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Micky Jo Theatre
So here's what you missed on Broadway. One of the biggest musical theater stars of the New York Stage in the 2020s is Lea Michele. She has lifelong stage credits, demonstrable talent, and commands significant power at the box office as a result of being a household name. She is currently starring as Florence Vassi in a major revival of the musical Chess at the Imperial Theatre in New York, and she owes her name recognition both to being an original Broadway cast member of the cultural phenomenon that was spring Awakening, as well as the breakout star of the hit musical theatre adjacent TV series Glee. And yet, when the Tony Award nominations were announced a few weeks ago, many were surprised that Lea Michele's name was not included among the recipients, in spite of the fact that those of three of her Chess co stars were. And this has unfortunately been something of a pattern throughout her career. If we look all the way back to Spring Awakening, her co stars were nominated at the Tony Awards and she wasn't. And where the knife really seems to get twisted is if we look at the other alumni of Glee. Recently, almost every year at the Tony Awards, there is an alumnus of the TV show Glee either being nominated or in many cases winning a Tony Award. And it would be one thing for her to simply not have a Tony Award yet at this stage in her career, but to never have been nominated begins to feel like an unusual discrepancy. So what's going on? Have her stage performances simply not being commendable? Is there some technicality of eligibility preventing her from being nominated? Or is this a result of damage to her personal brand? Or secret option number four? Is it a buffet style dinner of all of the above? Today I am going to boldly answer the question do the Tony Awards hate Lea Michele? But just before I do, a quick introduction to me for those of you who may be meeting me for the very first time. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre as you may have gathered from my apparel, my surroundings and the abundant theatre kid energy just seeping out of my pores. I am an independent theatre critic, a pundit and a content creator here on social media and a few weeks ago when the Tony nominations were announced, I was thinking about the types of videos that I was going to make and ordinarily I would make one, talking about snubs and the shows and creatives and actors and writers who weren't nominated even though we were anticipating that they would be. However, one name dominated the conversation and really outweighed all the all of the others, and that was Lea Michele's. In every comment section on the day of the Tony Awards in the livestream chat, people were outraged, shocked and confused about why Lea Michele wasn't nominated for her leading performance in Chess. And at the time I attempted to offer a little insight. But truthfully, the story of Lea Michele having never earned a Tony nomination throughout her career on stage is a complicated one with there being several different factors, some of which I already alluded to, plus roles where the material didn't necessarily earn a nomination years where the categories were very competitive. Today, in order to really figure this out, we are going to talk through Lea Michele's entire stage career, credit by credit, and answer the question of why she hasn't got a Tony nomination yet. As always, I'll be sharing my thoughts and insights with you, but I would love to hear yours. Please share your thoughts in the comments section down below and let us know if you've ever seen Lea Michele performing on stage. If this is your first time meeting me and you would like to engage in more conversations just like this, then check out some of my other previous videos and subscribe to make sure that you don't miss any that might be upcoming. I have several more Broadway reviews on the way, more coverage of the Tony Awards as this year's ceremony approaches, and I've been making more and more videos like this recently, kind of taking a look at the full overview of performers careers. One of my favorite videos I made in the last six months talked about Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel and the surprising lack of stage success that they've had in the years since Wicked. So feel free to go and check that one out right after you've watched this. But for now, let's talk about Lea Michele and the Tony Awards. Why they haven't nominated her even though they're very happy to have her perform. Lets get into it. So to get to the bottom of this Broadway mystery, we are going all the way back to Lea Michele's earliest Broadway stage credits, which were actually as a child actor. And while it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that a child should get nominated for their performance and even win the Tony Award, Looking at you, Daisy Egan. For the most part, the roles that she was playing during this earliest portion of her career weren't likely to land her a Tony