Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#0Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 7:56am
We'll that was a waste of an idea.
From Riedel:
"JONATHAN Pryce, the acclaimed star of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," has won the day: The Tony Award for Best Performance in a Re-Created Role, a new prize this year, has been scrapped.
Pryce savaged the replacement Tony last month in The Post after Tony officials announced that, while both he and Harvey Fierstein ("Fiddler on the Roof") had been nominated, no award would be made.
"I found it ultimately insulting to all of us who were eligible," Pryce said at the time.
Fierstein called it a "creepy award" because it was "a backhanded slap at the person you replaced."
The Tony Award Administration Committee last week voted unanimously to abandon it.
"What was intended as something positive turned out to be negative," says a member of the committee. "And the theater does not need a negative award."
The prize was nicknamed the Reba McEntire Award after the country star who took over for Bernadette Peters in "Annie Get Your Gun" in 1999 and elevated a mediocre revival into a smash hit.
Producers thought the possibility of winning a Tony would entice big stars into joining long-running shows. But Tony officials struggled to come up with a mechanism for awarding the prize, finally deciding to leave it up to the 24-member administration committee.
Pryce was furious to learn that only 16 of the 24 administrators bothered to see his performance.
A person on the committee said: "Jonathan's unhappiness certainly had something to do with our decision. His performance was highly valued, and the award should have been presented to him. It was our mistake that it was not."
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/hail_king_kevin_entertainment_michael_riedel.htm
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
#1re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 7:58amI just love Homer moments! (D'OH!!)
"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Conan O'Brien
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#2re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:04am
This is going to be a great trivia question in a few years:
"What Tony category never had a winner?
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
#3re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:22amAgreed Margo, must file this one away!
"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Conan O'Brien
#4re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:27amWhat a bunch of morons. The create the award in a year than clearly has a standout, but deny him the award. Then they take some heat and say that he should have gotten the award and decide to get rid of it all together!? Priceless.
"The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility. Oh brother, that got me, that did me in!"
#5re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:31am
"What a bunch of morons. The create the award in a year than clearly has a standout, but deny him the award. Then they take some heat and say that he should have gotten the award and decide to get rid of it all together!? Priceless."
At least they learned from the misake...would you rather them continue to screw up from year to year?
Updated On: 6/23/06 at 08:31 AM
#6re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:35am
VERY interesting.
I can see all sides of this and feel it's for the best.
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
#7re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:35amId rather them learn from their mistake and instead of scraping it all togther, make it like any other category. Then you wouldnt have this kind of drama, but people like Pryce could still be awarded for their fantastic performances. To me, that would make much more sense.
"The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility. Oh brother, that got me, that did me in!"
#8re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:36am
Oh lord. I love it, I love it.
But, yeah. At least they got rid of it NOW. Good idea on paper... no friggin' clue how to implement it in practice...
*~* Every time you double-post, God kills a kitten. *~*
Kay, the Thread-Jacking Jedi
Quando omni flunkus moritati (When all else fails, play dead...)
"... chasin' the music. Trying to get home."
Peter Gregus: "Where are my house right ladies?!"
(love you, girls! - 6/13/06)
#9re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:40am
"Id rather them learn from their mistake and instead of scraping it all togther, make it like any other category. Then you wouldnt have this kind of drama, but people like Pryce could still be awarded for their fantastic performances. To me, that would make much more sense."
I agree, but does this really make them morons? They made a mistake. I think this award was scrapped for various reasons, a big one being Harvey's sentiment about how it felt like a back-handed slap to the person being replaced.
DG
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
#10re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:43amI still think Mr. Pryce looks a little silly through all of this.
#11re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 8:44amI think the fact that because THEY made a mistake, they are going to deprive many exceptional replacements of winning a Tony is horrible. To me, yes, that makes them morons.
"The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility. Oh brother, that got me, that did me in!"
#12re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 9:10am
I still think Mr. Pryce looks a little silly through all of this.
Agreed. Chill, dude. If you want to be an actor to act, then act. If you want to be an actor to win awards, then get a job at Blockbuster.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Updated On: 6/23/06 at 09:10 AM
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#13re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 9:13am
I never got the point of this category anyway. The Tony Administration committee has the ability to reward replacements and others any time they want to and have done so in the past (Richard Burton got one for his performance in Equus). They also give out Special Tonys every year -- Sarah Jones got one this year after they decided to eliminate the Unique Theatrical Event category (or whatever it's called). They should simply be more aware of first rate replacements when they come along and more willing to honor truly notable, but otherwise ineligible, performances.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 6/23/06 at 09:13 AM
#14re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 9:18am
Next year they have announced that they will be implementing an award for Best Standout Ensemble Member - Play and Best Standout Ensemble Member - Musical.
Oh wait, just in. They cancelled it.
Stand-by Joined: 12/31/69
#15re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 9:18am
I think Pryce comes away as being extremely boorish about all this. I question whether he was in the show long enough (I thought the minimum was six months) to even be eligible. Pearl Bailey got a special Tony Award as a replacement in Hello, Dolly! and maybe that's the way this kind of thing should be handled in the future. To think that every replacement actor would have beem in a snit for not being nominated or winning is more than I can bear 
#16re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 9:23am
Broadway producers must be groaning a bit. On one side, they lost the ability to entice a performer by dangling that award as a possibility in negotiations and on the flip side, they lost the ability to re-energize their show's marketing by not being able to add the nomination and/or win to their campaign. Which I could see helping an older show boost attendance.
I fully understand both sides of the issues. Just a shame overall.
"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men" - Willy Wonka
#17re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 9:51amWhen good ideas go bad.....
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"
MOXIEINTHECITY
Broadway Star Joined: 5/11/06
#18re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:08am
If they were going to have an award like that, then why not create an award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Revival. I mean, where does it end?
My feeling is, if they were so great for the role and gave such a wonderful performance...then why didn't they originate the role?
I think they should do an overhaul on all the categories. The nominees this year all had such diffent roles that it was almost impossible to compare them to each other. Seriously, how do you compare John Lloyd Young to Michael Cerveris? (I'm using that as an example. Not looking to start a "he wuz robbed" debate.)
I don't know...I kind of like how the Golden Globes do it...they seperate out Comedy and Drama.
Mixing It Up In The Bedroom
#19re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:12am
My feeling is, if they were so great for the role and gave such a wonderful performance...then why didn't they originate the role?
Oh dear, hun.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
popular_elphie
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/3/05
#20re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:18am
There could be any number of reasons that they didn't originate that role. You cannot use that against it.
If the Tony people wanted to set rules and give out the award, they could've done it. They're really the ones who made it a negative award because they weren't prepared, but announced it anyways.
#21re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:20amThis proves that The Tony Awards are awful. They just don't give 'em out like they used to.
#22re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:24amBleh. It was a really good idea.
colleen_lee
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/16/05
#23re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:36am
What an idiotic fiasco.
I thought the award was a good idea originally, of course I assumed that they had worked out logistics BEFORE announcing the award (I mean, that seems like the logical progression, correct?) but they managed to prove me wrong and with great gusto.
"You just can't win. Ever. Look at the bright side, at least you are not stuck in First Wives Club: The Musical. That would really suck. "
--Sueleen Gay
#24re: Tony Awards Scrap Best Replacement Award
Posted: 6/23/06 at 11:11am
"My feeling is, if they were so great for the role and gave such a wonderful performance...then why didn't they originate the role?"
I completely disagree with this. What if it a fairly long running show and the person they got as a replacement couldn't have possibly been able to do the role when the show began. So you think that if a show is 10 years old, they should get a ten year old to play a role because he'll be fantastic at it in ten years?
im apologize if i sound mean, i just think that it doesnt work that way unless its a really new show. and even then im a little iffy about saying that.
