•The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein. Maybe we should have known when the inordinately long title was announced, or when reports from Seattle were less than promising. But Young Frankenstein had a terrific cast, great source material, and the pedigree of The Producers, which was nominated for fifteen Tonys. Frankenstein? Three.
•The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein. Maybe we should have known when the inordinately long title was announced, or when reports from Seattle were less than promising. But Young Frankenstein had a terrific cast, great source material, and the pedigree of The Producers, which was nominated for fifteen Tonys. Frankenstein? Three.
•Disney. It sure seems like a long time since The Lion King, doesn’t it? This year’s Little Mermaid was a Tarzan-level disappointment, garnering just two noms.
•Top Girls. These snubs will drive serious theatergoers crazy. Caryl Churchill, maybe one of the world’s three best playwrights, finally makes it back to Broadway for the first time in twenty years and this is how the Tonys reward her — with a single nomination for Martha Plimpton? Where is Marisa Tomei? Where on earth is Elizabeth Marvel? And where, oh where, is the play itself on the Best Play Revival list? We guess the Tony nominators listened to all those disgruntled audience members the Times interviewed.
•Top Girls. These snubs will drive serious theatergoers crazy. Caryl Churchill, maybe one of the world’s three best playwrights, finally makes it back to Broadway for the first time in twenty years and this is how the Tonys reward her — with a single nomination for Martha Plimpton? Where is Marisa Tomei? Where on earth is Elizabeth Marvel? And where, oh where, is the play itself on the Best Play Revival list? We guess the Tony nominators listened to all those disgruntled audience members the Times interviewed.
•Kevin Kline, Ian McShane, and a half-dozen other lead actors. This was bound to happen; with a solid dozen incredible leading men on Broadway stages this year, plenty of stars were bound to be left out. New York’s Jeremy McCarter is outraged that Kevin Kline was omitted for his bravura turn in Cyrano de Bergerac; we can’t believe that the Tonys passed up Brian Cox in Rock ’n’ Roll.
•Aaron Sorkin. The Tonys continue to ignore Aaron Sorkin; back in 1990, A Few Good Men — despite being a smash hit that ran for over a year — received a lone Tony nomination, for Tom Hulce. This season’s The Farnsworth Invention? Zilch.
•Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This might be the most forehead-slapping snub of them all. The theater community has a chance to reward an all-black production of a beloved Tennessee Williams play — one bringing in enormous crowds of brand-new theatergoers — and what does it do? It snubs the show entirely. Sure, you can ignore Debbie Allen’s direction, or Terrence Howard (who missed a month of the show to promote Iron Man), but two-time nominee Phylicia Rashad as Big Mama? Three-time nominee James Earl Jones as Big Daddy? You’re really passing them up? And people wonder why Broadway struggles to stay relevant.