← MickeyJoTheatre
MickeyJoTheatre
Who was snubbed by the TONY AWARDS? | The shows and performers who weren't nominated in 2025
00:42:21
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
Mickey Jo
Lets talk about snubs. BAE Bay. Let's talk about Helen J. Oh my God. Hey, my name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you are listening on podcast platforms. So it's Friday today. Yesterday I was reacting live to the Tony Award nominations being announced. I was in the middle of Regent's park, stood underneath a tree. That's a great video if you haven't caught up on that just yet. Chaos. I'm telling you. We were heading from a press event for a brand new western musical to the opening night of a regional new musical opening world premiere production. And so I am away from home today, but I am still thinking about the Tony Award nominations, which by and large I was pretty happy with, I thought were pretty brilliant and very reflective of an absolutely incredible season, much of which I have had the joy of seeing on Broadway in the last year and reviewing either here on YouTube or on podcast platforms. But as always, whenever we talk about awards, nominations and this fantastic recognition for these talented performers, shows and creatives, there is also the other side of that. Because these categories are finite. There can only be so many awards, so many nominations, and with that you also get snubs. Now, a snub, I feel, is defined as a lack of a nomination for someone or something that was really deserving of that nomination. It's not just all of the people who could have made it into that category but didn't. So. So today, what we're going to talk about 24 hours after the Tony nominations have been announced is who I believe, based on my own opinions, but also based on reviews and word of mouth, was snubbed of a nomination for their work. As always though, theatre and art is a very subjective thing and I would love to know what you think in the comments down below. Who do you think was snubbed yesterday by the Tony nominations which were the most conspicuous and surprising omissions? Now, if you enjoy this awards coverage, stay tuned. There will be plenty more as we head towards the ceremony in early June. I will of course be talking about about my Tony Awards predictions. My stagey fiance, Erin James and I will be comparing notes on who we think will win, but also who we think should win. And I do hope to review the last few shows from the season that I haven't talked about yet, including Dead Outlaw, Real Women have Curves. Just in time and more. For now though, let's dive into the bittersweet world of Tony nomination snubs and talk about who we wish could have been nominated yesterday. So let's do this category by category. Like I said, snubs aren't everyone. And everything that was left off of the list I'm going to talk through, in some instances, all of the options. But I'm going to try and limit myself to one snub per category. I'm really going to try. Beginning with Best Musical, which I have to say is a pretty perfect category of fantastic shows. I've seen all but one of them already. You've got Buena Vista, Social Club, Dead, Outlaw, Death Becomes Her, Operation Mincemeat, and maybe Happy Ending. And it is to a certain extent surprising not to see Boop here, particularly because it led the Drama Desk nominations. And for more than a decade now, the show that has garnered the most most Drama Desk nominations in terms of musicals has always been nominated for Best New Musical, but that did not happen this year. That has broken that tradition. Boop did not get a Best New Musical nomination. I wasn't anticipating one for Smash or Redwood Just In Time might have been considered another slightly surprising omission. But the one, and I haven't seen it, but based on everything that I'm hearing that ought to get one but didn't was real Women have curves. And in a season of so many fantastic new musicals, it's really a shame that this didn't end up being six nominees instead of five. Now, this isn't a decision by the Tony Awards. The number of nominations per category, because it isn't consistent across the acting categories, depends on the number of eligible shows and performances. But also you end up with six instead of five in a lot of categories because of a tie or proximity in the voting. It's not something that they get to choose. But yeah, real women have curves who sadly, I think could really have done with the Best New Musical nomination, didn't get one. And I've heard it's a lovely show. I do want to encourage people to go and see it so that it's still open and I can go see it when I'm next in town. Then we have Best Play. Now the Picture of Dorian Gray was eligible as a new play and Oscar Wilde was jointly credited as its playwright, along with the adapter and director Kip Williams, who was nominated in the category of Best Director of a play. So, you know, wasn't a bad day for him. There was also Stranger Things, the First Shadow, which picked up a lot of nominations elsewhere but wasn't nominated for Best New Play. Interestingly enough, Cult of Love is another one that I had heard Good thing is about. I wasn't necessarily thinking that Good night and good luck might make its way onto here. The actual nominations that we saw in again, what I think is a pretty perfect category of fantastic English the Hills of California O Mary John Proctor is the villain and purpose. Oh my gosh. All brilliant, completely brilliant plays. Is this the first time I've ever seen all of the plays in a best new Play category? Wow. I know. I haven't reviewed John Proctor as the villain or for that matter Buena Vista Social Club yet. Those reviews are coming, I promise