Our smartest Tony Awards prophet: AM New York's Matt Windman
A bakers dozen of pundits predicted winners in the 26 competitive Tony Awards. Matthew Windman of AM New York of was the top prognosticator with a staggering 22 correct. Three pundits tied for second with 21 right — Melissa Bernardo of Entertainment Weekly, Paul Sheehan of TheEnvelope.com, and David Sheward of Back Stage. As a group, we scored an average of 19 correct. To see original predix, CLICK HERE.
All of us predicted "August: Osage County" to win best play and its star, Deanna Dunagan, to take best actress. Everyone thought Patti LuPone would win best actress in a musical for "Gypsy" while only the champ, Matthew Windman, did not choose Paulo Szot for best actor in a musical for "South Pacific (Matthew went for Lin-Manuel Miranda of "In the Heights"). All but two of us thought that show would win best musical.
Only Melissa Bernardo and last year's pundit champ, Linda Winer of Newsday, foresaw "Passing Strange" winning best book and Melissa was only one of two to predict "The 39 Steps" to win the first Tony awarded for sound design of a play. The other big surprise was the win by Rondi Reed for featured actress in a play for "August: Osage County," the choice of only 3 of the pundits.
Below are the final scores were. All numbers apply to 26 categories unless otherwise indicated.
Melissa Bernardo (Entertainment Weekly) - 21
Martin Denton (NYTheatre.com) - 18
Robert Diamond (BroadwayWorld.com) - 20
Elysa Gardner (USA Today) - 13
Susan Haskins (Theater Talk) - 14
Leonard Jacobs (Back Stage) - 17
Brian Lipton (Theatermania.com) - 19
Tom O'Neil (TheEnvelope.com) - 19
Tony Phillips (Edge Publications) – 12/21
Michael Riedel (New York Post) – 8/13
Paul Sheehan (TheEnvelope.com) - 21
David Sheward(Backstage) - 21
Linda Winer (Newsday) - 18
One of my blog reader's got 23 out of 26 right!
Posted by: Ken Davenport | June 18, 2008 at 05:34 PM
A week before the awards, Time Out issued its predictions based on its theatre staff, and they got 23 out of 26 right.
This was one of the most predictable Tony awards ever -- there was literally not one suprise in the major categories. Not that I disagree with the winners -- just that it all went according to the conventional wisdom.
Posted by: Scott | June 18, 2008 at 11:51 AM
Big deal. I got 23 out of 26 missing only choreography, book of a musical and featured actress in a play. AND I only missed choreography because I changed it the Friday before the awards. So there!
Posted by: Brian | June 18, 2008 at 08:50 AM
I'd like to have Melissa Bernardo's crystal ball to predict my own future. Year after year she demonstrates her ability to recognize award-worthy talent.
Posted by: JMA | June 17, 2008 at 01:43 PM