Yes folks, the nominations will be announced on Tuesday, April 25th! Always an entertaining moment in the NY Theatre scene when these folks provide us with a smile, a roll of the eyes, and the thought "WTF!"
Remember last year when "American Psycho" lead the New Musicals with 8 nominations? "Dear Evan Hansen" won only two awards for Best Book and Best Off Broadway Musical. Or the year before when "Hamilton" won two awards for Off Broadway Musical and Best Book--and received not a single nomination for it's cast!! Who volunteers to be in the room when that happened?
Also, keep in mind that "Shuffle Along" was not eligible for nominations by this group last year. Let's see if they even remember that...maybe "Shuffle" will lead in this year's nominations with honors going to: Audra, George C. Wolfe (Book and Direction), Savion, Adrienne, Brandon, Joshua, Billy, Jules & Peggy, Santo, etc.
So, predictions? I think they will jump on "Natasha, Pierre, etc." in a big way, but was it eligible for the Off Broadway production and now certain elements will not be eligible? I cannot find "The Comet" getting a single previous nomination?
Will they get on the "Hello, Dolly!" train and nominate every aspect of it, or focus on "Come From Away" and "Sweat"/"Indecent"?
The Outer Critics Awards have always been so random and all over the place. It is impossible to predict what madness this year will bring with the nominations.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
''Natasha & Pierre'' was eligible in a past season, so the Outer Critics nominators would consider it only for its newer elements: Josh Groban, Denee Benton, scenic design (at the Imperial).
I realize it's ''cool'' to be snarky about the Outer Critics Circle, or the Drama Desk, or any awards group that might make some less-than-predictable choices, but I say variety is the spice of life. It would be boring if all of the nominators nominated the same things, and all the same things won. All awards are subjective and based on the tastes of a handful (or several dozen) of opinionated individuals.
Besides, who are we to be so judgmental? Last year, ''Allegiance'' swept the musical acting prizes with one awards group: Telly Leung, Lea Salonga, George Takei and Katie Rose Clarke. None of the performers from ''Hamilton'' won anything. Jessica Lange was the only actor/actress from a Play to go on to win a Tony. And Jesse Tyler Ferguson was named Leading Actor for ''Fully Committed.''
And what was that awards group? The BroadwayWorld.com Awards. And the winners were based on ''hundreds of thousands of theatergoers. Fans weighed in, breaking site traffic records and further solidifying the BroadwayWorld Awards' place as the largest and most popular online Broadway polling event of its kind, open to all and with fully visible and audited results.''
What's that saying about ''people in glass houses''?