Two new Tony categories make all-time champs vulnerable
When four-time Tony champ Tom Stoppard talks, the theater award administrators listen. Backstage on Tony night, I asked for his thoughts about his play trilogy "The Coast of Utopia" winning a record seven awards this year. The celebrated author bemoaned the fact that the achievement of Mark Bennett, who composed the music and sounds that underscored so many scenes, was not eligible for consideration. On Tuesday, the Tonys announced the creation of two new categories — sound design for both a play and a musical — bringing the total Tony tally to 27 (the Oscars have 25 by comparison).
With these new categories, the record holders — "Coast" and 12-time tuner champ "The Producers" — are now vulnerable to being bested in their total Tony haul. However, if early buzz on "Young Frankenstein" keeps building, Mel Brooks could well break his own record. This movie-to-musical adaptation opening on Broadway in November boasts a cast of Tony winners including Roger Bart, Shuler Hensley, and Andrea Martin, who could well repeat in the same categories won by "The Producers." And this show has something that other Brooks one did not — a leading lady, Tony winner Sutton Foster — who could also prevail. Add that award to the new one for sound design, then toss in every award "The Producers" nabbed, and it's possible that "Young Frankenstein" could scare up 14 Tonys.
Until the 2005 splitting of the current trio of design awards — costumes, scenery, lighting — into separate divisions, musicals like "The Producers" dominated these categories. The last play to win best costumes in the combined race was "Dracula" in 1978 and only ten others had done that since the award was given out at the first Tonys in 1947.
Scenic designers of plays had a slightly better track record, winning 16 times against musicals. (The Tonys did try spliting these categories for two years back in 1960 and 61). Only 7 of the first 34 Tonys given for lighting design since the introduction of the award in 1970 went to plays, with the last of those being "The Inspector Calls" in 1994. The split allowed "Coast" and last year's "The History Boys" to win record number of Tonys. This year "Coast" won the Triple Crown of design Tonys beating out the "Boys" who picked up two.
While Stoppard lauded Arthur Miller for writing "Death of a Salesman," a closer examination of its then-record haul of six Tonys back in 1949 reveals several interesting twists. Three of the categories in which it won — author, play, and producers — have been replaced by the single honor of best play (won by both "Boys" and "Coast"). And while the scenic designer of "Salesman," Jo Mielziner, did win the Tony, the award cited a host of his other work as well including "Summer and Smoke" and "South Pacific."
While "Salesman" won the Tony for best revival for both of its most recent runs in 1984 and 1999, one could make a strong argument that Stoppard's play "The Real Thing," which debuted in 1984, is most deserving of the title of most honored play in Broadway history. After all, it won five Tonys back then - best play, actor (Jeremy Irons), actress (Glenn Close), featured actress (Christine Baranski) and director (Mike Nichols). And its remounting in 2000 won another three Tonys - revival, actor (Stephen Dillane) and actress (Jennifer Ehle).
(Photo: 20th Century Fox)
