One Vote for Beautiful (Charles McNulty, LA Times)

[StickIt]

Posted: 5/20/14 at 3:37pm

Really interesting piece from the LA Times about the Best Musical race this year.
One Vote for Beautiful

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 5/20/14 at 3:39pm

I think Beautiful is going to be taking home the Best Musical Tony. I will be surprised if it goes any other way.

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 5/20/14 at 3:51pm

thats disappointing as GGTLAM is better on EVERY level.

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/20/14 at 4:38pm

PlayItAgain-I think Gentleman's Guide will win. Don't worry Beautiful fans, Jessie Mueller might just take the Tony.

[broadwaybabe1234]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 1:33am

Well i agree. I think it is the most impressive jukebox musical to date, i felt better than jersey boys. I feel exactly the same as the author of this article, while i wanted to love gentleman's guide, it was not nearly as smart, funny or engaging as i had hoped it would be. If i had a vote, it would also go to beautiful.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 3:37am

Charles McNulty takes some heat - perhaps rightly so - for not always covering the smaller theatre companies in SoCal, but I have to say, even when I disagree with him, I enjoy reading his articles and reviews.

I think he's dead right about this one. Emotional resonance, beloved songbook, financial success -- Beautiful is the one to beat.

[bdn223]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 11:04am

The thing that he is forgetting that both he and Riedel are counting for is road house owners wanting a surefire hit on the road. They both think that this section of the Tony electorate will vote for Beautiful to help sell it on the road. While this is common I think both are forgetting Beautiful has and can sell its self. It's not a year like 2007, where Spring Awakening, a show that is too risque for many midwestern and rural communities, was the show to beat against with Mary Poppins as the dark horse. Many of the road producers because they knew Spring Awakening could not sell in their areas voted instead for Mary Poppins because it has the Disney name along with the nastolgia factor, which is both Riedel and McNulty's reasoning for Beautiful taking the Tony.
What I believe will haven with the Road producers is similar to what happened in 2004 and 2012, where a smaller and less commercial show, Avenue Q and Once, was up against a show that was selling like gangbusters and had a familiar brand behind it, Wicked and Newsies. Road producers voted for the Avenue Q and Once, because they knew it needed to Tony to sell on the road and their competition Wicked and Newsies was going to sell welll on the road no matter what.
Beautiful and Aladdin will both sell extremely well on the road, A Gentleman's Guide to love and Murder needs the Tony for the tour to be successful. After Midnight on the other hand probably won't tour because it is at the current moment sold on the back of whoever the current guest star is and I don't see any former R&B or Soul star touring with the production.

[haterobics]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 11:15am

One of these days, I need to read up on who actually votes for Tonys, cuz its sounds silly that they let touring houses decide, well... anything.

When I lived in San Francisco, one of the most ridiculous speeches I attended as press every time was when the big touring house would do an event to launch the Spring Awakening tour in SF, etc., and they would say "When I saw this, I knew it was the kind of show I needed to bring to San Francisco..." and on and on like they made this very thought-out, soul-searching process to bring a massively popular show to a very cosmopolitan city. And we'd always be one of the first stops on some long-ass tour, so you'd be there, like, what major decision was there? You're the place where touring Broadway shows perform, and this show is touring, what's the big decision here? So, to now realize these same people vote on something they have a future financial stake in is even more ludicrous. This seems to be putting the business way before the show.

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 12:00pm

bdn-Your logic works, except for one thing: After Midnight COULD get people to 'guest star' on one stop on the tour. It's a short term commitment and will get people to go. (I happen to think it poses the most threat to Gentleman's Guide.)

Gentleman's Guide also isn't even selling THAT well on Broadway for a show that's snagged the most nods-and that could well hurt it, although it's swept all the pre-Tonys thus far. (A week from Sunday and the Drama Desks-let's see what happens there.)

[djoko84]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 1:55pm

Wow nobody reads anything anymore. This guy does not vote for the Tonys! Plus it's not even a NY publication.

[StickIt]

Posted: 5/21/14 at 2:21pm

If you're referring to the thread, that is Charles' title for his piece. Vote is clearly not intended to be taken in a literal sense.

[djoko84]

Posted: 5/22/14 at 7:28am

The title makes it seem like it's his Tony vote. I'm pretty sure most people who read the title thought the same thing.

[deltatee]

Posted: 5/22/14 at 8:23am

I can see this going either way. Assuming that Best Musical will be determined by road-voters who want to bring touring shows into their venues, I think they actually have an incentive to vote for Gentleman's Guide. These road-voters aren't merely trying to bring one hit show to their venue, they are trying to bring several hit shows to their venue.

Beautiful is going to tour, and when it does, it will do very well. If Gentleman's Guide wins Best Musical then it stands a better chance of touring. And when it does, the houses will have an easier time filling seats. Voting for Gentleman gives the road-voters two strong musicals that they can package into their season offerings instead of just one.

[Steve721]

Posted: 5/22/14 at 1:10pm

Gentleman's Guide has an original score and better reviews than Beautiful, including a rave from the Times. Having opened in November, the show made it through the winter and is still doing reasonably well at the box office. Plus it leads the Tony nominations. I don't see Beautiful winning best musical over Gentleman's Guide, but Mueller could well win.

[dreaming]

Posted: 5/22/14 at 1:14pm

Steve, your thinking is pretty good. I think the Drama Desks (June 1) will tell us more about how the Tonys will go. (Has any show not won a single award leading up to the Tonys and then taken best musical???)

I think it's between Foster and Mueller for the actress Tony.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 5/22/14 at 1:19pm

What about In the Heights? It lost the Drama Desk (while still off-Broadway) to Spring Awakening in 2007, and didn't win the Drama League Award in 2008. But it did win OTHER awards leading up to the Tonys, if that's what you meant.