you. But I will say that this is a really great category. The one I think is missing from this. And again, it would have been lovely to have six in a year of such great theatre Is Job back from last summer now we talk a lot about timing in terms of the Broadway seasons and Tony nominations. And you know something, that was a limited run back last summer is always going to have a real uphill battle to the Tonys, especially with such fantastic competition. Hamilton famously opened in the summer, but the rule generally is that it's a disadvantageous time for a show to commence performances on Broadway. You don't tend to see a lot of shows doing it for that reason if they hope to garner Tony nominations and long runs. Hamilton was Hamilton and it was still running by the time the Tony noms came around and it's celebrating its 10th anniversary now on Broadway. But everyone was talking about Job when it transferred and that was one of 13 shows to not get any Tony nominations. So I do think it sadly was just forgotten. Then we move over to the world of revivals. Elf and the last five years were not recognised, but the one I think was really a snub here was Once Upon a Mattress. I was surprised that that didn't get a best Musical revival nomination alongside Gypsy, Floyd Collins, Sunset Boulevard and the Penzance musical. Like Pirates, Once Upon a Mattress did some revisions to the material. It was an updated version of the book by Amy Sherman Palladino that was also not nominated. And in fact, Once Upon a Mattress was another of those shows that got no nominations whatsoever. Perhaps the most omission being for its leading lady Sutton Foster. In the world of play revivals, then, the nominations that we had were for Thorntonworld as Our Town, Romeo and Juliet, Yellowface and Eureka Day. All of these limited run productions already closed Eureka Day making a great choice to petition themselves to be considered as a revival. The play is not that old, but truthfully, this is not the first production of it so, you know, you can kind of choose your own interpretation with how you feel about that one. Home from Roundabout Theatre Company was also eligible in this category. I missed that one. And again, way, way back in the season, Glengarry Glen Ross, people might be surprised not to have seen that here. And Othello, you know, Othello was not reviewed particularly well, but it has been this really conspicuous juggernaut play on Broadway. They have just sent out a press release shortly after the Tony nominations were announced. And Othello did not get any Tony nominations alongside other celebrity led productions like Glengarry Glen Ross and the Picture of Dorian Gray and Good Night and Good Luck. Othello got zilch and they sent out a press release talking about how the show had recouped in just nine weeks, which is wildly impressive. And also, the more you think about it, kind of an indictment on the morality of the whole thing. I've talked about this before, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole again. But we acknowledged that Othello was charging outlandishly expensive ticket prices on average and was setting box office records along with Goodnight and Good Luck on the basis that they were charging more for the same seats in that theatre than any other production had ever charged before, basically. And one consideration was perhaps it's just really hard to recoup a play like this, a limited run play on Broadway, it's not going to tour, it's a limited time frame. It's not a musical that's going to run for a year. They've got big starry names, that's probably very expensive and they probably need to charge that much to recoup by the end of the run. Well, that's not true because they've just announced that they've recouped in just nine weeks, which is madness. And now they're going to go on to make huge profits for the remainder of the run. And yet the Tony Awards do not currently have a category for admittedly impressive capitalism. So no play revival nomination for Othello. So let's start talking about people then. And let's talk about directors, writers, choreographers, orchestrators, beginning with best direction of a musical. I did think that George C. Wolfe, the very esteemed George C. Wolfe, would get into this category for his direction of Gypsy, but he didn't. It, for the most part, is directors of new musicals and specifically the best New musical nominees. And then one director of a musical revival, Jamie Lloyd for Sunset Boulevard. I would have screamed Beneath that Tree in Regent's park if Jamie Lloyd hadn't been nominated. He has to be in this category. But the one conspicuous omission. The only Best New Musical nominee whose director didn't get nominated, Operation Mincemeat and Robert Hastie. I've actually had the opportunity in watching Mincemeat's development over the years to see the show before and after. Robert Hastie came on board as director and he really did brilliant work with what was already fantastic material, material that was Tony nominated for its writers, but we'll talk about that in just a moment. In the meantime, Best Director of a Play. The nominees were Knud Adams for English, Sam Mendes, the Hills of California, Sam Pinkleton for O Mary, Daniel Taymor, John Proctor as the villain and Kip Williams, the Picture of Dorian Gray. All incredibly worthy nominees. Again, some people might have been surprised not to see Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin nominated for their direction of Stranger Things, the First Shadow. Stranger Things did pick up a lot of nominations, but more so in the technical and design categories. They're even getting a special Tony Award for the like the illusions and the effects that they