'Fela' and 'La Cage aux Folles' lead Tony nominations
"Fela!" and "La Cage aux Folles" lead the race for Tony Award nominations, which were announced Tuesday morning in preparation for the June 13 award show on CBS.
"Fela," a biographical concert/extravaganza about activist and creator of Afrobeat, was nominated for best musical, while Bill T. Jones was picked both for his direction and choreography. Among the nominations for "La Cage," a revival of the 1984 family-values drag musical, are nods for director Terry Johnson and lead actors Kelsey Grammer and Douglas Hodge.
In an atypical year, all four best plays - "Next Fall," "Red," "Time Stands Still" and "In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play" - are written by Americans. "Red," a British production by an American playwright, leads with seven nominations. "Enron," the multimedia British retelling of the financial scandal, was not nominated for best play, though, in an odd twist, its incidental music was included in the skimpy category for new scores.
The other best musicals are "American Idiot" (based on the Green Day punk-rock album), which has three nominations, "Memphis" (about a white DJ who loves soul music in the segregated south), which has eight, and "Million Dollar Quartet" (a juke-box recreation of dead rock and roll stars), with three. Conspicuous best-musical omissions include Twyla Tharp's dance-driven Sinatra show, "Come Fly Away," and "Sondheim on Sondheim." Tharp was nominated as choreographer but not director.
In other surprises, Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth were shut out their star turns in "The Addams Family," which received just two nominations but sold more than $1 million in tickets last week.
It was a season driven by movie stars, and plenty got nominations. There is no mention of Hugh Jackman or Daniel Craig for "Steady Rain," but the best-actor category acknowledges Denzel Washington ("Fences") Liev Schreiber ("A View from the Bridge"), Jude Law ("Hamlet"), Alfred Molina ("Red") and Christopher Walken "A Behanding in Spokane"). David Alan Grier's performance in "Race" is a surprise addition to the featured actor in a play category.
Catherine Zeta-Jones ("A Little Night Music") is nominated as lead actress in a musical. Her costar Angela Lansbury is nominated for featured actress, along with fellow Broadway veteran Barbara Cook ("Sondheim on Sondheim"), Karine Plantadit ("Come Fly Away"), Lillias White ("Fela!") and Katie Finneran ("Promises, Promises")
Leading actresses in a play are Viola Davis ("Fences"), Valerie Harper ("Looped"). Linda Lavin ("Collected Stories"), Laura Linney ("Time Stands Still" and Jan Maxwell - a double nominee for her lead performance in "The Royal Family" and supporting one in "Lend Me a Tenor."
Play revivals are "Fences" (10 nominations) "Lend Me a Tenor" (three) "The Royal Family" (five) and "A View from the Bridge" (six --including Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Hecht).
In addition to "La Cage," musical revivals include "A Little Night Music" (four), "Ragtime" (seven) and "Finian's Rainbow" (three). "Ragtime" and "Finian" closed months ago.
Best play directors are Kenny Leon for "Fences," Gregory Mosher for "View from the Bridge," Sheryl Kaller for "Next Fall and Michael Grandage for "Red." Despite best revival nomination for "Lend Me a Tenor, director Stanley Tucci is shut out-as are Tony Shaluub and Anthony LaPaglia.
In addition to Bill T. Jones and Terry Johnson, musical directors are Christopher Ashley for "Memphis" and Marcia Milgrom Dodge for "Ragtime."
