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 2014 Tony Awards on stage at Radio City Music Hall.
Check back June 8 on Playbill.com — and see how your results compare — where we will offer complete Tony Awards coverage, including live red carpet coverage, live blogging from the press room, interviews with the winners, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter watch and more.
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| Kelli O'Hara |
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| Photo by Joan Marcus |
Readers picked Kelli O'Hara for her performance as Italian-American housewife Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County. The new Jason Robert Brown-Marsha Norman musical may have ended its Broadway run prematurely on May 18, but our readers haven't forgotten the lushly-scored musical that garnered O'Hara her fifth Tony Award nomination. Perhaps the fifth time will be the charm for the Bridges star? Read the Diva Talk feature with O'Hara here.
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| Ramin Karimloo |
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| Photo by Matthew Murphy |
Readers picked Les Misérables star Ramin Karimloo, who is making his Broadway debut as Jean Valjean in the 25th anniversary Broadway revival of the international hit musical. Read the What Didn't Kill Them Made Them Stars Tony Awards feature, in which Karimloo and his fellow Tony nominees share stories of how they turned rejection into success.
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| Audra McDonald |
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| Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva |
Readers picked five-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, who is poised to make Tony Awards history should she win for Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. This is the first time McDonald has been nominated in the Actress in a Leading Role in a Play category, the only Tony Awards acting honorMcDonald has yet to win.
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| Bryan Cranston |
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| Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva |
Readers picked Emmy Award-winning "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston, who makes his Broadway debut this season in Robert Schenkkan's Tony Award-nominated LBJ drama All The Way. Cranston heads to the Tony Awards having won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his performance. "I wanted to step away — now, voluntarily — from television and reduce the ubiquitous nature I had, and I thought of no better way than to dive into a great play without having all the fuss around it — where I can just go to work, which is the real joy of it," Cranston told Playbill.com in an interview about playing LBJ. Read it here.
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| Lena Hall | ||
| Photo by Joan Marcus |
First-time Tony Award nominee Lena Hall was the top choice among our readers to win for her gender-bending rock performance as Yitzhak in the Broadway premiere of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask's Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Read the What Didn't Kill Them Made Them Stars Tony Awards feature, in which Hall shares stories of how she turned rejection into success.
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| James Monroe Iglehart |
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| Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann |
Readers picked another first-time Tony Award nominee to win in this category: Aladdin's Genie, James Monroe Iglehart, who stops the show nightly with his performance of "Friend Like Me." Read Playbill.com's Cue & A interview with Iglehart here.
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| Celia Keenan-Bolger |
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| photo by Michael J. Lutch |
The Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie may have ended its run in February, but the Tony nominating committee and our readers didn't forget Celia Keenan-Bolger's performance as Laura. Our readers picked the three-time Tony Award nominee to win the top honor on June 8. Keenan-Bolger was previously nominated for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Peter and the Starcatcher. Keenan-Bolger also made the cut for our Best Dressed of the Broadway season "Star Style" feature. Check it out! Also read Playbill.com's interview with Keenan-Bolger here.
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| Mark Rylance |
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| Photo by Joan Marcus |
Will we see another performance of a Louis Jenkins poem during the Tony Awards on June 8? Chances are... Our readers picked two-time Tony Award winner Mark Rylance to take home another Tony Award for his performance as Olivia in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in the category of Best Feature Actor in a Play. He was also nominated for Best Actor this year for his performance as Richard III. Read the Playbill.com feature about the all-male revivals here.
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| Jefferson Mays in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder |
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| Photo by Joan Marcus |
Love? Murder? One handsome gentleman and two beautiful leading ladies? The clear favorite for Playbill.com readers for Best Musical was A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder now playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre on 48th Street. Featuring virtuosic performances from Jefferson Mays, Bryce Pinkham, Lauren Worsham and Lisa O'Hare, Gentleman's Guide has not only proved to be a freshman Broadway success for writing/composing team Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak, but also for Best Direction of a Musical nominee Darko Tresnjak. Gent's Guide has certainly charmed Broadway audiences and clearly Playbill.com readers, but Sunday night will be the knock-'em-dead of all knocks when the envelope gets opened. Read the Playbill.com interview with the writers of Gent's Guide.
