Matthew Lopez, who co-wrote the Tony-nominated screenplay with Amber Ruffin and already has a Tony for “The Inheritance,” said, “We just wanted to be honest and we wanted to treat these characters with respect. ” “Sometimes the best way to treat a character with dignity is to allow them to be flawed, scared, funny, brave and human. So one thing that was very, very important to us was the human scale But creating characters who go through extraordinary experiences.
The musical comes at a time when the rights of trans people are under threat, and its message of self-acceptance and respect for all resonates with other Broadway productions, from a revival of “Parade” with one actor to “Death of A Salesman”. Lead Black and the new drama “Ain’t No Mo” and the new musical “Kimberly Akimbo”.
“I think the pandemic has put a lot of things into perspective, both in terms of the improvements we need to make in the community and the way everyone feels about the world and being a human being,” Ben Platt “The art that people are making has a real urge and a real purpose,” he said.
Three musicals tied for nine nominations each: “And Juliet,” which retells “Romeo and Juliet” and combines some of the decade’s biggest pop hits, “New York, New York,” which features John Kander’s Combines two generations of Broadway Hollywood royalty with Lin-Manuel Miranda, and “Shaked,” a stunning musical comedy brimming with puns.
Betsy Wolfe earned her first nomination with “& Juliet”, in her eighth Broadway show, playing Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway. She had gone to drop off her daughter, about 3, at her ballet class Tuesday morning when the nomination was announced. “I hope she addresses me correctly now that I see her,” he joked.
In music, playwright David West Reid used “Romeo and Juliet” to model the Swedish blockbuster “Oops!… I Did It Again” by Max Martin, “Oops!… I Did It Again” by Britney Spears, “Roar” by Katy Perry and “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi. The musical imagines a happy ending for Juliet after a journey of self-discovery.
Wolfe said, “It’s a beautiful story about second chances, which is honestly what we’re all doing right now.” “We’ve all been given a second chance after all of this time that we’ve all been through. And so having a music that allows us all to celebrate in different ways that we need to celebrate, it’s Very special and timely.”
The critically acclaimed “Kimberly Akimbo”, starring Victoria Clark as a teenager who is four times faster than the average human, swept the Best Musical category and earned a total of eight nominations.
Clarke, who was nominated for best actress in a musical, is expected to add a second Tony to her trophy case, having won one in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza.” But more than that, he hopes to bring more attention to his work, which he says has “fallen under the radar a little bit.”
“It is a special event that celebrates our collective humanity,” he said. “It doesn’t say that life is perfect. Drama doesn’t say that you won’t have weird and horrible people in your life. It doesn’t say that life will be easy. But it does say that life is worth living. And I think it is.” There is a message we need to get across. Life is worth living.”
In the Best New Play category, nominations were spread between Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish identity with an intergenerational story, and “Fat Ham,” James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” The conversion was set to a black one. Family home cooking in the modern South.
The rest of the category is made up of the short-lived but critically acclaimed work “Ain’t No Mo'” by playwright and actor Jordan E. Cooper, Stephen Edley Gurgis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Between Riverside and Crazy”. and “Cost of Living”, the parallel stories of two caregivers and their respective patients.
“Ain’t No Mo”, which received six nominations, begins with the United States government emailing every black citizen with an offer of a free plane ticket to Africa, with each scene revealing that different personalities How to respond to an offer
Cooper learned while visiting his childhood home in Texas that he had been nominated twice for Best Playwright and Leading Actor. He and his family learned of his victory in the room where he performed his first play at the age of 6.
“It’s a little bitter,” Cooper said. “We only got a chance to do about 60 features and this cast and creative team was some of the most talented you will ever see. It was unfortunate that people didn’t get a chance to experience it because we really felt like it was something special . The public felt it was something special. And how beautiful it is to know that all the work we do, all that blood, all that sweat and tears, hasn’t been in vain.”
“Parade”, a musical about a disastrous love story set against a real-life backdrop of pre-World War I Georgia murders and lynchings, garnered six nominations, including one for Platt, who would later win a second Tony. Let’s hope. The 2017 win with “Dear Evan Hansen” and rising star and first-time nominee Mikaela Diamond.
Wendell Pierce, who won a Tony for his production of “Clybourne Park,” earned his first acting nominations on Broadway for “Death of a Salesman” and Oscar winner Jessica Chastain for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” (“The Eyes”). Of Tammy Faye” (“Tammy Faye’s Eyes”), earned her first Tony nomination for her simplified version of “A Doll’s House.”
Pierce will face Suzanne-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog,” two stars of “Topdog/Underdog,” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins, as well as “Good Night, Oscar” former “Will & Grace” star Sean Hayes. Stephen McKinley Henderson, who earned his second Tony nomination following his first for 2019’s “Fences.”
Jodie Comer, the three-time Emmy-nominated star of “Killing Eve,” earned a nomination in her Broadway debut, although her play “Prima Facie” failed to earn a Best New Play nomination. Audra McDonald, who has won six Tony Awards, could extend her reign if she beats out Comer for best actress in a play for “The Ohio State Murders.” Last in the category went to “Summer, 1976” star Jessica Hecht.
Another play that quickly ended up garnering a nomination: “KPOP,” which brought Korean pop music to Broadway for the first time. “KPOP” earned three mentions including Best Original Music.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s much-hyped “Bad Cinderella” received zero nominations, as did “A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical,” a stage biography of the singer-songwriter with dozens of hit songs. Hollywood’s Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan were left off the shortlist in “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” but Samuel L. Jackson earned his first Tony nomination for August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.”
Two acclaimed revivals of the late Stephen Sondheim garnered nominations: “Sweeney Todd” with Annaleigh Ashford and Josh Groban, and “Into the Woods,” with an all-star cast. “Sweeney Todd” received eight nominations including Groban and Ashford, and “Into the Woods” earned six for Brian D’Arcy James and Grammy Award winner Sara Bareilles, making it her third Tony nomination. “Almost Famous,” the stage adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical coming-of-age story, earned just one nomination: for music by Tom Kitt and lyrics by Crowe and Kitt.
Choreographer Jennifer Weber had two reasons to smile Tuesday: Weber earned nominations for her first Broadway show “And Juliet” and “KPop.” Puerto Rican-born actress Arianna DeBose will host the gala on June 11 from the United Palace Theater in New York, which will be broadcast live on CBS and Paramount+. This is his second consecutive year as emcee.
