Here are my predications for both awards. The Drama Desks will be presented on June 3 and the Tonys the following week on June 10.
Best Play
Tony: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
Drama Desk: Admissions
Harry Potter isn't even nominated for the top DD play category. In fact, all of the DD outstanding play candidates are Off-Broadway shows. This will be one of the few times the DD award goes to a non-Broadway show. In the over 40 years since the Drama Desk began given out Best Play awards, they have only done it six times. The rare past exceptions are Tribes (2012), Ruined (2009), Wit (1999), How I Learned to Drive (1997), Marvin's Room (1992), and A Lie of the Mind (1986).
Best Musical
Tony: The Band's Visit
Drama Desk: SpongeBob Squarepants
Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk in The Band's Visit. Credit: Ahron R. Foster |
Best Play Revival
Tony and Drama Desk: Angels in America
Best Musical Revival
Tony: My Fair Lady
Drama Desk: Carousel
The DD nominating committee was not as crazy about Lady as the Tonys. Everyone seems to have forgotten about Once on This Island, innovatively reimagined by Michael Arden (who didn't even get a DD nomination for Outstanding Director). If Arden was DD nominated he would have my vote, and I will vote for him for the Tonys.
Best Actor in a Play
Tony and Drama Desk: Andrew Garfield, Angels in America
Best Actress in a Play
Tony and Drama Desk: Glenda Jackson, Three Tall Women
Alison Pill, Glenda Jackson and Laurie Metcalf in Three Tall Women Credit: Brigitte Lacombe |
Best Actor in a Musical
Tony: Tony Shalhoub, The Band's Visit
Drama Desk: Ethan Slater, Spongbob Squarepants
This category is wide open with no surefire winner and the two groups could split or agree. Tony Shalhoub could take home the Tony as part of a Band's Visit tidal wave. Ethan Slater has already won an Outer Critics Circle Award for his athletic performance in the title role of Spongebob. Tony-DD nominees Joshua Henry of Carousel and Harry Hadden-Paton of My Fair Lady also have their advocates. I have a feeling the DD voters will go for Slater, following the OCC lead, though Henry and Hadden-Patton gave more complex performances.
Best Actress in a Musical
Tony: Katrina Lenk, The Band's Visit
Drama Desk: Jessie Mueller, Carousel
Lenk is not eligible for the DD because of Band's Off-Broadway run last season, but she will probably win the Tony for her seductive, sad cafe owner. Mueller will take the DD for her updated Julie Jourdan. Lauren Ambrose of My Fair Lady is not nominated for the DD, but she won the Outer Critics Circle Award. If she were up for the DD, I would vote for her, but evidently the DD nominating committee was not enchanted.
Best Featured Actor in a Play
Tony, Drama Desk: Nathan Lane, Angels in America
Though he has won two previous Tonys and five Drama Desks, Lane will add another pair of prizes to his trophy shelf for his searing portray of Roy Cohn, the closeted, demonic power broker in Tony Kushner's two-part classic. Ron Leibman won Best Actor Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Part One for the same role.
Best Featured Actress in a Play
Tony: Denise Gough, Angels in America
Drama Desk: Jamie Brewer, Amy and the Orphans
Gough will win the Tony for her pill-popping Harper Pitt in Angels, but she is not nominated for the same performance for the DD. She is in the DD Best Actress race for a stunning performance in People, Places and Things which played the Off-Broadway St. Ann's Warehouse earlier this season before Angels opened on Broadway. As a result, the Desk Award in this category will probably go to Jamie Brewer, an actress with Down's Syndrome playing a similarly afflicted character in Lindsey Ferrentino's Off-Broadway play.
Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Tony: Norbert Leo Butz, My Fair Lady
Drama Desk: Gavin Lee, SpongeBob Squarepants
Gavin Lee in SpongeBob Squarepants Credit: Joan Marcus |
Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Tony, Drama Desk: Lindsay Mendez, Carousel
Audra McDonald won the same two awards for her Broadway debut as Carrie Pipperidge in the last revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic (1994) and it looks like Lindsay Mendez will repeat the feat for the same role. Mendez has already won the OCC Award.
Best Score
Tony: David Yazbeck, The Band's Visit
Drama Desk: Music: David Friedman, Desperate Measures; Lyrics: Nell Benjamin, Mean Girls
The Drama Desk splits its musical score award between the music and lyrics, so it's possible for two different shows to be honored. The Tonys will go for The Band's Visit and the DDs will share the wealth between Desperate Measures and Mean Girls.
Best Book of a Musical
Tony, Drama Desk: Tina Fey, Mean Girls
Tina Fey will add a Tony and a Drama Desk to her nine Emmys, three Golden Globes, and five SAG Awards.
Best Director of a Play
Tony, Drama Desk: John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Best Director of a Musical
Tony: David Cromer, The Band's Visit
Drama Desk: Jack O'Brien, Carousel
Best Choreography
Tony, Drama Desk: Justin Peck, Carousel
Well thought out!
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