nom. Now she was first seen on stage at the Imperial Theatre where she is currently performing in Chess in the company of Les Miserables as a young cassette young Eponine Gavroche understudy, which is the child track of the show. I believe she was also a replacement cast member. I know Donna Vivino was part of the original company as one of the child actors. I don't think Lea Michele was there in the very beginning, which would have made her ineligible for the Tony Awards. Anyway. They don't nominate replacements. More on that conversation later. But also, the kids in Les Mis aren't getting nominated for a Tony Award. I've seen some very good ones in my day, but there are too many supporting roles in Les Mis for the kids to ever get a look in a child role. She did originate on Broadway, was in the musical Ragtime. Lea Michele was, of course, the original little girl who famously barely speaks throughout the show. She has a couple of lines. She is there on stage holding her father's hand, following his instructions. But once again, a show with a great many brilliant supporting roles. And I feel as though, you know, Mother is going to get the. That leading nomination. As we have seen through history, Sarah is gonna get that supporting nomination. Audra McDonald, of course, originally won the Tony for playing the brilliant role of Sarah that she originated. And then below them on the totem pole of Ragtime priority when it comes to featured actresses. You've then got Evelyn Nesbit, you've got Emma Goldman. You've even got Sarah's friend who has slightly more material than the little girl. Very difficult then to find enough nuance and impact within the material of the little girl and get a Tony nomination. But Leah was definitely on the RIS at this point because her next Broadway show, half a decade later was Fiddler on the Roof, and she was still a very young performer at this time. She was originating a role in a revival production. So she was eligible for a Tony Award. And she was playing the role of Sprinter, understudying the character of Harva. And something about me is, even though I have seen multiple productions of Fiddler on the Roof throughout my lifetime, I can't remember which way around these Daughters are. So we're going to take a look through the history of Fiddler on the Roof as a show to see how often Chavers have been nominated for the major awards. Wait, not Harvers. She was understudying Harvard Sprinter. How often have the Sprinters been nominated? See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Going back to the original Broadway production. A Tony win for Tevye, a Tony win for Golda. No Tony nominations for the Daughters. It's revived in 1981. Tevye, I assume, is nominated for a Tony Award, but doesn't win. It's revived again in 1990. Topple is nominated for a Tony Award, but doesn't win. Then we arrive at 2004, where, in fact, the production won none of its Tony Award nominations, though it was nominated in in six different categories. Alfred Molina nominated for his leading performance as Tevye, and John Cariani getting a featured nomination in a different role for the first time in the musical's Broadway history. Who was he playing? Was he Mottle? He was. Of course he was Mottle. But at the Tonys and also at the drama desks, no nominations for any of the Daughters. And in a recent West End revival, Zeitl was nominated for an Olivier Award. But nothing for sprinter in the West End, from what I can tell so thus far in her career, three Broadway shows under her belt, which is no mean feat. Lea Michele has yet to find a role that can really earn her a Tony nomination. That is, until she books the next show. And this is the real breakout performance of her stage career. On December 10, 2006, Spring Awakening opens on Broadway, and she is starring as Vendler opposite Jonathan Groff, who would become her lifelong best friend as Melchior. And the show is huge. It's a landmark moment. It's probably the biggest cultural phenomenon on Broadway since Rent had opened a decade previously. And it's nominated for several Tony Awards. It wins a bunch of Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best New Musical. Leading man Jonathan Groff is nominated for his performance. John Gallagher Jr. Wins the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. But conspicuously, even though she is nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Musical at the Drama desks that year, Lea Michele is not even nominated at the Tonys. This in spite of the fact that Spring Awakening wins best musical, wins best book, wins best score, wins featured actor. Jonathan's nominated, wins direction, wins choreography, wins orchestrations, doesn't win scenic or costume design, but does win lighting. A huge night at the Tony Awards. And it has been speculated before that certain performances could actually have won if they were nominated. That sounds a little unusual. One example I'm thinking of is the musical Aida, and it's because the nominating committee and the Tony voters are actually