perpetrate on stage, which are brilliant and fantastic and even more upgraded for Broadway than the version that I saw when it was opening in the West End. I'm sort of not surprised to see Stranger Things, the First Shadow, not recognized in those slightly more prestigious categories like Best New Play and Best Direction. On the subject of Best New Play, by the way, I forgot to mention this earlier, but what a brilliant diversity in terms of the writers of Best New Play represented this year. I think that's really exciting. But back to Best Director, the one I think is a real shame not to be seen in this category. Felicia Richard. Felicia Richard directed Purpose to a Best New Play nomination and directed four out of five cast members to Tony nominations for their performances. We'll talk about that as well because I have thoughts and feelings. How did the brilliant direction by Phylicia Rashad not get recognised also in this category? I think it's fantastic work. The balance, the sheer balance of outrageous comedy and intense drama in that play is the work of Felicia Richard, along with playwright Brandon Jacobs Jenkins and should have been Tony nominated. Then we arrive at Best Book and score of a musical. Let's talk about book first. Maybe Happy Ending, Operation Mincemeat, Dead Outlaw Death Becomes her and Buena Vista Social Club. Are the nominees the same five shows nominated for Best New Musical, so no real surprises there. And I don't necessarily think there were really any snubs in this category. Like I said, Perhaps surprising not to see a book nomination for Amy Sherman Palladino for Once Upon a Mattress for the revisions to that. Presuming I haven't really looked into this, I presume that it was eligible for that reason. Maybe also for Smash, for Bob Martin and Rick Ellis for their work on that book. But honestly, I think this is a pretty fair and perfect category. Investor original score. Meanwhile, you have maybe happy ending. Dead Outlaw Death Becomes Her Operation Mincemeat and Real Women have Curves instead of Buena Vista Social Club. This because Buena Vista Social Club is a jukebox musical. It's not an original score. It wasn't eligible. The music's fantastic. It's just not original for the show. And Real Women have Curves did get some recognition here, which was lovely to see. Again, I haven't seen the show, so I can't really comment on its material. I haven't really heard much from it either. And while I don't think that it was shut out of this unfairly, I was surprised not to see a BOOP nomination for David Foster and Susan Birkenhead purely because I thought that they would have wanted to court David Foster a little bit. I mean, he's a huge name in songwriting. Multi Grammy Award winner David Foster. I just thought they'd have wanted to have him at the Tonys as a nominee this year. But I am particularly pleased for Spit Lip Theatre, Natasha Hodgson, David Cummings, Zoe Roberts and Felix Hagan, who became, I believe, all triple Tony nominees in the course of an hour yesterday as joint producers of the show and co writers of the book and the score. That along with the performance nomination for Jack Malone in Best Supporting Actor in a musical means 4/5 of the Mincemeat principal cast are now Tony nominees. And I do feel for Clare Marie hall, who is giving just as brilliant a performance on that stage, but is also the only one of the five who didn't become an Olivier nominee when the show was in London. It's just a shame how that works out, but we're not quite ready to talk about performances because we have some technical and design categories to traverse first. But first, let us not forget Best Orchestrations. Now, as I was compiling my little list here of snubs, I thought, is there really an orchestrations contender here that I feel strongly enough about? Probably there isn't. And then I realized that there was, because even though I famously did not enjoy this production, and it's another one that got zero Tony nominations, I do think that for the last five years at the Hudson Theatre Jason Robert Brown should have been nominated for his orchestrations. Not only would it have been a great way to kind of acknowledge his score for the last five years, which kind of redefined contemporary musical theatre post Rent and post Songs for a New World. Also Jason Robert Brown, I think that was so huge in shifting the sound of what musical theatre could be. And I think orchestrations wouldn't have been for that explicitly, but it would have acknowledged that because the show was originally off Broadway and wasn't Tony eligible when it was first written. And this production is a revival. And Jason would have been eligible as the writer per the classics rule, if the last five years had had a revival nomination. But sadly, it's not a fantastic production of the show. It's not the production that the show deserves to finally be arriving on Broadway with the orchestrations, however. Slap. There are so many orchestration moments that pulled me out of my disappointment for the show and made me go, wow, the band is sounding fantastic, Particularly the exit music. Don't be in a hurry to leave that theatre. That is, of course, if you're in a hurry to go. Let's talk about the technical categories. Oh, wait, no, not yet. We haven't spoken about choreography and this is one of maybe two or three snubs that I'm really sad about and I feel really strongly about Fabian. Aloise for Sunset Boulevard should have been Tony nominated. This is his Broadway debut as a choreographer. He's a really exciting rising talent in this world. Should, should, should have been Tony nominated for his choreography. He is the mastermind behind so many of the most brilliant, visually striking moments