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Hello friends and welcome to a special episode here on Broadway Radio. My name is Matt Tamnini. On Monday, May 11, the Outer Critics Circle announced their 2026 award winners. I am a voter for the Outer Critics Circle Awards so I wanted to run you through not only the winners but who I voted for. Some of those were the eventual winners and some of them were not. So let's dive into it. Let's start with the big production categories. Now we do things a little different than some of the other organizations that both Broadway and Off Broadway. We do separate the new plays into Broadway and Off Broadway. Same thing with musicals. So in the category of outstanding new Broadway musical, the winner was Schmiga Dune. I did not vote for Schmigadoon. Of the three nominees, the Lost Boys, Schmigadoon and Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York. Schmigadoon would be third by a considerable margin. For me, I voted for Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York. I would love to see Two Strangers win the Tony Award, but I'm not sure that it has the juice to do that or quite frankly the money to mount the campaign necessary to do that. I think Schmigadoon even before this, I mentioned it on last week on Broadway that came out earlier today that I thought that Schmigadoon for many people and many onlookers was becoming the front runner. I do think that the Lost Boys might have an opportunity to sneak in there too because it is such a complete production with all of the design. Now I do think the design for Schmigadoon is very good as well. But for me, even though I abhorred is is a is a strong word, but it is probably pretty accurate. But I abhorred the set design for Two Strangers. I thought cohesively it was the best new musical that I saw on Broadway this season in terms of book, music performances. I thought it was lovely and and delightful from start to finish. Didn't love Schmigadoon as much. I will have reviews for the Lost Boys and Schmigadoon, the other two nominees. They are coming up very soon in the podcast feed, so stay tuned for that. The winner for Outstanding new Off Broadway musical was Mexicus. That is in fact what I voted for as well. I did take some time to consider Mexico versus Bo the Musical, which was another show that I loved this season. I ended up going with Mexico because it is so complex and so brilliantly constructed that despite the fact that it has not a whole lot going on in terms of set or design and it's only a two hander show, it is a remarkable piece of art of performance, of musicianship. It was all around one of the most impressive things I have seen all season. Interesting. Interestingly enough I compared it quite a bit to another show that I'll talk about here in a minute. Even though they have nothing in common. But we'll get to that. I loved bo. Bo made me sob openly sitting next to Ashley Steves who was also crying when we saw the show at St. Luke's last fall. But love both of these show. I think Mexico is incredibly deserving of this award. The winner for Outstanding New Broadway play went to the Ballisters. This of course is one that I will review in the coming days and week. I did not vote for that. I voted for Oedipus, even though I felt a little wonky about that. Because even though Robert Icke, I think did a tremendous job adapting the script, obviously he did not originally write it. That goes to Sophocles, of course, and the bones of the story is still there. He didn't change how things worked. He didn't change the construct of the story. But I thought it was such a brilliant adaptation. I did end up going with Oedipus, but the Balusters won and I know a lot of people like that. And it very well might be the Tony winner for Best New Play as well. Outstanding new Off Broadway play. The winner was Meet the Cartosians. I did not see any of the shows in this category, so I abstained here. I would imagine that Meet the Cartosians will be on Broadway next season, but we'll have to see about that. The John Gassner Award for a new American play, preferably by a new playwright. There were actually two winners. It was a tie between Cold War Choir Practice by Roe Reddick and well I'll Let yout Go by Bubba Wyler. I only saw one show in this category, Caroline by Preston, Max Allen. So I've stayed here as well. Now for the revival categories, we do combine them from Broadway and Off Broadway. Outstanding revival of a musical. Went to Ragtime, which will be a theme. I did not vote for Ragtime. I voted for Masquerade, which is a show that I was blown away by. Phantom is not my favorite musical and is certainly not even my favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, but similar to Mexic. And this is what I was saying earlier about how two shows that are nothing alike had a lot of similarities. For me, the intricacy of this show and how they are able to map out the different pulses, which is what they call the 15 minute increments that people go in to see the show and. And how they are able to effectively rotate cast members. Each pulse has its own Phantom and Christine, but they share everybody else, including actually the Christine plays Meg Giry for a different Pulse. So just the way that Diane Paulus has layered that was incredible to me on its own. And that's before we get into the actual performances. It was a gorgeous production. And, you know, while I don't love Phantom, it obviously has some incredible songs. And to be so close to these amazingly talented performers and to have them sing right to your face, to lead you by the hand, to dance with you, or in my case, to have Carlotta kiss you on the cheek, it was incredible and. And I loved every second of it. So Masquerade got my vote. The rest of my colleagues apparently were more taken by Ragtime. Outstanding revival of a play. The winner was Death of a Salesman. I voted for the Brothers Size off Broadway. I think Death of a Salesman is going to do very well on Broadway with a Tony Awards, not the least of which is that the outstanding lead performer in a Broadway play went to Nathan Lane. This is of course, a gender neutral category. So I voted for Leslie Manville from Oedipus. Outstanding feature performer in a Broadway play. Laurie Metcalfe. Also, Death of a Salesman won here. I voted for Ruben Santiago Hudson for Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Outstanding lead performer in a Broadway musical. The winner was Joshua Henry for Ragtime. I was torn in this. I did not get to see Luke Evans in the Rocky Horror show