slightly different bodies of people with inherently different preferences. But Leah's lack of a nomination that year at the Tonys is a conspicuous one, especially when you consider the West End original production of Spring Awakening opening a few years later, in which Charlotte Wakefield didn't win the Olivier but was nominated for her performance as Wendler. And at this point, this is still pre Glee. Lea Michele is known to the world at this stage as a child actor who is playing a slightly more adult role in her first real Broadway breakout moment. But what people are quick to forget about is that when it comes to getting a nomination, and in really any major acting awards, it isn't simply about being good enough. Because the Tony Awards only nominate a restricted number of individuals. It's about being as good as all of your competitors in the same season. So in order to answer the question of why didn't Leah get a Tony nomination in 2007, we're going to need to look at the performances that did. And I can already tell you who won that year. It was Christine Ebersole playing the dual roles of Big Edie and Little Edie in the musical Grey Gardens. But let's take a look at who else was nominated. Where are we? Where are we? 2007. Here we go. So tricky year to be a leading actress on Broadway. My goodness. And not that emerging talents haven't been able to break through in the years before and in the years since, but very difficult to be up against these names. There were five nominations that year. Christine Ebersole won the category, nominated alongside Laura Bell Bundy originating the role of Elle woods in legally blonde. Audra McDonald, multi Tony Award winner, record breaking Tony Award winner, performing as Lizzie Curry in 110 in the shade. Deborah Monk playing the role of Carmen Bernstein in the whodunit musical Curtains and Donna Murphy playing Lotta Catalania in Love Music. All of them entertainment industry veterans at this point in their careers. Very hard to be Lea Michele and get nominated amongst that group. I want to say that was also the year of the Little Mermaid. And Sierra Boggess likewise didn't get a Tony nomination for her originating performance as Ariel. In any case, you start to understand why Leah didn't get a Tony nomination for Spring Awakening. And as it happens, that is the last time she would be eligible for one for years, including when she came back to Broadway, the best part of a decade and a half later to play Fanny Brice in Funny Girl.
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Micky Jo Theatre
Now this was a real moment way and for Lea Michele finally, she was back on stage in a leading lady role, the defining star of the show, as she had been on TV's Glee in the years before, playing a role that earns nominations, just as Barbra Streisand had when she originated the role back in the 1960s. Even though she, perhaps controversially did not win the Tony Award for Funny Girl. However, in late 2022 when she joined the show, it was the eligibility rules for the Tony Awards that were about to rain on Lea Michele's parade, as it were. Because you can't get a Tony nomination or win a Tony Award as a replacement performer in a Broadway show. And not everyone necessarily knows this. And occasionally throughout history when there have been really great sort of redefining replacement casting moments in Broadway shows, people have asked the question, ought we introduce this category at the Tony Awards? Generally speaking, it would be almost impossible to manage. Logistically, the Tony nominators and voters have a hard enough time seeing all of the new shows in a season. Imagine having to send them back to see every replacement cast of every ongoing long running Broadway show. And there's an entire separate conversation we can have about the circumstances of Lea Michele going into Funny Girl and shifting the trajectory of that particular production after it originally opened to mixed reviews for Leading lady Beanie Feldstein. The show itself has had a sort of a cursed history since its first Broadway outing, and many revivals have attempted to move to Broadway, attempted to open on Broadway and have encountered myriad challenges. And for a time, the world had really been anticipating a Lea Michele led Funny Girl revival. This was probably the material she was most closely associated with after her performance on Glee and in the show's final seasons, her character Rachel Berry was actually depicted starring in revival of the musical Funny Girl on Broadway. Ironically enough, I believe Rachel would go on to leave that production in order to pursue TV opportunities. And in her immediate post Glee years, Lea Michele did not seem eager to make her way back to the stage. Instead, she was working on screen, which in fairness to her, was undoubtedly much more lucrative. However, there is another conversation that we have to have as well, because when it came time to cast a Funny Girl revival, not only were we emerging from a lot of conversations during the pandemic about