in Sunset Boulevard. The whole intricate let's to lunch sequence, the climax of the show when everything gets bold and dramatic and fast paced. All of the work with Hannah Yun Chamberlain as young Norma, the work with Nicole. So many moments that Fabian has had a hand in. He absolutely should have been in this category. Anyway, now we can start talking about design. So let's begin with set design. Let's talk about set design of a musical while we're talking about Sunset Boulevard, because I have strong feelings here and you also may have strong feelings in the comments, because when I say set design and Sunset Boulevard, you might be saying, now, Mickey, there's not really a set to Sunset Boulevard. But here is the thing, the video design elements and that giant screen that gets lowered onto the stage. That's not easy, that's not cheap, that exists. That's a thing that you're looking at. That's a tool for the cinematic and theatrical storytelling. That's a huge part of the show. Everything that you're seeing of that and on that is also credited to set design. Because the video design elements have also been lumped in with this category. And there's some debate here as to whether that's the correct thing to do or whether video design should be along with lighting. I don't think there's a good one size fits all answer. I think video design is something we're seeing more and more of in more and more productions. Stranger Things, the Picture of Dorian Gray, Redwood. I think it's becoming a huge feature of contemporary theatre and it should probably be its own category at this point. It doesn't have to be split by play and musical. You could just have video design for a theatrical production. Because I would love to see Dorian Gray and Sunset go head to head in that category. That's really the technical race that we deserved to see this year. And we're not going to because the team for Sunset Boulevard, which is Sutra Gilmour's set design, along with the video design by pioneers Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom, wasn't nominated alongside the other sets. And brilliant sets, beautiful sets and, you know, sets that were full. An actual set design. This is really a fault as much as anything else of restrictive categories as we move over to best set design of a play. You had nominations for the Picture of Dorian Gray, which has more scenic elements than Sunset Boulevard. But also you have to assume that the video design played a big part of that also. Stranger Things, the First Shadow, the Hills of California, brilliant set design. All those staircases, Good night and good Luck, which I haven't seen but have heard good things about. And again, I believe includes a lot of video design and English. Now, when we were predicting the nominations just before they were announced, I did say that set design of a play this year kind of felt like a battle of who has the best classroom. Because you have Eureka Day and John Proctor is the villain. Also, in similar naturalistic settings, they didn't get set design nominations. And the set design for purpose, I think, is really gorgeous and has a lot of really smart hidden details. I was reading a little bit about it and I believe there's a. There's like specific pieces of artwork on the set that correspond to different things in historic black American culture. I think there's maybe a painting referencing something to do with the Cosby Show. And so I think that's a set design that probably ought to have been nominated. I mean, it just looks gorgeous and I'm in love with Any set design when you can see, like, the natural light changing in the window at the back and you can see snow falling and gathering outside, I mean, that was beautiful and brilliant and important to, you know, the tension of the piece. I also was kind of surprised not to see O Mary nominated in this category. Not because I think it has the world's most revolutionary set design, but just because I thought with all the momentum that it has, and rightfully so, it would have got into a few more categories. Just because O Mary. Now let's move to lighting in lighting design of a musical. I don't know that I have a lot of investment here. Boop. In its transitions from a black and white world to a colorful one. Probably deserved acknowledgement alongside the others for its lighting design. One of the more conspicuous omissions of a show that got a lot of nominations elsewhere was Dead Outlaw. I haven't seen it, but have heard from a friend that he was really surprised it didn't get recognised for its lighting because its lighting is apparently stunning. So I'll go with Dead Outlaw. I will refer to the opinion of my friend Ben in lighting design of a play. I think the lighting design for English probably warranted a nomination here as well. I should tell you who actually was nominated to put it all in perspective. But if you're watching this video, chances are you probably know in Play it was Goodnight and Good Luck, the Hills of California, Stranger Things, the First Shadow, John Proctor is the Villain and the Picture of Dorian GR And I guess there's a couple of frontrunners in a lot of these technical categories because something like the Picture of Dorian Gray and certainly Stranger Things, the First Shadow, do a lot of things that are more similar to what musicals do with their lighting design. And there's just more. And they're more vibrant and they're fuller and they're more complex than a lot of plays that are lit in a subtler and more minimal and more naturalistic way. Which isn't to say that it's not carefully considered and important, it's just not quite as obvious. But I do think, like I said, English deserved a lighting nomination and I'm going to