Bring it On for Best Musical
Really, though? This hot mess of a musical — the moral of which is that cute, popular white girls can get away with anything and still get the boy — is nowhere near good enough to qualify for Broadway’s highest honor. And yet, there it is. We’re guessing that the nominating committee saw beyond the hinky book and hateable characters and is rewarding Lin Manuel-Miranda’s occasionally kickass lyrics. But all of us — Lin, the committee, our poor wearied souls — can do way better. In fact, we already did. It was called Lysistrata Jones and it’s two years too late for repentance nominations, guys.
So few good books that Douglas Carter Beane slips in there
Remember that time that Douglas Carter Beane wrote an endlessly precious, utterly try-hard, unnecessarily complex, weirdly political new book for a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that’s basically about two very stupid, very beautiful people who fall in love at first site and then get married? Yeah, so do we, unfortunately. And because Alex Timbers is too busy working downtown, and Adam Guettel is writing four musicals that are not on stage yet, and Jonathan Larson is dead, and Stephen Sondheim is too old, and James Lapine has obviously lost his mind… it’s nominated for a Tony. Lord have mercy on us all.
Gypsy Snider Gets… Nada
Okay. So we guess technically circus/acrobatic work is not pure choreography. And Pippin does have a choreographer, Mr. Chet Walker, who was indeed nominated for his work. But that’s kind of the problem… choreography, and even direction, alone are not what make Pippin soar. It’s the seamless incorporation of circus into every element of staging and movement that sends Pippin into the stratosphere. And yet, Gyspy Snider, who created all the circus work for the show, gets no nomination for her work. It’s a damn shame. Sure, there may not be an easy solution for this–though other awards have honored her jointly with Walker in the choreography category–but this Pippin just isn’t pimpin’ without her.
Matthew James Thomas is not in the Lead Actor in a Musical Category
The Lead Actor in a Musical category is basically always a jam. And this year’s production of Pippin, beloved around these parts, was really much more about the women–from the Lead Player to Berthe and even Catherine–than it was about Pippin himself. But we really do love us some of that cute, British star Matthew James Thomas who’s playing the man 8 times a week. But with room for two actors from Kinky Boots, we were sad to see that he didn’t make the cut. Whether or not that was logical.
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That graf about Douglars Carter Beane is the most on-point thing I’ve read this season. I want it embroidered, framed, and hung on my wall.
But I disagree about “Bring It On”, which I enjoyed (but probs would have enjoyed more had Amanda Green and Tom Kitt stayed out of it). I’m more offended that “Hardbody” wasn’t nominated in that category than the fact that “Bring It On” was, y’know?