Thoughts on the Tony Nominations

Will this finally be Kelli O'Hara's year?

With this morning’s Tony nominations (I didn’t do awful on my predictions, particularly considering the wide-open nature of the race), these are a dozen thoughts I had about the 2014 lineup:

1. The Tony Awards are perhaps the least consistent awards body in terms of who they nominate in any given year.  The Oscars, Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes-they all have their own idiosyncrasies, but they only go against them rarely (the Grammys like big hits, the Globes like big stars, the Emmys like the same people every year, etc).  While the Tony Awards will pick the same people frequently (it’s a finite amount of space on Broadway), they vary wildly on whether or not they want movie stars or not to be amongst their nominees.  This year was clearly leaning toward not as Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Denzel Washington, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz, Daniel Craig, James Franco, and Marisa Tomei all missed out on their respective fields.

2. How long will it be before Bryan Cranston grabs an Oscar?  There’s a very strong chance the man takes a Tony now to follow all of those Emmy wins, and he’s so revered (and appearing in supporting parts in movies like Argo and Drive) that I assume some director is going to give him a biopic or character study soon and he’ll win Best Actor.  Perhaps he’ll even bring LBJ to the big screen?

3. Chris O’Dowd is this year’s Tom Sturridge.

4. Mark Rylance, Kelli O’Hara, Sutton Foster, and Audra McDonald-why is it that they cannot transfer successfully to the big screen?  Why does no one give these people big-screen deals?

5. With Kelli O’Hara, Estelle Parsons, Linda Emond, and Celia Keenan-Bolger all nominated in the four female acting categories, is this potentially primed for a year of “we owe you” at the Tony Awards?  I’m hoping at least one of these women pick up a trophy.

The incredibly sexy Brian J. Smith

6. Brian J. Smith is a beautiful man.

7. If Diahann Carroll had made it through and actually been able to do Raisin in the Sun, would this have been hers for the taking?  LaTanya Richardson Jackson, a relative unknown (more famous for being the red carpet companion of her husband Samuel L. Jackson), managed to get nominated for the role in one of the bigger surprises of the morning-I think Carroll, an acting legend, would have pulled off the win.  Her absence means that Audra McDonald could take a record-breaking sixth acting trophy, at a mere 43 years of age.

8. I have never understood the appeal of Tony Shalhoub.  The man seems to be invited to awards’ bodies every chance that he gets, and while I haven’t seen his on-stage work, I have never been impressed by his acting skills.

9. Mare Winningham or Sophie Okonedo: which is the more obscure former Oscar nominee competing in Featured Actress?  And can either of them take down the former Disney Princess?

10. It’s not the Tony Awards without Susan Stroman or Scott Rudin.  Nominated for Bullets Over Broadway and A Raisin in the Sun (respectively) they have amassed a total of 42 Tony nominations between themselves.

Marin Mazzie: Not even a bridesmaid

11. I know the entire media is focusing on Michelle Williams, Dan Radcliffe, and Denzel missing, but don't you feel for Marin Mazzie-she hardly got cited once for what was one of the bigger snubs of the day and she's in that grey area for musical actresses where the original roles don't come as often as they once did, and as a result she's typically replacing bigger stars in productions.  Plus, Helen Sinclair is an Oscar-winning role-who would have thought it couldn't have at least gotten a nomination?  At this rate, Mazzie will likely never take home a trophy.

12. Though no one is going specifically for an EGOT (lately it seems like someone always is at these things), Jonathan Tunick could disrupt his perfect EGOT-record.  Nominated this year for Best Orchestrations, he's the only person to have one of each trophy, but no more.

Those were my thoughts-how about you?  Are there any candidates you’re rooting for?  What are you hoping to see from Hugh Jackman as the host?  Share in the comments!