‘Mean Girls,’ ‘Spongebob’ lead Tony nominations
Two popular entertainment brands - Tina Fey’s high school morality tale “Mean Girls” and the goofy undersea cartoon “Spongebob Squarepants” - lead the Tony Award nominations with 12 apiece. Another massive property, a play based on the wizard Harry Potter, also cast a spell, earning 10 nods.
Fey, who adapted the story of her oft-quoted 2004 movie with her composer husband, Jeff Richmond, admitted they awaited Tuesday’s announcement with bated breath. “We’re new to this whole Broadway thing and this whole musical thing so it was hard to tell which way everything could swing,” Richmond said. “We’re delighted.”
A British revival of “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner’s monumental, two-part drama about AIDS, life and love during the 1980s, grabbed 11 nominations - the most for any play this season - 25 years after it first appeared on Broadway.
Denise Gough, who plays Harper Pitt in “Angels in America,” was ‘just pleased that the British import landed so gratefully on Broadway. “We’re doing New York’s play! That is a total privilege,” she said. “Wouldn’t that be terrible if we came back and you were all like, what have you done with our play?”
The shimmering, grown-up musical “The Band’s Visit” also earned 11 nods, including Katrina Lenk earning her first Tony nomination. The musical is based on a 2007 Israeli film about an accidental clash of cultures when an Egyptian orchestra gets lost and ends up in the wrong Israeli town.
“I suppose it sounds cheesy if you say it, but it’s really an honour.
It’s kind of hard to put into words. It’s a deep joy.” Next up for the actress: a nap. “Then I get to do the show again. I love doing it. I love this cast. I love being here. So the best way to celebrate is just to come back and do it.”
J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” franchise extended its magical touch to Broadway, with the two-part stage play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” featuring the bespectacled wizard earning 10 nominations, as did a revival of “My Fair Lady.”
The best new musical category is filled by “The Band’s Visit,” ”Frozen,“”Mean Girls“and ”Spongebob Squarepants.“Those musicals that failed to make the cut were the Hal Prince revue ”Prince of Broadway,“the Jimmy Buffet musical ”Escape to Margaritaville“and ”Summer,“about disco diva
Donna Summer.
Taylor Louderman, a veteran of such musicals as “Bring It On: The Musical” and “Kinky Boots,” earned her first nomination for playing a high school queen bee who is laid low in “Mean Girls.”
“I really haven’t sat back and thought about the young version of me and how she would be freaking out right now,” she said.
“I’m from a small town where people don’t really get out and dream big. I just really thought I would never be here.”
She faces competition from Lenk; Lauren Ambrose of “My Fair Lady,” Hailey Kilgore of “Once On This Island,” Lachanze of “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical,” and Jessie Mueller of “Carousel.”
Anthony Boyle won a nomination for best featured actor for his work in “Harry Potter and
the Cursed Child.” He played Scorpius Malfoy in London and now on Broadway. He said he’s having a ball with Broadway audiences.
“They’re so vocal, it’s like having an extra cast member onstage,” he said. “You hear audible gasps, and sobs. Broadway audiences are incomparable.”
Best male acting nominations for a play include Denzel Washington, starring in a revival of Eugene O’neill’s epic “The Iceman Cometh.” The 2010 Tony winner for “Fences” faces off against Andrew Garfield in “Angels in America,” Tom Hollander of “Travesties,” Jamie Parker of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and Mark Rylance in “Farinelli and The King.”
Michael Cera of Brampton, Ont., received a nomination for best featured actor in a play for his role in “Lobby Hero.”