In the lead actor in a musical race, Leslie Odom, Jr.is seen as the frontrunner for his turn as Aaron Burr in “Hamilton” – and his main competition is co-star Lin-Manuel Miranda.
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Top contenders to compete with “Hamilton” in the Best Musical category are “Shuffle Along“, “Bright Star”, “School of Rock” and “Waitress”, while “Eclipsed”, “The Father”, “The Humans” and “King Charles III” are going to fight for Best Play. On the play side, Ivo van Hove (A View from the Bridge) and Jonathan Kent (Long Day’s Journey Into Night) face off against Liesl Tommy (Eclipsed), Joe Mantello (The Humans) and Rupert Goold (King Charles III). It was trailed by Shuffle Along with 10 nominations, She Loves Me with eight and Long Day’s Journey Into Night nabbing seven.
The award winners will be announced at a ceremony to be broadcast live on CBS from New York’s Beacon Theatre on June 12. Eclipsed, an ensemble play, earned a leading-actress nod for Oscar victor Lupita Nyong’o and two featured-actress nominations, for Pascale Armand and Saycon Sengbloh. This year’s actress category is particularly sweet for Laura Benanti, star of “She Loves Me”, who landed her first nomination for actress in a leading role.
Broadway’s latest hit musical Hamilton has picked up a considerable amount of praise over the last few months, including endorsements from celebrities, a thumbs up from the president, and a little award called the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. It was Barnes’ seventh nomination (with two previous wins), and the sole nod for the show, directed by fellow ex-San Diegan Casey Nicholaw, who has four shows on Broadway right now.
The Best Score prize will be a tough battle between Miranda, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Glenn Slater (School of Rock), Steve Martin and Edie Brickell (Bright Star) and Sara Bareilles (Waitress).
On Tuesday, the show was singled out in every category of theatermaking: acting, writing, directing, design.
The musical broke the record for the most nominated musical ever at the Tony’s and out of those nominations, three went to creator and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda. “I’ve been lucky to have had years when having one nomination was an incredible thing”. Yet “Allegiance“, the musical set during the Japanese- American internment of World War II and inspired by Takei’s life, received no nominations whatsoever. Twitter users have been applauding this year’s choices.
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That included, of course, a nomination for the coveted best-musical prize.
