69th Annual Tony Awards Set for Radio City Music Hall
The best of Broadway will be celebrated Sunday night at the 69th annual Tony Awards. Hosted by the stage veterans Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming, the ceremony will honor those who have captivated audiences' hearts and minds in the theater this past year.
More than 175 performers and the singer Josh Groban are scheduled to take the stage during what will be the largest performance in Tony Award history, and there will also be appearances by the likes of Larry David, Jennifer Lopez and Amanda Seyfried throughout the night. Overall, there will be 11 performances interspersed between the awarding of 24 Tonys, the Associated Press reports. Abridged versions of a number of the musicals nominated—including Something Rotten!, The King and I, Fun Home and An American in Paris—will be performed.
An American in Paris, Something Rotten! and Fun Home are all contenders for the most sought-after award: Best New Musical. Each boasts quite a few noms this year: An American in Paris garnered 12 nods, as did Fun Home and Something Rotten! wasn't far behind with 10.
The big question of the night is whether the critical favorite or the well-known story will prevail among the voters for Best Musical.
The gritty Fun Home, based on the graphic memoir of cartoonist Alison Bechdel, is a salient meditation on family, death and regeneration—something that's not always popular onstage, but had critics raving. An American Paris, meanwhile, has the advantage of familiarity, as it was based on a 1951 flick of the same name starring Gene Kelly, whereas the rambunctious Something Rotten! has caused audiences to double over with laughter, but its language and garish musical sequences have evoked more of a cringe with some, and critics doubt it can carry home the night's top prize. The Visit, a tale of love and revenge, is the underdog here and is also nominated for Best New Musical. But there's always room for the surprise at the Tonys.
A handful of big names have been nominated: Dame Helen Mirren, who plays Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience, is up for Best Lead Actress in a Play against Elisabeth Moss in The Heidi Chronicles. The Elephant Man's Bradley Cooper has been given a nod as well for his leading role in the revival play, as has Sting for composing the score to The Last Ship, his autobiographical musical.
The King and I, a successful revival play, raked in nine nominations, including for Best Revival of a Musical. It'll be competing against On the Twentieth Century and On the Town.
The Best Revival of a Play award has some promising contenders: David Hare's well-received Skylight is up for the award, as is the charming This is Our Youth, starring Michael Cera and editrix Tavi Gevinson, along with The Elephant Man and the James Earl Jones-helmed You Can't Take it With You.
An eponymous adaptation of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens is a potential winner for Best New Play, but stands against some strong contenders: Disgraced, by Pulitzer Prize-winning Ayad Akhtar, Robert Askins's Hand to God and the epic six-hour ensemble Wolf Hall.
Hosts Chenoweth and Cumming have both won Tony Awards in the past, and she's up for one this year: She's in On the 20th Century and stands against Kelli O'Hara of The King and I for Best Actress in a Musical. For the corresponding award of Best Actor, An American in Paris's Robert Fairchild is the leading contender, for his role as a formidable actor and dance legend.
The Tonys will be broadcast on CBS Sunday night, live from Radio City Music Hall at 8 p.m.
