Comic romp grabs 10 Tony nods

Gentleman’s Guide leads nominations; 8 for Hedwig follow

This undated photo shows a performance of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at the Walter Kerr Theater in New York. The musical, in which a poor man comically eliminates the eight heirs ahead of him for a title, received 10 Tony Award nominations Tuesday.

This undated photo shows a performance of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at the Walter Kerr Theater in New York. The musical, in which a poor man comically eliminates the eight heirs ahead of him for a title, received 10 Tony Award nominations Tuesday.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

NEW YORK - The musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, a comedic romp in which a poor man eliminates the eight heirs ahead of him for a title, nabbed a leading 10 Tony Award nominations on Tuesday.

Nominations were spread out for most other shows, reflecting the lack of a juggernaut this year.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a cult off-Broadway hit about a transgender East German performer, stars Neil Patrick Harris and won eight nominations, while After Midnight, a musical celebrating Duke Ellington’s years at the Cotton Club nightclub, got seven, tied with Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and a British revival of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Bryan Cranston won a nod for playing Lyndon Johnson in All the Way, and Woody Allen got one for turning his film Bullets Over Broadway into a musical.

The nominations also snubbed some big names, including Denzel Washington, James Franco, Zachary Quinto, Michelle Williams, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Ethan Hawke, Zach Braff, Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig. Daniel Radcliffe struck out for his third-consecutive Broadway show.

The musicals up for the big prize in June are: After Midnight, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Aladdin and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Shows that failed to make the cut include Bullets Over Broadway, Rocky, If/Then and The Bridges of Madison County.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder was nominated for best book by Robert L. Freedman; best original score for Freedman and Steven Lutvak; best costumes by Linda Cho; best direction by Darko Tresnjak; Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations; best featured actress in a musical for Lauren Worsham; best scenic design for Alexander Dodge; and for its two lead actors: Jefferson Mays and Bryce Pinkham.

The show, which was well-received but sometimes struggled at the box office, has been considered an underdog this season, though Mays was considered a lock for a nomination: In each show, he plays all eight victims - two women and six men - and goes through 12 costume changes in the first act alone.

Disney’s Aladdin, an adaptation of the 1992 animated movie featuring a rambunctious genie, earned five nominations, including one for James Monroe Iglehart, who plays the genie.

Five-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald earned a nomination for leading actress in a play for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. That’s the one female acting category in which she hasn’t already notched at least one win, meaning she is in a position to make history as the Tonys’ first grand-slam performance winner.

McDonald goes up against Tyne Daly from Mothers and Sons, LaTanya Richardson Jackson of A Raisin in the Sun, Cherry Jones from The Glass Menagerie and Estelle Parsons in The Velocity of Autumn.

In the category for best new play are James Lapine’s Act One, Terrance McNally’s Mothers and Sons, Robert Schenkkan’s All the Way, John Patrick Shanley’s Outside Mullingar and Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina.

Ignored in that category was The Realistic Joneses, a play by Will Eno that features Toni Collette, Marisa Tomei, Michael C. Hall and Tracy Letts, the Tony-winning playwright and actor. None of the actors was nominated.

Mark Rylance got two nods: One as a leading actor in a play for playing the evil title character in Richard III and another as a featured role as a lady in Twelfth Night. Stephen Fry also got a nomination for his featured role in Twelfth Night.

Rylance will compete in the category of best leading actor in a play with Samuel Barnett, also in Twelfth Night, Cranston in All The Way, Chris O’Dowd in Of Mice and Men and Tony Shalhoub in Act One.

Tony Award-winner Idina Menzel, the Frozen singer who got a dose of attention when John Travolta mangled her name at the Oscars, also got a nomination for her role in If/ Then, the only totally original new musical on Broadway this season.

She will compete in June with Mary Bridget Davies in A Night with Janis Joplin, Sutton Foster in Violet, Jessie Mueller in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Kelli O’Hara of The Bridges of Madison County.

The best-play-revival category includes The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Glass Menagerie, A Raisin in the Sun and Twelfth Night. There are only three options for best musical revival: Violet, Les Miserables and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Some 870 Tony voters - members of professional groups such as the Wing, the League, Actors’ Equity Association, the Dramatists Guild and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society - will decide the final awards, which will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall. Only Broadway shows that opened in the 12 months ending on April 24 are eligible.

Information for this article was contributed by Jocelyn Noveck of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 04/30/2014