Yeah, there have been plenty of Drama League winners and OCC winners who haven't won the Tony Award. Many haven't even been nominated for the Tony. I'd hardly say KINKY BOOTS has a leg-up on MATILDA at this point, just because of these awards. It's a real toss-up as there are hardly any "precursor" awards that could point to how the Tonys may go. Especially this year. There are plenty of conceivable spoilers in most of the categories.
Updated On: 5/17/13 at 05:16 PM
Damn, I need to take a moment now and reflect on how flippin' good Sinise was in that production.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Remember that ANYONE can pay a membership to be in the Drama League. I do, and I voted for Matilda. But there are going to be a lot of people who vote for the feel-good musical. I'll be more curious to see how the Drama Desk goes as that's a better indicator since the voting populations are more comparable.
"The Drama Desk [is] a better indicator since the voting populations are more comparable."
Not true. The Drama Desk represents local critics. They have a powerful incentive to ratify their previous reviews. Do you really think any will vote to say "I messed up before in my review"? The would understandably be inclined to want think their reviews are predictive.
However, the Outer Critics Circle and Drama League have already disagreed with them. And Tony voters represent a cross-section of the theatrical community, and are also more likely to vote from the perspective of those within it.
"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
What a fun afternoon. Jerry Mitchell was hysterical and Joel Gray gave a wonderful introduction for Bernadette Peters in Mary Tyler Moore's absence. Fantastic!
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Not true. The Drama Desk represents local critics. They have a powerful incentive to ratify their previous reviews. Do you really think any will vote to say "I messed up before in my review"? The would understandably be inclined to want think their reviews are predictive.
I suppose that's true. I more meant that the awards are voted on by people whose careers are directly linked to the theater as opposed to the paying public. But I do see your point.
The Drama Desks won't be a good indicator this year because Kinky Boots isn't even nominated for Best Musical.
I COMPLETELY forgot that Kinky Boots got barely any love from the Drama Desks nominators. So I take back everything I said. Ignore me.
Thanks for the compilation, Up In One. I've forgotten how crazy some of the years were... the year of In the Heights, wow! Also shows that no "precursor" is completely accurate.
Also remember that In the Heights wasn't eligible for awards other than the Tony since it was off-Broadway in 2007. The only thing really shocking to me that year was A Catered Affair winning the Drama League award. (And Young Frankenstein getting a piece of the Outer Critics Award, tying with Xanadu).
Yes, Kinky Boots did get a lot of love from the NY critics, just like the outer critics -- Brantley made it a NY Times "Critic's Pick" (one of the few he did) as did Time Out & Entertaintment Weekly. In general it got a great critical response.
It's just that Matilda got a critical response that a lot of people on this board and elsewhere felt was over the top in comparison with their personal experience of the show, which left them feeling underwhelmed & cold, saying "what's the big deal"? I think that's why Kinky Boots has started winning the Best Musical awards. The Drama Desk may feel a need to justify those reviews with their award.
The Drama Desk nominations are chosen by a handful of people. I think they either didn't like Kinky Boots or truly felt there were more deserving shows. Either way, I predict both Porter and Carvel to wind up with wins at the Drama Desks, which really makes the Best Actor in a Musical Tony race such a nailbiter! But unless they're going to choose an offbeat winner like Here Lies Love, I can't see Matilda not dominating on the musical front at the Drama Desks. And it may be the momentum the show needs to propel their Tony chances.
After reading Brantley's lukewarm rave of Kinky, I was shocked it got a Critics' Pick. That felt, to me, like an Editorial choice more than Brantley personally, since the tone of his review read (to me) as muted enthusiasm.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
"It's just that Matilda got a critical response that a lot of people on this board and elsewhere felt was over the top in comparison with their personal experience of the show, which left them feeling underwhelmed & cold, saying "what's the big deal"?"
Errr... not really. I've been following these threads pretty closely, and it's not a "lot of people on this board" expressing that opinion.
It's mainly two or three people who post it over and over and over again.