Tony Awards trivia 2008

[mikem]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 10:12am

Here's some Tony trivia from this year's winners. Please make any corrections and please add your own!


Typically, the winner of Best New Musical also takes home the most Tonys. However, this is the third time in the past four years when that did not happen. In all three instances, the Best Musical actually came in third in the vote totals. In all cases, the Best Play had more Tonys than the Best Musical, in 2005, Spamalot had fewer Tonys than The Light in the Piazza, and in 2006, Jersey Boys also had fewer Tonys than The Drowsy Chaperone. This year, In the Heights finished behind both South Pacific and August: Osage County.

South PacificÂ’s 7 Tonys is the most for any revival.

Only 1 Tony went to a closed show (Jim Norton for The Seafarer).

Seven of the eight acting winners came with the production from another venue (London, Chicago, or City Center), with the lone exception being Paulo Szot.

Five of the acting awards went to revivals, including all four of the acting awards for musicals.

Three out of the four winners as leading actors were making their Broadway debuts. All three had won the Theatre World Award for their performance. By contrast, the featured acting winners were all veterans, with all of them making their Broadway debut in 1999 or earlier.

Three out of the four acting winners for plays had completed their run at the time they received the award.

Catherine Zuber (Costumes) has now won four times in a row, all for Lincoln Center productions. She and Kevin Adams, are the only people who won last year to win again this year.

Although multiple people were nominated as a team in 5 categories, only one team (Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman for Orchestrations) won.

Not including the producers of various productions or the honorary awards, there were 23 winners. 8 of them had been nominated before this year. Of those 8 prior nominees, 7 of them had won previously. Only one had never won before, namely Laura Benanti, who had been nominated twice previously.

Of the 15 people who had never been nominated before, 9 were making their Broadway debuts in that capacity. Of the remaining 6, four had only one prior Broadway credit in the capacity for which they were nominated. Rondi Reed had been in 2 shows previously. Scott Lehrer had 19 previous Broadway credits in sound design but of course was not eligible for a Tony until this year.

Putting aside Scott Lehrer, the person who had to wait the most years between their Broadway debut and receiving a Tony was Rondi Reed, who made her Broadway debut in 1990.

No single person won more than one award.

It has been surprisingly difficult to figure out who the youngest winner is this year. Three of this yearÂ’s winners are very close in age and I am not sure who is the youngest. (I believe the youngest nominee was Robin de Jesus, who is 23.) Both Lin-Manuel Miranda and Laura Benanti (date of birth 7/15/79) are 28 (I am not sure who is younger). I can not find a birthdate for Bill Sherman, but he graduated from college in the same class as Lin-Manuel Miranda, so I am guessing they are close to the same age.

I believe that Jim Norton, who is 70, is the oldest winner, although I am not sure how old Deanna Dunagan is. (Arthur Laurents at 89 is the oldest nominee.)

After Laura Benanti, the next youngest acting winner is Paulo Szot at 38, and then Mark Rylance, who is 48. All of the other winners are at least 55.

Updated On: 6/7/09 at 10:12 AM

[SirNotAppearing]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 11:28am

Cool.

Posted: 6/24/08 at 11:39am

City Center? Are you giving them credit for Gypsy? I'd say (London, Chicago, or Highland Park, IL) since it was the Ravinia festival production of Gypsy that started the whole ball rolling.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 12:04pm

That doesn't make any sense.

The City Center production is what transfered to Broadway. The Ravinia festival is what got the ball rolling, but is drastically different from the City Center production.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 1:40pm

Dear Mikem,

Normally I would utter some dismissive grunt at a post filled with data like the stuff you compiled, but I had such a good time reading it that I thought I'd publically compliment you instead.

We all seem to have a lot of time on our hands and I'm glad you shared yours with us/me.

I don't give an elevated fornication where Gypsy originated. The fact of the matter is that it wasn't on Broadway.

Thanks.

Xx

[jennyish]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 1:47pm

JoeKV--

The post says that "seven of the eight acting winners came with the production from another venue". Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines came from City Center, not Ravinia.

[mikem]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 7:21pm

SirNotAppearing and WOSQ,
Thanks for your kind words! I know that trivia is just useless stuff but hopefully it's fun, too. I'm kind of a trivia junkie personally.

Here's another one:

3 out of 5 of the nominees for Best Featured Actress in a Play are Steppenwolf ensemble members: Rondi Reed, Laurie Metcalf, and Martha Plimpton. 3 other Steppenwolf members were nominated, all for August: Osage County (Tracy Letts, Anna D Shapiro, and Amy Morton).

[StockardFan]

Posted: 6/24/08 at 7:24pm

I'm a trivia buff too, and enjoyed reading this!

[mikem]

Posted: 7/1/08 at 11:47am

Here's another one I just thought of:

All 8 acting winners as well as the winners for Best Score and Best Book performed on a New York stage at the matinee on the day of the Tonys.

[H.Higgins]

Posted: 7/1/08 at 12:08pm

-- "City Center? Are you giving them credit for Gypsy? I'd say (London, Chicago, or Highland Park, IL) since it was the Ravinia festival production of Gypsy that started the whole ball rolling."


Of course he's "giving them credit." The production of Gypsy, currently playing on Broadway, is a transfer of a CITY CENTER production. Ravinia had nothing to do with that production. There is one common factor and that is Ms. LuPone. One can talk about her experiences playing Rose, which began at Ravinia, but that production is otherwise completely unrelated.