The Tony Awards are really insisting in going through with a faux awards show sometime this fall on a streaming platform. It was an aborted season that saw many terrific shows never open. The 18 shows deemed eligible are mediocre to “ok.” Not great. The only real race would be between Laura Linney in “My Name is Lucy Barton” and Mary Louise Parker in “The Sound Inside.” With this group, Adrienne Warren would easily win for “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.” Brian Cox and Michael Shannon might compete for Best Actor in a Play.
But these are slim pickings at best. If all these shows had been mixed in with the ones that never got to open during the pandemic, then we’d have something. “Girl from the North Country” was easily Best Musical, for example. “Company” would have been Best Revival of a Musical. And so on. So is this just a dreary effort, and I don’t know why they are doing it. They should simply have waited til next June and included all the 2020 and 2021 shows. I think this is a mistake. But no one asked me.
You would have five original plays here: “The Inheritance,” “Slave Play,” “The Height of the Storm,” “Lucy Barton,” and “The Sound Inside.” I would choose “The Sound Inside.” If “Slave Play” wins Best Play we would really be in another world. But I’d bet on it happening. The fix is in. C’est la vie.
Here are the 18 titles:
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Sea Wall/A Life
Betrayal
The Height of the Storm
The Great Society
Slave Play
Linda Vista
The Rose Tattoo
The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical
The Sound Inside
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical
The Inheritance
A Christmas Carol
Jagged Little Pill
My Name is Lucy Barton
A Soldier’s Play
Grand Horizons
