The Theatre Guild, co-producers of State Fair reportedly has demanded an audit of all voters in the Best Musical category to make sure they've seen Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Chronicle, which had a short 37-performance run in June 1995, was nominated for Best Musical; State Fair, which is still running, was not nominated in that category.

Tony rules require that voters must abstain from voting in any category where they haven't seen all the shows. Many Tony voters received their ballots May 14 or 15 and have already marked and returned them.

According to a story in the New York Post, the Guild's Executive Producer Robert Franz said he was "ready to engage an indepenent auditing firm to qualify Tony voters."

The Post story quoted a spokesperson at Lincoln Center Theatre, producer of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, as saying that at least 350, or about half, of Tony voters actually saw the musical, and therefore are eligible to vote for Best Musical. Theatre Guild company manager Thomas Domenici declined comment on the story.

The Post story does not say what the Theatre Guild would do if it found that more people had cast votes in that category than had seen all the shows in it.