Best Director of a Musical
My Pick: Sam Gold – Fun Home
It is a tough thing to do when you have to take a show you have already directed for a proscenium theater (which was incredibly well received, by the way) and place it in the round. It is even more impressive when almost everyone agrees the show improves in the round. That is what Sam Gold had to do and why I think he will take the award. Well, that along with managing a very dark and emotional piece of material. Christopher Wheeldon has a shot for An American in Paris, as he also choreographed the show and the voters may confuse the two, but I think this is Gold’s to lose.
Best Director of a Play
My Pick: Marianne Elliott – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
I think this is a lock on the level of Helen Mirren winning. Marianne Elliott took home this award for War Horse in 2011, and she will take home another here. No matter what people had to say about the actual text of the play, which some love and some merely thought was okay, no one doubted the technical prowess on display in this show. She is a big part of the reason this play became not just another show on Broadway but an event.
Best Book of a Musical
My Pick: Lisa Kron – Fun Home
Unlike many of the other Fun Home/An American in Paris races, no one is disputing that the book for Fun Home is the easy winner here. People praise the production of An American in Paris greatly, but the actual text has a lot of people wanting more. Something Rotten! is probably in second place, but it is a distant second, as I am sure many will just see it as a frivolous comedy. Fun Home deals with some heavy stuff in a unique way, and Lisa Kron will be going home with the Tony.
Best Original Score
My Pick: Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron – Fun Home
Jeanine Tesori has been working in the New York theater scene for decades and has yet to win a Tony for her work, but that will all end on Sunday. Her, along with book writer Lisa Kron who did the lyrics, will take this award. Something Rotten! is funny, but it’s fairly standard theater stuff. The Visit is the last score from the legendary songwriting team of John Kander and the late Fred Ebb, but there is little to no love out there for The Visit. The voters may go with the star pick in Sting for his show The Last Ship. But that show is closed, and many people had issues with the lyrics even if the music itself was lovely. This is Tesori and Kron’s award.
Best Choreography
My Pick: Christopher Wheeldon – An American in Paris
This is easily An American in Paris‘s one true lock of the night. It is a very dance heavy show, starring two ballet dancers. There is no way this is not Christopher Wheeldon’s award. Had On the Town, another extremely dance heavy show, opened later in the season, there may be some competition, but unfortunately, that show is a bit of an afterthought now.
Best Orchestrations
My Pick: Christopher Austin, Don Sebesky, and Bill Elliot – An American in Paris
Gershwin music orchestrated well is always a good thing. The size of the orchestras on Broadways are dwindling, with what used to be an average of thirty people is now down to about eleven. Yet An American in Paris managed to get nineteen musicians in the pit, and they are playing some of the best music of the twentieth century. Of course this show is going to win. Personally, I wish The King and I had been nominated, even though they are using the original orchestrations, simply for the fact that they have 29 pieces in the orchestra, which is what every show should have. Producers, cough up some cash and get some more people in those pits! It makes a difference.
Now let’s get really technical…
