‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ ‘Stereophonic’ lead Tony Award nominations
Two Broadway shows celebrating the spark of sonic creativity - the musical “Hell’s Kitchen” fueled by Alicia Keys songs, and the play “Stereophonic” about a `70s rock band at the edge of stardom - each earned a leading 13 Tony Award nominations Tuesday, a list that also saw a record number of women nominated for best director.
“This is totally crazy. It took me about an hour to get myself together. I couldn’t even formulate words,” Keys said after her special morning where the show loosely based on her life was nominated for best new musical and four acting awards as well as best scenic design, costumes, lighting, sound design, direction, choreography and orchestrations.
“This is unbelievable. This is so special. All of the collaborators that have been a part of this process, everybody being able to get recognized for their beautiful brilliance. I am totally at a loss for words. Don’t ask me to write a song.”
A total of 28 shows earned a Tony nod or more, with the musical “The Outsiders,” an adaptation of the beloved S. E. Hinton novel and the Francis Ford Coppola film, earning 12 nominations; a starry revival of “Cabaret” starring Eddie Redmayne, nabbing nine; and “Appropriate,” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ searing play about a family reunion in Arkansas where everyone has competing motivations and grievances, grabbing eight.
The nominations marked a smashing of the Tony record for most women named in a single season. The 2022 Tony Awards had held the record for most female directing nominees, with four total across the two races - musical and play. Only 10 women have gone on to win a directing crown.
This year, three women were nominated for best play direction - Lila Neugebauer (“Appropriate”), Anne Kauffman (“Mary Jane”) and Whitney White (“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”) - while four were nominated in the musical category - Maria Friedman (“Merrily We Roll Along“), Leigh Silverman (“Suffs”) Jessica Stone (“Water for Elephants”) and Danya Taymor (“The Outsiders”).
“The one thing I feel is it’s starting to feel less remarkable, which is great news,” Stone said after her nomination. “We are directors and not women directors. I’m noticing it more and more and that’s a wonderful thing to think about.
It’s a wonderful place to be.”
“Stereophonic,” which became the most-nominated play in Tony history, earned nominations for playwright David Adjmi and for its songs by Will Butler, formerly of Arcade Fire.
It’s the story of a Fleetwood Mac-like band over a lifechanging year, with personal rifts opening and closing and then reopening. Butler says it is about art’s “horror and its beauty.”
An album of the rock-roots music heard during the play will be available next month and Butler has high hopes: “We wanted it to stand up against Tom Petty and `Rumors’ and the new Beyonce country record,” he said. “Making it was its own reward.”
Rachel McAdams, making her Broadway debut in “Mary Jane,” earned a best actress in a play nomination, while “Succession” star Jeremy Strong, got his first ever nomination, for a revival of “An Enemy of the People” and Liev Schreiber of “Ray Donovan” fame nabbd one for leading “Doubt.” Jessica Lange in “Mother Play,” Sarah Paulson in “Appropriate” and Amy Ryan, who stepped in at the last minute for a revival of “Doubt,” also earned nominations in the best actress in a play category.
“The Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parsons earned a supporting nod for “Mother Play,” and Daniel Radcliffe on his fifth Broadway show, a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” won his first nomination.
Radcliffe, caring for his infant son on Tony nominations morning, said he felt incredibly lucky and called being in the musical alongside Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez - both also nominated - “one of the most special experiences of my professional career.”
“I have always felt like doing stage and particularly doing it here has been such a huge part of my career and sort of like finding out who I was as an actor outside of Harry Potter,” he said. “I think it’s kind of been the making of me.”
Redmayne in his second show on Broadway got a nod as best lead actor in a musical, as did Brian d’Arcy James for “Days of Wine and Roses,” Brody Grant in “The Outsiders,” Jonathan Groff in “Merrily We Roll Along” and 73-year-old Dorian Harewood in “The Notebook,” the adaptation of Nicholas Sparks romantic tearjerker. Harewood, in his first Broadway show in 46 years, landed his first Tony nomination.
It was one of three nominations for “The Notebook,” but the musical’s composer, Ingrid Michaelson, didn’t earn a nomination, nor did Barry Manilow for his show “Harmony.”