Musical leads Tony nods
‘Natasha, Pierre’ lands 12 award nominations
NEW YORK - “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” a sung-through musical that dramatizes a 70-page melodrama at the center of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” earned a leading 12 Tony Award nominations on Tuesday, which also saw nods for Bette Midler, Kevin Kline, Josh Groban, Danny DeVito and Cate Blanchett.
Groban earned a nod for portraying — in a fat suit — an unhappy husband in “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.” His musical will now compete for the best new musical Tony with “Come From Away,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Groundhog Day.”
The best play nominees are “Sweat,” “Oslo,” “Indecent” and “A Doll’s House, Part 2.” The category sees a former playwriting teacher — Paula Vogel of “Indecent” — face off against one of her former students, Lynn Nottage, who this year won her second Pulitzer Prize for the drama “Sweat.” Both women made their Broadway debuts this season.
“I’m just so glad I quit my day job,” joked Vogel, 65. “To finally make it here is pretty nice and to be in this company is an honor.”
The best play revivals are “August Wilson’s Jitney,” “Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes,” “Present Laughter” and “Six Degrees of Separation.”
Andy Karl earned his third Tony nomination as the star of the musical “Groundhog Day,” based on the much-loved 1993 movie about a jaded weatherman forced to live the same day over, with Karl starring in the Bill Murray role of Phil Connors. Karl earned Broadway respect for struggling through opening night with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
“I think what I’ve always grown up knowing in the theater — and it’s one of the biggest sayings — is that ‘the show must go on,’ ” said Karl, who attended the Met Gala on Monday night and said he’ll soon be able to handle the demands of his show for all eight performances a week. “We all get up and we go for it.”
The Midler-led revival of “Hello, Dolly!” was the second-highest nominated show this season with 10 nods. The quirky coming-of-age musical “Dear Evan Hansen” earned nine.
Ben Platt, a star of the “Pitch Perfect” films who recently made Time magazine’s most influential people in the world list, got a nod as the star of “Dear Evan Hansen,” which centers on a profoundly lonely 17-year-old who fabricates a prior friendship with a classmate who committed suicide.
Platt invited his mother to fly to New York and watch the nominations. “I grew up watching the Tonys — devouring the Tonys each year — so just to be named is a surreal experience,” he said. Tuesday’s performance of “Dear Evan Hansen,” he predicted, would have an extra bounce. “How could it not?” he joked.
This year, there are 24 competitive Tony categories. Winners will be determined by some 850 industry insiders. Kevin Spacey will host the awards show June 11 from Radio City Music Hall.