Lead Actress in a Musical

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 9:45am

So I saw someone posting on who they think will win Lead Actor in a musical, and that had me interested in starting a post on who you guys think will win Lead Actress in a Musical. Let me start by giving an analysis on each of the five nominees below.

Mary Bridget Davies-A Night With Janis Joplin: Nice to see the American Theater Wing remember her performance in the show, but I personally think a nomination is the real win there.

Sutton Foster-Violet: She just continues to impress with every new role she takes on, especially the fact that this is her least showy role out of all the ones she's played before, but would the Tonys be willing to giver a third one so soon after the second?

Idina Menzel-If/Then: No doubt Idina has been enjoying so much success lately, and she was my vote to win earlier in the season, but now after seeing some more competition come her way, I think it's now unlikely, though with that said, she'd still won this year!

Jessie Mueller-Beautiful the Carole King Musical: While the show itself has received mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, the one thing everyone still takes away from the production is Jessie's amazing performance as Carole King, she literally disappears right into the role not just vocal wise, but also acting wise! To me, sounds like a good excuse to honor this rising star on Tony night.

Kelli O'Hara-The Bridges of Madison County: While Kelli still has yet to win her Tony, could a fifth nomination be the charm? The only disadvantage is that not only is Bridges not nominated for Best Musical, but it will also be closed come Tony night, and it's very rare to see a performer overcome that...

So who do you think should, and/or will win Lead Actress in a Musical this year?

[Pumpkin]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 9:54am

Jessie deserves it this year. Kelli will win next year for The King And I (part of the decision).

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 10:00am

Kelli should win but Jessie is nipping at her heels. It's a real nail-biter.

I have noticed that on the BEAUTIFUL TV commercial Jessie is really struggling to sound like Carole but that AD does her no favors. And you can't really vote based on a performance or production that hasn't even started. (Kelli as Anna).

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 10:10am

I think Sutton Foster will win. (Not that I believe she deserves it-I've seen all the nominees and I'd vote for Kelli.)

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 10:21am

I have a feeling the general consensus will be Kelli O'Hara gives and will continue to give tons of wonderful performances, so there will be plenty of other opportunities to reward her. Jessie Mueller meanwhile, while presumably a rising star of her own, has no guarantee of ever landing a role this showy again (not that Kelli does either, but odds are she will). Hence I suspect Jessie will get it, although I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it went to Kelli (or even Sutton).

[StickIt]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 10:24am

It's odd. Honestly, two months ago, a month ago even, I would've said it's absolutely Kelli, but it seems like everybody I talk to lately thinks it's going to go to Jessie. I'd love to see her win it, what she does onstage is astounding. Can she and Kelli have a tie?

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 10:31am

I'd be fine with anyone really (besides Sutton). But, I have a gut feeling she's going to win.

Jessie will get PLENTY of leading roles-PLENTY.

[LYLS3637]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 10:31am

I honestly think Idina, Kelli, and Jessie should win.

With BRIDGES closing and IF/THEN getting shut out of Best Musical, I think it's going to be Jessie.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 11:01am

Jessie. With Kelli and Idina close behind.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 11:18am

I think people are putting too much emphasis on BRIDGES being closed when the Awards are presented. It's still running now and all the voters should get to see her wonderful performance. If the show closed 6 months ago it would be different.
But I still think it's a close race.

And I agree Jessie will get a lot more roles and nominations after showing her range in BEAUTIFUL.

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 11:24am

I've gone through a period of time where I honestly believed any one of these women (besides, Davies, sadly), could take the prize. In my ideal world, I would love a tie between Sutton and Idina, but I do think Sutton's become a front-runner.

[Blockhead24]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 11:46am

i hope sutton or idina don't win

[GilmoreGirlO2]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 11:58am

I, too, was fairly certain a month ago that Kelli would win, but with the momentum of “Beautiful” receiving a good amount of nominations, I think Jessie might take it this year.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 12:08pm

I honestly wouldn't be upset if O'Hara, Mueller, Menzel or Foster take it. In a weaker year they would all be Tony winning performances.

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 12:31pm

Mueller

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 5:18pm

I'm with CPD on this one. I really think people are putting too much emphasis on Bridges closing. It's closing only 3 weeks before the Tonys, and obviously the votes have to be in before the ceremony. I have a feeling the majority of voters will have seen her performance before submitting their ballots. I also have a feeling that a lot of people are going to feel sorry for her and vote for her out of sympathy. There is no way Idina or Mary win this (and I liked both of their performances), and as good as Sutton was (though she was my least favorite of the 5), I have a hard time imagining the Tony voters would choose to hand Sutton her third Tony before giving Kelli her first when Kelli is giving a tour de force performance while Sutton is doing more of a cutesy show. I really feel like it's between Kelli and Jessie at this point. And Jessie is still relatively new on the scene and is portraying a real, but more importantly, contemporarily relevant person. There's something more impressive in my mind (and I don't know why) about portraying a dead person, like Audra is doing in Lady Day, than playing a person you could call up and say "what were these moments of your life like?"

Now, I DO think the closing might affect Bridges winning Lighting and Orchestrations (both of which it SHOULD win), but hopefully it won't have an effect on the outcome of Best Actress and Best Score.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 5:53pm

Totally second your vote for Kelli and Bridges for best actress and score. We did our Broadway Blitz last week, 7 shows in 5 days. Our final show was the Saturday matinee of Bridges. That work blew everything else we saw out of the water. Incredibly moving to know that such work still occasionally makes it to Broadway (even if for way too brief a time). Years from now I expect people will look back at 2014 and scratch their heads about the Tony omission for best Musical nom for Bridges.

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 6:14pm

I'm still going with Kelli.

[avyrocks]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 6:21pm

^ Going with the last three posts. :)

[StickIt]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 6:23pm

While I think Kelli's work was stunning in Bridges and absolutely worthy of an award, I'm surprised by the amount of love on this board for the show itself. The book was incredibly trite to me and did a disservice to the work Kelli was doing. The ending also really didn't work for me. It felt clumsily written and staged. I wanted the show to be more than what it was, but the whole really is less than the sum of it's parts. Glad to see JRB and Kelli rewarded, and I wish Pasquale had been nominated in Best Actor, but that's all.

[musikman]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 7:53pm

I can think of several instances where performers in plays that have already closed were honored with a Tony, but when was the last time an actor or actress in a musical that has already closed won a TONY?

[theatreguy]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 8:32pm

It happened several times in the 50s and 60s, but since the 70s only 5 actors have won Tonys for closed musicals:

Linda Hopkins, Inner City (1972)
Tommy Tune, Seesaw (1974)
Barry Bostwick, The Robber Bridegroom (1977)
Andrea Martin, My Favorite Year (1993)
Martin Short, Little Me (1999)

[Littleshopofcarrie]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 9:29pm

As you can tell by my profile picture, I would love for Sutton to win! Since chances for that are slim, I'll go with Jessie.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 9:31pm

Ms. O'Hara

[NYadgal]

Posted: 5/7/14 at 9:37pm

Kelli.