Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Musicaldudepeter
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/18/10
#1Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 6:55pm
Just a thought of general wonderment...
Has anyone won a Tony/who are the Tony winners for characters that are considered evil or 'bad' or unlikable or the 'villain' of the play...
Off the top of my head - Harriet Harris for 'Millie' in 2002 (Featured actress in a musical)... Anyone else?
I'm sure many have won for Iago in 'Othello,' no? - Plummer?
#2Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 6:57pmIdina Menzel
#2Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 7:02pmLen Cariou and Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd come to mind.
"You mean what was the best picture of the year or what did they pick as the best picture of the year?" - California Suite
#3Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 7:18pm
.
Updated On: 4/4/12 at 07:18 PM
#4Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 7:20pm
The thread title said evil or unlikeable. Because Sweeney and Lovett are both evil, I think it satisfies the OP's conditions.
(edit: post above is edited lol I guess you realised this before I posted)
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 4/4/12 at 07:20 PM
#5Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 7:21pm
Shuler Hensley for Oklahoma!
(Arguably) Michael Crawford for The Phantom of the Opera.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Updated On: 4/4/12 at 07:21 PM
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Musicaldudepeter
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/18/10
#6Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 7:26pmAh yes forgot about all of those lol. Hensley was incredible as Jud - What a performance. and of course Sweeney and Lovett. Thanks guys
ChildrenwillListen
Featured Actor Joined: 3/12/12
#7Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 7:27pmSo does this mean like characters that you are not supposed to like but they really do a great job of being a villain so they get awarded for it? Because it's really cool I think. Characters you love to hate
#8Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 7:30pm
Charles Nelson Reilly for Bud Frump
Michael Cerveris for Booth
#9Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 9:16pm
You could make a case for the ladies who've won playing Rose Havoc. She is after all the stage mother from hell...
Dorothy Loudon as Miss Hannigan, Patti LuPone as Eva Peron, Bebe Neuwirth as Velma Kelly. The characters aren't evil per say, but do indulge in questionable activities: child abuse, political corruption, double homicide...
#10Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/4/12 at 9:24pmA completely subjective question here.
"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
SondheimFan5
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/10
#11Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/5/12 at 12:06am
The Emcee, in some cases.
Though all these are really very very subjective.
#12Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/5/12 at 8:58amWell, many of the greatest roles out there are villain/antihero characters, or at least characters with great flaws. Whether someone kills and eats people like Hannibal Lecter or is a cheating husband and overbearing father like Willy Loman, if you think about it, human failings are the foundation of drama.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#13Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/5/12 at 9:52am
Since you've defined the question so broadly and to include anti-heros and seriously flawed characters (who could argue that Billy Flynn isn't a seriously flawed human being?), many, just looking at the guys:
(note, of course, that many of these are of the musical comedy lovable bad guy, heavy, or pain in the butt type; others are nobly anti-heroic and driven; one or two are down and out nasty guys)
Ray Walston in Damn Yankees
Jonathan Pryce in Miss Saigon
Norbert Leo Butz Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
John Lithgow The Sweet Smell of Success
Bert Lahr in Foxy
Ben Harney in Dreamgirls
James Naughton in Chicago
Brent Carver Kiss of the Spider Woman
Len Cariou in Sweeney Todd
Barry Bostwick in The Robber Bridegroom (at least the Robber part of the title role)
featured:
Myron McCormick in South Pacific
Yul Brynner in The King and I
Cyril Richard in Peter Pan
David Burns in The Music Man
Jack Cassidy in She Loves Me
Hiram Sherman in How Now Down Jones
Rene Auberjonois in Coco
Keene Curtis in The Rothschids (some of his roles)
Henderson Forsythe in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Chuck Cooper in The Life
Shuler Hensley in Oklahoma
Chuck Cooper in The Life
Updated On: 4/5/12 at 09:52 AM
#14Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/5/12 at 10:09amVery subjective. "Unsympathetic" might be a better way to put it.
"Through The Sacrifice You Made, We Can't Believe The Price You Paid..For Love!"
#15Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/5/12 at 11:27amSome odd choices here. Though arguable, I'd add Owen Teale for A Doll's House. One of the most perfect productions of a play I've ever seen. And we may be adding Bertie Carvel to the list next year.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Hina2
Chorus Member Joined: 4/6/12
#16Winning a TONY AWARD for an evil or unlikable character/role.....?
Posted: 4/6/12 at 5:50amBilly Elliot