say Romeo and Juliet as well. I loved the lighting in Romeo and Juliet. It was a Gen Z underground dance party, Shakespeare, and I loved that about it. That was cool. And while I'm representing for Romeo and Juliet, I'm going to talk about costume design in a play because again, for a lot of these plays, it was just naturalistic day wear costuming. If you think about something like Eureka Day or Purpose. And again, hard to compete with the beautiful costumes of the Picture of Dorian Gray or the intergenerational the Hills of California or Stranger Things. The First Shadow, otherworldly. Also, O Mary, which I was very pleased to see nominated in this category. The way that it balances historical and campy, I think is pretty brilliant. But Romeo and Juliet, I loved those costumes as well. Very Gen Z, Very sort of gaudy and modern. But I liked it a lot in the world of costume design for musicals. Let's talk about the nominees here. Didier for Buena Vista Social Club, Greg Barnes, the brilliant Greg Barnes for Boop the Musical. Clint Ramos for maybe Happy Ending, Paul Tazewell for Death Becomes Her. Gorgeous costumes. My gosh. Paul Tazwell, who of course won his first Academy Award earlier this year for designing the costumes for the Wicked movie. And Katherine Zuber for Just In Time. No nominations there that I begrudge whatsoever. I haven't seen the Penzance musical yet, but those costumes also look pretty great and colourful and characterful and I think there's pretty great costume design work on Smash as well. How are we doing? Where are we at sound? Oh, my gosh. Sound. Sound design. Okay. Sound design for a musical. I haven't even been able to come up with one here. So we had nominations for the sound teams behind Buena Vista Social Club, Sunset Boulevard, of course, Rightfully so. Just In Time, maybe Happy Ending and Floyd Collins, all of which make a lot of sense to me. And I think that. I mean, there's a lot of other shows that have great sound, but I guess it would just be, you know, pulling one out that is as great as the others. If anyone has particularly strong feelings here, I would love to hear them. What show do you think should have had a nomination for best Sound Designer for musical that didn't? I think these were probably pretty. I mean, if for just in time to be on there. I haven't seen it yet, but Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong musical, closed earlier in the season, but also had terrific sound in sound design of a play. Again, I was a little surprised not to see a nomination for. For oh, Mary, but we did have nominations for Stranger Things. The first shadow for John Proctor is the villain for Goodnight and Good Luck, the Hills of California and the Picture of Dorian Gray, all of which, I believe use music quite heavily. So that's becoming, again, increasingly a feature more and more of contemporary plays and will sort of separate them from some of the other competition. In fact, a surprising number of those plays had A lot of original music that could have qualified them for best original Sc but it's time we have finally arrived at the performances. And I dare say for a lot of you, this may be why you clicked on this video in the first place. Let's talk about who was snubbed for their performances in plays and musicals, beginning with Best Leading Actor in a play. Oh, I feel heated about this one, don't I? Just. I was surprised to see a nomination for George Clooney. They ended up with six nominees for best Leading actor in a play. That was the result of a tie. And I would assert that George Clooney may have benefited from that tie. There were also two nominees from Purpose, Harry Lennox and John Michael Hill. Colla Scholar, of course, nominated for O Mary. Daniel Dae Kim. I was thrilled to see him remembered for Yellowface. Just as thrilled as I was to see Louis McCartney, already an award winner, back in London for his performance in Stranger Things, the First Shadow, getting nominated for his leading role in that. But I was devastated, absolutely devastated not to see the extraordinary performance of Kit Connor as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet nominated in this category. He was so good. He was so, so good. It was. You could see what a star he was in that role. I don't know if I've ever seen a young man play this sort of unbelievable, instantly in love quality as convincingly as he did. There was something so special and so charming about his performance. And I haven't seen George Clooney in Goodnight and Good Luck, but I haven't heard the same kind of effusive praise. I haven't read the same kind of effusive praise. I've heard that he's fine in it. Where was the nomination for Kit Connor? I know it's already closed, but so is Yellowface. Daniel Dae Kim absolutely deserved it, but so did Kit Connor. As much as any in this category would have been my pick for a race to the finish line. No nominations for a lot of big names. Peter Friedman in Job, but Jake Gyllenhaal and Denzel Washington in Othello, neither of them getting nominated in this category. And also Jim Parsons for Thornton Wild as Our Town. They're just the ones who I thought could have been nominated. I don't think anyone was expecting to see Robert Downey Jr's name here based on the reviews that MacNeill had as one of the most poorly received shows of the season. But it goes to show that you can be a huge Hollywood name and you can come to Broadway and It doesn't guarantee you an awards nomination. Kieran Culkin learned the same thing. Let's travel over to best featured actor in a play. Kieran Culkin, who won the Academy Award this year but wasn't even nominated for his featured performance in Glengarry Glen Ross. His co star Bob Odenkirk