| re: 1959 Tony Nominations | |
| Last Edit: BroadwayTonyJ 04:52 pm EDT 05/06/18 | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 04:46 pm EDT 05/06/18 | |
| In reply to: re: 1959 Tony Nominations - AlanScott 02:54 pm EDT 05/05/18 | |
|
|
|
| I'm just going by what I read in Morrow's book. In the section titled TONY AWARD NOMINEES AND WINNERS, 1946-1987, the book states All categories, citations, and nominees are listed as printed in each year's award ceremony program. I interpret that to mean there were 2 separate group nominations for the cast of La Plume. The show itself was a much bigger commercial and critical success than both Redhead and Flower Drum Song. The Tonys had to recognize the actors' performances. Given the nature of the show's structure and content, group nominations (although unprecedented) made sense. The show received 5 Tony nominations. Nevertheless, the fact that it was a revue which used pantomime, sight gags, Gallic humor, and incidental music (rather than actual songs), it was unlikely to win in any category up against actors, directors, and musical directors of more traditional book musicals and plays so the Special Award Tony for contribution to the theatre is plausible. It seems hard to believe that the Tonys would announce nominations and then later withdraw them because of convenience. There's certainly no precedent for such an action. Would Merrick have stood for it? If this indeed occurred, wouldn't some sort of explanation most likely been given to the press? In the 2 cases (that I'm aware of) in which nominees were removed from the ballet, i.e., William Daniels for 1776 in '69 and Douglas Turner for The River Niger in '74, the actors insisted on it, the decision was covered by the media, and the Morrow book notes the removal in the notes at the end of each year's listing. There is definitely no such note after the '59 entry. Of course, I do not pretend to be any kind of expert on any of the above occurrences. I'm just a fan who has read a lot of theatre books and has been following the Tonys since around 1955. I have tremendous respect for your knowledge and experience. I've known for decades that there are two conflicting narratives about the '59 Tonys that have confused (and pissed off) any number of theatre professionals/journalists who have unknowingly wrote inaccurate statements about exactly what happened on 4/12/59. |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | re: 1959 Tony Nominations - AlanScott 02:54 pm EDT 05/05/18 |
| Next: | re: 1959 Tony Nominations - AlanScott 08:26 pm EDT 05/10/18 |
| Thread: |
|
Time to render: 0.008591 seconds.