“Hamilton” will have its sights set on beating the record of 12 Tony wins set by “The Producers”.
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Sophie Okonedo received a nomination as best actress for her role in The Crucible, though Oscar nominated Saoirse Ronan was stunningly snubbed for what was probably a far more impressive performance in the same play.
The show seems to be up for every award, including the highly coveted Best New Musical. The show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, shared the secret in his secretary of the treasury sauce. Most notably, the show that closed the season with almost as big a bang as Hamilton opened it, Shuffle Along, netted ten, even while denying Audra McDonald, its star, a shot at her seventh Tony. It won 12 awards out of 15 nominations.
The nominations are not surprising, The Washington Post said, because of the growing audience since the play opened last August. Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s warm-hearted Bright Star collected five, including nods for their score and Martin’s book, as well as best musical.
James Corden, host of “The Late Late Show” and a Tony victor for the comedy “One Man, Two Guvnors”, will emcee the CBS telecast on June 12 from the Beacon Theater.
The Best Musical short list includes Bright Star, Hamilton, Waitress, School of Rock and Shuffle Along. Phillipa Soo, who plays Eliza Hamilton, has been deemed eligible for best actress. Best play revival nods went to “Blackbird”, “The Crucible“, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”, “Noises Off” and “A View from the Bridge”. Charles’ Olivier Award-winning Tim Pigott-Smith will face competition from Father’s NY star, Frank Langella, as well as Gabriel Byrne (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Jeff Daniels (Blackbird) and Mark Strong, star of a United Kingdom -based, five-times-nominated revival of Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge. Seven of the performers also got nominations.
But the performance of “Hamilton” will be the most-studied story on Tony night.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple Renée Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton Jane Krakowski, She Loves Me Jennifer Simard, Disaster!
Hamilton is the hottest ticket on Broadway – and almost impossible to get in to see.
Instead, “The Color Purple“, “Spring Awakening”, “She Loves Me” and “Fiddler on the Roof” were nominated for musical revival, an expected array of candidates.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop-flavoured biography about the first US treasury secretary has already won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, a Grammy, the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History and a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant. It’s up against “King Charles III”, “The Father” and “The Humans”.
