Loquasto's 2010 Tony Nomination Withdrawn; Ragtime Work Duplicates Earlier Design

By Kenneth Jones
13 May 2010

There will be a little less competition in the Tony Award category of Best Costume Design of a Musical this year. Tony Awards leadership has withdrawn the nomination of Ragtime costume designer Santo Loquasto, who was previously nominated for the same show in the same category in 1998.

Tony Awards Productions released the following statement on May 13: "Yesterday, it was affirmed to Tony Award Productions that Santo Loquasto's designs for the revival of Ragtime are predominantly those from the original 1998 production, and therefore do not meet the Tony rule which states, work that 'substantially duplicate(s)' work from a prior production is ineligible. We learned this too late to remove the costumes from consideration by the nominators, but feel that we cannot allow the designs to remain in contention this year, and we must regretfully withdraw them from consideration as a nominee in the Best Costume Design of a Musical category."

There will be no replacement made for the nomination, and voters will vote for one of the three remaining nominees.

Kevin McCollum, a producer of Ragtime, said, "An honest mistake was made, and both Santo and the production graciously understand the need to rescind the nomination. We respect that decision."

The 2010 nominees for Best Costume Design of a Musical include:

  • Marina Draghici - Fela!

  • Paul Tazewell - Memphis

  • Matthew Wright - La Cage aux Folles