THE TONYS: WHO SHOULD WIN, WHO WILL WIN
Sunday night’s Tony Awards ceremony (CBS, 8 ET/delayed PT) probably will attract more viewers than others in recent memory, even if it won’t offer many high-profile nail-biters. Of course, the blockbuster Hamilton, which has drawn all eyes to Broadway wit
BEST MUSICAL Should/will win: Hamilton BEST PLAY Should/will win: The Hu
mans, Stephen Karam’s funny, thoughtful, sobering study of the anxieties that challenge and bind a modern, middle-class family, has all the momentum. BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY
Should win: Director Joe Mantello (nominated for his work on Humans) and actors Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams laid bare the piercing he-said/ she-said tension in Blackbird, which stings even more acutely in our current culture of finger-pointing.
Will win: It’s neck and neck between Ivo van Hove’s celebrated but mannered (and polarizing) A View From the Bridge and Jonathan Kent’s nuanced Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which will eke out a win. BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL Should/will win: Both Bart- lett Sher’s Fiddler On the Roof and John Doyle’s The Color
Purple are gorgeous and revelatory, but Doyle managed to completely reinvent a less established musical. He’ll lose the director’s race to Hamilton‘ s Thomas Kail — Sher, inexplicably, wasn’t nominated — so voters can compensate here. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN PLAY
Should win: Daniels, for his
fearless, biting, humane portrait of a haunted predator in Blackbird.
Will win: Frank Langella, for his own fearless, moving portrait of an aging man in best-play nominee The Father. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE IN A MUSICAL Should/will win: Hamilton’s better bet in this category isn’t
Hamilton creator/star Lin-Manuel Miranda, but Leslie Odom Jr., for his blazing portrayal of Alexander Hamilton nemesis Aaron Burr. Both will be edged out, though, by Danny Burstein, the beloved vet — up for five Tonys previously, and never a winner — who brings both refreshing discretion and fierce heart to Fid
dler’s iconic dairy man, Tevye. BEST BOOK OF A MUSICAL Should/will win: Miranda BEST ORIGINAL SCORE (MUSIC AND/OR LYRICS) WRITTEN FOR THE THEATER
Should/will win: Miranda BEST DIRECTOR OF A PLAY Should win: Joe Mantello, for bringing us into the lives of The Humans with stunning intimacy, humor and compassion. Will win: Van Hove, by a nose over Mantello. BEST DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL Should/will win: Thomas Kail, for telling (and casting) Hamilton’s story in a way that made its genius accessible to everyone.