanze in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
- Taylor Louderman in Mean Girls
- Jessie Mueller in Carousel
Best featured actor / play
Winner: Nathan Lane for Angels in America. This is his third Tony. He won awards for best leading actor in a musical for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1996 and The Producers in 2001.
Other nominees:
- Anthony Boyle in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Michael Cera in Lobby Hero
- Brian Tyree Henry in Lobby Hero
- David Morse in The Iceman Cometh
Best featured actress / play
Winner: Laurie Metcalf for Three Tall Women. This is her second Tony. She won best leading actress last season for her work on Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2.
Other nominees:
- 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
Best featured actor / musical
Winner: Ari’el Stachel in The Band’s Visit. Broadway debut.
Other nominees:
- Norbert Leo Butz in My Fair Lady
- Alexander Gemignani in Carousel
- Grey Henson in Mean Girls
- Gavin Lee in SpongeBob SquarePants
Best featured actress / musical
Winner: Lindsay Mendez in Carousel
Other nominees:
- Ariana DeBose in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
- Renée Fleming in Carousel
- Ashley Park in Mean Girls
- Diana Rigg in My Fair Lady
Best direction / play
Winner: John Tiffany for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Other nominees:
- Marianne Elliott for Angels in America
- Joe Mantello for Three Tall Women
- Patrick Marber for Travesties
- George C. Wolfe for The Iceman Cometh
Best direction / musical
Winner: David Cromer for The Band’s Visit
Other nominees:
- Michael Arden for Once on This Island
- Tina Landau for SpongeBob SquarePants
- Casey Nicholaw for Mean Girls
- Bartlett Sher for My Fair Lady
Best choreography
Winner: Justin Peck for Carousel in his Broadway debut as a choreographer. Peck, 30, choreographs and dances with New York City Ballet.
Other nominees:
- Christopher Gattelli for My Fair Lady
- Christopher Gattelli for SpongeBob SquarePants
- Steven Hoggett for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Casey Nicholaw for Mean Girls
Best scenic design / play
Winner: Christine Jones for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. She won her first Tony in 2010 for American Idiot.
Other nominees:
- Miriam Buether for Three Tall Women
- Jonathan Fensom for Farinelli and the King
- Santo Loquasto for The Iceman Cometh
- Ian MacNeil and Edward Pierce for Angels in America
Best scenic design / musical
Winner: David Zinn for SpongeBob SquarePants. He also won in 2016 for The Humans.
Other nominees:
- 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
Best costume design / play
Winner: Katrina Lindsay for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. She won in 2008 for Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Other nominees:
- Jonathan Fensom for Farinelli and the King
- Nicky Gillibrand for Angels in America
- Ann Roth for Three Tall Women
- Ann Roth for The Iceman Cometh
Best costume design / musical
Winner: Catherine Zuber for My Fair Lady. This is the 8th Tony for the perennial nominee.
Other nominees:
- Gregg Barnes for Mean Girls
- Clint Ramos for Once on This Island
- Ann Roth for Carousel
- David Zinn for SquareBob SpongePants
Best lighting design / play
Winner: Neil Austin for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. This is his 2nd Tony. He won in 2010 for Red.
Other nominees:
- 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
Best lighting design / musical
Winner: Tyler Micoleau for The Band’s Visit. Broadway debut.
Other nominees:
- 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
Best orchestrations
Winner: Jamshied Sharifi for The Band’s Visit. Broadway debut.
Other nominees:
- John Clancy for Mean Girls
- Tom Kitt for SquareBob SpongePants
- AnnMarie Milazzo and Michael Starobin for Once on This Island
- Jonathan Tunick for Carousel
Sound design / play
Winner: Gareth Fry for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. He won a special Tony Award in 2017 for The Encounter.
Other nominees:
- Adam Cork for Travesties
- Ian Dickinson for Angels in America
- Tom Gibbons for 1984
- Dan Moses Schreier for The Iceman Cometh
Sound design / musical
Winner: Kai Harada for The Band’s Visit
Other nominees:
- Peter Hylenski for Once on This Island
- Scott Lehrer for Carousel
- Brian Ronan for Mean Girls
- Walter Trarbach and Mike Dobson for SpongeBob SquarePants
Wins by show
In descending order, with the number of nominations in parentheses.
- The Band’s Visit — 10 (11)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — 6 (10)
- Angels in America — 3 (11)
- Carousel — 2 (11)
- Three Tall Women — 2 (7)
- My Fair Lady — 1 (10)
- Once on This Island — 1 (8)
- SpongeBob SquarePants — 1 (12)
- Mean Girls — 0 (12)
- The Iceman Cometh — 0 (10)
- Farinelli and the King — 0 (5)
- Travesties — 0 (4)
- Lobby Hero — 0 (3)
- The Children, Frozen, Junk, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical — 0 (2)
- 1984, Children of a Lesser God, Latin History for Morons, Meteor Shower, St. Joan — 0 (1)