authenticity in casting, Lea Michele's personal brand had taken something of a beating during those years as well. And in fact, if you look at her Wikipedia page, where a lot of other people have a section for awards and nominations, that section for her which contains those accolades is called Reception and Public Image, where it details both the trophies that she's won as an actress and the claims of bullying that have been leveled against her. And I believe it was the fictional Broadway actress Dee Dee Allen, who, in the documentary the Prom was quoted as saying, the Tonys don't vote for you, they vote for your brand, this being its own sort of a motivator for the plot of that musical. And certainly after various claims had been made, various conversations had been had, Lea Michele's public brand was not in the healthiest space. All of which I think contributes to the reasons why she wasn't able to open the Funny Girl revival on Broadway, why they went with a Beanie Feldstein instead. Curiously, we could take a look at what might have happened if she had opened Funny Girl and if she had been eligible for Tony nominations as an originating cast member. Because in 2022, the show wasn't entirely snubbed by the Tony Awards. They received one nomination for Jared Grimes featured performance. Meanwhile, in the leading actress category, it wasn't necessarily the Tony's most competitive year. Joaquina Kalakango won for her performance in Paradise Square. Sharon D. Clark also nominated for her performance in Caroline or Change. Given the specificity of some of the racially motivated bullying that Lea Michele was accused of on the set of Glee amidst allegations of diva prima donna behavior, that would have been a conspicuous category for her to enter into alongside those two performances. Also Carmen Cusack for Flying Over Sunset, Sutton Foster for the Music man, and Mayor Winningham for Girl from the North Country. All of which is to say, I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that Leah would have managed a nomination in 2022. Let's also, though, take a look at 2023 and consider whether Leah would have been nominated for her performance in Funny Girl if the eligibility rules were different. Of course, we would also have to consider everyone else who would have been eligible as a replacement alongside her. But here are the individuals who were Nominated this year, El Victoria Clark would have won for Kimberly Akimbo, but we also had Sara Bareilles for Into the woods as the baker's wife. Annalee Ashford playing Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. All of these heavyweight award winning roles, Michaela diamond in Parade, Lorna Courtney in and Juliet. Definitely a challenging category to break into, but I think she may have just about managed it, especially with the breadth of material that Fanny Brice has and how undeniably brilliant Lea Michele was in that show. I saw her do that on Broadway back in March 2023, and it did a lot for her personal brand to return to Broadway under these circumstances with a struggling show that she was able to help. She was able to revitalize the box office because people hadn't necessarily been interested in going to see it with Beanie Feldstein for one reason or another. But when Lea Michele went into it, suddenly there was this huge boost to ticket sales. It was a star casting moment the likes of which producers can only really find two or three times throughout their careers. Not only was she someone who had been away from the stage for a very long time, who people may have wanted to see, but her brand as a star really overlapped with Funny Girl. People had wanted her to do this material since season one of Glee when she sang Don't Rain on My Parade. And that was such a cultural moment noticed by Broadway that she sang Don't Rain on My Parade back during the Glee days on the Tony Awards. She then sang again at the Tony Awards when Funny Girl performed, even though it wasn't eligible that year. Even though she wasn't eligible. That's how impactful her performance in that show was. It was definitely acknowledged and felt throughout the community. And there is, I think, before I get to mention it, something to be said for the number of times Lea Michele is booked to sing on the Tony Awards without getting nominated at the Tony Awards. Performing with Spring Awakening, performing with Ragtime, performing as a cast member of Glee, performing with Funny Girl. I do wonder whether she is going to perform with the company of Chess, because you'd be hard pressed to find an individual song or a medley that would really sell the show without Florence being involved at all. I imagine she probably will sing on the Tony Awards if indeed Chess does perform because it's not nominated for best revival. More on that in just a moment, but I think they still might. It's not only nominated shows that perform at the Tonys every year, so we may hear Lea Michele's voice belting out again and as it happens, Chess is exactly the show that we need to talk about.
