Tony Awards: The State Of The Race
Where are we in the race for this year’s Tony Awards? With today’s raves for Mark Rylance‘s performance in “Jerusalem,” and the very strong but not unanimous praise for the play itself, we certainly have to consider Rylance the frontrunner in the Best Actor/Play category. But, with a week to go before the Tony-cutoff deadline, I have to say that this year is very reminiscent of the 2007 contest. (I’m not writing about the Best Musical race, because “The Book of Mormon” has that in the bag.) In 2007, Michael Riedel of the New York Post banged the drum loud for London import “Frost/Nixon” to win best play but it had to settle for the Best Actor prize (Frank Langella) and the big Lincoln Center Theatre production, “The Coast of Utopia,” was the big winner in the play department. This year, Ben Brantley is banging the drum for London import “Jerusalem” but it will have to settle for Best Actor prize (Mark Rylance) and, once again, the big play that originated at London’s National Theatre, “War Horse,” will win the most honors, including Best Play. I would say these things even if I weren’t blogging “War Horse” for LCT.
