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| re: The backstage drama behind the Tonys | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 05:34 pm EDT 09/01/20 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 05:33 pm EDT 09/01/20 | |
| In reply to: The backstage drama behind the Tonys - WaymanWong 03:19 pm EDT 09/01/20 | |
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| That's the article I particularly think of. That was the year when several things came together to produce a particularly contentious group of controversies. It's funny that Cohen seemed to think that Raul Julia would have been the tough competition for Lenny Baker if Baker had been in lead, but Barry Bostwick actually won. And they were playing rather similar characters. And Kevin Kline, the first to play Bostwick's role in a full production of the show, had been Julia's standby as Mack the Knife for a while, emphasizing the similarity. Perhaps the complete contrast of Baker's role to Jamie Lockhart and Mack might have helped him win in leading, but we'll never know. (Tangentially, I first typed Macheath, but then I looked it up and, not for the first time, was surprised to see that the character was listed as Mack the Knife in the playbill.) When I came across that article a few years ago — I'm sure I'd read it back in 1977 but I'd forgotten it — I was glad to see this from Gene Saks: “Alex gave me a long song and dance as to how it would be better for Lenny to be in the featured category because he'd be assured of winning." Because it lent additional credence to what I'd already been saying for several years: the committee put Daniels in featured or supporting (or whatever it was that year) because they wanted him to win (although there was also the issue of four other strong nominees, and leaving out any of them might have caused other controversies). I must remember to quote that the next time this comes up. And it will come up again. Maybe even in a few weeks. :) |
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| re: The backstage drama behind the Tonys | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 10:23 pm EDT 09/01/20 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 10:22 pm EDT 09/01/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The backstage drama behind the Tonys - AlanScott 05:33 pm EDT 09/01/20 | |
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| I was surprised at just how candid and matter-of-fact Cohen seemed to be in explaining why Lenny Baker was placed in Featured. I guess I'm naive, but I don't think the committee should've been gaming or manipulating the system to insure certain winners. Cohen's reasoning also didn't include Barry Bostwick; I wonder if he was shocked when Bostwick won over Raul Julia. P.S.: I looked up the Drama Desk's nominees for Leading Actor in a Musical for 1976: Ian Richardson (''My Fair Lady'') won over Raul Julia (''The Threepenny Opera''), Jerry Orbach (''Chicago'') and Nicol Williamson (''Rex''). And in 1977, Lenny Baker won for Leading Actor in a Musical over Barry Bostwick (''The Robber Bridegroom''), Yul Brynner (''The King and I''), Robert Guillaume (''Guys and Dolls'') and Reid Shelton (''Annie''). |
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