was, along with Francis Dew, brilliant in yellowface. So glad he was remembered. Gabriel Ebert also fantastic in John Proctor is the villain. Glenn Davis brilliant in Purpose. And Conrad Rick Amora so, so good in O Merry. We wanted to hear Conrad's name last year for Her Lies Love. But finally he is a first time Tony nominee on that subject as well. There are many performers this year who have become first time acting nominees at the Tonys, which is a really exciting thing. It's a surprisingly long list with some surprisingly big names and I guess Kieran Culkin is probably the most conspicuous snub from featured actor. There's almost definitely someone I'm forgetting here, someone in my comments the other day said Clark Gregg for Goodnight and good luck. I'd heard great things from friends about Andrew Burnap in Othello and I thought at one point if anyone was going to be nominated for Othello it would be Andrew Burnap. But Othello was another of those 13 shows that received no nominations whatsoever. Maybe Kieran Culkin the biggest surprise here, but I don't know, share what you think. Who is the biggest snub from featured actor in a play? Let's go back on ourselves now and talk about featured actresses in a play. The name that I have written down here in front of me, Alana Arenas. Okay, so this is the fifth company member from Purpose and the only one of the five not to have been Tony Award nominated because latanya Richardson Jackson was Tony nominated and Kara Young was as well. Latanya in the leading category. Kara in Featured, but Alana is so, so good. She's sort of the latest character to emotionally arrive in the piece because she's very sullen to begin with but when she arrives, she arrives. She is staggeringly good and you know, I mean they were all fantastic. It's a really brilliant company, the play Purpose. Go and see it. For those performances and for the brilliant writing. But they're all so, so good. But at certain points I was thinking, oh well, she's now my favourite. She's giving the strongest performance in this piece and it's a really competitive year for women on Broadway in plays and musicals and that needs to be said. Fin Estrasa was nominated for John Proctor as the villain and I'm so glad she was Jessica Hecht. Oh my gosh, devastatingly brilliant in Eureka Day and Tala Ash and Marjan Neshat, both nominated for English. Beautiful, beautiful, multi layered performances. Absolutely incredible work and smart in the end for them and Jessica Hecht to all go featured as part of the companies of Eureka Day and English when they could really have been petitioned as leading performances. But they made it into this category, so I guess they made the right choice. If you can end up in a featured category as someone who feels like a lead, it means you've got great material and you're probably gonna win the thing. Less good, of course, for you to be classified as a leading performer in a role that feels a little more featured. But we'll talk about who missed out on a nomination for that reason in just a moment. In the meantime, it was Alana, who I principally thought was snubbed in this category. You also had Gabby Beans though, in Romeo and Juliet. You also had like, oh my gosh, all of the rest of the cast of the Hills of California all doing such fantastic work. And you know, I have certain people who I think really shine in that company. But I mean, so many of them are brilliant. Some of the young performers in that show as well, particularly brilliant. Amber Gray, also alongside Jessica Hecht in Eureka Day was fantastic. And Bianca Lee from oh Mary. I was so hoping to see a nomination for Bianca Lee because I think her performance is criminally underrated. I will say I love Cole and I love Conrad, but I think Bianca Lee is always one of my favourite parts of that production. Circling all the way back then to leading actresses in a play. The nominations we did see here were for Mia Farrow in the Roommate, but not for Patti LuPone in the Roommate. Truthfully, Mia had the more charming role and the more charming performance. We've seen Patti light up Broadway plenty of times before and win Tonys for those performances. This was not a Patti LuPone Tony Award winning moment. She was great in the Roommate, but it wasn't career defining work from her. There was also latanya Richardson Jackson, as I mentioned, for purpose. A good decision to go leading there. Also Sadie Sink for John Proctor as the villain. Sadie and latanya both feel a little more featured in a leading category, so I think that might hurt them. But again, we're not predicting just yet. Two people who feel very leading because they each play multiple characters are Laura Donnelly in the Hills of California and Sarah Snook for The Picture of Dorian Gray, who have been awards adversaries before, they were in the same season in the West End at the Olivier Awards with Sarah Snook winning out. And this is a pretty tight category. The only name, I think that could be considered a legitimate snub here would be Sidney Lemon for job. Rachel Zegler, I think, didn't quite receive the same kind of really extraordinary response that Kit Connor got in Romeo and Juliet. I enjoyed her as Juliet, but I think we're all going to enjoy her even more in the world of musical theatre. In Evita this summer at the London Palladium in London in a production that is surely already planning its Broadway transfer. Maybe a theatre is already booked even, I think, with her as Eva Peron. That and the other musical theatre roles that she will go on to do subsequently on stage, I am sure, in what's going to be a very exciting career for her, that's the work that she's going to get Tony nominated. Which brings us very neatly to