It’s Tony season and I’ve started a podcast – The OHenry Report. In Episode 1, I talk with my producing partner Chris Schembra about the Tony race. Here are a few excerpts from the episode, which you can find at www.ohenryproductions.com or on iTunes, TuneIn, YouTube, etc.
Chris Schembra: We got Hamilton smashing the record with 16 Tony Award Nominations. What is that like for them?
Oliver Roth: It’s got to be amazing. The Producers and Billy Elliot both had 15. Hamilton and broke the record in a year where Sound Design is no longer given, so they had one less of an opportunity to get a nomination.
Chris: Another top story – the snubs. American Psycho leads in nominations for other awards, and they have only two nominations for the Tony Awards?
Oliver: Yes, they were the leading in nominations at those awards. It’s important to note that Hamilton, which was eligible, and won a lot of those awards last year for their run off-Broadway, wasn’t eligible this year. But still, you would think that a show that is getting those voters to nominate them would get Tony voters to do the same.
And you can’t talk about snubs without talking about Audra McDonald, who holds the record for performance Tony Award wins, but was not nominated this year.
Chris: That’s a big story, let’s talk about another big story. What’s going on with Bright Star?
Oliver: The producer took out a priority loan on Bright Star in order to keep it running until the Tony Awards – they would have to close before then otherwise. The problem is, I don’t really see them doing so well because they are up against Hamilton in every category. A performance on the broadcast will bump them a bit, but I just don’t see it changing things.
Chris: Now the most interesting category of this year – talk to me about Lead Actor in a Musical.
Oliver: There are two Hamilton nominees in Lead actor, Leslie Odom, Jr., who plays Burr, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who plays Hamilton, and wrote Hamilton. Miranda is probably the biggest star of Broadway in my lifetime. He’s going to walk away with two awards hands down – he’s going to win Best Book and Best Score. The voters might say, “Does he need Best Actor? Is he the best actor?” Leslie Odom, Jr. makes that show as much if not more than Lin does. He’s the more likely of the two to win the award – but you will have that split vote in the “Hamilton Contingent”
That split will give a non-Hamilton nominee a shot at winning – but that vote may be split too. Danny Burstein of Fiddler has been nominated six times before without winning – voters may say “it’s his time.” Then you have Alex Brightman who’s a sensation in School of Rock. You have four really strong contenders for that award.
Be sure to check out to the OHenry Report podcast to hear all of our Tony takeaways, and to tune into the June 12 Tony Awards broadcast on CBS.
THEATER:
THE BROADWAY BEAT
By Oliver Roth