Hip-hop musical “Hamilton” grabs a record-breaking 16 Tony Awards nominations on Tuesday, surpassing “The Producers” and “Billy Elliot” to become the most nominated show in Broadway history.
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“Hamilton” scored 16 Tony Award nominations Tuesday, making Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash musical potentially the most decorated show in Broadway history. Miranda, who plays Hamilton and whose previous hit was In the Heights, now playing in London, is up for best actor in a musical along with his co-star, Leslie Odom Jr. “Cast members Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Daveed Diggs, Jonathan Groff and Christopher Jackson received acting nominations as well”.
Joining Hamilton in the Tony line-up this year for best musical are Shuffle Along, Waitress, School of Rock and Bright Star.
The Tony Awards will be presented on June 12 at Manhattan’s Beacon Theatre in a ceremony headlined by talk show host and past Tony victor James Corden.
Inevitably, when a mega-show like “Hamilton” comes along, other nominees are overshadowed. This project, created by Lin-Manuel Miranda and inspired by Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton biography, premiered with a production at the Public Theater before moving to Broadway.
About half the nominations are in these categories however Hamilton is also going to compete in Score, Choreography, and direction of music with other bands that are nominated for the Tonys awards.
“The Producers” holds the record for the most wins with 12.
A bold new Fiddler On the Roof by director Bartlett Sher (overlooked, surprisingly), who has brought both reverence and fresh insights to Rodgers and Hammerstein classics in recent years, earned nominations as a revival and for its leading man, the duly treasured Danny Burstein.
For best play, the quartet of “The Humans”, “Eclipsed“, “King Charles III” and “The Father” was universally anticipated.
I am a huge Jessica Lange fan and am so glad she is finally getting Tony love for her nomination for Long Day’s Journey into Night.
Shuffle Along, meanwhile, picked up 10 nominations, and She Loves Me nabbed eight.
Williams’ co-star Jeff Daniels was nominated as best actor, along with Frank Langella for “The Father“, Tim Pigott-Smith for “King Charles III” and Mark Strong in “A View from the Bridge”.
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Its run at the record, with no room to spare, will likely be the most suspenseful story line at the awards ceremony. Audra McDonald of “Shuffle Along“, Lea Salonga in “Allegiance” and Carmen Cusack of “Bright Star”. It has since received a Grammy Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
