History had its eye on “Hamilton” and showered the Broadway musical with a record 16 Tony nominations Tuesday.
Advertisement
Next month, “Hamilton” will fight for Broadway’s biggest crown – best new musical – with “Bright Star”, “School of Rock”, “Shuffle Along” and “Waitress”.
Besides best musical, those came in the category of book (Martin), score (Martin and Brickell), lead actress (Carmen Cusack, who originated her role at the Globe), and orchestrations (August Eriksmoen). And in featured acting competitions, there’s a strong chance that Renee Elise Goldsberry and Daveed Diggs, both of “Hamilton”, will walk away with prizes. Hamilton would soon shake up the musical-theater genre much like Rent made acceptable in contemporary Broadway.
The Cincinnati native’s name is on one of 16 nominations for the groundbreaking, hip-hop-infused “Hamilton,” breaking the record of 15 set by “Billy Elliot” and “The Producers“.
The short-lived fluffy revival Dames at Sea could have garnered a nod for Best Direction and Best Costume Design, if not a Featured Actress nomination for Broadway favorite Lesli Margherita. Jackson was one of the first people to audition in NY in 2002.
A revival of another American classic, Long Day’s Journey, earned the most nominations of any production of a play this year – seven. The Target is to get more than twelve awards as in 2001 The Producer got 12 awards out of fifteen nominations.
“Hamilton” was nominated in virtually every category it could compete in, from acting to scenic design.
Miranda’s hip-hop dramatization of the life of Alexander Hamilton is a veritable pop culture sensation, inspiring parodies, bringing in massive box office receipts on Broadway, and earning Miranda the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
On the play side, frontrunners Eclipsed and The Humans are duking it out with The Father and King Charles III, which closed in January. The other nominees are “Bright Star”, “School of Rock – The Musical”, “Shuffle Along” and “Waitress”. Also nominated was “The Father“, starring Frank Langella as an aging man dealing with dementia, and “King Charles III”, an imagined future history of the reign of the current Prince Charles. No matter what the outcome at the June 12 awards, the production started a conversation about disability and the arts and that, Mr. Arden said, “is our biggest campaign”.
Two-time Oscar victor Jessica Lange was nominated for her portrayal of morphine-addicted Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which won nominations for co-stars Gabriel Byrne and Michael Shannon and for best play revival.
Entering, and subsequently losing, the daily Hamilton digital ticket lottery has also become somewhat of an addiction for the show’s fans.
The first “Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play ” award is also a tie, between Jose Ferrer for “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Fredric March for “Years Ago”.
Advertisement
But other stars who appeared this season were shut out, including Keira Knightley, Al Pacino and Saoirse Ronan, as were Clive Owen, Bruce Willis and Forest Whitaker in their Broadway debuts.