the world of musical theatre performances and the snubs in these categories. And I'm going to try and limit it to one. But my gosh, the musical performances this year, let's start in featured and finish with leading. So featured actor in a musical. I was pretty happy with all of these nominations, thrilled for Jack Malone. We also saw nominations for Jack Malone for Operation Mince Me, that is, we also saw nominations for Brooks Ashmanskas in Smash, who carries that damn show. Jeb Brown in Dead Outlaw. Not a performance I've seen yet, but I am hoping to. Danny Burstein in Gypsy. Wonderful, reliable Danny Burstein doing fantastic work. And Taylor Trench in Floyd Collins. Taylor Trench's first Tony nomination and he's been wonderful in a great many things. I'm excited hopefully to get to see him in this. Also a name that had been coming up a lot in sort of awards predictions was Tom Sesma for Dead Outlaw. Christopher Zieber was not nominated for Death Becomes her alongside the two leading ladies, Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard, who both did make it into the leading category, but the one that really made me sad, David Thaxton for Sunset Boulevard. Now, he got an Olivier Award nomination in London when the show originated there in what was a really tough category. He was alongside Jack Malone, who won for Operation Mincemeat, but also Jack Wolfe for Next to Normal. God, that was a category. Cedric Neil was in that category for Guys and Dolls. That was a really hard year. But David Thaxton, I have been saying since I first saw this show, Maybe gives my favourite performance in it. Not to take away from how brilliant Tom and Nicole are and how earth shattering Scherzinger is as Norma, but the. The subtlety of David's work in those final moments, the silent scream at the end. How do you not give that man a Tony Award nomination? Sadly, since the show arrived on Broadway, he and Grace Hodgett Young have never really had the same kind of buzz and conversation around them in reviews at bars afterwards, like wherever it reverberates in the community. Those just haven't been the names talked about, sadly. And so Grace is one of the names that we're going to talk about in Featured actress in a musical not being nominated. Also, the other women of Gypsy, Jordan Tyson and Leslie Margarita thrilled that Joy woods is now a Tony nominee. She really ought to have been one last year for her work in the Notebook. And on that subject, Jinkx Monsoon is another performer who has been giving great stage performances now, who people were hoping to see becoming a Tony nominee because this is kind of her first opportunity to become a Tony nominee because she's originating a role rather than replacing. I've already mentioned Claire Marie hall from Operation Mincemeat, also Zoe Roberts from Operation Mincemeat because Jack Malone was the only company member recognized for their performance. But also Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga were both considered featured ultimately for Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends. Now it's a review and it's not a full show. So, you know, that was probably a part of how they ended up not getting nominations. But I also wouldn't have been surprised if they did get nominations. And, you know, they've each already got Tonys, so objectively, they're fine. Then we have our leading musical performances. Let's start with leading actor. And the one I think I'm gonna go with here is John Gallagher Jr. For Swept Away. Poor Swept Away. You know, it got recognized for its scenic design, which was very correct because that was a remarkable set. But, yeah, John Gallagher Jr. Didn't get nominated for his terrific performance. The nominees in this category were Tom Francis for Sunset Boulevard, Jeremy Jordan for Floyd Collins, Darren Criss for maybe Happy Ending, Jonathan Groff for Just In Time. Am I going to remember all of them or am I going to have to look it up here? Andrew Durand, of course, for Dead Outlaw, and James Monroe Iglehart, who was remembered even though he was part of a closed show for playing Louis Armstrong in A Wonderful World and in such a busy season. I'm very glad that this ended up being six nominees so that all of these could be recognised. But John Gallagher Jr. Man, also so, so good. Ramin Karimlu and David Hyde Pierce did not make it into this category. Grief of Pirates, these are the ones that I was alluding to. I haven't seen Pirates yet, so I can't speak to this. But the conversation just among my friends who see a lot on Broadway was they weren't sure before the rulings were announced whether David and Ramin were going to be considered leading or featured. And a role that's not obvious like that, where you don't know if it's going to go leading or featured, sort of feels inherently like it doesn't have enough material to stand alongside those other leading performances as, like Jeremy Jordan and Floyd Collins, Jonathan Groff, James Monroe, Iglehart, where they're playing like the titular roles, these characters that are on stage for the entirety carrying these shows and sometimes, and we're going to see this in our next category as well, it's no fault of the performers and their performances and they do fantastic work. They just don't quite have enough material to empower them to make it over the line as far as a nomination goes. And in a quieter year they absolutely would. But this is the thing that we keep having to remind ourselves of is that, you know, the shows aren't running quite as long as they were previously on Broadway, which means more theatres become available when they close, which means more shows go in, which means we get these very crowded seasons with plenty of brilliant