Tony-nominated – Bertie Carvel and Lauren Ward in the Broadway production of Matilda the Musical. Picture: Joan Marcus
That very smart, little girl from Britain, Matilda the Musical, will be fighting it out with Kinky Boots, that crazy footwear from Britain (but redesigned by Americans), for the 2013 Tony Award for Best Musical. The nominations for the Tony Awards – covering Broadway productions over the past 12 months – were announced on April 30. In addition to Matilda the Musical and Kinky Boots, the other two Best Musical nominees were A Christmas Story – a holiday show – and Bring It On – the cheerleader musical – both long shuttered and seen as non-contenders. How close the race may be between the two leading contenders is evidenced in the total number of nominations they each received. Kinky Boots, with its score by Cyndi Lauper and book by Harvey Fierstein, garnered 13 nominations. Matilda, with its score by Tim Minchin and book by Dennis Kelly, picked up 12.
As for Best Revival of a Musical, Pippin seems to have a lock on the award, collecting ten nominations in all. The other nominees are Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Annie, and the long-gone The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
For best direction of a musical, the contenders are Scott Ellis for Edwin Drood, Jerry Mitchell for Kinky, Diane Paulus for Pippin, and Matthew Warchus for Matilda.
Among musical performers, it’s another Matilda the Musical versus Kinky Boots contest in the race for Best Actor in a Leading Role, with two fellows in drag seen as favourites – Bertie Carvel in Matilda and Billy Porter in Kinky. Other nominees are Santino Fontana in Cinderella, Stark Sands in Kinky, and Rob McClure in Chaplin, which closed months ago.
Nominees for Best Actress in a Leading Role are Patina Miller in Pippin, Laura Osnes in Cinderella, Stephanie J Block in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Carolee Carmello in Scandalous, and Valisia LeKae in Motown the Musical.
Where is that quartet of little darlings alternating as Matilda, you may ask. Well, they’re getting a non-competitive honour for Excellence in the Theatre. At least, they won’t be suffering those sleepless nights that will presumably be afflicting all the nominees until the winners of the Tony Awards are announced on June 10.
Nice Work ending; Cabaret returning
Broadway‘s Nice Work if You Can Get It, with its classic Gershwin score and Joe Di Pietro’s nonsensical but harmless new book, is getting sacked, posting a closing notice of June 15. The show, sparked by sizzling choreography from director Kathleen Marshall, opened in April 2012, with Matthew Broderick and Kelli O‘Hara in the leads. O’Hara recently left for Far From Heaven, a movie-based musical opening Off-Broadway, but Broderick continues to enjoy the ‘nice work‘, while it lasts.
Meanwhile, there’s talk of yet another Broadway revival of Cabaret being planned by Roundabout Theatre Company for early next year. At least, composer John Kander confirmed to the New York Times that such a project was in the works. Roundabout did the most recent revival, which opened in 1998 under Sam Mendes’ direction and garnered a bouquet of Tony Awards, including one for Alan Cumming as the diabolical emcee. Cumming, who is currently involved with his mostly one-man Macbeth on Broadway, is said to be coming back for another try at the role.
Ron Cohen
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