Brief Thoughts Before the Tony Awards aka HAMILTON!

Last year here is how I ended my blog post on the Tony Awards: Of course, I'm sure a lot of people are already thinking about next year's Tony Awards. Hamilton. Hamilton. Hamilton. I foolishly missed it when it played Off-Broadway this year, but you better believe I'll be seeing this before next year's Tonys!

I'm happy to report that I did end up seeing the extremely popular and beloved Hamilton when it transferred to Broadway. THREE TIMES. This was when tickets were still relatively easy to get via lottery last year. Thus I've been a Hamilton obsessive fan for a few months now and it's a state of being hard to overcome. In any case, this is a show that cannot be over-hyped. It's just that good and I'm glad the Tony Awards gave it a record 16 nominations. It should dominate the awards and conversation tonight and I'm personally rooting for a sweep. But even if it doesn't, it has already made its cultural mark tenfold (and then some). Plus this Broadway season has been strong in general making me even that more excited for the ceremony tonight.

The one locked win for Hamilton will be taking home Best Musical. If there's a show that could steal the win, it would be Shuffle Along full of Broadway legends and the second-most nominations of the night with 10. Bright Star, School of Rock and Waitress round out the nominees and suffice it to say they're happy with the nomination. No such luck with Allegiance, the only other new musical I saw last year after Hamilton, starring George Takei and Lea Salonga (it actually received no Tony nominations... which harsh) as well as the polarizing American Psycho, which I was sad to not have seen.

Best Revival of a Musical is always an exciting category and this year proves no different. She Loves Me leads with 8 nominations followed by The Color Purple at 4. Apparently it's down to these two for the win and I really wish I had seen either one. I did see the two other nominees, Fiddler on the Roof and Spring Awakening, and absolutely loved them both. It was my first time seeing Fiddler in any iteration and as for Spring Awakening, the changes they made, specifically highlighting deaf culture and using American Sign Language, were mind-blowing. It was perhaps the second best Broadway experience I had last year (the first being Hamilton of course). I ended up seeing it three times as well and I had hoped it would've gotten more nominations. At the very least it's frustrating to see it get snubbed for Best Choreography especially with how seamlessly and beautifully integrated ASL to the show.

My track record for plays are a bit more hit and miss, but this year I did end up seeing two, Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Crucible, both nominated for Best Revival of a Play. Long Days lead with 7 nominations and is favored to win. The other nominees are A View from the Bridge, Blackbird and Noises Off. I did not see any new plays this year, but the talk of the town seems to be The Humans with 6 nominations, tied with fellow nominee The Eclipsed. The two other plays are King Charles III and The Father.

And now we get to the actors. A record 7 performers are nominated from one show (Hamilton) and it's almost a crime that at most only four of them will walk home with a trophy and the likelihood of that number being less is much greater. Certainly the show's genius creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is favored to win Best Actor in a Musical (and a slew of other non-acting awards tonight), but like in the musical, his biggest rival is Leslie Odom. Jr. (who I think should win this in heartbeat). A few others thing this might be the time for 6-time Tony nominee Danny Burstein to win especially with the possibility of a Hamilton-Burr vote splitting. Best Actress in Musical is favored to go to the powerhouse performance of Cynthia Erivo in The Color Purple, but of course Philippa Soo in a Hamilton sweep could happen. BTW both Audra McDonald and Salonga were eligible this year and neither got nominated. WHAT?! The Featured Actor/Actress in a Musical looks to go Hamilton's way as well with Daveed Diggs and Renée Elise Goldsberry the likely winners. Of course Diggs has to compete with TWO fellow cast members while Goldsberry's biggest competition is Danielle Brooks in The Color Purple.

For the plays, people are betting on Hollywood vets Frank Langella and Jessica Lange to take the lead prizes. If they win, it would be Langella's fourth Tony win and Lange's first (and one step closer to EGOT). Gabriel Byrne and Jeff Daniels are Langella's biggest competitors. Lange, in the meantime has to go head-to-head with a ridiculously strong list of actresses: Laurie Metcalf, Lupita Nyong'o, Sophie Okonedo and Michelle Williams. Michael Shannon is predicted to win Featured Actor while Featured Actress is largely a mystery to me though I might be rooting for Megan Hilty just slightly.

As for the rest of the awards, especially in the musical categories, just put Hamilton down and you'll probably do pretty well on your pool. Weirder things have happened though and that's what makes the show even more exciting for me. Plus I'm just really looking forward to all the performances especially for Hamilton and Spring Awakening. I also think James Corden is going to be a blast. And so one more time for people in the back... HAMILTON.

Edited to add: Of course today's awful news about the Orlando mass shooting broke this morning and the Broadway community joins the nation in mourning the victims. Tonight's awards ceremony is dedicated to all of those affected. Please consider donating money, giving blood, and reaching out.