Felix Salmon
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Micky Jo Theatre
Next. So Leah does fun. A girl on Broadway ostensibly saves the show, makes a lot of money for those producers and for the industry. Can't get nominated for a Tony Award, performs on the Tonys broadcast anyway and in doing that has redefined her relationship to Broadway and has an awful lot of capital. She gets a little bit more power and say in terms of the production that she is going to be a part of Next and the role that she is going to play. In the months that follow, rumours spiral about the show and the roles that she might be attached to. There is a lot of conversation about Chess, and then eventually it is announced that she is coming back to Broadway, returning to the Imperial Theatre, where she made her debut playing the role of Florence in a major reworked revival of Chess, a troubled musical that has never been successful on Broadway. But Florence is an undeniable star role for predecessors like Elaine Paige and Idina Menzel, to whom Leah has often been compared. She played her mum on Glee, for crying out loud, and Florence has a score full of great songs for an audience. It's another opportunity to hear Leah belting out passionate musical theatre material for her. It's another chance at a Tony nomination and possibly the best shot she's had so far. She is no longer too young, she is no longer in too small a role, she is no longer a replacement, and it's no longer a particularly competitive year, if I'm being honest. Why is it then that she doesn't manage a Tony nomination in 2026 for chess? And not to sound reductive by distilling the complexity of this question to a single sentence response, but unfortunately, Chess is not good. Don't get me wrong, I am an historic defender of the musical Chess. But this particular Broadway revival, this production, does not do its company any favors with the material that they have been offered. I am predominantly talking about the reworked book by Danny Strong, which was deemed eligible for a Tony Award but was not nominated this year. Conspicuously, I am also talking about the direction from Michael Mayer, who had worked with Leah previously both on Funny Girl and Spring Awakening. And evidently this didn't diminish everybody's chances at the Tonys because three of the principal cast members were nominated, leading man Nicholas Christopher and supporting cast members Hannah Cruise and Bryce Pinkham. And if you'd like to hear me expand a little on my thoughts about Chess and what doesn't work for me in this revival when it comes to the show itself and some of the leading performances, you can go and check out my full review that I have shared here, wherever you are seeing or hearing this. But essentially my takeaway is that Nick Christopher manages an astonishing amount of power. And not just vocally. It's. It's a really impactful performance that he gives. I think he has a little more available to him in the material in order to do that. When it comes to Bryce Pinkham and Hannah Cruise, they both utterly shine in supporting roles, surrounded by and sometimes contending with a decent pile of nonsense. And, you know, sometimes being the best 15 minutes in a bad two and a half hours is not a bad way to get a Tony nomination. Now, I saw Leah performing in Chess last year about a week before the Tony nominations were announced. I also saw her performing alongside other actors from this season and at MCC's Miscast Gala. And she sang from the man of La Mancha in tribute both to her previous co star Brian Stokes Mitchell and Linda Edda, whom she had seen performing that song years before at the My Leading Ladies Broadway concert. And I was sat there thinking to myself that she's actually less miscast for this allegedly miscast role and performance than she might be in Chess. And this echoed many of the concerns that I had had when she was first announced for Chess because I don't think Idina Menzel was particularly right for the part of Florence either. I think it's a deceptively difficult role to get right and to cast well. And I just don't think Leah is empowered to do her best work in this show. It's not necessarily her fault. I don't think it's directed well. I don't think the material has been reworked well at all. I'm glad that she wasn't the only cast member of the sort of principal quintet of the show not to have been nominated because I think that's an indignity that she doesn't really deserve. But once again, to truly consider why she didn't manage to get a nomination, we have to look, look at the actresses who did. And once again, five nominees in this category. It can go up to six, and we've seen that happen before, but only in the event of a near tie. They were Casey Levy in Ragtime, Marla Mindel in Titanique, Sarah Chase in Schmigadoon, Stephanie Shue in the Rocky Horror show, and Christiani Pitts in Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York. All