The perplexing nature of these nominations aside, I’d narrow the top 5 down to:
Ruben Santiago Hudson, David Morse, Sharon D Clarke, Sutton Foster or Billy Crystal.
Hudson welcomed back Broadway audiences with his rapturous performance as a couple dozen characters in Lackawanna Blues and also directed Skeleton Crew.
David Morse is giving my favorite performance of the entire season in my unexpectedly favorite production of the season.
Sharon D Clarke just blazed her own path and is a 3 time Olivier winner
Sutton Foster never won? Not because it’s her best role but because she’s certainly overdue
Billy Crystal may be too hard of a name not to check for certain voters.
A bit surprising. But can't say I'm disappointed. She is doing great work and reinvented the role. Happy that she is now included in the list of names who have received this.
Yeah, hard to know which way. If she doesn't win, it'll seem like a, "She should have one of these." And if she does, then this will mark the point we realized her support.
That said, the voting group here does not overlap much with Tony voters.
And the other winners feel like they cemented the current front runners, aside from Kate Whorisky for CLYDE'S. But maybe that'll be an upset? (Seems unlikely.)
PS looking at the breakout of the COMPANY producers, Shubert, Nederlander and Jujamcyn are all prodcuers/investors? That's ... wild.