productions, brilliant performances and more eligible performances and shows than ever before, including in the most, most stacked category of all this year, best leading actress in a musical. This is the category people have been talking about months in advance because the conversation was like, audra Nicole, Audra Nicole, Audra Nicole. And true enough, they have both been nominated here. I'm talking, of course, about Audra McDonald playing Rose in Gypsy. Audra McDonald, who also yesterday set a new record as the most Tony nominated performer of all time. She was already the most Tony Award winning performer of all time and she's won in every acting category that she can. But she is nominated alongside Nicole Scherzinger, who won the Olivier Award, of course, in the West End for her performance as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, both playing roles that usually win awards. The Normas in Sunset win the awards and so do the Roses in Gypsy. Then though, you have performances in new musicals, like I said, Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard, both nominated for their performances in Death becomes her. And the Second sensational, Jasmine. Amy Rogers, who is so, so good in Boop. So Good Boop. Did not get a best new Musical nomination. It is not lighting up the box office. I'm a little bit nervous for Boop. And I'm encouraging you all to go and see it. In spite of the review that I gave it, just to see Jasmine's fantastic performance. You're going to want to wish years down the line that you can say, oh, well, I saw her Broadway debut in Boop. So I saw that moment that she became the star that she now is. She's going to go on to win Tony for sure. I don't know if this will be the first one that begins there for her. It could, honestly, it could be. I wouldn't be hugely surprised if she caused a little bit of an upset here and with Audra and Nicole on either side, went straight through the middle and won that Tony. But it seems inevitable that she will get one at some point in her career because she is remarkably talented. But so are many of the performers who didn't make it into this category and so many great performances didn't make it into this category. It's devastating that we couldn't have a tie here, pushing it to six or even seven like we saw last year and featured actress in a musical because. And though I know we were never going to see it, Katy Braben in Tammy Faye won the Olivier should have had a Tony nomination. I know the show was very obviously short lived in New York and it became a little bit of a flop spectacle, sadly sometimes, like I said yesterday, the captain goes down with the ship and that's what happens to John Gallagher Jr. In Swept Away. Not quite literally, but figuratively. And also Katy Braben in Tammy Faye. But she's not the only one I would have loved to have seen here because Helen J. Shen did not get a nomination as Claire in maybe Happy Ending alongside co star Darren Criss. The two of them are both charming and brilliant and heartbreaking in that show. Go see maybe Happy Ending if you haven't already. My gosh, that's my favourite show, I think on Broadway right now, but. But I'd have loved to have seen both of them nominated. I think Helen's material, when you compare it certainly to the Jasmines and the Nicoles and the Audras in this category is a little more slight, but it's still wonderful work that Helen does. And I know I said I was going to try and just pick one snub per category, but in this one I absolutely can't because. What do you mean? Sutton Foster wasn't nominated? That's shocking to me. Robin Herder wasn't nominated. That was a little less shocking. Not because Robin Herder isn't one of the most talented humans on the planet. My God, the things that Robin Herder can do on a stage. You can't watch her and not think, oh, wow, what a sensational performer. Robin Herder, I think, was let down by the smash material, particularly going into the second act when Robin doesn't really have the arc that Ivy ought to have. The way that it all resolves, it doesn't happen in a very satisfying way. In terms of Robin's material, Robin goes missing for much of the second act. I think another one giving a great performance let down by a production is Adrienne Warren in the last five years. Similarly, Idina's great. We know that. Adina's great, but I don't think I was ever expecting a nomination for Adina in Redwood. Natasha Hodgson, I'd have liked a surprise nomination for her in Operation Mincemeat and Tatianna in Real Women have Curves. They had an acting nomination in the supporting category for Justina Machado, but nothing for their leading lady, sadly. Which brings us to an end of all of yesterday's Tony nomination snubs. Those have been all of my thoughts about the shows, the performers, the writers, the creatives, the directors, the choreographers who were overlooked yesterday. But as always, this wouldn't be complete without me asking to hear yours. Which nominations were you most hoping to see or most expecting to see? That didn't happen after all of that, though. Congratulations to everyone and everything that was nominated. I am so excited for the Tonys this year because, like I said, it has been such a fantastic, fantastic year of brilliant theatre. You need only look at those best new play, best new musical categories to see how exciting Broadway is right now. Stay tuned for more coverage, more predictions, and hopefully more reviews as we approach the Tony Awards in early June. Thank you for listening to this and I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For ten more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh, my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.