Book of a Musical

If these four contenders pitted against one another looks familiar to you, it’s because they are also the four nominees for Best Musical.  Lisa Kron (Fun Home) stands at the front of this category for her work adapting Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel to the stage.  Behind by just a hair are Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, who are the only nominees responsible for writing a wholly original book, Something Rotten!  Behind the two front-runners sits four-time Tony winner Terrence McNally for The Visit, followed by Craig Lucas (An American in Paris).

Original Score

It’s still a tight race, but Jeanine Tesori & Lisa Kron (Fun Home) are as of right now poised to become just the second all-female  writing team to win Best Original Score in the 69 year history of the Tony Awards.  Cyndi Lauper became the first exclusively female writer/team to win Best Score in 2013 for Kinky Boots.  The big, bubbly score of Something Rotten!, written by Wayne Kirkpatrick & Karey Kirkpatrick, sits in second, just ahead of the Kander & Ebb score for The Visit.  The dark horse in this race is Sting’s The Last Ship, which had a short life this Fall.  Unfortunately, since it is the only nominee that isn’t currently running, it won’t be given as much consideration as it probably deserves.

The cast albums for Something Rotten! and The Visit are currently in production and will be released some time in June.  Below are links to the cast albums of The Last Ship and the Public’s production of Fun Home.

Orchestrations

If The Last Ship has any shot at winning a Tony, it will be for orchestrations.  That being said, it’s far from the favorite right now.  As in Best Book and Best Score, Fun Home (John Clancy) and Something Rotten! (Larry Hochman) are in the lead.  Though we think An American in Paris is currently at the back of the line, it is the only nominee that was not eligible for Best Original Score.  Voters may give it an edge in orchestrations to make up for it’s inability to win for its score.

Scenic Design of a Musical

If you want to know why Bob Crowley has the lead in this category, you should hear him explain his design choices for An American in Paris:

The other three nominees are very deserving of their place on this list.  David Rockwell’s (On the Twentieth Century) design of adjacent train cars is brilliant, Michael Yeargan’s (The King and I) depiction of 1860s Bangkok is exquisite, and David Zinn (Fun Home) fits more machinery underneath the stage floor than Michael Bay fits in a 3 hour movie.  That being said, they aren’t right now in a position to take down Crowley & 50 Productions.

Scenic Design of a Play

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has pretty much had this award in the bag since its first preview.  If you don’t know why, that means you haven’t seen it.  Go see it so we don’t have to spoil anything!

Costume Design Musical

In this category we have the costumes of 1940s Paris vs. 1860s Bangkok vs 1590s Europe vs. 1930s  America.  William Ivey Long’s (On the Twentieth Century) American garb is great, but we much prefer the attempts at capturing the foreign trends.  An American in Paris leads the pack, with The King and I and Something Rotten! sitting in the middle.

Costume Design Play

When you ask a six-time Tony Award winner to design a wardrobe fit for a queen, its no surprise you end up with a frontrunner for Best Costume Design of a Play.  Though Bob Crowley (who by now should be a familiar face) has six Tonys on his mantle, none of them are for costume design.  Christopher Oram (Wolf Hall) has a decent chance of being the man to deny Crowley of yet another Tony for costume design, but Jane Greenwood (You Can’t Take It with You) and David Zinn (Airline Highway) are unlikely to do so.

Lighting Design Musical

An American in Paris is in a position to sweep the design awards, and their biggest challenge in doing so will be winning the award for lighting design over Japhy Weidman’s design for The Visit.  The other nominees, Ben Stanton (Fun Home) and Donald Holder (The King and I), are excellent, but are likely to be overshadowed (pun intended) by Katz and Weidman.

For commentary from the nominees themselves, take a look at the New York Times coverage of the lighting category.

Lighting Design Play

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is unlikely to lose the Tony for lighting.  Wolf Hall is in position for a second place finish, but is far from beating out Curious Incident.  The long shots are Natasha Katz (Skylight) and Japhy Weidman (Airline Highway).

The same New York Times article mentioned above covers lighting of a play as well.

The road to the Tony’s is just beginning, and the horse first out the gate isn’t always the first to cross the finish line.  We will continue to monitor the race in the coming weeks to see which frontrunners let their lead slip, and which only widen the gap.

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