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| Bryan Cranston |
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| Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva |
Best Play was a close race in our reader poll this year, but Robert Schenkkan's All The Way comes out on top. Directed by Bill Rauch, artistic director of the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival, All The Way features Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad") in a star turn as LBJ and has been one of the most talked-about productions on Broadway in years. The production premiered at OSF in 2012, moved to the American Repertory Theater in 2013 and then transferred to Broadway with an opening night of March 6 this year. All The Way has thrilled Broadway fanatics and American history buffs alike, and moves behind the doors of the Oval Office and provides an inside look at the beginning of Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency. Will the Tonys agree with Playbill.com readers? Or will it be just as close for the committee as it was for you guys? Read the Playbill.com interview with Schenkkan and Cranston here.
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| Neil Patrick Harris |
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| Photo by Joan Marcus |
When Neil Patrick Harris last appeared on Broadway, it was to shepherd audiences around a motley crue of Assassins; but now, he's screlting and strutting each night in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and our readers think it's the Best Revival of a Musical this season. The Drama Desk has already presented Hedwig with their award for Best Musical Revival, and the 1998 John Cameron Mitchell/Jonathan Trask cult hit story has been deemed highly entertaining – Rolling Stone even called it "the best rock musical ever!" It's not surprising that our readers have shown their support in our poll; Hedwig also boasts nominations for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for NPH, Best Featured Actress for Lena Hall and Best Direction for Michael Mayer. Read Playbill.com's Brief Encounter with Neil Patrick Harris to get some more inside scoop on the show here.
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| Cherry Jones and Celia Keenan-Bolger |
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| Photo by Michael J. Lutch |
Readers undoubtedly chose The Glass Menagerie as their winner for Best Revival of a Play this year. The Tennessee Williams classic was heralded in the press, had a star-studded cast that knocked audiences off their feet, and told the tragic and touching story of a family in St. Louis and what it means to be human in the twentieth century. What more can we say? Williams really says it all. Cherry Jones, Zachary Quinto and Celia Keenan-Bolger in their revelatory performances made it even easier to love as we watched them twist, turn and tumult across the stage at the Booth Theatre over an extended run.
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| Darko Tresnjak |
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| Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
In his Broadway debut, Darko Tresnjak, artistic director of Hartford Stage, swept our reader poll for Best Direction of a Musical. His original production of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder premiered at Tresnjak's homebase of Hartford Stage, and his direction is quick, efficient and strikingly versatile. It's no wonder the production as a whole is leading the nominations game, with a whopping ten noms including Best Musical and both its leading men, veteran Jefferson Mays and homicidal hunk Bryce Pinkham, picking up recognition in the Best Leading Actor in a Musical category. Tresnjak sure knows how to pick 'em, and as a newcomer to Broadway, it seems like The Great White Way is his oyster. Rumor has it he's directing a developmental lab of the animated film "Anastasia," too. Read more here.
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| John Tiffany |
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| Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
John Tiffany's The Glass Menagerie was one of the most talked-about productions of this past season, and readers overwhelming voted for his direction in our poll. Already represented on Broadway in the largely-successful Once, rumor has it Tiffany's been tapped to helm a new Harry Potter stage production with J.K. Rowling and Let the Right One In playwright Jack Thorne. Read more about it here. Tiffany's versatility as a director is seen not only in musical land and with his Broadway-powerhouse filled production of Glass but also in his collaboration with Alan Cumming in the virtuosic one-man Macbeth last season as well. He's everywhere, folks - we can't wait to see what he's on to next!
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| Warren Carlyle |
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| Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
Readers picked Warren Carlyle for After Midnight in a tight race amongst competitors for Best Choreography. Carlyle is also up for Best Direction of a Musical for After Midnight. A former dancer, Carlyle's choreography has been all over Broadway the last few years, notably in Eric Schaeffer's 2011 production of Follies, for which Carlyle garnered a Drama Desk Award nomination, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and A Christmas Story: The Musical. Check out Playbill's Booking It! Feature on Carlyle here.
