Celia Rose Gooding and Lauren Patten in Jagged Little Pill at the Broadhurst Theatre, New York. Picture: Matthew Murphy
The entire 2020-2021 Broadway season has disappeared, swallowed up in the unyielding maw of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, a passel of New York theatre-makers have reason to celebrate with the unveiling of the Tony Award nominations for the 2019-2020 season, as abbreviated as it was. A date for the awards presentation, however, is yet to be determined.
The Broadway League announced on 9 October 2020 the continued closing of Broadway theatres through to 30 May 2021. It was the fourth extension of the shutdown since the playhouses went dark on 12 March in the face of the Covid-19 devastation.
After the current suspension, it will be up to the individual productions to set their returns or premieres.
Meanwhile, in the musical categories, the Tony nominators, whose picks were disclosed on 15 October, spread their love pretty evenly on three of a very truncated field of only four eligible shows. Leading the entire pack – both musicals and non-musicals – was Jagged Little Pill, based on the songs from the hit 1995 album by Alanis Morissette. The show received a total of 15 nods.
Following closely behind were another pair of jukebox offerings, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, with 14 nominations, and Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, garnering 12.
All three shows will compete for the Best Musical crown as well as the various creative and technical classifications: Direction (Phyllida Lloyd for Tina; Diane Paulus for Pill; Alex Timbers for Moulin); Book (Diablo Cody for Pill; John Logan for Moulin; Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins for Tina); Choreography (Sidi Larbi Cherakoui for Pill; Sonya Tayeh for Moulin; Anthony van Laast for Tina); Costume Design; Scenic Design; Lighting; and Sound.
Left totally out in the cold with no nominations was the fourth eligible musical, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical.
It was in the performer categories that Jagged Little Pill gained its edge, receiving nods for three of its featured actresses – Kathryn Gallagher, Celia Rose Gooding and Lauren Patton – and two of its featured actors – Derek Klena and Sean Allan Krill.
Other Featured Actor nods went to Danny Burstein and Sahr Ngaujah, both in Moulin Rouge! and Daniel J. Watts, in Tina, while Robyn Hurder, of Moulin Rouge!, and Myra Lucretia Taylor, of Tina, were cited for Featured Actress.
Leading Actress nods were bestowed on Karen Olivo for Moulin Rouge!, Elizabeth Stanley for Pill and Adrienne Warren for Tina. However, for leading actor there emerged only one nominee: Aaron Tveit of Moulin Rouge!
Ironically, with the trio of jukebox musicals in the spotlight, the nods for Best Original Score went to five non-musicals.
There were no nominations for Best Musical Revival. While Ivo Van Hove’s re-do of West Side Story opened before the March shutdown, it was deemed that there was not enough time after the premiere for a sufficient number of nominators to see the show.
Leading the field of plays was Slave Play, Jeremy O. Harris’ scorching examination of racism, love and sex, picking up 12 nominations.
The nominations were disclosed via an online presentation by James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony in 2014 for his buoyant portrayal of the Genie in Aladdin. He proved to be a genial raconteur as he interspersed brief thoughts on the importance of theatre along with reminiscences of his own career in between revelations of the nominees. He furthermore advised the viewers: “Don’t worry. Broadway will be back.”
A more specific look at the importance of theatre was offered by Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, in announcing the continued shutdown.
“With nearly 97,000 workers who rely on Broadway for their livelihood and an annual economic impact of $14.8 billion to the city, our membership is committed to reopening as soon as conditions permit us to do so,” she said.
“We are working tirelessly with multiple partners on sustaining the industry once we raise our curtains again.”
Ron Cohen
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