of them fantastic performances worth pointing out as well. Leah was not the only leading actress in a musical snubbed this season. Notably, Kristin Chenoweth in the Queen of the Versailles, which was an extraordinary flop, was not nominated. Neither was Jessica Vosk, who continues to star in the heavily critiqued musical Beaches. I didn't know how to describe that one then. I was about to call it critically claimed. And as a final note, I suppose we ought to acknowledge that not everything is about the Tonys. And Leah has been nominated for other theatrical awards throughout her career. What is interesting is she's been very successful when it comes to the broadway.com audience choice awards. And a lot of people, in response to the question of, of why hasn't she had any Tony nominations? In these comment sections that I've been seeing on social media have been saying because she isn't well liked enough because of the damage that was sustained to her personal brand after Glee and prior to that, back in 2007, she won three Broadway.com audience choice awards. She was nominated for four. She won favorite on stage pair, favorite ensemble cast and favorite female breakthrough performance, which it undeniably was. She also won again in 2023 for favorite replacement in Funny Girl, because Broadway.com do have that category. And in 2026, she won leading actress in a Musical, favorite Diva Performance and Performance of the Year. So no one can say that Lea Michele is not popular. She was also a recipient of a nomination this year for the Drama League Awards for her performance in Chess. So on balance then, I think the answer to the question of why she hasn't been nominated for a Tony specifically comes down to a little bit of bad timing, a little bit of brand image mixed in there, a bit little as well, and an unfortunate quantity of substantial competition from industry veterans. But within the next few decades of her career, she is going to become one of those industry veterans. And not for nothing, I think allegations of diva behavior are often tolerated a lot more when they're attached to older actresses. Hell, sometimes that even helps their brand. Not looking at anyone in particular, Patti LuPone, but I do think that one way or another, Lea Michele will eventually earn herself certainly a Tony nomination, if not a Tony win at some point. I think there are roles that she is a great fit for that she will age into. And certainly I think that on the horizon there is better and more meaningful material for her to perform on Broadway than the show she is currently appearing in eight times a week. But those are just my thoughts and my insights into Lea Michele's Broadway career so far. And as always, I would love to know what you think. If you have had the chance to see any of those performances, including any of the others that we discussed, let me know in the comments section down below. Thank you so much for listening to this. I hope you enjoyed. If you did, make sure to subscribe for more theatre thoughts coming very soon. Go and check out my previous videos if you haven't seen them already. And as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a Stagey Day. For 10 more seconds. I'm Micky Jo Theatre.
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Podcast: MickeyJoTheatre
Host: Mickey Jo Theatre
Episode Title: Why Lea Michele Doesn't Have a Tony | Her Broadway Career Through Ragtime, Funny Girl & Chess
Release Date: May 14, 2026
In this engaging deep dive, Mickey Jo Theatre explores the much-discussed mystery of why Broadway star Lea Michele has never been nominated for a Tony Award, despite her impressive resume, talent, and cultural impact. Through a chronological review of Michele’s stage career—from child actor origins in Les Misérables and Ragtime through her starmaking roles in Spring Awakening, Funny Girl, and Chess—Mickey Jo examines the intersection of performance, eligibility, industry politics, and personal brand that have kept Michele Tony-less. This episode balances critical analysis with warmth and wit, offering both personal insight and industry context.
Early Years and Roles Unlikely to Earn Noms
Breakthrough with Spring Awakening (2006–2007)
Examining the 2007 Tony Actress Category
Lea’s Much-Anticipated Return in Funny Girl (2022)
Brand, Backlash, and the Industry
Eligibility What-Ifs: Could Lea Have Been Nominated?
Michele's Tony Presence Without Nominations
The Chess Revival and New Hopes
Analysis: It’s Not All on Lea
Who Got Nominated Instead?
Industry Awards Beyond the Tonys
Mickey Jo Theatre delivers a compassionate, well-researched exploration of Lea Michele’s Broadway journey, deftly balancing fandom with critical perspective. The analysis highlights how industry structure, timing, show material, and public persona all influence awards recognition—even for stars as prominent and popular as Michele. The tone is lively, honest, and hopeful for Michele’s future on Broadway.