Through our non-scientific, strictly-for-fun poll via PollDaddy.com, Playbill.com readers were able to vote for their favorites — in categories including Leading Actress and Actor in a Musical, Leading Actress and Actor in a Play, Featured Actress and Actor in a Musical, Featured Actress and Actor in a Play, Best Choreography, Best Direction of a Play and Musical, Best Revival of a Play and Musical, and Best Musical and Best Play — from May 16-June 5. Here are the shows and artists our readers would like to see accept 2013 Tony Awards on stage at Radio City Music Hall.
Check back June 9 on Playbill.com — and see how your results compare — where we will offer complete Tony Awards coverage, including winners, live blogging, Facebook and Twitter posts and more.
Photo by Joan Marcus |
Readers picked belting seductress Patina Miller as their favorite Leading Actress in a Musical for her performance as the Leading Player in the cirque-inspired revival of Pippin. Miller, who received the 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award for Pippin, was also Tony-nominated for her performance in Sister Act. Will this be her year to receive the Tony? Click here for the recent Playbill.com interview with Miller, who brings Pippin's iconic Leading Player to new heights at Broadway's Music Box Theatre.
Photo by Matthew Murphy |
Readers picked Billy Porter, who portrays the sassy and fabulous drag queen Lola in Broadway's Kinky Boots, as their favorite Leading Actor in a Musical. The longtime Broadway actor, who received his first Tony nomination this season with Kinky, took home the 2013 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Sex is certainly in his heel, and Porter shines in his first Broadway leading role. Click here for the Playbill.com Leading Men column with Porter and co-star Stark Sands, who are up for the same Tony Award and find themselves cheering each other on.
Photo by Joan Marcus |
Readers picked Cicely Tyson, who returns to Broadway after a 20-year hiatus in The Trip to Bountiful, as their favorite Leading Actress in a Play. Tyson, who was awarded the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama Desk for her performance as Mrs. Carrie Watts, received her first Tony nomination this season with The Trip to Bountiful. The 79-year-old actress delivers a tour-de-force performance — barely leaving the stage throughout the evening as she makes her trip "home." Click here to read the Playbill magazine feature with Tyson, who talks about her history with Bountiful and her return to Broadway.
Photo by Joan Marcus |
Readers picked Broadway favorite Nathan Lane as their choice for Leading Actor in a Play for his performance as the title character in The Nance. Will Lane take home his third Tony Award this year? The actor has already received the 2013 Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance and the 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award. His colorful performance as Chauncey Miles not only evokes laugher from audiences at the Lyceum Theatre, but also illustrates the darker side of living as a homosexual man in the early 1930s. Click here for the Playbill magazine feature with Lane, who explains the different sides of The Nance.
Photo by Joan Marcus |
Readers picked comic genius Andrea Martin as their favorite Featured Actress in a Musical. Martin steals every scene she's in at the Music Box Theatre, where she plays Berthe in the high-flying revival of Pippin. Martin, who won the 2013 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards — as well as the hearts of audiences as she soared on a trapeze during her first-act number "No Time At All" — would take home her second Tony Award if Playbill.com readers are correct. Click here to watch Martin and her co-stars talk about being nominated for Pippin the day after they received the news.
Photo by Joan Marcus |
Readers picked longtime Broadway actor Terrence Mann as their favorite Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Charles in the first Broadway revival of Pippin. The actor, who took home the 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance, would receive his first Tony if he wins. He was previously nominated for Beauty and the Beast and Les Misérables. Mann, who exercises his comic chops in Pippin, plays opposite his real-life wife, Charlotte d'Amboise, who received the Astaire Award for her performance in Pippin. Click here to watch Mann and his co-stars talk about being nominated for Pippin the day after they received the news.
Photo by Joan Marcus |
Can Judith Light nab a Tony Award two years in a row? Readers picked Light — who plays no-nonsense, pragmatic family member Faye in The Assembled Parties — as their favorite Featured Actress in a Play. The actress, who received the 2013 Drama Desk for her performance, was awarded her first Tony last year for her performance in Other Desert Cities and was nominated the year prior with Lombardi. It seems as though the actress, who often finds herself in the "Featured" category, is on a roll. Click here to watch Light and other "Featured" nominees talk about receiving their 2013 nomination.
Photo by T. Charles Erickson |
Readers picked comic actor Billy Magnussen as their favorite Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as the last title character in Broadway's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Magnussen, who was nominated for his first Tony Award for the new Christopher Durang comedy, not only steals the spotlight with his spot-on comic chops, but also with his jaw-dropping six pack. (The actor spends most of his time on stage at the Golden Theatre shirtless!) Click here for the recent Playbill.com feature on Magnussen, who talks about stripping down and sharing the love with his co-stars in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.
Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
Readers picked longtime award-winning choreographer and director Jerry Mitchell as their favorite Choreographer for his work on the most-nominated production of the season, Kinky Boots — he was also Tony-nominated for directing. Mitchell, who often finds himself nominated for his energetic, show-stopping dance moves, would take home his second (and possibly third) Tony Award if he wins for Kinky. The artist, who was this year's recipient of the Drama League's Founders Award for Excellence in Directing, pulled out all of the moves to accompany Cyndi Lauper's dance-happy score in Kinky Boots. Click here to watch Mitchell and Kinky Boots comrades talk about receiving their nominations.
Photo by Susan Lapides |
Readers picked Diane Paulus as their favorite Director of a Musical for her work on the cirque-inspired revival of Pippin. Could this be Paulus' year to take home the coveted award, after being previously nominated for both her re-envisionings of Hair and The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess? The director, who took home the 2013 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards and is known to completely re-invent celebrated works, incorporated a circus-style vision in Pippin that would complement Bob Fosse's choreography and take the musical to new "heights." Click here to read the recent Playbill.com interview with Paulus, who shares insight on her vision for the celebrated revival of Pippin.
Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
Reader picked Nicholas Martin as their favorite Director of a Play for his work on the comic new play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Martin, who received his first Tony nomination for Vanya and Sonia, creates a fast-paced world in which the characters — who enjoy a weekend in the county — riff off Anton Chekhov and compete for laughs. The director, who was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 1999 for his direction of Betty's Summer Vacation, would take home his first award if he wins.
Photo by Joan Marcus |
Readers picked Pippin as their favorite Best Musical Revival of the season. The cirque-inspired, high-flying revival features a cast of quadruple threats — who act, sing, dance and soar above the audience as prince Pippin searches for his very own "Corner of the Sky." Click here to read the Playbill.com feature on the musical.
Photo by Michael Brosilow |
Readers picked Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as their favorite Best Play Revival of the season. The acclaimed revival, which starred Tracy Letts and Amy Morton — who also starred in the staging that first surfaced in late 2010 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company — was directed by Pam MacKinnon and kept audiences on the edge of their seats. Click here for Playbill.com's coverage on the play.
Photo by T. Charles Erickson |
Readers picked Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike as their favorite Play of the season. The fast-paced comedy, which came straight from an acclaimed Off-Broadway run at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, keeps audiences laughing with standout performances all around. Click here for Playbill.com's coverage on the play.
Photo by Joan Marcus |
Readers picked Matilda as their favorite Musical of the season. With an extremely tight race between Matilda and Kinky Boots, votes swayed in favor of the Olivier Award-winning musical about a young girl with special powers who strives for greatness, despite a pair of rotten parents and an evil and terrifying headmistress named Miss Trunchbull. Click here to read the Playbill magazine feature on the musical. Will the musical take home the big prize? Check back on Playbill.com June 9 to find out!