Since the major Broadway shut down at the start of quarantine it feels like theater has been out of reach. When the Tony Awards announced their nominations on October 15th, many people were shocked and confused. The nomination season was cut awfully short by the pandemic on March 12th and in turn, there were only a handful of shows eligible for awards this year, of the eligible shows, only 3 musicals were nominated and 5 plays.
Nominations were hosted via a YouTube video by James Monroe Ingleheart, a past Tony nominee and winner who most recently starred as Genie in Aladdin on Broadway before the COVID-19 shutdown. There is still no word on when the Tony Awards will actually be held but we do know that they will be live and online, fully streamable and available for everyone to watch.
Jagged Little Pill led the way in the musical categories with 15 nominations including: Best Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Score. Moulin Rouge! The Musical followed behind with a total of 14 nominations as well as the only nomination in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. The last musical with nominations was Tina: The Tina Turner Musical with 13 nominations. And The Lightning Thief was the fourth eligible show but received no nominations.
One of the strangest things about this year’s Tony Awards celebration is one very pesky category. Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical only has one nominee, Aaron Tveit who plays Christian in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Many people, including myself, assumed this meant that he automatically won. However, the Tony rules have been provided and he must receive at least 60% of positive votes to take home the award, if he doesn’t then no one wins the category.
The 74th Annual Tony Awards are taking place during a monumental time in history. The award ceremony and nominations will go down in theater history. Click here to check out all of the nominations and figure out who you’ll be rooting for this year.