June 2, 2006

EW Predicts Jersey Boys as BIG Tony Winner!

June 2nd, 2006

In the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, Melissa Rose Bernardo’s Tony predictions have Jersey Boys taking home quite a few Tonys!!

Best Musical
NOMINEES The Color Purple, The Drowsy Chaperone, Jersey Boys, The Wedding Singer
WINNER Jersey Boys. It gives the jukebox musical a good name. Plus, out-of-town voters want it to play their cities.
SPOILER Chaperone. It got 13 nominations, and theater lovers are in a tap-dancing tizzy over the frothy tuner.

Lead Actor in a Musical
NOMINEES Michael Cerveris, Sweeney Todd; Harry Connick Jr., The Pajama Game; Stephen Lynch, The Wedding Singer; Bob Martin, The Drowsy Chaperone; John Lloyd Young, Jersey Boys
WINNER Young, whose Frankie Valli is Jersey’s heart and soul.
SPOILER Cerveris (Todd’s bloody brilliant barber) or Pajama heartthrob Connick.

Book of a Musical
NOMINEES The Color Purple (Marsha Norman); The Drowsy Chaperone (Bob Martin and Don McKellar); Jersey Boys (Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice); The Wedding Singer (Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy)
WINNER The Drowsy Chaperone — it’s the perfect way to reward the show and Martin, its affable star.
SPOILER Jersey Boys. The reason this show works so well — nay, works at all — is the cleverly constructed book, courtesy of Annie Hall Academy Award winner Brickman and ex-adman Rick Elice.

Featured Actor in a Musical
NOMINEES Danny Burstein, The Drowsy Chaperone; Jim Dale, The Threepenny Opera; Brandon Victor Dixon, The Color Purple; Manoel Felciano, Sweeney Todd; Christian Hoff, Jersey Boys
WINNER Hoff has a slight edge as the Four Seasons’ smart-mouthed ex-con, Tommy DeVito.
SPOILER Dale — a veteran performer doing a stellar job in a stinker of a show — could pull through.

Scenic Design of a Musical
NOMINEES John Lee Beatty, The Color Purple; David Gallo, The Drowsy Chaperone; Derek McLane, The Pajama Game; Klara Zieglerova, Jersey Boys
WINNER There’s a lot of love for Chaperone, and it’ll likely extend to Gallo’s shabby-chic set.
SPOILER Zieglerova’s simple but effective cartoon-and-steel-filled Jersey design.

Direction of a Musical
NOMINEES John Doyle, Sweeney Todd; Kathleen Marshall, The Pajama Game; Des McAnuff, Jersey Boys; Casey Nicholaw, The Drowsy Chaperone
WINNER Doyle, whose actors-playing-instruments idea proved not gimmicky but ingenious.
SPOILER McAnuff deserves more credit than he gets for Jersey’s success, but the Sweeney mastermind is practically unbeatable.

Best Orchestrations
NOMINEES Larry Blank, The Drowsy Chaperone; Dick Lieb and Danny Troob, The Pajama Game; Steve Orich, Jersey Boys; Sarah Travis, Sweeney Todd
WINNER Travis. Faced with a 10-person orchestra/cast, she unearthed nuances that surprised even the most Sweeney-savvy viewer.
SPOILER Orich had a hard job — working with the well-known sounds of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons — but nowhere near as tough as Travis’.

Well, do you agree with EW’s Tony predictions???

1 Comment »

  1. Jersey Boys should run away with best Musical.John Lloyd Young has to win for playing Frankie Valli, He is Frankie Valli!

    Comment by Thea — June 4, 2006 @ 12:49 pm

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