Who Will Win? Who Ought to Win?

Broadway‘s historical past books may bear in mind the 2024-2025 season because the 12 months Hollywood stars – George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook – despatched field workplace income (and ticket costs) hovering to file heights. Or perhaps the 12 months of Audra McDonald and Nicole Scherzinger (and Patti LuPone, however not for The Roommate). However I’ll bear in mind this Broadway season as being simply so very humorous. Oh, Mary!, Eureka Day, Loss of life Turns into Her, even the tender humor of Possibly Pleased Ending, all provided audiences with one thing in very quick provide outdoors the theater this 12 months: Laughter. That’s the most effective legacy of the 2024-2025 Broadway season.

With that in thoughts, and far gratitude, listed here are my predictions for this Sunday’s 78th Annual Tony Awards.

BEST PLAY
Will win: Oh, Mary!
Ought to win: Oh, Mary!

Earlier than the large, superstar-driven megahits Good Evening, And Good Luck, Othello and Glengarry Glen Ross arrived this spring to seize all of the oxygen on Broadway, the discuss of the business was a queer, campy and out-and-out hilarious little Off Broadway switch referred to as Oh, Mary! Cole Escola’s tour-de-force comedy – the playwright performs a despicable, resentful and by some means totally lovable Mary Todd Lincoln who needs nothing greater than to be a cabaret star regardless of the objections of her husband Abe (who fears his personal secret love of cabaret will reveal a bit an excessive amount of of his different secret). Mary is the favourite to win, and Mary at all times will get her means.

Wouldn’t Thoughts Too A lot… if both John Proctor Is The Villain or Objective pulls a shock win. Or English or The Hills of California, for that matter. It was season for performs.

BEST MUSICAL
Will win: Possibly Pleased Ending
Ought to win: Possibly Pleased Ending

There’s not an undeserving nominee on this class. Loss of life Turns into Her is an excellent, massive, splashy musical that hits all the precise notes for these of us that love fantastic, massive, splashy musicals, Buena Vista Social Membership, with a rating fully in Spanish, is beautiful in each means and Operation Mincemeat was the second finest musical a few corpse this 12 months. However for me, the competition is between two of probably the most offbeat musicals to return alongside in ages: the exhausting rocking Lifeless Outlaw and Possibly Pleased Ending. I’ll give the latter a slight edge largely due to its impossibly poignant closing scenes. Why impossibly? As a result of it’s a love story about robots, and it really works on each stage.

BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY
Will win: Eureka Day
Ought to win: Eureka Day

Each Romeo + Juliet and Our City had been tremendous sufficient, however we’ve all seen higher revivals of these performs. The one actual competitors for Jonathan Spector’s remarkably prescient and deeply humorous vax comedy Eureka Day was David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face (and for what it’s value, I’m not fully satisfied that the current PBS presentation of the latter did the stage play any favors). And if it wasn’t for Oh, Mary!, Eureka Day might declare the funniest scene of the Broadway season with that digital college board assembly.

Wouldn’t Thoughts At All…if Yellow Face takes the prize.

BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
Will win: Sundown Blvd.
Ought to win: Sundown Blvd.

Provided that Gypsy director George C. Wolfe was snubbed in his class, I believe the probabilities for that nice musical/not nice revival are slim for a Revival win. Slim, however not nonexistent. Floyd Collins, the 1994 Off Broadway musical that lastly made its Broadway bow and appeared considerably extra revered in reminiscence than liked within the current, is an extended shot, as is the charming however underwhelming Pirates! The Penzance Musical. Jamie Lloyd’s moody, expressionist tackle Norma & Co. ought to take the Tony.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A PLAY
Will win: Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!
Ought to win: Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!

