By SHARON EBERSON
It’s Tony Awards Nominations Day, and as always, there were a few surprises emanating from the celebration of the best of Broadway.
Some Like It Hot scored a leading 13 nominations in the voting announced Tuesday, May 2. The musical based on the classic comedy about two musicians who go on the lam, disguised as women, is loaded with old-timey razzle-dazzle:starry performances, big dance numbers and beautiful practical sets. Next, with nine nominations each, were Some Like It Hot’s competition in the new musical category, & Juliet, Shucked and New York, New York.
Kimberly Akimbo, a popular transfer from off-Broadway, had eight nominations. Shucked, a very recent addition to Broadway, is a show about, well, corn – inspired by TV comedies like Green Acres and Hee Haw.
A Doll’s House, starring Jessica Chastain, Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt and the political satire Ain’t No Mo’ were the most-nominated plays, with six each. Per Variety, it was “an important moment of recognition for Ain’t No Mo’, which was embraced by critics, but struggled to find its audience, closing last winter after just 28 performances.”
Top musicals and plays went about as predicted, with August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson among the nominees for best revival of a play. Samuel L. Jackson is the only other nomination for the revival, as featured actor. He and several other members of the cast have already been named to star in the upcoming movie adaptation.
Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fat Ham, which will be produced by City Theatre in March of next year, has four nominations, including best play.
It has taken a while for Between Riverside and Crazy to move up from off-Broadway and regional productions, but it now is a Tony nominee in for best play, and its star, Wilsonian actor Stephen McKinley Henderson, is nominated as best actor. He also will receive the Harold Prince Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Drama Desk Awards.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, a revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1964 play, opened on Broadway just under the wire of eligibility. It is nominated for best revival and for featured actress .Miriam Silverman, but none for stars Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, if you have been following all the predictors, from Gold Derby to the Drama Desk nominations, is that two-time Tony winner and Fox Chapel native Christian Borle is nominated for best actor in a musical – the only acting category with six nominees.
Some Like It Hot Tony nominees Christian Borle and J. Harrison Ghee.
(Image by Marc J. Franklin)
Six is a tough number to come up with in Tonys voting.
Categories each have a maximum and minimum number, depending on the category. That would mean that, in the case of this year’s best actor in a musical, five among the eligible actors with the highest number of votes won spots as nominees. A sixth nominee comes into play only if the firm tabulating the votes finds that the difference between the fifth- and sixth-highest ranked actors is a specific very low number of votes.
Not to pick on Borle as being sixth in a close race, but he has been left out of most of the predictions by various experts and oddsmakers, with his co-star in the Tony-nominated Some Like It Hot, J. Harrison Ghee, getting the best actor nod.
Borle and another Tony-nominated castmate,Kevin Del Aguila, were previously partners in crime as Black Stache and Smee in Peter and the Starcatcher — for which Borle won his first Tony Award. A decade later, Del Aguila is the favorite in the featured actor in a musical category.
Of note to Pittsburghers in Borle’s performance: He has said he uses a yinzer accent, derived from his second-grade teacher, when he transforms from Joe to Josephine in Some Like It Hot.
Borle and Ghee are in a very competitive group that includes Josh Groban, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Brian D’Arcy James, Into the Woods; Ben Platt, Parade; and Colton Ryan, New York, New York.
And speaking of the Kander-Ebb-Miranda New York, New York musical, it gives Pittsburgh’s E. Clayton Cornelious his first Tony nomination as a producer. The actor who once was given Broadway’s Legacy Robe (formerly the Gypsy Robe) for his long list of credits, and who spent most of last summer onstage with Pittsburgh CLO, has been investing in shows for a while, but this is his first time with full producing status.
There were 38 shows vying for Tonys this year, with the ceremony on June 11 to take place at a new venue, the United Palace in Washington Heights, in Upper Manhattan. Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose will be back for her second year as host.
AND THE 2023 TONY AWARD NOMINEES ARE:
NEW PLAY
Ain’t No Mo’
Between Riverside and Crazy
Cost of Living
Fat Ham
Leopoldstad
NEW MUSICAL
& Juliet
Kimberly Akimbo
New York, New York
Shucked
Some Like It Hot
PLAY REVIVAL
The Piano Lesson
A Doll’s House
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
Topdog/Underdog
MUSICAL REVIVAL
Into the Woods
Camelot
Parade
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Topdog/Underdog
Corey Hawkins, Topdog/Underdog
Sean Hayes, Good Night, Oscar
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Between Riverside and Crazy
Wendell Pierce, Death of a Salesman
LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Jessica Chastain, A Doll’s House
Jodie Comer, Prima Facie
Jessica Hecht, Summer, 1976
Audra McDonald, Ohio State Murders
Cast of Kimberly Akimbo with Victoria Clark, seated on pink cushion. (Joan Marcus).
LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Annaleigh Ashford, Sweeney Todd
Sara Bareilles, Into the Woods
Victoria Clark, Kimberly Akimbo
Lorna Courtney, & Juliet
Micaela Diamond, Parade
LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Christian Borle, Some Like It Hot
J. Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot
Josh Groban, Sweeney ToddBrian D’Arcy
James, Into the Woods
Ben Platt, Parade
Colton Ryan, New York, New York
FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY
Jordan E. Cooper, Ain’t No Mo’
Samuel L. Jackson, The Piano Lesson
Arian Moayed, A Doll’s House
Brandon Uranowitz, Leopoldstadt
David Zayas, Cost of Living
FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Nikki Crawford, Fat Ham
Crystal Lucas-Perry, Ain’t No Mo
Miriam Silverman, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
Katy Sullivan, Cost of Living
Kara Young, Cost of Living
FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Kevin Cahoon, Shucked
Justin Cooley, Kimberly Akimbo
Kevin Del Aguila, Some Like It Hot
Jordan Donica, Camelot
Alex Newell, Shucked
FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Julia Lester, Into the Woods
Ruthie Ann Miles, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Bonnie Milligan, Kimberly Akimbo
NaTasha Yvette Williams, Some Like It Hot
Betsy Wolfe, & Juliet
DIRECTION OF A PLAY
Saheem Ali, Fat Ham
Jo Bonney, Cost of Living
Jamie Lloyd, A Doll’s House
Patrick Marber, Leopoldstadt
Stevie Walker-Webb, Ain’t No Mo
Max Webster, Life of Pi
DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL
Michael Arden, Parade
Lear deBessonet, Into the Woods
Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
Jack O’Brien, Shucked
Jessica Stone, Kimberly Akimbo
BOOK OF A MUSICAL
David West Read, & Juliet
David Lindsay-Abaire, Kimberly Akimbo
Robert Horn, Shucked
Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin,Some Like It Hot
David Thompson and Sharon Washington, New York, New York
ORIGINAL SCORE
Almost Famous, music by Tom Kitt; lyrics by Cameron Crowe and Tom Kitt
Kimberly Akimbo, music by Jeanine Tesori; lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire
KPOP, music and lyrics: Helen Park and Max Vernon
Shucked, music and lyrics: Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark
Some Like It Hot, music and lyrics: Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman
CHOREOGRAPHY
Steven Hoggett, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
Susan Stroman, New York, New York
Jennifer Weber, & Juliet
Jennifer Weber, KPOP
ORCHESTRATIONS
Bill Sherman and Dominic Fallacaro, & Juliet
John Clancy, Kimberly Akimbo
Jason Howland, Shucked
Charlie Rosen and Bryan Carter, Some Like It Hot
Daryl Waters and Sam Davis, New York, New York
SCENIC DESIGN OF A PLAY
Miriam Buether, Prima Facie
Tim Hatley and Andrzej Goulding, Life of Pi
Rachel Hauck, Good Night, Oscar
Richard Hudson, Leopoldstadt
Dane Laffrey & Lucy Mackinnon, A Christmas Carol
SCENIC DESIGN OF A MUSICAL
Beowulf Boritt, New York, New York
Mimi Lien, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Scott Pask, Shucked
Scott Pask, Some Like It Hot
Michael Yeargan and 59 Productions, Camelot
COSTUME DESIGN OF A PLAY
Tim Hatley, Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, Life of Pi
Dominique Fawn Hill, Fat Ham
Brigitte Reiffensutel, Leopoldstadt
Emilio Sosa, Ain’t No Mo’
Emilio Sosa, Good Night, Oscar
COSTUME DESIGN OF A PLAY
Gregg Barnes, Some Like It Hot
Susan Hilferty, Parade
Jennifer Moeller, Camelot
Clint Ramos and Sophia Choi, KPOP
Paloma Young, & Juliet
Donna Zakowska, New York, New York’
SOUND DESIGN OF A PLAY
Jonathan Deans and Taylor Williams, Ain’t No Mo
Carolyn Downing, Life of Pi
Joshua D. Reid, A Christmas Carol
Ben and Max Ringham, A Doll’s House
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