Last year I wrote about the Outer Critics Circle and how they lost all credibility with their kooky nominations. A couple of their members actually sent me hate mail. So what will they do this year?
The OCC is now composed of people you’ve never heard of, for the most part. They had weird ideas about who’s eligible for their awards. Fine. If their members want to pay for this, it’s their business. But the awards are negligible now, which is too bad.
So this year their “snubs” are similar to last year: with the exception of Sean Hayes and Jessica Chastain, they do not like “stars,” no matter how good they are. Last year Hugh Jackman led the list. This year, their biggest omission is Wendell Pierce as Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman.” They should be arrested on the spot.
The OCC also left out Josh Groban, Annaleigh Ashford, and Gaten Matarazzo from “Sweeney Todd.” They nominators must be smoking crack. They cut everyone who isn’t “famous” from “The Piano Lesson” including John David Washington and Samuel L. Jackson. “The Piano Lesson” wasn’t even nominated for Outstanding Revival of a Play. There’s only one nominated actor from “Leopoldstadt,” Brandon Uranowitz. That’s insane. They also thumbed their noses at Yahya Abdul-Mateen II from “Top Dog/Underdog.”
So, who cares? The OCC’s newest administrative problem is gender-free nominations, and limiting each category to five nominees. Last night I heard one of them, sitting behind me at “New York, New York,” which received 12 nominations, saying it was their “second time” at this show. Hmmm.
The only important awards on Broadway are the Tonys. The Obies are Off Broadway. Everything else is just subjective nonsense.