In every other 12 months, I’d be rooting for underdog Louis McCartney, who carried the whole Upside Down on his slim shoulders all through Stranger Issues: The First Shadow. Jon Michael Hill and Harry Lennix of Objective and Daniel Dae Kim of Yellow Face every have first rate photographs, whereas there isn’t fairly sufficient good luck in New York Metropolis at hand the Tony to George Clooney. Merely put, Cole Escola gave the most effective efficiency on Broadway this season.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A PLAY
Will win: Sarah Snook, The Image of Dorian Grey
Ought to win: Sarah Snook, The Image of Dorian Grey

The Succession star made her Broadway debut within the bold The Image of Dorian Grey, taking part in some two dozen characters, credibly and with precision, from the Oscar Wilde novel. This one’s hers to lose. Laura Donnelly (The Hills of California) might show a spoiler, as might LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Objective). Sadie Sink gave an exquisite efficiency in John Proctor Is The Villain, and Broadway could be fortunate to see her return. As for the endearing Mia Farrow, she simply picked the flawed season for a Broadway comeback.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL
Will win: Jonathan Groff, Simply In Time
Ought to win: Jonathan Groff, Simply In Time

Darren Criss has each proper to seize that Tony for his charming, one-of-a-kind efficiency as a lovesick Helper-bot within the sleeper hit Possibly Pleased Ending, and talking of one-of-a-kind, Andrew Durand because the alive-then-dead title character of Lifeless Outlaw pulls off one of many extra astonishing theatrical feats in reminiscence. However Groff’s take-no-prisoners efficiency as nightclub famous person Bobby Darin is pure Broadway, and totally – and greater than justifiably – profitable.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL
Will win: Audra McDonald, Gypsy
Ought to win: Jennifer Simard, Loss of life Turns into Her

Sure, its a battle between Audra and Nicole Scherzinger, and sure the entire Patti LuPone contretemps served to single out the Gypsy star as foregone conclusion, however this class is jammed with worthy nominees who gave extraordinary performances this 12 months. The splendidly gifted Jasmine Amy Rogers made Boop! The Musical value sitting via – no small feat – and each Jennifer Simard and Megan Hilty introduced a gloriously over-the-top fashion to the often dreadful movie-turned-musical style. I’d be completely satisfied if this contest was between the Loss of life Turns into Her stars however it’s not, so I’ll count on Audra to win, and never be stunned if Nicole does. However I’m rooting for Jennifer.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A PLAY
Will win: Conrad Ricamora, Oh, Mary!
Ought to win: Conrad Ricamora, Oh, Mary!

Francis Jue is a Broadway veteran who deserves each little bit of the business love he’s been receiving since his heartbreaking and really humorous efficiency because the misguidedly patriotic father in Yellow Face. Glenn Davis because the corrupt, naive and ever hopeful Solomon “Junior” Jasper is the important thing pin that holds the endlessly intriguing household dynamic of Objective collectively. Bob Odenkirk was the star amongst stars of Glengarry Glen Ross, and Gabriel Ebert, as the good man/evil bastard highschool trainer of John Proctor Is the Villain would get my vote any 12 months however this one. This season, it’s Ricamora, whose determined Abe Lincoln is the key sauce of Oh, Mary!, a homosexual straight-man outsized and outmatched by a power of nature performed by the once-in-a-generation gentle that’s Cole Escola. The 12 months belongs to them each.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A PLAY
Will win: Kara Younger, Objective
Ought to win: Jessica Hecht, Eureka Day

Along with her history-making fourth consecutive Tony nomination, Kara Younger of Objective is as soon as once more the favourite this 12 months, and who might argue? She has been, with out query, a power on Broadway all through the post-pandemic period, a comic book actor who can, with out lacking a beat, break your coronary heart. I’m completely satisfied for what appears to be her doubtless win. And each Tala Ashe and Marjan Neshat made English the kind of manufacturing Broadway-goers cherish, performances that can reside in reminiscence. Fina Strazza is likely one of the many gems of John Proctor Is the Villain, and delivers what is likely to be the one finest, most delicate, most thought-provoking closing minute of any story since The Graduate. However it was Jessica Hecht, so good in 2023’s underrated Summer time, 1976, who gave the trickiest, most nuanced efficiency on this class. Because the extremely liberal, extremely anti-vax college board member of Eureka Day, Hecht took us down a path few noticed coming. All due respect to the opposite nominees on this overflowing with riches class, however that is Hecht’s time.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A FEATURED ROLE IN A MUSICAL
Will win: Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat
Ought to win: Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat