| To echo Wayman, every year of awards has those asterisks, because awards are ultimately popularity contests given by members of the industry to members of the industry, the same as any trade honor. There have always been debates about whether shows won or lost because of the competition (i.e. "if Ragtime hadn't waited for the Ford Center to finish construction, it would have opened in the 1996-97 season and won Best Musical"), whether someone won only because they were Hollywood Famous (ScarJo in "View from a Bridge"), or because they were theater royalty and overdue (Kelli O'Hara finally winning for "The King and I"), or because they were put in the "wrong" category (see a recent investigation on this board about a Tony award ceremony 40 years ago), and on and on. That's the arbitrary nature of award shows and we are foolish to take them seriously. |
