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Tony Awards 2023: Broadway and Hollywood Forever Partners
Broadway and Hollywood are two of the biggest entertainment industries in the world, inseparable partners that constantly feed – and criticize – each other, exchanging talents, always adapting and inspiring in all ways.
The Tony Award, Broadway’s main honor since 1947, and the Golden Globes, created in 1943, have always had a shared path. There are many links and gray areas in their concepts of excellence and recognition.
Despite what most people may think, the Tony Award was not named after a man but a woman: Mary Antoinette “Tony” Perry (1888-1946), actress, producer, director, and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing (ATW), a non-profit organization based in New York City “dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre,” according to its mission statement.
The Tony Awards will be held on June 11 this year for the first time at the United Palace in Upper Manhattan, miles away from the theatrical district of New York. Ariana DeBose, Golden Globe winner in 2022, will be returning as host for the second year in a row.
Among this year’s nominees, here are some of the connections with Hollywood, and especially the Golden Globes, both in movies and TV productions.
Chastain is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, which has been revived in various versions in movies and TV around the world. Chastain won the Golden Globe in 2013 as Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for Zero Dark Thirty and has a total of eight Globe nominations. She is also an Oscar and three-time Screen Actors Guild Award winner.
Arian Moayed
Moayed is nominated as Best Featured Actor in a Play for A Doll’s House alongside Chastain. Last year he was nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Succession, a HBO production awarded by the Golden Globes.
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson (Pulitzer Award 1990), Jackson is an Oscar and four-time Golden Globe nominee, including twice in 1995. The movie version of The Piano Lesson has been announced with the same stage cast, led also by another Golden Globe nominee, John David Washington.
Comer is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for the one-woman show Prima Facie by Suzie Miller, who is also writing the movie adaptation. She has been nominated twice for the Globes as Best Television Actress – Drama Series for Killing Eve in 2020 and 2021, a show for which she won an Emmy in 2019.
Jessica Hecht
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for Summer, 1976, Hecht was also nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series for Special, in 2019.
Audra McDonald
She is the most awarded actor in the history of the Tonys with six wins, and the only to win in all four acting categories. This year she is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for Ohio State Murders. She has also been Emmy-nominated five times, winning in 2015 for Outstanding Special Class Program, Live from Lincoln Center.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins
Both are nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks (Pulitzer Prize 2002). Abdul-Mateen II won an Emmy in 2020 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for Watchmen. That same year Hawkins was nominated as Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series for Survive.
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Goodnight, Oscar. He is known around the world for his supporting role in the TV comedy Will & Grace for which he was nominated six years in a row for the Golden Globes (1999-2005). He won the Emmy for it in 2000.
Wendell Pierce
Nominated as Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for the classic Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, which has been many times versioned in movies and TV, and this time was performed with an all-African American lead cast for the first time on Broadway. Pierce has been nominated three times to the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Josh Groban
A double Emmy nominee in 2019 for The 72nd Annual Tony Awards show, Groban was charted in 2007 as the number one best-selling artist in the USA. This year, he is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a classic that has been adapted into TV and movies several times, including the 2007 Tim Burton film that won two Golden Globes.
Brian d’Arcy James and Sara Bareilles
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actor and Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for Into the Woods, whose 2014 movie version got three Globe nominations. D´Arcy had a leading role in the film Spotlight which was nominated three times for the Golden Globes in 2016 and won the Oscar for Best Movie. This year he was nominated at the Film Independent Spirit Awards as Best Supporting Actor for The Cathedral. Bareilles has been nominated for three Emmys.
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Parade. In 2020 he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for The Politician.
Nominated for Best Direction of a Play for Leopoldstadt. He has been nominated twice to the Golden Globes as Best Screenplay – Motion Picture for Closer (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2007). For the former he was also nominated to the Oscar.
Jack O’Brien
Nominated for Best Direction of a Musical for Shucked. In 2016 he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for Becoming Mike Nichols.
David West Read
Nominated for Best Book of a Musical for & Juliet, a free version of Shakespeare’s well-known classic Romeo and Juliet. He won an Emmy for Schitt’s Creek (Outstanding Comedy Series, 2020), which was also a Golden Globe-winning show (2021).
David Lindsay-Abaire
Nominated for Best Book of a Musical for Kimberly Akimbo. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay (2011) for Rabbit Hole, based on his play of the same name (Pulitzer Prize 2007).
Amber Ruffin
Nominated for Best Book of a Musical for Some Like It Hot, along with Matthew López. Ruffin has been a five-time Emmy finalist, four of them as part of the team of Late Night with Seth Meyers (Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series), and in 2021 for The Amber Ruffin Show.
The musical Some Like It Hot is based on the classic Billy Wilder movie, considered among the best comedies ever made. In 1960 the film won the three Golden Globes for which it was nominated: Best Motion Picture – Comedy and the leading actors in that category, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. Later, it was nominated for six Oscars. In 1989 the Library of Congress selected it as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman
Both are nominated for Some Like It Hot for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre. Shaiman has had many nominations: two to the Golden Globes, seven to the Oscar and 12 to the Emmy. He won the later in 1992 for The 64th Annual Academy Awards (Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Variety or Music Program).
Wittman has been nominated thrice for Emmys and once for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) for Mary Poppins Returns, the 2019 version of the movie that won a Golden Globe and an Oscar in 1965.
Cameron Crowe and Tom Kitt
Nominated for Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre for Almost Famous. This musical is based on Crowe’s semi-autobiographical movie, winner of two Golden Globes in 2001, among four nominations. Later, it also won one Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Kitt won the Emmy in 2014 for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for The 67th Annual Tony Awards, shared with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Stephen McKinley Henderson
Henderson has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Between Riverside and Crazy (Stephen Adly Guirgis, Pulitzer Prize 2015), also nominated in the Best Play category. McKinley is a veteran actor of many plays, TV shows and several Golden Globe-winning movies, such as Fences, Manchester by the Sea, Lincoln and Lady Bird.
Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
The musical got five nominations: Best Revival of a Musical, Actor in a Featured Role (Jordan Donica), Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design and Best Lighting Design. The 1968 movie version won three Golden Globes for Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner among six nominations.
Life of Pi
This play has been nominated for five Tonys: Best Direction (Max Webster), Best Scenic Design, Best Lighting Design, Best Costume Design and Best Sound Design. It is based on the book written by Canadian writer Yann Martel. The 2012 movie received one Golden Globe award (Best Score, Mychael Danna) and two additional nominations (Best Director, Ang Lee
The full list of 2023 Tony Awards nominees and nominee biographies can be found at https://www.ibdb.com/awards.