Who Should be Nominated for the 75th Tony Awards?

With another Broadway season coming to an end, it means Tony Awards season has arrived. Our critic cohort got together to talk about who they hope Tony nominators will remember when they’re filling their ballots.

 

Technical Category

Christian Lewis: Dede Ayite’s work in Costume Design this season was so great! Other people I’m really hoping get some love in this category are Gabriella Slade, who did the costumes for Six both drawing on the dramaturgy of a pop concert and actual Tudor stuff. Emilio Sosa’s costumes for Trouble in Mind were both period perfection and really well done. 

Bedatri D. Choudhury: I second the costumes in Six, each of those crowns was so beautiful. I’m also still talking about that scene where one of the queens tears off her dress and there’s this beautiful, black, glittery thing she’s wearing underneath.

Juan Michael Porter II: I’m going to go back to the one specific lighting moment in Trouble in Mind, a scene with Chuck Cooper, where he’s recalling seeing a man being lynched as a child who lived in basic slavery, and there’s something that happens with the lighting design (Kathy A. Perkins), as he goes along, it becomes dimmer and you feel like you’ve been sucked into his mind, and you don’t realize that it’s a lighting trick until he comes out of it. It was wonderful!

Ran Xia: Palmer Hefferan for The Skin of Our Teeth.  She does all of the regular environmental effects in a way that grounds you into the reality of the play but also uses all of the tricks with 21st-century technology. Also, Thomas Dunn’s lighting for Is This A Room. The geometry of his work is something I haven’t seen in anything else.

Ana Zambrana: Diana had such an insane and sick Lighting Design by Natasha Katz. I’m gunning for it! 

 

Featured Actor/Actress in a Musical

Bedatri D. Choudhury: Shoshana Bean and Chasten Harmon who were the only good things about watching Mr. Saturday Night.

Christian Lewis: I’ll be really angry if L Morgan Lee in A Strange Loop and Jennifer Simard in Company aren’t nominated. For Actor, I’d say A.J. Shively in Paradise Square. 

Juan Michael Porter II: I second L Morgan Lee and also Andrea Macasaet in Six, who played Anne Boleyn, her vocal interpretation of it is so inventive and so fantastic,  she really takes it beyond just being the sort of ditzy person to being kind of an unintentional genius, a bit like Marilyn Monroe. Tavon Olds-Sample in MJ who plays Michael Jackson as a teenager becoming famous. That’s the only part of that show that works for me.

Ran Xia: Brittney Mack for Six.

Ana Zambrana: Andrea Macasaet or Brittney Mack from Six.

 

 

Featured Actor/Actress in a Play

Bedatri D. Choudhury: Kenita R. Miller in for colored girls.

Christian Lewis: Michael Urie in Chicken & Biscuits. I was also really into Jessie Mueller’s performance in The Minutes. 

Juan Michael Porter II: Chuck Cooper in Trouble in Mind, I’m sure he will pretty much win the award, and Okwui Okpokwasili in for colored girls.

Ran Xia: Ron Cephas Jones in Clyde’s and Priscilla Lopez in The Skin of Our Teeth. 

Ana Zambrana: Chuck Cooper in Trouble in Mind blew my mind away with just one monologue, and Michael Urie for Chicken & Biscuits, he was hilarious and perfect for that role. 

 

Actor/Actress in a Musical

Bedatri D. Choudhury: Although the musical was really bad, Tony Yazbeck in Flying Over Sunset, he’s really hot and a great dancer.

Christian Lewis: Joaquina Kalukango in Paradise Square needs to win this, but also Jeanna de Waal in Diana deserves a nomination.

Juan Michael Porter II: I second Joaquina. For Actor, Jaquel Spivey in A Strange Loop, he made the part so sensitive and vulnerable. 

 

Actor/Actress in a Play

Bedatri D. Choudhury: Emily Davis in Is This A Room. Ruben Santiago-Hudson in Lackawanna Blues.

Christian Lewis: Deirdre O’Connell in Dana H., Emily Davis in Is This A Room, LaChanze for Trouble in Mind, and Mary-Louise Parker for How I Learned to Drive. I have the whole category.

Ana Zambrana: LaChanze for Trouble in Mind, she was a force of nature and deserves to be recognized. 

Juan Michael Porter II: Deirdre O’Connell. Phylicia Rashad in Skeleton Crew, she was completely unrecognizable, what she did with the part was fantastic. Ruben Santiago-Hudson in Lackawanna Blues.

Ran Xia: Deirdre O’Connell. I also really respected and wanted to sing praises for Debra Messing in Birthday Candles. 

 

Revival of a Musical

Abstained

 

Revival of a Play

Bedatri D. Choudhury: Lackawanna Blues.

Christian Lewis: Trouble in Mind and How I Learned to Drive. 

Juan Michael Porter II: Lackawanna Blues. 

Ran Xia: The Skin of Our Teeth, Trouble in Mind and Lackawanna Blues. 

Ana Zambrana: for colored girls.

 

Best Musical

Bedatri D. Choudhury: Six

Christian Lewis: Six and A Strange Loop. 

Juan Michael Porter II: I agree with Six and A Strange Loop. 

Ran Xia: Six

Ana Zambrana: I’m crossing my fingers for A Strange Loop.

 

Best Play

Bedatri D. Choudhury: Dana H.

Christian Lewis: Dana H. and Is This A Room 

Juan Michael Porter II: Skeleton Crew

Ran Xia: Dana H. and Clyde’s

Ana Zambrana: Chicken & Biscuits