Tony nominations surprises: ‘Water for Elephants’ for Best Musical, ‘Stereophonic’ cast …
In a Broadway season bursting at the seams with new musicals, plays and revivals – 36 productions opened during the 2023-2024 eligibility window – it is not a surprise that the 60 Tony Awards nominators caught theatre aficionados off guard with some of their choices.
The biggest surprise of the morning was the overperformance of new musical “Water for Elephants.” Our users only expected it to earn one nomination, but it ultimately ended up with seven, tying “Merrily We Roll Along” and beating out musicals such as “Suffs.” Its unexpected bids include the top category of Best Musical, director Jessica Stone, book and choreography. The one bid we thought it would land for featured actor Paul Alexander Nolan didn’t actually come to fruition. Speaking of surprise director noms, Michael Greif – who worked on three musicals this season – broke through for “Hell’s Kitchen.” He ranked ninth in our combined odds.
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New play “Stereophonic” is now the most nominated play in Tony Awards history with 13, breaking the record of 12 previously held by “Slave Play.” David Adjmi’s drama was able to achieve this incredible feat in part because it earned recognition for an impressive five performers. Our odds only anticipated bids for featured actress Sarah Pidgeon and featured actor Will Brill, but it also got acknowledged for Juliana Canfield, Eli Gelb and Tom Pecinka. In our most recent Tony Talk column, Sam Eckmann and I debated just how many cast members “Stereophonic” could be nominated, and though we floated potential bids for all of these actors, neither of us had room to predict all five.
Speaking of stuffed acting categories, Featured Actress in a Musical had so many incredible contenders that the nominators ultimately tipped their hats to a whopping seven individuals. That means all of our top five contenders – Lindsay Mendez (“Merrily We Roll Along”), Bebe Neuwirth (“Cabaret”), Kecia Lewis (“Hell’s Kitchen”), Shoshana Bean (“Hell’s Kitchen”) and Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer (“Monty Python’s Spamalot”) – all earned bids, plus our number six contender Nikki M. James and our number nine Amber Iman.
Other nominated performers who were outside or our expectations were Roger Bart, Joshua Boone and Sky Lakota-Lynch, who ranked seventh, ninth, and 21st in the Featured Actor in a Musical category. In the Best Actor in a Musical category, Brody Grant (“The Outsiders”) and Dorian Harewood (“The Notebook”) were also both outside our top five but ultimately earned nominations.
Just like Jessica Stone and Michael Greif, there were also surprises in the Best Direction of a Play category, too. Our top three all broke through – Lila Neugebauer (“Appropriate”), Kenny Leon (“Purlie Victorious”) and Daniel Aukin (“Stereophonic”) – but we didn’t see the nominations for Whitney White (“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”) and Anne Kauffman (“Mary Jane”) coming, who were ranked seventh and eighth in our odds, respectively.
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