or Jessica Vosk in Beaches, but I saw the other five nominees and I actually went with Brandon Uranowitz from Ragtime in this category. The winner in the outstanding feature Performer in a Broadway Musical category was Ben Levi Ross. For Ragtime. That is who I voted for as well. I thought he was, to be honest with you, I thought that Ben gave the most nuanced and interesting and compelling performance in all of Ragtime, so was glad to see him win there Outstanding lead performer in an Off Broadway musical. The winner was Nigel D. Robinson of Mexico. I juggled back and forth just like I did in the off Broadway musical category between him and Matt Rhoden of Bo the Musical. I ultimately went with Matt because I thought we saw more of an arc to his character Ace in Bo and we got to see him embody more emotions and to have more of a growth that takes place over a longer period of time. So we saw him age as well, but not in any way, shape or form. Disappointed by Nigel winning there Outstanding feature performer in an off Broadway musical. The winner was the great Judy Kuhn for the Baker's Wife. I momentarily thought about going with her. I didn't love the nominees, to be quite honest with you. When you have three people from the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, I think that's intense overkill there. I did in fact end up going with Jasmine Amy Rogers 1, because I didn't think Judy Kuhn's part was actually giving me enough to warrant that award. Where to be honest with you, I think Jasmine probably could have been considered the lead in in Spelling Bee. I know that it's not. It's certainly an ensemble show and I'm fine with that. But she has by far the most to do in terms of narrative arc for a character. And I thought it was pretty interesting how different she was from Boop to see her do these two very, very different, not only roles, but in terms of, like, what she was asked to do there was, you know, dancing and spelling nowhere near what she did in Boop. And the characters are so diametrically different that I was pretty impressed with with her Outstanding lead performer in an off Broadway play. The winner was Quincy Tyler Bernstein from well, I'll Let yout Go. I went with Andre Holland for the Brothers Size. Outstanding feature performer in an off Broadway musical. The winner was Caroline Aaron for the Reservoir. I went with River Life Smith from Caroline. Outstanding solo performance. I abstained because I did not see any of these shows but Daniel Radcliffe one for every brilliant thing. Outstanding book of a musical, Broadway or Off Broadway. The winner was Cinco Paul for Schmiga Dune. I went with Jim Barn and Kit Buchan for Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York. I thought it was a delightful, funny mashup of, like Buddy road comedy and rom com. So I loved that outside any score, Broadway or off Broadway. I was torn on this between Two Strangers and Mexico. But ultimately the intricacy and the nuance and the technology of Mexico won out for me. So that's what I voted for and that is what won. Brian Kihada and Nigel D. Robinson, who are the two performers in the show, won for that as well. Outstanding direction of a play. The winner was Joe Mantello for Death of a Salesman. I went with Robert Ike for Oedipus. Outstanding direction of a musical. The winner was Lier Debessinet for Ragtime, which honestly shocked me. I did not see Oratorio for Living Things, but I would have put every other person in this category over Lir de Bassinet for what is essentially a Park and bark concert with a really poorly designed set. I voted for Diane Pollock for Masquerade because of the immense heavy lift that it took to make that show work. Outstanding choreography. The winner was Christopher Catelli for Schmigadoon. I did vote for that as well. Outstanding orchestration also went to Schmigadoon. Doug Besterman and Mike Morris. I went with Mexico as well there. Outstanding scenic design was Dane Laffrey. If he would have lost this for the Lost Boys, I would have absolutely blown a gasket. But that is who I voted for as well. Outstanding costume design. Linda Cho won for Schmiga Dune. I did vote for that as well. Outstanding lighting design went to Jen Shriver and Michael Arden for the Lost Boys. That is what I voted for. Outstanding sound design went to Michael Fixel for Mexico. That is what I voted for. Absolutely incredible what they are able to do with the looping and to make everything work cohesively. Just if you haven't seen it, it's running through sometime in June. Get down to the Daryl Roth Theater and see it. What an absolutely impressive performance and production. Outstanding video and projection design. It went to 59 Studio for ragtime. I don't remember there being any video or projection in this show. I. So maybe that's just me, but I voted for Kyoto in this category. So as always, respect and love all of my colleagues in the Outer Critics Circle, but some of these really, really confuse me. But nonetheless, that is what I voted for. Let me know what you would have voted for if you were an Outer Critics Circle member and we can have that discussion there. But a lot of these shows I will have individual standalone review episodes for starting tomorrow. I will start with the best musical nominees that I saw on this trip and I'll go in alphabetical order starting with Lost Boys, so I will have that tomorrow. And then we'll also probably sneak Schmigadoon in there as well. And then Titanique will come up later and I'll march through all of those shows throughout the next week or so. Everybody, thank you so much for supporting Broadway Radio. If you want more Broadway radio, have a patreon.com broadwayradio and of course, keep your eyes out for the new upcoming Broadway Radio app. Thanks again for listening. This has been Matt Tammanini and I'll talk to you soon.
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Everyone deserves to be connected T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Our networks are coming together bringing more T Mobile coverage all over the country. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com Switch and now T Mobile is available in a US cellular store near you. Bigger network. The combination of T Mobile's and US Cellular's network footprints will enhance the T Mobile network's coverage savings versus comparable Verizon plans plus the costs of options, benefits, plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third free line free via monthly bill credits Credit stop if you cancel in lines. Qualifying credit required.