Of all the Tony categories, Original Score has produced the quirkiest results.
At the 1974 Tonys, Lerner & Loewe's ''Gigi'' won with a score that included only 5 new songs.
At the 1996 Tonys, ''State Fair'' was nominated for Score, but only for the 4 specific Rodgers & Hammerstein songs that were added to the stage adaptation. They included 2 cutouts from ''Oklahoma!'': ''When I Go Walking With My Baby'' and ''Boys and Girls Like You and Me.''
In more recent times, however, the rule of thumb is that half of the score needs to be original and written for the stage.
Ordinarily, ''Jagged Little Pill'' wouldn't be Tony-eligible for Best Original Score, but these aren't ordinary times.
Right now, only ''The Lightning Thief'' has an original song score, but the Tonys would seem to have various options: Beefing up the category by including scores from plays. Only nominating it alone, as it did with ''Sunset Boulevard'' at the 1995 Tonys. Or dropping Best Score altogether, as it did at the 1989 Tonys, even though they could've fielded a category with ''Starmites,'' ''Legs Diamond'' and ''Welcome to the Club.'' |
